The now 66-year-old Pukehiki resident has worked at the historic castle on the Otago Peninsula since 1978, initially restoring furniture in the evening and at the weekends and then, after 10 months, becoming a full-time employee.
His first major job for castle owners Barry and Margaret Barker was to restore 108 ballroom chairs, stripping, re-staining and polishing the woodwork. But his work involved much more than that.
"We had to improvise, make do with what we had. And we did everything," Mr Murray said.
He had a great ability to come up with ingenious solutions, an example being to design and create the much-photographed laburnum arch opposite the castle’s front entrance.
By way of contrast, he figured out how to adapt a couple of trolleys with hydraulic jacks so fridges could be moved easily from the ballroom cafe when the room was needed for an evening function. As maintenance manager, Mr Murray developed carpentry skills which extended to helping rip apart and re-build the derelict first floor of the old stables building to create guest accommodation. He also built about 30 bunks for the new facility.
At one stage, he taught himself tiling so he could restore the Tower Room floor, the design of which featured a 16-point star. The project took him the best part of a year, "working on and off".
Probably his most unforgettable experience at the castle was when he had to empty the original septic tank William Larnach had installed as part of a methane plant behind the castle. To drain the tank, Mr Murray had to open a steel door but, unfortunately, it jammed and the pressure behind it blew out the contents, "sending them flying about 30ft into the air" and raining down on him.
"Thank goodness I was wearing a heavy-duty parka. I certainly needed a good shower," Mr Murray said.
His most exciting experience was "setting the castle on fire".
Working with a pyrotechnics team during a Ray Bradbury Theatre film shoot, he had to climb out on the roof to put the fireworks in place. When they were set off, it made the castle look like it was on fire.
"It was spectacular," he said.
He also recalled having to use a four-wheel-drive vehicle to carry guests and staff between the Camp Estate and the castle during a snowstorm. Mr Murray was unsure whether the castle had a ghost, but he recalled a couple of strange experiences.
One night when climbing through a window from the master bedroom to gain access to the water tanks, he had the sensation a hand was touching the back of his head.
"I don’t scare easily but it was a weird feeling."
And about 7.45 one morning, he saw a bearded man in 19th-century style clothing, on the other side of a door in a glass area between the ballroom and the rest of the castle.
"But when I opened the door, there was nobody there."
After 40 years at the castle, Mr Murray still enjoys his job and thinks he will be doing it "for a few more years yet".
- Kay Sinclair
