Grandfather's tapes

I have only a few vague memories of my father's father, who died in 1983. Thankfully Dad managed to get my Grandfather to record some of his life stories and recollections.

Dad gave me the old tapes to listen to after we hiked up Big Peel. Wonderful stories and family history that I had hadn't heard before.

Topics include the first Pringles to New Zealand, riding a pony to school, Arthur and his best dog Black on the Clarence Reserve in the depression, tales of swagmen, a fall muster rescue, breaking and riding a circus horse through the back country, his first trip to Christchurch in a crank-start 2-cylinder Enfield with Sir Jack Acland when there were no road bridges, and a wistful regret of leaving the high country for town life.

My Great Grandfather David Pringle was the Manager of Mt. Peel Station for the Aclands from 1919 to 1931, the longest tenure to date, and Grandfather returns to Mt Peel stories several times.

Tracks below have been sized to be less than 20 Mb, but embedding sound files in blogs is not my forte, so this method may require some patience for the files to be ready to play. I tried to make sensible breaks. If the order needs correcting, please let me know. It might be possible to improve the scratchy audio, add track names and 'tags' of the content in each track.

NB: File download - you can download the individual files via the link below:
Click here for audio files
TAPE 1

Track 1.1
Track 1.2
Track 1.3
Track 1.4
Track 1.5
Track 1.6


TAPE 2

Track 2.1
Track 2.2
Track 2.3
Track 2.4
Track 2.5
Track 2.6


TAPE 3

Track 3.1
Track 3.2
Track 3.3
Track 3.4

To the top with Dad

Dad and I made our first ascent of Big Peel together in January 2010. It was a fabulous moment to share on our family mountain, and a great long day out.

About 9 hrs car to car, with most height gain up front, some threatening weather, a couple of keas, and fabulous views from the top.

Photos from Dad's phone, from which he called a few rellies to announce our summitting!