Interviewee: Valerie Joan (Val) Robbie

Date: 31 October 2005

Interviewer and abstracter: Morag Forrester

Tape counter: Sony TCM 939

Tape 1 Side A

006: States she is VALERIE JOAN (ROBBIE née CUTHILL) and that she was born in 1924 at home in INVERCARGILL.

007: Replies that there were three CHILDREN in her family: one SISTER, NORMA, and one BROTHER, BOB (ROBERT).

021: Her FATHER was JOHN ELLIOT CUTHILL, she says, and repeats it after tape was stopped and restarted due to an interruption.

029: Adds that her FATHER was a PUBLIC SECRETARY, initially for a company called R.B. CAWS & CO. in INVERCARGILL, which later became J.E.CUTHILL & SON after her BROTHER joined the firm.

041: Further explains that effectively her FATHER was SECRETARY for several organisations such as the STOCK & WOOLBROKERS’ ASSOCIATION, the SAWMILLERS GUILD, the HOTEL ASSOCIATION and the INVERCARGILL RACING & TROTTING CLUBS.

056: Mentions that he was born in INNERLEITHEN, SCOTLAND, where his family lived before leaving for NEW ZEALAND. Other relatives, she adds, headed for CANADA and the USA.

068: Explains that her GRANDFATHER was a CARDER at a woollen mill and came out to a job at a mill in MOSGIEL where he was employed for the rest of his working life.

073: Recalls meeting her paternal GRANDFATHER who died at the end of the 1920s.

075: Her MOTHER, she states, was NORMA JEAN MCDONALD whose family came from the SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS.

088: Her first visit to TE ANAU, she says, was in 1929, adding that her FATHER had already been making regular visits to the area on FISHING/HUNTING trips with friends.

097: Within a distance of only about three miles from the township, she adds, there was a plentiful supply of deer and (wild) pigs. This was the attraction of the area for an outdoorsman such as her FATHER and his businessmen friends.

108: Recalls that on that first visit they travelled in her FATHER’S STUDEBAKER car, a journey that took “a long time (laughs)…we’d have several punctures on the way…”

119: Explains that the road surface was gravel and that cars were “fairly slow in those days” so that it would have taken all day to reach TE ANAU, allowing for picnics en route.

137: During those first years of her FATHER’S visits, she says, he probably camped near the (TROUT) HATCHERY, which was situated opposite the DEPARTMENT of CONSERVATION (DOC) office.

140: Goes on to describe that in 1929, she, her MOTHER and baby SISTER stayed in a BELL TENT put up in the HATCHERY grounds. Adds that they slept on top of cut BRACKEN with blankets to cover them.

147: Replies that the BRACKEN was quite comfortable: “It had a bit of give (laughs).”

149: The following year, however, they camped in the grounds of a cottage across the road from the HATCHERY (on the site of the DOC office) inhabited by the EVANS family.

154: CHARLIE EVANS, she continues, was the CHIEF RANGER (of the SOUTHLAND ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY which owned the HATCHERY). Recalls playing with children of about the same age as herself who were relatives of the EVANS.

160: Mentions CHARLIE EVANS had built a water race all the way from the UPUKERORA RIVER and that he had installed a big wheel with which he was able to generate electricity for domestic lighting.

171: Thinks that at one stage the UPUKERORA may have run through the HATCHERY grounds because she remembers the area being “very swampy”.

195: As children, she says, they would spend their days FISHING for EELS andCOCKABULLIES (small native freshwater fish: the word may derive from the MAORI name KOKOPU or KOKOPURU) or damming creeks and considers they must have climbed every tree in TE ANAU.

202: Mentions that after a few summers of camping in the area, her PARENTS took over the lease for the section on which they eventually built the family CRIB (holiday house), explaining that it was situated in what is part of the TOP 10 CAMPING GROUND (in 2005).

215: The previous leaseholder, she adds, was WILLIAM GRIEVE and her PARENTS took it over in 1932/33. Remembers that by then, the family had a “very elaborate camping outfit” which included double beds.

227: Her FATHER, she recalls, had finished building the CRIB by the SUMMER of 1938.

230: Tape restarted after being stopped due to interruption

234: Describes the timber-built CRIB as having two-bedrooms and an open plan living/kitchen area.

