Leoni on her experience in the Marlborough Sounds

This week on In My Day, we remembered when Fiordland National Park was established 122 years ago on February 23, 1904, and the deaths of 49 people at a prisoner of war camp in Featherston 83 years ago on February 25, 1943.

Caller Leoni spoke to Roman about a school trip to the Marlborough Sounds, and early memories of the Japanese prisoners of war marching past her home in Featherston. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk ZB Follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
If you're cruising through Featherston and you go out of
Featherston War Upstate Highway too, and you've left town, it's
only about a kilometer at the most. On the right
hand side, heading north the remnants of the prisoner of
war camp. It was on the twenty fifth February back
in nineteen forty three when forty nine people were killed
in that prison of war camp. An absolute tragedy. Of course.

(00:40):
The camp opened in forty two, built to hold eight
hundred Japanese prisoners of war. And yeah, there's a lot
of reading to be done on that. There's a play
that I saw years ago when I was a teenager
at Downstage Theater in Wellington called Shurikene, named after that
throwing star Japanese Martial Arts, a very evocative play about

(01:01):
the prisoners of war at that Japanese prison of war
prison camp in Featherston. Your connections to that. Welcome to you, Leo.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yes, welcome Brohan. I've got two things to talk about.
The first one, I did a school trip when I
was at Harry Tonga College and we went to Marlborough
Sounds for a week and we traveled down on the
Tamaheney and we had a wonderful week in the sounds,
walking up and down the hills, and we did launch

(01:32):
trips up with sounds and it was such a memorable time.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Now, was that with a particular Did you say it
was a school group or something?

Speaker 3 (01:39):
There was a school trip from Harry Tonga College. It's
quite brave, isn't It was a school one. I think
there was about thirty of us went on the trip
and we met the Tamaheney, took us in to pict them,
and then we went on the lynch the Wrongo, which
took us up to Curious Cove.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Oh nice, and we.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Tramped up the hills, down the hills and did all
sorts of things, and it was a wonderful, wonderful week.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Had you been at that point a bit outdoorsy yourself
or was that quite news?

Speaker 3 (02:11):
You're not an outdoorsy person, but my parents thought it'd
be a great time to send me to something like that.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Wow. And can you remember how many parents went along
with the teachers in those days? Did the parents start?

Speaker 3 (02:23):
I think there was only about three teachers.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Wow, how many kids thirty? As, of course they wouldn't
do that these days they're be on the gins and
tonic with the stress, wouldn't they.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
No, we had a wonderful week, very friendly, very It
was lovely, absolutely wonderful.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Did you get up into any naughty stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
They've put sheets, white sheets over the heads and chases
around the place. It was pitch black.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Oh, it was so funny, So you weren't scared.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
We were a little bit, but I thought that was
all part of the fun.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yes, it's always fun and talk. Someone runs into one
of the guy ropes off a tent and then.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Fell over a far hydrang did you they were all
very high stand up fire hydrant because in the dark
you can't see them.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Why was there a fire hydrant in the bush?

Speaker 3 (03:15):
It was outside the camp? Oh, okay, we had the camp.
It was in like a little closed valley and the
hills were all around us. Yes, it was a lovely,
lovely place.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Ah. And did you ever did that inspire you to
want to do anything else like that?

Speaker 3 (03:32):
No? No, it was just a wonderful memory.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, Oh that's good, lovely lord.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Well, my other memory, I was about three years old
and I was in Transon and I could hear this
clunk clunk coming up the road and I said to
my parents, something's going on, said down to the gate.
And it was the Japanese prisoners of war were changed

(03:57):
round their ankles walking past our place to go over
the hill to Featherston.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
What the heck?

Speaker 3 (04:06):
It was something I was only about three years old,
but I can still remember it. It's just hearing that
clank coming up the gravel road which was main road
which is now our Ferguson Drive, which was the main
road through to the y wrapper.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
It certainly was. Yeah, so you've got this memory of
the prisoners marching past your place.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yes, I have.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
What do you remember thinking about that? At the time.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
It was, I was saying, yeah, I was okay, I
was only three. I'm one in my eighties now, but
I was just thinking, what's going on? You know, I'll
never forget. And I can still hear that clock clock
of the chains, and that was them when they were
chained around their ankles.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
I hadn't even thought about that. I just thought about
them walking marching, being guarded by guards with rifles and things.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
But I can remember the guards, but I can't remember rifles,
but it was the chain that held me in my memory.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, and you were three.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
I was about three years old.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Do you remember what you were told by your parents?
We're not really well.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
I can't actually remember, you know, because I'm so young.
But I grew up in the warriors, been living in
transform We had this, you know, coming and goings all
the time with the soldiers and that. But that was
that particular incident. I've never never forgotten.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
No, I bet you wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah. Wow.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
And the third thing to tell you Russell Terrace and
Edinburgh Terrace is off Russell Terrace.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Okay, it doesn't help me.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Is that near the zoo, near the zoo and it's
by Newtown Park.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, gotcha.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Going the road around up to Mansfield Street to the Zoo,
you swept up Russell Terraceville and at the top of
the hill was Edinburgh Terrace.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Oh it's further around than I thought it was. Oh
that's love. What a great story you've told me. Only
thank you.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
It was a pleasure to do it for you.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Ah that's what they've all said over the years, But
thank you. It was. Oh that's a tremendous story. I
can just visualize you painted that picture so well. Imagine
seeing that at the age of three. What a long
way to be marched from the Hut Valley from Wellington
through to Trent Them up and over the Rematucka Hill,
Well there's a lot before we get there. There's the

(06:27):
Kaytakie Hill, up and over, up and over, up and
up and up and up you go Rematucka down to Featherston.
You'd be stopping for no ice creams there, straight through
to the military camp, the prisoner of War camp. Good
on you, the only that was tremendous.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
For more from News Talks at b listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio