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 arms. # Look how long it's taken you # to arrive in this town. # Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015 REFLECTIVE ACOUSTIC MUSIC Born and bred in Tapanui; um, can't get this little town out of my blood; uh, keep travelling, but always come back home. Tapanui, to me, just epitomises all the wonderful things that I've had about my life. It's, um, the sense of community; um, the beautiful valley that we live in; my parents are here. I just have a real sense of self. My name is Vicki-Marie Yarker, but most people know me as Vicki Purple. I've had two probably really life-changing profound events in my life, and my first one was when my son got sick. For a whole year, um, he had quite severe epilepsy. Don't need to feed you, do we? No! 'And then when I was 33, I found out that I had grade 7 cancer. 'They basically wrote me off here in NZ and said, you know, 'Go home. You've got six months to live.'' I'll be honest ` I sulked for about a week, felt sorry for myself, and then something inside me said nah. 'So I, um, managed to get some experimental treatment in Australia, and long story short, 'I'm here today.' And when I came out of that, that's when this purple thing started happening. It was just a subconscious 'I wanted everything and anything purple'; started collecting purple clothes, purple cups. Um, I think it gave me a bit of solace. Just absolutely fascinated about the whole Victoriana; um, the manners, the dress, the high teas. You know, just the whole era is just such a beautiful, romantic era. It's sort of quite nice too that I've got, you know, Victoria as a name. (CHUCKLES) But then, you've got the more edgy bit that comes out which feeds into the naughty bit of my nature, which is a steampunk ` where corsets meet cogs, where your imagination runs wild. Hello, hello. Hello. Ooh! You need to be very careful with that. Oh, I will. Um, he's a bit naughty. Shall I carry him in for you? Mad scientists can exist, people who are riding dragons; you know, it's just a fantastical world for your imagination to go nuts. It's an awfully big knife. LAUGHTER It's to feed my dragon. Surrounding yourself with like-minded, interesting people ` I won't call them mad. I think we are slightly bonkers, but, um, we have so much fun, and we do, we let our imaginations go wild. COUNTRY MUSIC I've got many different personas, and I'm very fortunate with the career that I have in nursing that I have a chance to contribute to people's lives every day. Vicki's a chameleon. She's got about 15 different coloured hide on her, and she keeps changing colours all the time. And whatever she does, she makes a good job of it. My parents have been always really good. Any fetish that I've had, they've always accepted. It's like when I was little, 'I want ducks.' So they get me ducks. Guess who'd end up with all the ducks? (CHUCKLES) I've been riding since I was 9, and they were so good. I had another severe accident; I actually broke my neck and my pelvis, and I was told not to ride again. And I said, 'I've found these miniature horses. I think that's a good idea. 'Let's get a miniature horse, cos I can't ride.' So, um, Mum and Dad went all the way up to Christchurch, pick up this little black horse and cart it all the way home. And from there, it absolutely snowballed. Come on. Come on. I was right into it, because I'm like Vicki ` once I get my teeth in, I'll last for... I mightn't last forever but I` when I get started, I really do it. Come on! Mum and Dad have had huge success with their, um, miniature horse stud. Supreme champions. That's it. Come on over here. Here! We worked away and built it up, and slowly but surely, we ended up with 24 horses, and we've bred 71 foals over the years. That's a good horse. Good boy. Easy now. My dad is an amazing man. We were born in the Tapanui College Hospital out here, and my dad was so passionate, and he was so upset the day they said that they were gonna close it down. In the middle of the night, he woke up and said to Mum, 'I know how we can make money for the local hospital or the local medical centre ` we can sell scrap.' So overnight, I think he had probably about 5 tons of scrap sittin' in the front yard, and there's been truck after truck, and the response he's had from the local community's been amazing. Well, it takes a lot of scrap metal to make $100,000 ` I'll tell you that. You've gotta move a lot of steel. But move it we do. And everybody's astounded in Tapanui how much money you make out of scrap when you do it in bulk like I've done, you know? Cos usually, you've gotta pay to get rid of it. REFLECTIVE MUSIC One of the greatest gifts my dad's given me is being grounded, and it's really nice being able to fly and do all the things and let your imagination go wild, but also be grounded. Um, I'm happiest when I'm sitting out on the front veranda having a cup of tea. You've got a... a place in the world that you feel that you come from, and Tapanui is the root of who I am. It's where I've come from, and it gives me that sense of belonging. ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC Well, the name's Charlie Davis. Um, I've lived in this community for 67 years. To me, it's the only place to live, but I've only lived here, you can really say. ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC CONTINUES The club started back in 1958. Being interested in machinery, I went along to this inaugural meeting, and... and next thing, she's all go. There's 40-odd tractors. Oh, we've got a good cross collection. About '83, '84, we built the first part of this building; 1997, we built the next part. Then the ladies in the club said, 'Oh, we'd like a wee bit of a ladies' section'. 'Oh yeah. How much would you like?' They said, 'One bay,' and I said, 'No, that's not enough. 'You tell us what you want, cos this is your only chance.' So anyway, we finished up with two and a half bays for the ladies' section, and if you have a look there, they've got a marvellous collection of old household stuff. And now, blow me down, we're still short of room. FANFARE We had a, uh, tractor, uh, rally coming up, and, uh, we wanted to do something new. What could we do? And I got this bright idea, and I took it to the meeting to see what they'd say and... Well, I wasn't very, sort of, keen on it for a start. I didn't really know what to think. It sounded entertaining. It was going to be entertaining. Well, it sounded a bit far-fetched for a start. But, uh, when he explained, uh, what he'd seen and what he'd heard, uh, we felt that it was a good idea. Just a minute, Gordon. We'll swap ya. Put a short one on. Yes, I went and saw Janet, and, oh, she sort of grinned and, 'Do you think so?' I just thought, 'Oh. Oh my God.' (LAUGHS) 'Where do we`? Where would we start?' Janet made the, uh, dresses and our tops, cos it's supposed to look more feminine, uh, wearing a dress. But then again, you look at me in a dress,... (CHUCKLES) I don't... I don't look very feminine. JANET: Welcome to the West Otago Vintage Club dancing tractors, and we'll start today with the hillbilly rock. COUNTRY MUSIC When you ask, you know, 'Could we make eight tractors dance? You know, how can we do that?' And` But once you sit back and you think about it,... just like any other dancing, you've got to learn a step-by-step system. Turn your partner around, and move in a circle to the left. TRACTORS WHIRR COUNTRY MUSIC CONTINUES When we originally started, our main aim was to see if two tractors could swing tight on wheel to wheel, and once we realised that could happen, it became a lot easier. And return home. As we progressed, we had a bigger tractor and a smaller tractor, and that automatically became male and female. Whoever was on the small tractors automatically had to put a skirt on. But yesterday at practice, we tried a sex swap,... but it didn't work. So very obviously, the drivers have become accustomed to being a male or a female. Can we hold hands, can we? All right. Right-o. LAUGHTER And of course, we've been about now to quite a few places as far north as Palmerston; south, not north. We've been to, uh, Wanaka; been to Omakau; Edendale; been to Gore A&P; been to Balclutha A&P. Our own A&P, of course, the West Otago one we've danced to a number of times. Practice makes perfect. FLUTE VERSION OF 'GREENSLEEVES' CURIOUS MUSIC I was living in, uh, Christchurch, and due to my partner's position at the time, we moved to Invercargill, which, I have to say, I thought was the end of the earth; uh, you could see it from the letterbox. It's now 14 years later, and I feel as though it` it is my home now. We fit in with what goes on down here in the south. I am diabetic; I'm insulin dependent. You know the rules, and if you don't follow the rules, you get crook. It's just as simple as that. I try not to let the diabetes rule my life, um, but I'm conscious of having to get sleep, eat properly, um, inject and do those things. And that's when the love of cooking really started ` when I realised I could no longer eat the things I wanted and had to go on this strict regime. Then I thought, 'Well, I'll make it for other people.' Thank you very much. Have a lovely day. Thank you. I had a friend that was a hairdresser. She was having a bad hair day ` excuse the pun ` and, um, I made her