More than a flying visit

BY FRITHA TAGG

D'Urville Island in the western Marlborough Sounds is a magnet for Chris Brown. This time round he's returned to fill in as caretaker.

D'Urville Island has an ongoing attraction for Chris Brown. He was a pioneer paua diver there in 1965, and later became so successful he employed 35 staff at his Picton paua and fish processing plant; 12 divers supplied paua. The island acted as the diving base and catch would be flown from the small airstrip there to his Picton factory.

While life is less stressful these days, he's back on d`Urville, having been asked by the Department of Conservation to help get the airstrip up to air transport standard and look after the island's DOC facilities, following the departure of the regular caretakers earlier this month.

To understand the man we wind the clock back to 1965, when Chris Brown, 28, was diving for paua around the top of the South Island coast, going where the weather was best, collecting paua and selling it originally for five pence a pound. That was a time when the shells were more sought after than the meat.

Mr Brown said in that first year there were no other divers in the game.

Several years later he built a paua processing fishery in Picton and had individual divers supplying the plant. He developed a 20-foot Sea Hunter planing-hull launch which had a self-draining cockpit – ideal for divers.

"These boats were safe, they could handle the big sea conditions, they were fast, trailerable and many of the divers supplying me used them.

"We pioneered diving. Covered the coast from Kaikoura round the top and down past d'Urville. We dived where the weather was best."

The price for paua was increasing all the time and more and more paua divers were coming into the business.

Getting the paua back to the processing plant in Picton was a long boat trip so, as Mr Brown had a pilot's licence, he would instead fly to d'Urville, landing on the beach at Greville Harbour, to bring paua back to Picton.

He later approached Fred Leov who was farming on d'Urville – following a family tradition that had spanned generations. Mr Leov gave him permission to put a caravan on land down near the beach. No easy task though. The caravan and a Fergie tractor were taken by punt from French Pass to Kapowhai Bay. Mr Brown then loaded a motorbike in the back of his plane and flew to d'Urville, landing at the rough airstrip at Greville Harbour beach.

He then rode the motorbike the 1 1/2 hours to Kapowhai and using the tractor towed the caravan back to Greville Harbour beach.

"It was all a bit of adventure, really, but it meant I had a bit of a base. We dived around d'Urville and I could fly the paua out. It only took half an hour to Picton. By boat it was hours."

The caravan was only the beginning. Mr Brown then asked Mr Leov if he could build something a bit more substantial – to get the equipment out of the weather. Mr Leov agreed although he did ask why Mr Brown wanted to build right on the water's edge when there was power at the airstrip and it gave him a great view.

Mr Brown said the whole point of building so close to the water was to be able to see the sea conditions, make paua gathering easier and protect the equipment.

In the 1980s Mr Brown's Picton plant was processing 300 tonnes of paua; 100 tonnes of shell was being sold along with crayfish and wet fish. Building on d'Urville was no easy matter in 1980.

Roofing iron, poles and timber framing were all transported on Mr Brown's old Bedford truck to French Pass where it was taken to d'Urville by barge and then driven to the other side of the island to the building site: "I timed it well, when they were barging the fertiliser over to d'Urville [I] just caught a ride over."

Other material for the building was taken on his Sea Hunter boat – driven up on to the beach and once the tide went out he was able to unload.

Mr Brown said a lot of materials and equipment was flown in. He took the seats out of his plane and turned it into a small cargo hold carrying about 400 kilograms at a time.

"I had plenty of help with the building, Colin Norton, who was a Picton builder, came out to help and we had it done in about a month. It was half accommodation with the rest used to store equipment, park the vehicles."

Mr Brown used the bach as an escape from his business and also for holidays, spending several weeks there at Christmas.

"I could be there in a flash. D'Urville was a release from the pressure [of his successful business]. The wife would realise I was gone when she looked in the hangar and the plane was also gone. She knew I was out at d'Urville."

At age 50, Mr Brown decided he had had enough of the high pressure of owning and running Marlborough Seafoods. He had seen the price for paua go from 12c/kg in 1965 to $50/kg green weight in 1996 and he sold the business to Regal Salmon. A couple of years later they closed the Picton plant moving all processing to Nelson.

Today Mr Brown is going back to the island as the fill-in caretaker. "The island has a certain something – I can't seem to stay away."

D'Urville was a release from the pressure [of his successful business]. The wife would realise I was gone when she looked in the hangar and the plane was also gone. She knew I was out at d'Urville - Chris Brown

- The Marlborough Express