DAVE DOBBYN'S 'THIS TOWN' # Look how long it's taken you # to arrive in this town. # From the dawn into the dark, # I will hold you deep in my heart. # Look how long it's taken you # to arrive in this town. # COMMENTATOR: 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. CHILDREN YELL The first show was in 1911. It was held at the racecourse in those days. And then I think the first show here was in 1913, so it's been held on this site ever since. Yeah, and it's one of the best country shows in NZ. I lived here for 40-odd years, and it's just` oh, just a good country show. And it is too. And we've had a lot of fun over the years. The doctor always goes crook on Monday cos of all the injuries, but it's a bit of a special feature for the Methven show. Try and round them up out the bar ` that's the best place to catch 'em. Full of Dutch courage. Hut, hut, hut, hut. Uh, but, no, I haven't had a go. It's just, uh, I fall too heavy. PA: Not bad for an Irishman. Ooh, went right. CHICKEN CLUCKS All the locals come along, and it's just a great day out for everyone. We're here for the poultry section. I've been interested for about 10, 11 years, but seriously breeding probably five or six years now. Last year, I'm pleased to say that I actually won best Blue Pekin in NZ. He's here in the show today, but he didn't do quite as well here. So that's a Blue Pekin. Every chook has its own thing that the judges are looking for. We have about 400 in all. ROMANTIC MUSIC CHICKENS CLUCK We met on the internet ` a website called ICQ. But, um, when I messaged Stu, he said he was too busy to talk to me, cos he was on the telephone. Well, I was. It was a family friend and he happened to have poultry. I used to ring him most Sunday nights, while sitting on the internet. And I was desperately searching for a man. We talked every day, a couple of times a day, and then I actually came down from Blenheim and spent the weekend with Stu. We just saw each other every week for two months, and he proposed to me, and that was really awesome. Pretty quick. And yes, it is true ` as randy as a rooster. One rooster can mate probably 10 or 15 hens in the space of five or six minutes. They don't stand on formality ` it's very quick. We got married in Christchurch. That was nine years ago, just about. We do everything together. We do everything together. We're just like one. Fantastic team. Fantastic team. Yeah. When, um, I first talked to Stu on the net, and he was saying that he was into showing poultry and had chooks, I was, like, 'Oh, yeah, and what's their names? Roast and Chicken?' Just the general kind of childish thing you'd say. First started showing chickens in 1966. All the neighbourhood used to go to the A&P Show, and a lot of them used to show poultry, and I just started off that way. Certainly, once I got to know Stu better and got involved, it becomes a real passion. Yeah. It's very very addictive. Stu probably regrets the day he got me too interested, cos I've got more chooks than him now. She is very competitive. She is very competitive. (GIGGLES) Couple years of just playing, and then I` 'Nah, I want to get serious about this.' I started washing them and preparing them and spending time with them. They're just a real pleasure to have. Two years ago, our relationship was put to the test, though. Well, I found out that I had breast cancer. And he supported me, and he was really positive. But tried to` Yeah... Yeah, Deb sort of was` I felt a bit flippant, 'It's nothing.' Kept telling everybody, 'It's absolutely nothing.' Was something; it was serious. I` I didn't battle cancer, but I battled alongside Deb, and... In some ways, it was worse for Stu, cos supporters have a tougher job than the victims, in some ways, because we're just getting on with it. Stu was busy having to feed all the chooks as well, plus do his job, plus cook tea. Yeah, but you were the one that was struggling with cancer. Yeah, but you were the one that was struggling with cancer. Yeah, but... I find coming out to the fowls and that ` it's really relaxing. My whole life I've had the poultry, and it's great to be able to just get out and look after them and forget about everything else. He was always there, and, um, we've had tattoos done of, um, the breast cancer ribbon. I'm not proud of having breast cancer, but I'm proud I've survived and the fight we've done and... It's just to recognise that we've been through a battle, come out the other side. Home is where the heart is, and my heart is with Stu, and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. I mean, if Stu wanted to move somewhere else, I'd go with him, obviously, but I love it here. Absolutely fantastic. Never ever leave Canterbury. COUNTRY MUSIC I was born in Christchurch. We moved to Ashburton when I was younger. And then we moved out to Staveley three or four years ago. Staveley's small. It's quiet, and it's peaceful. But really nice people ` down to earth. If I could live anywhere else, I would live in Nashville, Tennessee ` home of country music. It's pretty much my goal in life. Country is number one. I've been milking cows for, um, two months. Two and a half months. Having to get up early in the morning and so on ` it's definitely character building anyway. Yeah, you get to know the cows. They're funny. 