chocolates. I found it in a recipe book which was my grandfather's recipe book without me realising that she was handing them out to her clients, and then I started getting phone calls. My grandfather's recipe was really straightforward because Mum had made it. It's because I thought they were amazing, and so then, as I grew up, I got to make them with Mum. It always surprises people that, um, a diabetic owns a chocolate company. Probably the most negative thing about running a chocolate factory and having the diabetes, I found in the end, was the fact of working in the factory with the chocolate all the time. It would be absorbed through your skin, and, I mean, in the early days, I was doing 12-, 14-hour days, so the whole combination just wasn't really working. From there, I engaged a, um, Belgian chocolatier, believe it or not, living in Riverton, and pulled out of the factory a wee bit. And then we've got a run to do for Seleni, and another run with the rocky road for Gibbston Valley. Be able to handle that, I reckon. You think John? I think so, yeah. (CHUCKLES) I often get asked could I be doing the business anywhere else, and I'd have to say no. And the reason for that is because I have the support of the people of Southland and friends that I've made over time. We want to promote Southland to NZ and the world because I think it's a great place to live. Uh, we've made mutton-bird chocolate, which is actually caramel and salt. We do paua, which is sambuca, liquorice and coconut cream. Cut it open, it looks like a paua. Um, when the Burt Munro movie came, I saw the movie and thought, 'Right. We can make chocolates.' He drank whiskey, he piddled on the lemon tree, so we make, you know, lemon chocolates, and we make whiskey and hokey-pokey, which brings in the Kiwiana. What you need to remember about being down south ` you're so far away from everywhere else, so you've gotta go the extra mile, you've gotta work extra hard, you've gotta be inventive, and that's what the Southland people do, and that's what Burt Munro did. I mean, you still go to E Hayes & Sons and buy your bits and pieces that you probably can't buy anywhere else in the country. And there's all the Burt Munro. COUNTRY MUSIC ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC Yeah, I don't know how he got so much speed out of his bike, because he's got the same motor as what my 600 is in here. He must have known what he was doing. He was a very clever man, Burt Munro. He must have known those bikes inside out. Very clever. ENGINE REVS When I'm riding one of those old bikes, it's like turning the clock back, you know? And I'm back and... and I'm riding along on my old Indiana, and it's like life was easier then. There weren't so many rules to follow, and it was just a nicer time. Yeah, every man needs a man cave. But whether it's just a garage with a car... his favourite car in there and a few favourite tools, to me, that's still a man cave, and every man, whatever he can afford, go for it. Oh, look, I started collecting bikes probably... probably when I was about 25. You know, I bought an old Triumph, and, uh, it was an old 500, and I restored it. Thereon, I'd see another bike I'd like, and I'd buy that one, and I just started my collection from there. These are all my babies. I love my babies. This here is a 650 AJS, and it's a 1959. And I can always remember Dad's share milker had a guy working for him, and he had an AJS. And anyway, I` cos I was only about 10 or 11 or 12 at that stage, and I used to think what a big beautiful bike it was. It was a big black bike, and I` and I really` I loved that bike. They're all 100% runners, and the bikes, when I do them up, they're actually done up better than when they left the showroom floor, say, 1940. This here is a Harley Davidson. This is a, uh, '92 Fat Boy. Um, we bought that back in 1992 brand new, and, uh, Karen and I used to ride it quite a bit back then. ENGINE REVS It's the` That's the one that's` that Arnold Schwarzenegger used on Terminator; same` same model, you know. I just like to ride them, and` and it's like freedom. You're out on a road, and you're just... and you can just cruise in the long straight roads down here, and it's just` just` just a nice feeling, eh? I just like to ride, eh, you know? Always been a biker. ENGINE REVS BLUES MUSIC It's a blast having a shot with the, um... with the guns, dressing up, looking like an idiot and having a good time. Brought up in the country, so, um, out there doing the farming stuff with the old man, and, uh` and, uh` That's me. (CHUCKLES) (CHUCKLES) Oh, he was a puny wee bugger, so we got him into karate to` so he could stick up for himself at