Recalling the weird and left-field stories of Southland
From Prince's supposed Invercargill fling to the elusive 'mystery pooper' - remembering some of the weird and left-field stories of Southland.
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It’s often politics, financial ups and downs, business, crime, etc that dominate headlines.
Although sometimes it’s the weird and left-field that captures the most attention. Southland has had its fair share of examples of that.
Logan Savory revisits five of those stories from the past decade or so.
Teeth discovery…
It’s amazing what stories of the past can be unearthed during demolition and construction.
That was the case in Invercargill when demolition on a Dee St site in Invercargill made way for The Langlands Hotel build.
In May 2019 more than 1000 human teeth were found at the site. Work was halted for several hours while an archaeologist work through the discovery.
After some research it was discovered the Dee St site, where the teeth were found, was once home to dental practices from 1881 to 1905.
The story took off after The Southland Times ran an article with ILT CEO Chris Ramsay’s phone lighting up from media globally.
Prince’s supposed Invercargill fling…
Invercargill was thrust into the international headlines in 2016 when an Invercargill woman claimed her son's father was the late American musician, Prince.
“I've been sitting on this for 40 years. It's time to put my money where my mouth is,” Caren McCormack told The Southland Times at the time.
She said she met Prince in Invercargill in 1976 – when she was 16 and he was 17.
At that time, Prince was at the very beginning of his music career in Minneapolis and McCormack declined to elaborate why Prince would have been in Invercargill at that time.
McCormack said at the time she was surprised by the public interest in the claim, which followed a letter that was made public in the Carver County District Court in Minnesota.
However, DNA testing confirmed Prince did not have a son living in Invercargill.
The ‘mystery pooper’…
In March 2015 then Invercargill City Council aquatic services manager Pete Thompson revealed at council a meeting that they had a ‘mystery pooper’ problem at Splash Palace.
The Southland Times’ reporter at the meeting picked up on that before the weird story went nationally. In fact, it grabbed international headlines.
The "mystery pooper" had pooed in Invercargill's Splash Palace swimming pool five Friday evenings in a row at about the same time.
Thompson said the culprit's acts had cost the pool "tens of thousands of dollars" in lost revenue.
The pool was closed for cleaning for about six hours each time faecal matter was found in the water.
After that original story on the "mystery pooper" then struck for a sixth straight Friday night without being caught.
A decade on the mystery of who was pooing in Invercargill's Splash Palace Aquatic Centre, and what compelled them remains unknown.
The mayoral fitness duel…
In 2019 then Invercargill Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt’s strained relationship with his deputy mayor Nobby Clark took a bizarre turn.
Shadbolt’s performance as Invercargill’s mayor had been put under the spotlight with his health at the time questioned.
Shadbolt disputed that and to help prove his health he challenged his council colleagues to a fitness duel.
Clark accepted. Clark showed up at the Surrey Park athletics track in Lycra for a photo shoot with The Southland Times when he revealed his suggestion for a challenge with Shadbolt.
At the time Clark was 69, while Shadbolt was 74.
Clark suggested a one-lap run around the Surrey Park athletics track, a bike ride through Queens Park and two lengths swim at the Splash Palace.
In an email response to Clark, Shadbolt said: “Would a decathlon not be more fitting to showcase the city? Add on a few rounds of boxing at the Stadium, a few hoops of Bball centrecourt, throw in a bit of long jump at the Athletics Stadium, some batting on the new softball diamonds at Surrey Park, and some rowing on the Oreti River. Maybe leave out the javelin though - it could turn a bit nasty.”
“I'm reliably told that ‘old people’ undertaking a test of physical endurance against each other isn't a stunning display of physicality and could possibly do more reputational damage to the city than the Thomson report.”
The Thomson report was an independent review of the council.
The fitness duel never ended up happening.
The talkback caller…
Back in the days of Cue TV the Invercargill City Council had a talkback show where people would ring in, and quiz elected members on various matters.
Nothing unusual there.
One night a caller called “Ruby” rang in, a mother of two whose husband had been made redundant from the Tiwai Point aluminum smelter.
During a call that lasted close to 10 minutes “Ruby” quizzed Mayor Tim Shadbolt on the talkback show about the community benefits of a then-planned Auckland to Bluff yacht race and who would pay for the race expenses, including the infrastructure needed to moor up to 30 super and maxi yachts at Bluff.
Shadbolt, however, was “very suspicious”.
He recognised something wasn’t right and responded to the person by the name Ali, who corrected him saying it was “Ruby”.
But Shadbolt was correct. It was a leader from a fellow Southland council on the phone.
The caller was then Environment Southland chairperson Ali Timms posing as struggling mother of two Ruby.
Timms eventually fessed up to the hoax call when confronted by The Southland Times the next day, but she said it was done as a practical joke.
She then took a leave of absence from her role before then staying on despite some councillors calling for Timms to resign.
I love these gems. For some reason Southland seems to always get these classic stories coming through. If there were no publications left in Southland, these types of cracking yarns wouldn't be told.
Some great memories. Thank goodness the yacht race debacle never went ahead. Was more about the attitude of the day trying to keep up. Remember the international airport. They said we just have to build it and the airlines will come.
The best ever radio in Southland was when John Husband did his talkback show. He was quite irreverent and had no problem saying things how they were. Or in his opinion how they were.