2130 ` she sits on the back gate. And then 1778 ` she's another three-titter, and she used to poop really bad. She's calmed down a lot now, but she's still a pain. The country music I sing, um, generally isn't really old kind of country music, singing about your wife's dead or so on. All the old stuff definitely not about happy things. Since only being 17, I haven't had that many life experiences ` hardcore break-ups or anything. That's what most songs are written about. Like, I'm trying to write stuff at the moment. Just don't get a lot of time, doing this. (CHUCKLES) Yeah, nah, singing covers is all right to a certain stage, cos everybody knows them. Definitely write my own music. Sooner I start singing them, getting it out there... Earlier is probably better than later. Yeah, Mum reckons the same thing. # Lookin' back # on the memory of # the dance we shared # beneath the stars above... # 'First competition I entered was the Geraldine competition, 'which is probably the earliest memory of music I have. 'I won the Gold Guitars in 2006, in the Junior section, which was really, really, really cool. 'I'm working on a few songs at the moment; tweaking them a little bit here and there, and I'm kind of` you know, you get a bit tentative of what other people think. 'I've` I've never played them to anybody else, except for myself. Um, not even my mum or my dad.' # But I'd have had to miss # the dance. # 'Since America has such a big country music scene, Nashville is the place that I kind of` 'that's where I really want to be.' Yeah, being 17 is probably the only problem, really. I'd rather, like, this year, save money and really go over there with something behind me. Been doing some fencing and stuff like that. It should help me, you know, get a little bit of money and so on, but, um, no sleeping, of course. In the city, there's more opportunities for, um, you know, doing gigs and stuff. It's probably better to actually live in the city ` somewhere where there's more bars and pubs. You live out in the country, you know, you can only really do stuff at the local tavern or so on. (PLAYS KEITH URBAN'S 'DAYS GO BY') # I'm changin' lanes and talkin' on the phone; # drivin' way too fast. 'Mum and I decided to put on this concert for kids with heart conditions 'and to get the Topp Twins as the guest artist, which is where I met Lynda and Jools. 'They, um` They asked me to perform with them in Tamworth. 'They popped the question on stage, and I couldn't say no ` would've looked bad. (LAUGHS) 'And that's where it started, and that` and that led to go on to more shows. 'They've encouraged me, and they've... I wouldn't say inspired, 'cos I don't do anything quite like they do. They've let me had my own, kind of, personality on stage.' # Days go by... Topp Twins and I opened for Kenny Rogers. Yeah, she was pretty nerve-wracking, doing that. I played one song, and I played solo. I met him afterwards. He just said, 'Keep picking.' Nashville ` that's my goal. # Days go by. # AUDIENCE CHEERS, APPLAUDS RELAXED MUSIC Fly fishing is an art, and conventional fishing is for people who can't fly fish. (LAUGHS) Sometimes you don't catch anything; sometimes you do. And then, when we do, we release them. Some people say, 'What's the point?' (LAUGHS) But, you know, you get to be out in beautiful NZ. I do most of my fishing locally now. There's some beautiful, you know, little rivers, locally. I can't divulge where they are, because they're secret spots. (LAUGHS) I sort of forget about the rest of the world sometimes, here in Staveley. You know, I'm pretty relaxed here. I'm at home. Yeah, been here for about five years. Home is just in a magic place. They're lazy, the old trout. Lazy old fish. There's everything you can pretty much do in the outdoors, which I enjoy. There's a place, Pudding Hill walk ` really nice walk, and it doesn't take long. And it's just a nice place to be. If you're feeling uptight about anything, you can get up there, and