242: Explains that her FATHER “pre-fabbed” the building in that he cut every piece of wood, including the joists. Adds that he did the joinery at home in INVERCARGILL after work.

249: Recalls many nights holding the lantern for him so that he could see what he was doing, adding that after he primed the timber, the CRIB was carried by truck to TE ANAU.

253: Adds that it was put up very quickly, probably because it was in effect ready made.

259: Remembers they nicknamed it PYJAMA COTTAGE because the strips between the plank boards were painted a different colour.

263: Replies that the section and CRIB next door to theirs (on the left) was leased by FRED HALL-JONES, an INVERCARGILL-based solicitor. On the other side was a CRIB first owned by DR MCCAW. Next to the HALL-JONES’ place, she says, there was the THOMPSON family, who may have built the wharf on the lake in front of the CRIBS.

276: Comments that the THOMPSONS owned a fish shop in INVERCARGILL and that there were quite a few boys in the family, all of whom were keen FISHERMEN.

285: Reads from an original document (dated JUNE 1938) granting official permission to her MOTHER to build a cottage on the section to the value of 200 pounds.

303: Reads from a second document (dated 1950) stating the official purchase price for the section was 40 pounds. (The area of land was stated to be one rood and 27 perches. A rood = quarter of an acre. A perch = 5 ½ yards. So the total area of land = one quarter acre plus about 135 metres.)

315: The section, she recalls, sloped down from the road and the lakefront so that the lake was not immediately visible from it. That besides, the vegetation was “all scrub” and she remembers there was also a small boatshed which she thinks probably belonged to the THOMPSONS.

324: Mentions that her FATHER and (FRED) HALL-JONES were great friends and the only boat they had belonged to the HALL-JONES’. “They were always going down the WAIAU (RIVER) in this…honestly it was a dinghy.”

328: Recalls that no-one wore lifejackets in those days and that even as children, when they took trips on the same dinghy, they did not have life-jackets either.

331: Remembers “zipping” about on the lake going as far as TUI BAY but not as far as the other side to BROD BAY.

338: Her FATHER, she continues, would take them down the WAIAU, which was a fast-flowing river in those pre-CONTROL GATES days. The return journey, she remembers, required navigating against the current.

340: Discusses the content of some photographs she has including the main wharf in front of their section and the section next door where she says they used to play “kick the tin”.

351: Explains that it is a game rather like “hide and seek” and “tag” but involves kicking a tin around.

355: Looking at a photograph of four men standing in a row, she names FRED HALL-JONES, PERCY WITT (manager of SARGOODS in INVERCARGILL), JACK BUTLER (a dentist), and her FATHER, JOCK CUTHILL.

368: Another photograph, she says, illustrates one of the picnics they enjoyed at the HATCHERY.

375: Yet another photograph pictures the CUTHILL CRIB including the chimney and she remembers there being a big fireplace in which they burned manuka. A small extension, she says, was added later as a washroom area. The toilet, she adds, was a long-drop accessed by a path that led away from the CRIB.

388: Water was supplied at first by a tank that was installed to catch rainwater. Later, she adds, her FATHER dug a well in the section so that they had a constant supply of water.

401: Mentions other children in her age group included GEOFFREY, JOHN and GERRY HALL-JONES and their older brother, TED, who was killed in action during WWII. Also mentions another INVERCARGILL family – POTTINGER – which owned two CRIBS on the lakefront, both still standing in 2005. Later she added another surname to this list: ROBB.

Tape 1 Side A stops

Tape 1 Side B starts

009: Of other CRIB-owners in TE ANAU, she says there were people from GORE but cannot recall their names. Mentions the THOMPSONS again, saying they always spent their holidays in TE ANAU.

020: Mentions a family with the surname of ROBBIE (manager of H & J SMITH department store in INVERCARGILL), who owned a CRIB on the other side of the TE ANAU HOTEL. Laughs that “we’d maybe see them once in the holidays…they were a long way away”.

028: Adds that the ROBBIES were a later addition to CRIB owners, probably the early 1940s.

032: Another family she remembers is MURRELL MACALISTER (and his wife, KITTY), of the INVERCARGILL legal firm, MACALISTER BROS. Adds that they had two daughters and that she used to join them on FISHING trips.

046: Of the permanent population in the BASIN at that time, she says she only got to know well the BLATCH family at LYNWOOD STATION.

054: Adds that her PARENTS got meat, milk and cream from LYNWOOD.

