Cruise prize 'wonderful'

TSS Earnslaw competition winner Janet Smith as she is today. Photo by Guy Williams, from the...
TSS Earnslaw competition winner Janet Smith as she is today. Photo by Guy Williams, from the Courier.
A cherished childhood memory of life with the TSS Earnslaw has won an elderly former resident of the Routeburn Valley the VIP treatment during the vintage steamship's centenary in October.

Janet Smith (86), now of Timaru, was brought up in the Routeburn; the daughter of Neil Cook, who had a sawmilling operation at the head of Lake Wakatipu.

Mrs Smith recounted tales of her father loading timber on the Earnslaw and the significant role the steamer played for her and her family.

Janet Smith as a young girl, with her parents Neil and Lenore Cook and sister Lenore (left), all...
Janet Smith as a young girl, with her parents Neil and Lenore Cook and sister Lenore (left), all waiting for the steamship to take them across Lake Wakatipu towards Invercargill, circa 1929. Photo supplied.
"It was always exciting on boat day, as the mail and papers arrived along with anything that had been ordered from the outside world," she said.

"All our groceries were ordered in bulk and sent up on the Earnslaw, enough for three months at a time."

Mrs Smith won two tickets on the re-enactment of the Earnslaw's maiden passenger voyage from Kingston to Queenstown on October 18, which will be the steamer's official 100th birthday.

"I am so delighted to be able to join this cruise as I was so keen to do it," she said.

"I had already booked on the Glenorchy and Head of the Lake trip, but had to draw straws because I couldn't manage to do both.

"This is wonderful and I will bring a member of my family to share the occasion with me. It's really very exciting."

Real Journeys chief executive Richard Lauder said the stories provided by former lakeside high country station, Glenorchy and Queenstown residents gave an excellent social history of the heritage steamer, and the people whose livelihoods depended on it, after its launch as a freight and passenger boat in 1912.

"We have been delighted with the diverse stories that we have received. It is evident that for so many people, particularly in the first 60 years of her existence, the TSS Earnslaw was a real lifeline.

"The childhood memories in particular provide a great insight into how much she meant to people in the more isolated parts of Lake Wakatipu."

The full story by Mrs Smith is posted on the Earnslaw website.

 

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