get away from things for a while, and it's nice and cool because it's in the forest. Something about it is just cool ` outdoors. It's nice to come out here and just relax and chill. I quite like having things quiet. Staveley's small ` not many people. There's a store. Yeah, the store is what keeps the community going ` everybody meets down at the shop. Staveley Store was literally just the general store. We bought it more as a house. Never thought I would be a shopkeeper. Um, we thought, 'Let's give it a go.' We were a general store, so you could come in and buy a packet of chocolate biscuits or something, but people kept coming in and asking for coffee. It's kind of a big change with NZers from having the thermos flask in your car. Now everyone expects that there's somewhere that you can stop and get a coffee. We started making coffee on a sawhorse out the back ` instant coffee, because for four months we were renovating the house. We actually didn't even have a water supply. We had to get the water from over at the hall to bring it over to make the coffee. And it's just grown from there. We've just been along for the ride. The Staveley Store has become like a community meeting place. It's a place that people come to find out what's going on in the neighbourhood. All the community stuff ` it's sorta become the focal point of it. Took a wee while for people to actually realise that it was all right to come and sit down and have a coffee at the shop. There was a few people that got teased earlier on. Others would say, 'Haven't you got any coffee at home?' But those people are the ones that are down here drinking the coffees now, so that's all good. Now, morning tea time here is a reasonably big event with locals coming down. You never really know what you're gonna get during the day, who's gonna turn up. UPBEAT MUSIC It's the community themselves` It's evolved with them. Like, I can` I can disappear now, out the back, and everybody's happily chatting amongst themselves. Everybody just fits in together. It's got a very homely sort of feeling. I actually had a lady, when we first came here, she said, 'I felt like I should knock before I came in, cos everyone was sitting round having coffee.' She didn't have to. (LAUGHS) Particularly since there's never been a pub or a school here, I think the shop's always been probably a bit of a meeting place. There's been a store on this site since 1876. There was two stores in Staveley at that time too. And a butchery and a bakery and a blacksmith. But never a pub or a school. This building ` first photos we've got are in the '40s, and it was actually built on the foundation of the original store. We bought the store off Ted and June Burgess, who are in their 70s, and Ted's father owned it before him. They bought it off the Curries, and before that, it was a guy Stephen's. He was the original owner of the shop, and he was the first person in this district to generate his own electricity ` he had a water wheel out the back, and he was actually killed because his coat got caught in the water wheel, and he` and he got caught up in it. Yeah, we do get a lot of really interesting customers, for some particular reason. A lot of people come here that grew up in the area, and they'll tell you some interesting story. One of them, actually, was` she would have been easily in her 80s, possibly older. She came from a family of, I think, 16 children or something. And they'd all saved up to buy their mother a present for her birthday. That was the only present they ever bought her, and they came here and bought her a string of pearls. And I thought, 'Wow. One thing we don't sell in the shop any more is pearls at the Staveley Store.' They're a really supportive community; very caring. They're always there for you. Yeah, no, it's good. Think NZ is such a special place, and places like this are kind of what make it too, you know. Great community. Sausage rolls ` a really big seller. It's amazing the people that come in that have heard. People come in and say, 'Oh, we've heard about the sausage rolls.' Jen, the sausage roll lady, moved out from the city. She came to work for me, kind of, part-time for a bit. She decided she'd give it a go. Mostly, that's what she does now. She spends all the time making sausage rolls. The word has spread. (LAUGHS) The sausage rolls were self-taught. There's a couple things that happened. I had one in Gore one time, when I was hung-over. It was this giant sausage roll, and I was so impressed with that. And it had sultanas in it. It was a delicious sausage roll ` memorable. And that was when I was at university, and I