062: Replies that she spent one SUMMER staying at LYNWOOD as she was good friends with the youngest BLATCH child, WIN. “I’m still friendly with her after all these years (laughs).”

094: Recalls the GOVAN family who managed the TE ANAU HOTEL.

110: On visiting other areas in the BASIN, she recalls trips into the (EGLINTON) VALLEY when the (MILFORD) ROAD was under construction and getting as far as CASCADE CREEK.

113: Remembers seeing the tented accommodation (for roadworkers) at the side of the road and recollects young children running out to wave at them as they went past in the car.

125: On another occasion, she describes how CHARLIE EVANS took a group of them to HORSESHOE BEND (on the WAIAU RIVER), a trip which was dramatically interrupted after the trailer carrying the children broke away from the car in transit.

134: As an aside, she recalls that while the women and children lived in TE ANAU for the duration of the long school holidays, the men returned to INVERCARGILL during the working week.

154: At HORSESHOE BEND, she says, there used to be a dinghy for use by anyone wishing to cross the river to an area known as THE ISLAND reputed to be an ideal FISHING spot.

174: While the EVANS’ had their own source of electricity, she replies that in the pre-NATIONAL GRID days in the CRIB they used TILLEY (kerosene) lamps and there was a COLEMAN cooker with two burners.

180: Adds that during the SUMMER, they would swim almost every day in the lake so that doubled as their daily wash or shower.

184: There was no telephone connection except at the HOTEL.

194: Replies that they continued to holiday in TE ANAU during WWII and admits that it was much quieter during those years.

205: Mentions that the road linking BLUE GUM POINT to the main road was a mud track and that people camped on the lake front side during the summer before an official camping ground was established (at the former Automobile Association campsite next to IVON WILSON PARK).

224: Until 1949 when she went overseas, she says she would have visited TE ANAU on a regular basis. So would not have noticed any changes as a result of the 1948 discovery (by LAWSON BURROWS of FIORDLAND TRAVEL) of the GLOWWORM CAVES.

228: When she returned to NEW ZEALAND in 1952 and re-connected with TE ANAU, she says, she noticed that it had become more influenced by tourism.

238: In the earlier days, she replies, groceries were delivered from the MOSSBURN STORE, owned by GORDON MACAULEY. Fresh vegetables, she adds, were sold by the EVANS and later, WARD and JESSIE BEER.

259: Prompted by interviewer, she says there was also MRS (SYLVIA) BAKER’S shop (opposite the HOTEL).

263: Mentions that she and her BROTHER once cycled from LUMSDEN (RAILWAY STATION) to TE ANAU having taken the train from INVERCARGILL.

270: Remembers that after they’d cycled over the GORGE HILL, they were so tired that they took a rest in a woolshed, but on waking up and hearing voices, decided to make a run for it and eventually reached TE ANAU in the early hours of the morning.

297: Replies that her HUSBAND was KEITH ROBBIE and that they were married in 1958. Says they had worked in the same office in INVERCARGILL and that on her return from overseas, they met up again. By that time, she adds, he was a widower with four children.

312: Says that after their wedding, the family lived in NELSON and WELLINGTON and then back to INVERCARGILL.

325: Explains that her BROTHER had taken over the CUTHILL CRIB so she and her HUSBAND bought one in MACKINNON LOOP (1970) where they spent many holidays.

329: Following her HUSBAND’S death, she says, she returned to MACKINNON LOOP and again took up TRAMPING and similar pursuits.

330: After six years (1992/93), she continues, she decided to have her present home built on a section in FERGUS SQUARE.

350: Talking about the changes that had taken place between the 1950s and 1970s, she says there were more visitors to TE ANAU and affirms that the government’s farm development scheme of the BASIN had also changed the landscape.

357: Recalls her father saying that the government project would not succeed. (Quoting him:) “That land is just too light…they’ll never make viable farms.”

375: On a separate matter, she says she worked as a volunteer at the local library.

391: Back to earlier memories, she remembers CAPTAIN (THOMAS) ROBERTS (who skippered the SS TAWERA for the government). The vessel was used to carry passengers to and from GLADE HOUSE at the start of the MILFORD TRACK. It plied LAKE TE ANAU for almost one hundred years before it was decommissioned in 1998.

396: Interview ends

Tape 1 Side B stops