stories in video and voices

We met Charlie Dixon on the dam at remote Lake Monowai in the Cameron Mountains in the SW corner of the South Island. We had camped there with Amy and Garth the Brit kids we had met earlier. Charlie told a wonderful story of how he had arrived here in 1957 as a 17 year old from Scotland looking for a new life. He began a career as a game hunter - shooting up to 270 deer a year for the fresh meat market. He said he thought he had arrived in heaven with all the fish and game available. Charlie was here with his two dogs fishing for salmon off the dam. Click on his picture to hear him tell of the deer markets.

Speaking of fish and game, here on the left is a video of a young bloke I came across on the beach at Paringa who had just landed an "Elephant Fish" while surf casting. It's called that because of its long odd proboscis.
Earlier a few fishermen were setting a net for the same breed of fish. They said the fish was boneless with only a cartilage skeleton and the flesh was the best choice for "Fish & Chips".

Remember to click once on the arrow on all the videos.

Here are two videos showing the nice hike we took into the Wainui Falls. The first shows Betty on the one person suspension bridge over the gorge and the second shows a piece of the trail thru the rain forest and the wonderful huge lacey New Zealand Tree Ferns

Here on the left is a video of the romantic old steam train "Highland Flyer" we came across that was chugging across the flats.

On the right is a video of Tom Diamond speaking about old time treatment of the Aborigines or "Abos" as he calls them.