started experimenting and putting` you know, I'd put apricots and apple, and I, yeah, make all these different recipes and chuck cheese in. And, um, yeah, the recipe just kinda developed over about 20 years, I think, until, um, I finally started selling them. (LAUGHS) Krissi at the shop was, like, 'You've gotta do this; you've gotta make sausage rolls for the store.' She started off with one plain flavour, and, next thing you know, she's got seven different flavours and gluten free and vegan. Cheese and pineapple, leek and mushroom, curry, chilli ` they're really hot; they're serious. Bacon and cheese, meat lovers', and there's a vegetarian. I've got some friends who are vegans. I make vegetarian ones ` mushroom and walnut flavour. They're pretty good too. The caravan ` um, I bought it from a Hare Krishna group in Christchurch, who were selling it. Beautiful caravan they made. I started inventing flavours. It all came in the first couple months. Cheese and pineapple was the second flavour. And I had a conversation with Lynda Topp down at the store. And I was, like, 'I'm gonna make cheese and pineapple sausage rolls.' And she said, 'Jesus, what are you thinking?' She thought it sounded disgusting. So I took a pineapple sausage roll for her, and she loved it, and she eats them all the time ` it's her favourite flavour now. Yeah. A typical day making sausage rolls ` I start about 7.30, and I go out there and make 20 dozen sausage rolls and roll and bake them six hours continuously. And young Cameron ` he helps sometimes too. They moved out here the year after me. He started giving me guitar lessons. One of his biggest fans. Yeah. I'm right behind him. Moving out to Staveley, I've made some good friends. I'll make sausage rolls a few days a week. There's five stores. Staveley Store sells the most ` I just deliver whenever they need them. And that's it. The rest of the time's mine. It's really a big part of my life here now. Sausage rolls must get through. The top sellers are the original and the bacon and cheese. But people always ask me if I put something addictive in the sausage rolls, but I don't. (LAUGHS) Went to Otago University. Took me four years to get a degree. Got a degree in linguistics. Got a teaching diploma. And I never taught. Worked as a youth worker. Five years as a youth worker and then five years as a probation officer, which has led to a career in baking, yeah. (LAUGHS) We haven't got one. We haven't got one. Not one? Probation officer ` that is an interesting job. You meet a lot of really interesting people, and you realise that, you know, anyone can do anything. I burnt out, in the end. After five years of that, I'd had it. I don't think I'll live in the city again. Porgy's the perfect sausage roll mascot ` right shape, right size. I live out in the middle of nowhere, and not much happens in a day, you know. It's all pretty simple, but it is quite a happy place for me, yeah. I consider myself very lucky. There's a ice skating rink ` it's outdoor rink, and it's right inside the native bush. The Staveley Hall Society own it. We all run that as a volunteer thing over winter. We own the skates, and I'm up there renting out skates, and we raise the money for maintenance on the hall. Yeah. It's cool. It's a real focal point of the community, because it's an unusual thing to have an outdoor skating rink. People come from Christchurch and Ashburton, Geraldine. It's been there forever. You get old folk coming in and, 'I came here when I was a girl.' I think` I don't know when it started. 50, 60 years, at least, it's been running. Way back. Grew up on a farm. Our dad gave us a single shot .22, and out we'd go shooting possums and rabbits. This is just a beautiful area for hunting and fishing. And it feels good to bring something home for the table. You feel like you're providing for your family. It's a great feeling. Really really good. I met my partner, Donna, who, uh, was living in Methven at the time and decided to try and get a place down here. And we, uh, had horses and dogs and what have you, and Donna's got two boys, and so we ended up with this place ` Topp Lodge, we called it, in the end. And we've actually opened the lodge up, as well, to functions. We got 2 acres of garden, and we got 17 acres all up ` 15 acres of paddocks out there for the horses and the dogs to run in. Both Lynda and I are very passionate about our horses. Nevada, which is the palomino, I gifted Lynda, uh, when we first got together. I` Yeah, I think I do have a gift with horses, and Lynda's just a natural, gifted horsewoman. I didn't really choose to live in Staveley. I followed my