Invercargill Archives

Overview In this interview, Wilson recounts his early life in the Catlins and Balcultha. Wilson started his first business at the age of 16, selling fruit and produce from Central Otago to retailers in Gore. Wilson then recounts his time in the air force during WWII. At the end of the war Wilson and his wife Verna moved to Te Anau. Wilson became involved in local tourism. He describes a plan he came up with for a ski field on Mt Luxmore. He recalls how he and Lawson Burrows discovered the glow worm...

Overview Ritchie Air Services was the first commercial passenger air operator to be established in Te Anau. It was October 1960 when Ian's wife Dell was put behind a desk with a book of tickets while her husband took their first Te Anau passengers on a scenic flight around the Basin. The business, started in Gore, shifted its operating base to the resort town the following year where Ian, Dell and family changed the way visitors and residents could view the mountain and lake scenety of Fiordland. In...

Overview Fifty years ago, Lottie boarded ship at a Dutch port bound for Wellington. She and her fellow passengers were New Zealand immigrants under the government's assisted passage scheme for displaced persons following the end of WWII. Embarking on a new life with the help of her first employers, Sir Matthew and Lady Oram, Lottie quickly adapted to the New Zealand lifestyle. A few years later, she crossed the Tasman but unable to adjust to the hot South Australian summers, she returned to New Zealand....