school, and, um... but yeah, we had him out hunting when he was about 7 years old, so... Loved hunting ever since I, uh... the old man got me out there. And, uh, first big game animal, we were hunting some goats and came over down on top of them right there with a Ruger 10/22 and... and shot a goat. Then all these goats popped up and kept shootin', kept shootin', and I think I got one, so... (CHUCKLES) Yeah, loved it ever since. It's a religion down here. Bigger than Christmas. Yeah. Big boys' Christmas. When I was about 11, 12, came and did this cowboy shooting, and, uh, done it ever since, and that was, oh, 11 years ago. This is B through the window. This is C through the doorway. Today's event is the Deep South Regional. Uh, we drag in shooters from the Otago-Southland area, and it is an annual event to try to find the best shooter in this Deep South region. I'm Lightning Jack and I'm known from the Paul Hogan movie Lightning Jack. I'm Shady Padre, ex-gunfighter turned priest. I'm BB and, uh, it's a long story, but yeah, we've just cut it down to BB. Uh, I'm Redneck, and I got that name cos I am just a bloody redneck. They call me Tucson; it's the only place I haven't been in a scrap. We think we might look a bit silly, but I've seen people in Lycra doing the rail trail, you know. (LAUGHS) On the buzzer, engage four shotgun targets from the right. GUNSHOTS METAL DINGS GUNSHOTS As that timer goes and you start shooting, the adrenaline starts pumping, rushes to your head, and half the time, you're shooting faster than you're thinking. METAL DINGS We're always, you know, trying to beat each other. Doesn't get me so often now, which is... (CHUCKLES) ideal. You've got your stage organised in your head, but you go through it over and over again just so you know exactly what you're doing ` you're grabbing for that firearm; you know exactly which target you're going for. GUNSHOTS TENSE MUSIC Earlier this year, um, me and my father went over to, um, the United States to, uh, compete at the world champs. Best I've ever shot, actually, and gained eighth place in the world. Cowboy shooting, I've been doing this for a long time now. It's... You know, I... I love the sport; it's a hell of a lot of fun, so if I get sick of it, I'll` I'll give it up, but I can't imagine that happening. Whoo-hoo! The Deep South regional champion... I wonder who that would be? Congratulations, mate. Thank you. APPLAUSE SHEEP BLEAT SPIRITED MUSIC TANIA: I would always have a papillon or two or three. STEPHEN: Or three. (CHUCKLES) Not sure how many,... Or four. ...but, I mean, I couldn't imagine not having a papillon. Was me that thought, 'Oh, why don't we get a dog?' Brought up with cats. Dogs were for working people and not` not for round home. So that's the way I was brought up, but, um, yeah, that opinion changed. Started off as a pet, and someone got us into showing a wee bit, didn't they? Mm-hm. And then next minute, bingo ` we were importing dogs. And we were only having one as a pet. 'That's all we're having, one pet.' End of story. Nothing else. But as someone said, they're like chocolates ` you can't have one. 12, 13 ` we try to sit round there if we can. SPIRITED MUSIC Well, it's the Southland Kennel Association championship shows. This fella here, Yogi, he's going tomorrow, aren't ya? So he's gotta be scrubbed up, ready to go tomorrow. He's doing very well for himself; just starting to mature up now and getting some good results. So he's looking good, and we've got Nemo, haven't we, going along. Mm. Right. There we go. Nemo's just started. He's just a little... He's just turned 6 months, so he's just learning. So he'll go along and, yeah, see how he goes, and hopefully he'll follow in the footsteps of Yogi and be a little show dog. JAZZY MUSIC They're named papillon because it is French for butterfly; um, representative by their head. By the ears is the` the top wing of the butterfly, and their fringe is the bottom wing, and the` the blaze up here represents the body. They're a wee companion dog ` kind natured, lovely wee temperament. 