heart. I think that's the only way I ended up at Staveley. I met Lynda, and, I mean, I was married for 12 years and brought up two beautiful boys, and then met Lynda, and I couldn't fight those feelings. So I` Yeah, I followed my heart and it brought us both to Staveley. Couple of kids there straight away. (LAUGHS) No, it's good. It's been a learning curve for me to have a family, but, yeah, they're good boys. Well, we actually met Cameron first, really. He was about 11 when we met him. He actually asked Jools and me to be his special guests at a concert that he was organising with his mum. And that's how we got to meet the family. Over a period of time, we, sort of, fell in love. I didn't see Lynda as any gender. She was just Lynda. And I fell in love with her. I don't even say that I'm a lesbian. I don't know if I'm gay. I'm just in love with a woman. You know, I'm in love with Lynda. I've found my soulmate. It was difficult, um, cos, you know, Donna was a married woman and everything like that, but it just seemed to feel right. Everything fell into place. We-We just found each other. It was like finding home again. That's how I feel ` I'm just so comfortable with my partner. And here we are. You know, we're living the dream down here in Staveley. (LAUGHS) Lynda calls me her princess, and she treats me like a princess. We look after each other. Lynda's the handyman around the place. I usually do the housework inside, and she does the outside. So we have it pretty cool. She's a hard worker. Man, she works really hard. It's rubbed off on Cameron, that's for sure. He's learnt it from Lynda, not me. (LAUGHS) Cameron's 17 now and a pretty keen young entertainer. He needs to slowly move into that industry, and I think he's really switched on about it too. Who wants the first one? Give us your paw. Paw. I wouldn't map out his career. I'm his stepmum. I'm just there to support him. There's no magic person that's just gonna come along and make it happen for you. And I think he needs to find his own way, and I think he will. It'll be real nice to see him when he's a big star, and hopefully he'll come and visit me in my rest home somewhere and push me round in my wheelchair. So, we've got functions, and then we also open up to the locals, um, and open Thursday and Friday nights, and they all turn up, and we're fully licensed, so they have a few beers and wines and sit around the fire, and we can` we can seat up to 40 people in the lounge. It's a big birthday tonight ` 70th birthday ` and we're expecting about 39 people. So it should be a bit of a full-on night. My dream was to have a lodge where I could make people have a good time for just a couple of hours. My dream is coming true. It's a real team effort. Donna, she's actually been in hospitality, and so she sorta knew the ins and outs of the hospitality business. I put my hand up and said, 'I'll be the cook.' I've always thought I was a bit of a Alison Holst, under there somewhere. (LAUGHS) This is the mayonnaise for the coleslaw, but I add something to it. I can't tell you what it is. She loves cooking. It she wasn't an entertainer, she would be a chef. Just gonna run Cameron up to the duck pond. (LAUGHS) You'll be all right on your own, won't you? It's just 40 people coming. See you in a couple of hours. Yeah. Right (!) Yeah. Right (!) (LAUGHS) I'll meet you out at the truck, buddy. Yeah, he loves his duck shooting. Lynda and him go out duck shooting quite a lot. We work in well together ` Lynda and I and Cameron. You couldn't do this, what we do, if we didn't work as a team. Just wouldn't work. 'It's a really different thing for me to do. It feels like I'm entertaining, but it's different.' A little bit temperamental. 'You know, and people love it when I come out. They go, "Aren't you one of the Topp Twins?" 'And I go, "Yeah." I said, "How do you want your steak done?"' (LAUGHS) Jocelyn's doing the spuds, that right? 'We're not trying to create some big fancy restaurant for people to come to.' Steak and onion sausages. 'Sometimes, you know, just a simple feed and a smile on your face 'is way more important than some big fancy restaurant.' 'Good home-cooked tucker. We don't claim to be top chefs.' No Gordon Ramsays here, is there? (LAUGHS) 'We have people come for functions from all over. The word of mouth has got out.' Last week, we had the curlers from Dunedin, were up at the skating rink up here. They all turned up. They all wanted a steak. So, yes, chugging along. But it's really fun for us. Yeah, it's more of a hobby than a job. It's quarter past now, so we'll do probably 15 minutes on sausages, and then looking at probably 7.15 dinner. I'm supposed to be the spud lady. I'm supposed to be the spud lady. < And I'm the boss. Except when Donna comes into the room ` then she's the boss of all of us. She comes in and tells us off and tells us that we're` you know, timing's wrong. 