Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A distinguished New Zealand adventurer.
On the island
Eight records
I remember this very, very clearly. I mean I haven't used it a great deal lately, but when I was a child I used to go to the Turkow movie theatre. And always before the start of the actual main film occurred, for quite a long period they used to play this Red River Valley, and I used to find it really one of the most exciting things I'd ever heard at that stage.
There's a Bridle Hanging on the Wall
Carson Robison and His Pioneers
This sort of came into my life at a slightly later stage in the Red River Valley. And it sort of stayed with me all the time because I actually learned to sing it. And on party nights, you know, about two o'clock in the morning, if I'm properly prompted, I can even do a rendition myself.
Blowin' in the WindFavourite
For me anyway, it sort of epitomised the period of protest which that was so strong a few years ago and which I personally found very attractive, the concept of protest against many of the strange things that we have in our society.
I've really always rather just enjoyed the melody of this song and as I seem always seem to be leaving on jet planes for one place or another, it does seem quite appropriate.
I have sort of a very I think all New Zealanders have a great affection for this. because it tends to always be sung at the end of a party or when people are departing. I can remember when we left from Dunedin in New Zealand to sail down to the Antarctic. We were going to be away 18 months. All our family were gathered on the wharf and just as the boat drew away someone started singing, Now is the hour and so everybody sang it and I think there were tears in all our eyes actually at the end of it.
I think it's appropriate perhaps because the Ganga, a large portion of it does go down into Bangladesh, but this also I feel represents the concern that many of these type of singers have expressed about how we're treating the third world and the problems of that area.
This is a song that I've always enjoyed. I found it a very pleasant one, a sentimental one perhaps, but it is one of my favourites.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:33What makes an adventurer? As a boy, did you have a fairly tough upbringing, a lot of camping out, field sports, rugger?
Well, I I was um I was very busy when I was uh young. I had to work very hard. I didn't really have a great deal of time being involved in sports, because my father was a a beekeeper, and uh even from an early age my brother and I used to have to go out and and work uh with the bees and so on, and so we were kept extremely busy.
Presenter asks
7:29What took you for the first time to the Big Stuff, to the Himalayas?
Well there was a group of us who'd decided we wanted to go to the Himalayas and we organised a shoestring expedition. There were just four of us, New Zealanders, and we went over there and we went into the Gowal Himalaya and we were fit and strong. We didn't have any experience of the Himalayas but we really did have quite a successful time. We climbed quite a number of peaks of over 20,000 feet. And this brought us to the notice of the famous mountaineer Eric Shipton, who had just had permission to take an expedition to reconnoitre the south side of Everest. And he invited two of us to go along. So that's how I got involved with the Everest story.
Presenter asks
8:36Does one get inured to all this [danger]?
The keepsakes
The luxury
a painting of the Kathmandu Valley
which is a painting of the Kathmandu Valley, which I'm very fond of.
One has to remember that During the period you spend on an expedition, there's only about sort of 5% of the time that you're involved in tooth and nail activities. The other 95% is really good fun. It's exciting and stimulating. I think you're sort of sharing things with the other members of the party. There's a lot of comradeship. And the five minutes of excitement and of fear, perhaps, is a stimulating factor, I think, during the course of the trip.
Presenter asks
9:34Was it oxygen that really made Everest possible?
I think oxygen played quite a big part, although now of course the mountain has been climbed without oxygen. But in 1953 we still had these grave doubts as to whether it was physically possible to climb the mountain even with oxygen. And I think that sort of problem had to be overcome. That psychological barrier really had to be broken before people could attempt devast without oxygen.
Presenter asks
18:59What were your conclusions [about the Yeti] after weighing a lot of evidence?
Well, I'm afraid that uh we went into things fairly thoroughly and investigated a lot of this evidence and and we came to the conclusion, unfortunately, that The Yeti is really essentially a mythological creature. I would dearly love uh to be proved wrong on this, because I think we'd all would uh like to to to be a Yeti. and for it actually to exist. And I know there are many people, including uh Lord Hunt actually. who um still like to feel that the the Yeti does tramp around the Himalayas on odd occasions. But my feeling on this expedition essentially was that the creature is mythological.
Presenter asks
26:14You're really making possible a tourist trade to the Himalayas, to the Sherpa country. Do you have any regrets?
Well, I I actually do feel a certain uh sense of regret about this. We originally um built the first airfield so that we could fly supplies in to build our hospital at Kundi. And uh the use of this airfield by the tourist traffic was really a secondary thing. I sometimes uh wonder now whether if I'd known how it had developed as to Whether we would, in fact, have built the airfield. But I suppose when I look back on it, all I did was sort of push forward the development by perhaps five years. It would have happened anyway.
“I have a a redoubtable ability to whistle songs, the same song, for about three hours.”
“Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.”
“I said to George, Well, George, we knocked the bastard off Well done.”
“I think being first, although it may not be always technically difficult, there is a a major step you have to make in order to overcome the thing and and just being up there first it's quite an experience, really is quite a thrill.”
“I would dearly love uh to be proved wrong on this, because I think we'd all would uh like to to to be a Yeti.”