250 dogs you've gotta beat. So, mm, that's a lot, all with the same goal. This is Manchu, a little Pekingese, who's a little nervous this morning. But we've given him some anti-stress. (CHUCKLES) DOG BARKS This is Melody, and she's a springer spaniel. It's called VetRap, and it's on the ears to straighten the hair out. Mickey is 2� years old. Uh, he's a miniature poodle. Yesterday, he took about an hour and a half to bath and blow-dry and comb, and he's taken me about 45 minutes to get him looking this ready for the show. Probably when we were starting out, there was... there was... you'd walk in there, and your heart was going a million miles an hour, and you're... you're thinking, 'Oh, hope I'm doin' this right,' and whereas now, we're sort of... Oh, we're not old hat at it, but we're... we're... we're comfortable with doing it. CURIOUS MUSIC Oh, as soon as he got off the table and there was a wee fit there, I thought, 'Uh-oh.' (LAUGHS) 'Here we go!' (LAUGHS) But that's all good. I was very happy with the way Nemo went. He's got a lot to learn. Yeah, he's only a baby; only his second show. So he'll get there. Hopefully, he'll follow in Yogi's footsteps. You'll learn, eh, Yog? You're there to do your best. You're there to win. It's a` a good, healthy competitiveness. You're trying to do things right. You're hoping the dog's gonna stand right, look at the judge right, not decide to see what's goin' on outside the ring just for a bit of fun at the wrong time. (CLAPS) Yay! He got his age in group. Well done. Thank you. Yep. Happy with that. And it's the old saying ` you still go home with the best dog. REFLECTIVE MUSIC REFLECTIVE MUSIC CONTINUES The epitaph I came up with myself, and I think it's pretty apt for this sort of a guy. More colourful than a bag of jellybeans. He was a character of, um, eccentric taste. Normal men's clothing was a little too tight. He preferred to wear a, uh... a frock or a dress. But I had a lot of laughs with the guy. He was great. When you build things like this in glass, you have to be very confident that they're gonna handle the weather. The kids have left home, so these become the kids, and you have to, uh, live with them for a little while before you wanna release them. Uh, 'Are you happy with the final product? Could you add to this? 'Could you take something away from this?' REFLECTIVE MUSIC CONTINUES Don't you just love the way they swim when you open the gate? This piece is called 'Five Fish Fending Off Foe', and I made it to, uh, keep the bloody Mormons out. CURIOUS MUSIC I'm very fortunate that, uh, being in a small town, there's a bunch of guys and whatever, uh, that take out, uh, existing windows, and, uh, rather than paying the dump fee, of course, they come round and they dump it at Phil's and, um, I'm quite appreciative of this. So I can then carve it up and cut it and stack it to build things that I want to. I'm the fourth of five. Maybe that's probably an inkling why, uh, I do what I do. Um, by the time I got the Meccano set, there was bugger all nuts and bolts left, so you had to improvise with matches and string and stuff. So I think you` you` you` you sort of create` well, I did, created my own world. I'm doing the same now; I'm pleasing myself with what I make. I get a lot of enjoyment out of what I make, so, uh, I'm sometimes happy with the fact that people buy it as well. So that's a bonus. I've made my own kilns; I've wired my own elements. Uh, I learnt all that through the library rather than, um, through, uh, YouTube. It wasn't around when I started, uh, baking glass. Yeah, I think it, uh... it works for me. Hell, I'm in heaven in some ways. Of course, this tonnage of, uh, glass colour gets dumped NZ-wide every year, and, of course, it's imported. And, uh, here I am at being at the end of the line or the end of the country. Um, I kind of like the idea of, um, tweaking it and making it into highbrow and shippin' it back again. I do find human heads... interesting that... on the side profile, not so much full-on frontal. This is the, um... a series called The, uh, Worriers. You know, they're worried about the economy; they're worried about, uh, the petrol prices, electricity prices; they're worried about their job, um, insecurities; uh, all sorts of things. I'd be lying to myself if I, you know, just made these, uh, happy heads and, uh, like everything's fine and, uh, 'Don't worry about the rest of the world.' What, uh, would I do? Glass belly dancers or swans with bloody coloured water in them? I mean, uh, it's not me. Well, I'm two-thirds across the lake in my life now I've been with this puppy, so why turn around and row back? Um, I'll just keep on going with it. And I think that's, uh, one of the beauties about, um, creativity, uh, and choosing this path, is that, you know, you don't retire at 65 and get a jet ski and go, 'Brrrm, brrrm.' Um, you just continue to follow it on cos you keep evolving, uh, and things around you, uh, make change as well. 1 LIVELY MUSIC Dancing's really important in our school. The children, as you can see, love dancing. Just sort of shows, I guess, the work that Rachel's done and that passion for dance and how it's flowed through. A lot of the children recognise me when, um, you know, I'm down the street. I'm just known as the