'Everything's gotta be ready in 5 minutes', and... Here she comes, ooh, ooh. Standing around, you three. Standing around, you three. (LAUGHS) How far away? > How far away? > Right. OK. I need the thing. How far away are we with spuds, Jocelyn? 'But we do work together. We have a plan. We don't argue that much. We disagree.' Are we on schedule, Jocelyn? > Donna's the only one who knows where the knives and forks and spoons should go. That's her domain. 'And she's great with people out there too.' Beautiful. You're the spud lady. If you say they're ready, Jocelyn, they're ready. Nothing like the sizzle of a barbecue. Cameron? I dunno. He has a shower and does his hair nice. Mainly looking pretty is his job. 'Our steak is our signature dish. Yeah. We specialise in a Angus steak.' They come from miles around to have our steak. GONG CHIMES All the steaks are done to medium rare. They're pretty nice steaks at medium rare, so... Mr Brown, you'll just have to eat it medium rare tonight. Mr Brown, you'll just have to eat it medium rare tonight. ALL LAUGH I've already got yours cooking. It's been going for half an hour. Have a good time, folks. We'll see you soon. 'We've got our own little, sort of, community here that's just, you know, amazing people, 'who have been so supportive of Donna and me and the kids, which is just great. Magic.' The village in Staveley look after each other. It's what you do in Staveley. 'And nobody judges you. We're not their only gays in the village, either. (LAUGHS)' Can you yodel 'Happy Birthday'? Can you yodel 'Happy Birthday'? No, I can't yodel 'Happy Birthday'. After you've had cake, I might think about doing something. Quickly, they're melting! (LAUGHS) Hurry up, Donna. Hurry up. Hip, hip, hooray! 'And it's just a really great slice of NZ here.' I offered him 50 bucks to go and sing a song. Cameron, I'll give you a hug if you go and sing one song. Why don't you sing a song? Why don't you sing a song? I'll sing when I want them to leave. Why don't you sing a song? I'll sing when I want them to leave. Good on you, young man. 'Cameron, for a 17-year-old, is pretty special.' Hold your horses. 'I don't think he realises what talent he's got.' # And I know I'm right... When he does get out there in the big wide world, people are gonna go, 'Wow. This kid's amazing.' And he is. 'I'm pretty happy. I've got a beautiful partner and two pretty cool kids that I hang out with. 'I'm happy all the time, pretty much.' 'I met Lynda, and I'm so grateful that I have her beside me.' 'Sometimes I think I'm the luckiest girl in the world. I go, "Wow. This is all happening. '"This is all part of my life." Sometimes I pinch myself.' #...soon. # GUITAR CHORDS ALL: Whoo! One more! One more! Thank you very much, folks. If you want more, I'm afraid you'll have to pay a lot more money than you did tonight. APPLAUSE PEACEFUL MUSIC I moved to Timaru from the West Coast. I thought it was a nice part of the country. I had Louise, my young daughter. I was looking at making another life for myself over here and been here ever since. Moving here had a profound effect on my life ` meeting Neil ` met the man of my dreams, I think. Yeah. Neil was a blind date. I met him through a woman that I worked with at the hospital at the time. And I felt that we did have a connection right from the outset. He was a quiet man, caring. He was very good to my daughter. Our courtship sorta just flourished. And we were married in 1984. And then Shane, our son, was born. We used to go on lots of camping holidays and just enjoyed life as a family. Neil and I had walked the Milford Track in 1991. Um, and I felt I'd really like to sorta get more involved in tramping. Yeah, so became a member of the Geraldine Tramping Club. Neil would join me on a number of those tramps. Met lots of lovely people, of course, and cemented some great friendships there, naturally. It's a very close-knit club. ALL: Hey! The Geraldine Tramping Club was formed 35 years ago, and we meet twice a month on Sunday and enjoy being with nature and with each other. George Hunter, our leader, was part of a group that travelled to Nepal in 2002, and he befriended the expedition guide, Ngima Sherpa. He was from the village of Damar. We got to know them very well, as you do on a three-week trek. In due course, we decided we should help the village as a whole, because they're extremely