Legendary piper remembered

BY SUE FEA IN QUEENSTOWN

Queenstown piping legend Hec Boyd grew up on the banks of the Kawarau River at Frankton, back long before the days of political correctness, band aids and red tape.

The huge warning sign beneath the Kawarau River bridge just upstream from his boyhood home that reads: "Extreme Danger, No Swimmers, No Kayakers" wasn't there in those days.

Family legend has it that he and his late brother, Gordon once plugged up some of their apiarist father's bee boxes and rode the rapids beneath that bridge. No life jackets then, either.

Mr Boyd, who died in Lakes District Hospital on January 16 after a short illness, was the fifth out of eight children born to Scottish couple, Duncan and Mary (May) Boyd, of Kawarau Falls farm.

It was here he learned his down-to-earth, practical no nonsense approach to life, his thorough attention to detail and his passion of all things Scottish was born.

Duncan Boyd was renowned for his pipe playing around the district, but it wasn't until Hector went to Dunedin to do his plumbing apprenticeship in 1945 that he learnt to play. It was in the blood. Mr Boyd soon became a very accomplished piper, playing solo in competitions around the southern South Island and joining the Burns Band in Dunedin.

He competed very successfully during his heyday of the 1960s and 70s.

He ran a successful plumbing and drainage business in Queenstown for 40 years.

Hec's life was tied up with pipes – water pipes, drain pipes and bagpipes, his family says.

He played his father's set of pipes for almost 60 years, only hanging them up a year or two ago to become drum major in the Queenstown Southern Lakes and Districts Highland Pipe Band, due to his lungs and arthritis in his hands.

The full Queenstown band turned out to pipe Mr Boyd's coffin and lead a procession of about 450 mourners from St Margaret's Community Church in Frankton to the nearby Frankton Cemetery on January 22. It was an emotional and fitting tribute for a man who has given so generously and freely of his time to lead 52 Queenstown Anzac Day parades in Queenstown, missing only two because of illness, as well as dozens of festival opening parades, community celebrations, weddings and funerals.

Anywhere and at any time and often just for "a wee dram", Mr Boyd would happily pump up the pipes adding colour and flair to any occasion.

And sometimes no occasion was needed. His daughter Judith Ashton recalls waking at 2am only to see her father playing the pipes and marching the footpath outside, while a passing drunk danced on their front lawn.

Mr Boyd was also renowned for his authentic addressing of the haggis ceremonies, which he performed with powerful individuality and flair at Scottish celebrations around the district.

He formed the first Queenstown Pipe Band in 1951, and after it went into recess in 1957 due to a lack of members, Mr Boyd, disappointed at this lack of enthusiasm for all things Scottish, advertised to tutor learners in 1962, but nobody responded. Moves to wind the band up were defeated due to Mr Boyd's tenacity and the strong social aspect of the band, then in 1970 the Queenstown Scottish Society was formed.

By 1986 the new Queenstown Scottish Society Pipe Band was formed, teaming up with the Alexandra Pipe Band in 1990 and with Mr Boyd as president it was renamed the Queenstown and Southern Lakes Highland Pipe Band.

Pipe major of the band for almost 30 years, a committee member and president for most of its years, Mr Boyd was made a life member in 2005. He was presented with a miniature set of pipes made from timber taken from his family's original Kawarau Falls farm Boyd homestead at Frankton. This was in recognition of his outstanding service to the pipe band and Scottish tradition in the Wakatipu.

He was also Chieftain of the Queenstown Scottish Society and his rural Arthurs Point property, `Slitrig' was always the venue for annual Scottish Society picnics.

Mr Boyd was a true `Southern Man' of a past generation – a practical DIY guy, a skill obviously passed down to his three sons, Alasdair, Stephen and Murray, like their father, all skilled tradesmen.

The three sons, two tradesmen son-in-laws and a grandson all got together a few days before his funeral and decided to build him a coffin solely from materials found on his beloved `Slitrig' farm, where he worked every day until just weeks before his death.

"We thought there's no way `H' would want to be buried in one of those shiny varnished things with brassy handles so we made him something," said son, Murray, a cabinet maker from Australia's Gold Coast.

So the timber was milled from larch trees on the Slitrig forestry block, an old sheet of corrugated iron was pressed for the corner braces and even recycled nails were used with `Slitrig' blowtorched along the sides.

Mr Boyd's red 1963 Ford Falcon station wagon was iconic around Queenstown for many years, always parked in Man St where his Queenstown Service Company workshop was based. The workshop building was demolished to build the Sofitel Hotel complex in the mid-1990s.

In his younger days he enjoyed rugby, golf, pool and deerstalking, his best trophy hanging in his home. He even earned his private pilot's licence at the Wakatipu Aero Club and was made a life member of the Queenstown Jaycees in 1967.

Mr Boyd was also renowned for his thoroughly considered and researched plans to improve Queenstown's traffic woes and resolve the town's serious flooding problems.

He had lived through many Queenstown floods and his practical solutions made sense and had merit. Less than a year ago Mr Boyd's plans for a proposed "Shoreline Highway" to divert traffic from Frankton Rd along the Queenstown waterfront on to a new Coronation Drive arterial route were reported by The Southland Times. He had artists' drawings prepared for his proposal, which he said at the time would be needed within 10 years.

In typical Hector Boyd style, he said back then, it was time for the Queenstown Lakes District Council and Land Transport New Zealand to "stop haemorrhaging money on endless studies by various consultants", all of whom had conflicting views, and get on with the job.

Hector Boyd was a true Queenstown icon, a man of great character and with him a large chunk of the town's early history has gone.

Mr Boyd (82) is survived by his six children, Judith, Alasdair, Stephen, Murray, Elaine and Wendy, 12 grandchildren, one great-grand-daughter and his four step-children, eight step-grandchildren and 12 step-great-grandchildren.

- © Fairfax NZ News