dance teacher. (CHUCKLES) On to the dance floor. Ready to start with your Samba. I do a lot of voluntary stuff in the community with dancing. Uh, when I go into the schools and teach, it's all voluntary. Hey, make sure we keep our circle nice and spread out! DANCE MUSIC PLAYS Keep the circle spread out so you're not too close to your friends when you're dancing. I was born in Gore, and I grew up in Christchurch. I moved back to Gore about 22 years ago; uh, my family's here. Now I have my own children, and it's an awesome place to bring the girls up. There's lots of opportunities here. When I got here, there was, uh, no dance school here, so I took the big jump and started my studio. Uh, I started dancing when I was 4, and that was, um, doing ballet. And then, uh, when I was about 7, I discovered that I wasn't really gonna be the ballerina that I'd... all little girls dream of. OK, we're gonna start with our waltz, so find a space, and I'll turn some music on. One, two, three. Nice. I saw a social ballroom dancing advertised, and so my mum and dad took me along to that, and that's where I thought, 'This is actually pretty cool.' Arms up. My oldest daughter, Mikayla, she was at the studio right from when she was a baby. She had a bassinet at the studio and, um, a little jolly jumper that she was put in the doorway. So she's grown up with, um, the music. Push into the ground. Oh, our favourite style is Latin. Yeah, definitely. It's the... the fastest style and the style that... Party! (CHUCKLES) It's just got more... ...rhythm to it. Yeah and it's easier to dance to the music in Latin. Uh, my oldest, Jackson, he got into dancing when he was 8. Didn't want him to be the only one left on the seats at the school social. (LAUGHS) Wanted him to be the chosen one, you know, on the floor. Macy was 5 when he started, and he's now 8. He arrived in, um, his rugby jersey and, um, shorts and muddy legs from, um, playing rugby, and I said, 'Come out on the dance floor and have a go,' and he did, and he's, um... he's got all the moves. He's, um, yeah, quite... quite a cheeky wee dancer. He's got his little partner, Bonnie, who, um, looks after him. (CHUCKLES) CLASSICAL MUSIC Yeah, she's good at dancing, and she's got a lot of, um, cool moves and... (CHUCKLES) It's so much fun. After you learn a new step, you can't stop doing it. The turns in the Boston Two are a bit tricky. They're not tricky. You just keep on forgetting them. (CHUCKLES) They're gorgeous. Very out there, great little personalities and just loving their dancing. DANCE MUSIC PLAYS I don't know how many pupils I would have had over the years, but I'm sure I've, um, touched quite a few families with teaching either themselves or their children to dance. Yeah, everything's fun, and, like, you get to go to different places around NZ. Yeah, we got four national titles at one comp last year. We got another two at the nationals this year. Happiness to me is seeing smiles on children's faces when they have succeeded with their dancing, when they've conquered something that they didn't think was possible. LIVELY UKULELE MUSIC Well, I'm from England originally, over in Portishead, near Somerset, and I moved over here eight years ago. You can go hunting, you can have pigs and chickens and sheep, and there's not as much restriction as there is over in England. Me and my best friend Colleen came travelling from England. Uh, we were only supposed to be here for six months, and we looked for a motorbike rally, cos I was into motorbikes, and there happened to be one in Gore called the Mates Motorcycle Club, so we came down, and that week turned into eight years. Uh, we met at the bike rally and became friends, and then we just went from there. Drunk together and yeah. (INHALES) One thing lead to another, I s'pose, and yeah. Well, we bought, uh, 11 acres four year ago up here and the house, and our intentions were to have 15 sheep and a couple of pigs and stuff like that. But after a year, we ended up with 100 acres; we leased another 90 acres and 200 ewes and 15 pigs. I love it up here. Wouldn't change it for the world. 30. 30 years difference. Somethin' like that. Yeah, age is nothin'. It's just... just a number. So as long as you've got the same things in common and you're best friends, then why not? Always been into motorbikes. Got my first motorbike when I was 10. I've had one ever since then. It was quite funny down at the Speedway track first when we fronted up there. And here's this old codger getting out of a truck, and they were coming up to me and, 'Oh, what's the story? 