poor. Uh, they're outdoor people, and we're outdoor people too. There's a long history of NZers helping, uh, Sherpas, going back to Ed Hillary's time. We felt we were in a position to be able to go. We felt that it would be a wonderful thing to do to go and help, work in the village. Neil's-Neil's skills were, um, good old Kiwi ingenuity; your good old Kiwi bloke, like the rest of the guys that went. Neil was the foreman of the South Island Organ Company. He worked with them for 42 years. He was a very practical man; a master craftsman. And we felt that we had the skills to be able to contribute and help make a difference in the lives of these Sherpa people in the village. I have a nursing background, so, hence, uh, we made the decision to go. Part of my role was to, um, you know, help those people with some of the issues they have with their health. Many of these villagers live four hours from any form of health post. And we did make a difference in their lives, and that is extremely satisfying. CHILDREN LAUGH For Neil and I, it was about helping others and being part of another culture. Always felt at some stage that we would go back to the village if there was going to be a future project, but that wasn't meant to be. Neil was in the Durham St Church, removing a pipe organ for preservation, um, when the earthquake struck. He was in the church. He'd been up there for a couple of days and` uh, with a group of other men. It was ironic, cos he didn't really want to go to Christchurch, cos we were preparing to do a central South Island charity bike ride, and that's raising money for just our local charities. So we were actually looking forward to doing that together. I was` I was preparing, actually, just to finish work that day. And we did feel it in the medical centre, and I can remember thinking, 'Gosh, my husband's in that church.' And I tried to contact Neil on his cell phone. And I just said, 'Send me a message. Send me a sign, just to let me know that you're all right.' But there was no answer. And it was some days later before we actually knew that Neil and the others had been killed. About four or five days that we waited. Three of them were killed, and three of them survived. You always hang on to that little bit of hope that he would've been alive, but no. Ngima, the Sherpa guide, um, had been extremely shocked with the death of Neil, and he initiated the building of a chorten, which is a huge stone memorial, in honour of Neil. That was extremely special. Very humbling. (RINGS BELL) I think when one deals with grief, it is a process. You also must move forward in little steps, just one day at a time. To go back to Nepal was an important step. Now looking more forward to the future, with going back again. And I kinda feel that Neil is there guiding me in my journey now, saying, 'You go forward and move on, and do what you've got to do.' PEACEFUL MUSIC I was born and bred in Mesopotamia and now reside at a place called Thornycroft. In my lifetime of farming, we were in charge of large tracts of land ` 100,000 acres when we started off. I'm recently retired, and that's a hard word even to say. I'm a guy that doesn't like too much change. There was a situation where I considered myself very lucky to get a trip down to Antarctica. About two and a half months later, I returned. My wife, Anne, came down to pick me up. We're busy driving home, pointing the nose of the vehicle towards Mesopotamia, and Anne said, uh, to me, um, 'Oh,' she said, 'I've got to tell you, we don't live up there any more.' My wife had decided to shift out of the homestead and let the next generation take over, and, uh, she had shifted into another property. Quite a big call, isn't it? I was going to throw the toys out of the cot, and, uh, then I thought, 'Well, just maybe they've got it right.' Our son Malcolm took over the reins and married an English lass. And Malcolm and Sue produced the first grandson, Fergus. And, um, a girl they call Pietey ` Pieta. Having grandkids is the nicest thing that's happened in my lifetime, I think. It just makes life really worthwhile, that is for sure. If it was up to me, the changing of the guard would have been a bit of a hassle, I think. I just needed a little shove to get there. Here I am now, in retirement. I'm allowed to go back any time I like. Uh, which is quite often, I might add. Um, no, it works in very well. Um, they want me back ` you know, that is nice, rather than being shunned completely. And if their parents don't want me back, the grandkids certainly do. And, um, I play on that a bit. Our son, Malcolm, right from an early age, he had good