Overview As Jack explains through the interview, his connection with Manapouri reaches back several generations. His great grandfather, (Old Bob) Robelt Murrell arrived at Bluff in 1863 and settled at Balloon Loop (by the Waiau River) two years later. The Murrell family is one of first explorers, farmers, tour guides and accommodation providers in the Te Anau Basin. In this profile, Jack is historian and raconteur. He also gives a personal account of growing up in an area that has undergone enormous...

Abstract Interviewee: John Robert (Jack) MURRELLInterview date: 05 OCTOBER 2004 Interviewer and Abstractor: Morag ForresterA third interview took place again in the lounge at GRAND VIEW.Tape 4 Side A starts003: Opens saying that OLD BOB had been appointed as the first CHIEF GUIDE on the MILFORD TRACK after the government took over control of it from the ROSS BROTHERS (JACK and DONALD) [However, DONALD ROSS had been appointed GOVERNMENT GUIDE...

Abstract Interviewee: John Robert (Jack) Murrell Interview date: 26 OCTOBER 2004 Interviewer and abstractor: Morag ForresterA fourth interview took place at the same venue116: Responding to off-tape question about where his parents lived after they married, says his FATHER built a two-room log hut with vertical half trees which were split length-wise and nailed round the frame while the space between the logs was corked with sphagnum moss. The...

Overview One of the New Zealand team members seconded to Colonel Howard for the 1949 expedition was former government deer culler, Jack Luttrell. He had worked a couple of years earlier for the Wildlife Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs culling red deer in the Haast district of the West Coast. He also took part in a reconnaissance survey of Fiordland in 1948 in preparation for the Howard expedition. Now in his 70s, Mr Luttrell, has a clear memory of those earlier years hunting in much of what...

Abstract Interviewee: John Robert (Jack) Murrell Interview date: 23 August 2004Interviewer and abstractor: Morag ForresterPreamble by Jack Murrell: What is now “Murrell’s Grand View House”, a Bed and Breakfast Lodge, has undergone several styles of description, partly due to changes in language, partly to actual changes in what was offered to the public. Of necessity, it had to provide full accommodation and began life as “Accommodation House” which was used...