'Is that your daughter or what?' And I said, 'Does it sound like my daughter?' (CHUCKLES) 'She's a pom!' Yeah, they carried on for a couple` well, about a year and a half. They didn't know. We didn't ever really tell them, did we? (CHUCKLES) Nah, we never told 'em. But now they've clicked on. ENGINE REVS HIGH-PITCHED REVVING I enjoy the adrenaline buzz and the rush that I get from Speedway. BIKE ENGINES REV As we take off and go around the corners, I go from sitting like you would do on a normal bike to lying on the side. Sometimes your bum touches the ground, sometimes it doesn't; depends if you need it to. Yeah, you just hang off the side of a motorbike, really. You've gotta be... Oh, have a bit of a screw loose, I s'pose. (CHUCKLES) As a swinger, my life's in his hands and I wouldn't... I wouldn't trust anyone else, to be perfectly honest. He's a bloody good rider. There's been a few times when we could've had, uh, real big crashes, and he's managed to swerve and get out the way, and I've been thankful for that. So definitely, I would never hesitate about going on the back of him again. She does such a good job. Just hope she hasn't fallen off when you get to the next corner. (CHUCKLES) That's happened before. I'd fallen off, and he hadn't realised it, and I'm, like, 'Hi! Help!' He had to stop. (CHUCKLES) Yeah, this year, I've managed to get myself, um, a female swinger as well; Tracy. And so we're the only NZ girl team at the moment, and we're just gonna to go out there, have good fun. It's a dangerous sport. You could die, but I don't think about that. Nah. At least you're dyin' doing what you enjoy. Yeah, well, that's it; must've been pretty bloody good. Yep. Better that than falling asleep and not waking up. (CHUCKLES) Yeah, that's it. (CHUCKLES) ROCK MUSIC Feels more aggressive, actually, being on the handlebars now. I'm in control of how fast we go. I just wanna go out there and beat some boys. ENGINES REV She picked it up reasonably easy, and on the practices she's had good speed up. She seems to be able to ride anywhere in the track, which it takes a bit of doing; you know, you ride wide, close, tight. It'll be OK, as long as she doesn't beat me. (CHUCKLES) Then the mechanic-ing will stop. (CHUCKLES) Wish we'd started Speedway a lot younger. A lot... A few more years ago, and I wish I was his age or he was my age so we could do it longer together. (CHUCKLES) But that's not his fault really. Yeah. Nah, we've got no faults. Nope. We're perfect. REFLECTIVE MUSIC 1 ACOUSTIC MUSIC I was born in Gore, and I've come back to my hometown. There is never too much green grass after eight years living in London. That was the thing that actually, um, made me decide it was time to come home. I opened the window one day, and I thought, 'I need to see grass.' Came back down to the south, and, um, I loved it. I really enjoy coming back to the community that exists here, the people, the beauty. I'm a charted accountant by profession, so I work in that field of finance and have done for a long time. But as an individual, as a person, I'm a pretty free spirit. Hey. Hi, Katrina. How's things? Good. Have you got my guitar? Guitar all done. Yep. Oh, perfect. Um, growing up in Gore was fabulous. Hi, everyone. The first song Jackie and I would like to sing to you is called, Evening Bells Are Ringing. BAND PLAYS THE CARTER FAMILY'S 'EVENING BELLS ARE RINGING' BOTH: # Moonlight shining # over Dixie... Mum and Dad were, um, incredibly supportive, and they drove us all over the countryside, when we were doing, um, performances and concerts. BOTH: # Across the hills # so tenderly... # The Gore Gold Guitars is, um, a tradition in NZ, and it's the biggest country music award that NZ hosts, and it's here in Gore. We were the Bristow Sisters. We got recognised on several different categories, and the most important one to me was probably in our second year, when we won the best local duo, which was very exciting. So we were kind of a little bit famous in our own way. APPLAUSE ACOUSTIC MUSIC Oh, tonight I am releasing my album Home. # It's a simple life, # a simple cry. # We found love out of nowhere. # We were... # I'm releasing it at the little theatre, which is one of my, um, all-time favourite spots. Fabulous old building. It was the Gore High School. Actually, my grandmothers on both sides came to school here, so there's a lot of history in the walls. Pru and I, uh, taught Katrina at St Peters College. I can't remember the years, but it was back a day or two ago, and you can imagine Katrina all singing, dancing, acting; the whole package. So... (CLAPS) boom! We were here, just like that. APPLAUSE Thank you. My album is a little bit of a insight into where I was when I wrote the songs. Some of them are a little bit telling. (CHUCKLES) # Days