work ethics. He and his sister, Neroli, had to do a fair degree of work to help me out. It was hard to resist the temptation of taking these two children out of school, which was correspondence at that time. If I muttered that I may need a hand just to either draft sheep or, uh, muster sheep, uh, I had two very willing children that would, uh, bolt from the schoolroom to give me a hand, with the promise that they would catch up that night. So, they were very willing or forced into willingness, um, I don't know, but they've carried those ethics on right through. Malcolm in particular's been very serious thinker and worker, and it is very nice to see it's going to be continued on in the same fashion, almost without a beat, and long may it last. Grandson Fergus ` I think he will be more than ready to accept the challenge when it comes. He's` I think he's halfway there already. I had, uh, seven siblings. We grew up in the place; it grew on us. The property to me was the most perfect place that there could be. We didn't get many visitors ` the road was a bit of a goat track. Seldom saw anybody from one month to the next. Schooling was a bit of a bother. My grandchildren, right now they drive down to Carew School. It's quite a journey for them, for a small child. Well, we have to go` drive an hour and a half each day to school and back, so it's three hours altogether. 'Fergus` uh, Grandson Fergus ` it's, um, hard to, um, see him any other way 'than continuing on the, uh, tradition.' That was good. At least it, um, got cracking that time. Now we got a new engine. 'Right now, I suppose, he's not only the apple of his father's eye, 'but probably also his grandfather's eye.' The first bit is a bit of loose shingle, and my bike got stuck. 'He's got those same work ethics. He seems to be measuring up. 'It would be my dream to see the succession thing carry on.' 'I love Pietey. It's hard not to. 'And who knows just where her aspirations may lay? 'The enterprise is big enough for them to both be settled on their chosen paths, that's for sure.' This is where my grandparents were buried, Pietey. Pop, as we called him. We always argued a wee bit, you know. But you don't argue with your grandad, do you? No. No. No. There you go. And, uh, Granny died quite a while later. 'When I look back on` on being raised up in the tussock ` 'fantastic. Just the wildness of it, I guess.' You know, the areas that you could get absolutely lost in. Uh, I don't think there's another place like it. DRAMATIC MUSIC Cattle muster at Mesopotamia. Each year we bring them in, and we sell the calves off ` we call them weaners. It's all hands on deck. It's every means possible. The boy's, uh, good on his motorbike. There's another beat for somebody on horseback. They even allow me to, um, grab a few of the outlying ones using the helicopter. SMOOTH MUSIC It's quite a job, you know, finding them all. They graze on up the river about 13 or 14 miles from the homestead. And it takes a few days just to bring them into the yards. Typical muster in my father's day would just be on horseback. We spent a lot of time on horseback ` over a month that we were away from home and just steadily bringing in the, um, cattle. Today we've got the helicopter that we can zip round in. Farming is a good career. The freedom of the type of farming that I've done has just been just so great, and I just can't believe I've been so lucky in drawing that straw. The property that I've left ` of course you feel it's still home. Not an easy thing to give up, and I don't think Malcolm's going to find it that easy, either. He'll probably get a reminder from his family, when the time comes, I guess. Been across a lot of NZ, and, um, the home property has to be my favourite. Absolutely great that the next generation are looking after it with, um, as much gusto. We've been a pretty close family. I've got everything to be proud of. At the end of my life, I'd like my grandchildren to shed a tear and say, um, that I'd spoilt them. But, um, mainly that I'd farmed well. That's important to me ` being a farmer. And I would like to think that, um, at the end of the day, they'd say, 'Well, he has left the land in better state than what he took it over.' I have a great love for people. Being able to make a difference in somebody else's life is extremely satisfying. We don't go our separate ways. We'll always do everything together. I've, kind of, got a base set of what I wanna do in my life, with my kind of career, and, touch wood, Nashville ` that's my goal. Life's too short. Don't be afraid. Follow your heart. Being a NZer is the greatest thing in the world.