go by, # time does fly. # We felt young, oh, # so free at home. # I can make it on my own at home.... Home was a song that... I was living in Zimbabwe. Everything about the two countries was polar opposite, and so I started to pen that song. I actually, at the time, didn't realise that I was writing my next chapter of my life. I was coming home. # Don't wake me, I'm glad to be at home. ACCORDION PLAYS # At home. # MUSIC FINISHES Yay. (LAUGHS) Thank you! APPLAUSE ACOUSTIC MUSIC I've met someone really special, and he's a local guy, and there's something so familiar about somebody from your own home area and understanding, uh, a moral connection. I think that's happiness for me ` where I am right now. (CHUCKLES) REFLECTIVE MUSIC I grew up on a sheep farm, and that was why I sort of fell in love with a sailor, was to get away from sheep farming. But it didn't quite work out like that. (CHUCKLES) We enjoyed sheep farming. It was a good life. We appeared to be doing it reasonably well, but I didn't really want to do it for another 40 years. Maeva's uncle used to use this paddock, as you see it now, as an airfield as early as 1921. The airfield itself is one of the older airfields in the country. PROPELLER WHIRRS We had two orders. Yes, that's correct. We had two orders for Tiger Moths. Yep. A lot of these aircraft had been top dressing and abandoned or languished in the back of a hangar wherever it might have been. So even though we bought quite a lot of them, that didn't cost then a lot of money. PLANE WHIRRS CURIOUS MUSIC We found in more recent times that the aircraft that we're restoring is of a` a more unusual or... very unique kind of aeroplane, rather than the Tiger Moth ` of the Tiger Moth as it was in the beginning. We tried really hard to make it as original as you possibly can. Every part of the structure is absolutely made to what the manufacturer called for originally. He's a perfectionist. And that... That's the... You are. You're a perfectionist who likes a challenge, therefore, this is what this gives Colin ` the opportunity to... it's a challenge to recreate each one and to get it right is where the perfectionist comes in. REFLECTIVE MUSIC Well, we've always talked about it as a three-legged stool; the workshop, the cafe and the museum, and each one needs the other, and each one supports the other, and that's the way we try to make it work, isn't it? I hate to see part of history disappear. Now, this little country is very young, but it still has an awful lot of history and` and it's something that's so easily destroyed. PROPELLER WHIRRS I was very young when I was flown in an aeroplane,... uh, for the very first time, and that's something that I'll never forget. And of course, that experience is the reason for driving what we're doing along. And I just get as big a thrill that I've seen the younger ones take the old aeroplanes away now, really. It's rather nice when you get these young people coming on, and they're experiencing what, you know, someone did do, uh, a long time ago, or it seems an awful long time ago. ENGINE WHIRRS When you see one on a test flight, it's quite a lovely thing to experience, because there is a little bit of us all in that aeroplane and remains in that aeroplane. Malcolm, our... our only son, he had the freedom to do whatever he wished and did do for a number of years, but then decided that maybe he would like to be part of what we're doing. And that's been something that's been really really very nice, cos Maeva and I have always worked together, right from the time we were married farming and all of this kind of thing. Five complete. We` We get on fine, but we talk frankly to one another every now and then and get over it and come home. (CHUCKLES) Is that a nice way to put it? Well, of course. I guess. It has its moments, but doesn't everything? I've always seen Maeva as another extension of one's body. It's just about another, like` that's awful, I suppose, but like another limb. I would be lost without many, many aspects of what she's contributed, and I don't believe we would have accomplished singularly what we've done together, really. I tell Rachel, 'Oh, it's too hard. Oh, it's too hard,' and then, like,... But really, it's not, eh? ...two weeks later, and then I'm really good at it. People make up characters for themselves, and my particular character is called Baroness Violet Von Vixen from the House Of Purple, and she is actually a, uh, mistress of the Dragon Rider's Guild. Oh yeah. I guess there'd be more people down here with Harley, Holden or Ford tattooed on their foreskin or arse than anywhere else in the country, but, um, you gotta love them for it.