Queenstown lost not only a tourism entrepreneur but a real character when Tonnie Spijkerbosch died on March 23. PHILIP CHANDLER reflects on his incredible life and times
The co-developer of New Zealand’s first campervan park, who died two weeks ago, aged 79, is being hailed for his vision, DIY skills and plumbing art’, his generosity, his smile and quirky sense of humour.
Raised in Holland, Tonnie Spijkerbosch was the third youngest of 13 children.
He qualified as a plumber and gasfitter and ran a successful business.
‘‘His mother used to empty his wallet every night and put the money aside,’’ his wife Erna says.
However, she adds, he wasn’t that comfortable living in Holland — ‘‘it was becoming crowded, even then’’ — and he and his younger brother emigrated to New Zealand in ’67, six weeks before decimal currency was introduced.
Tonnie was working for a plumber in Dunedin when he met Oamaru-raised Erna in his adopted city.
On their first meeting, she struggled to even hear him, she says — ‘‘it was noisy and he had quite an accent at the time and there was rain on the roof’’.
Still, they proceeded to see each other, though Tonnie shifted to work on the Manapouri dam for a time.
After marrying in 1970, they were deciding where to live when they saw a job ad placed by Queenstown plumber Hec Boyd.
About ’72, however, they took an 11-month break in Holland, visiting Tonnie’s family and travelling around.
On returning, they started Spikes Plumbing, which grew to employ 15 staff.
Their children, Anja, Michael and Uan, were also born during this decade.
Erna says while doing work at the old Queenstown motorcamp, Tonnie found those staying in early campervans weren’t getting the facilities they needed.
‘‘It was a whole different market, a whole different demographic.’’
The couple took the plunge by buying an old plant nursery in Robins Road, by Horne Creek, and setting up Queenstown Holiday Park Creeksyde, which the Christchurch Wizard opened in ’88.
They’d already downsized their plumbing business, and Tonnie then sold out totally when the park got too busy for Erna to run alone.
From the start, he contributed amazing plumbing art and other creations, repurposing objects others might see as junk and often going to farm-clearance sales with Erna.
He was influenced by Austrian Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who designed Kawakawa’s famous toilet complex in Northland.
Creeksyde became renowned and awarded for its eco-credentials.
While Erna became president of Holiday Accommodation Parks of NZ and a local councillor, she says Tonnie’s ‘‘happy place’’ was talking to guests and often having them on.
He also got ‘‘twitchy fingers’’, she adds, buying up neighbouring properties to extend their green oasis.
Retired local realtor Simon Hayes, who knew Tonnie well as a fellow very-dedicated Lions Club member, says he had a ‘‘joker’s streak’’.
He once auctioned off a property beside Creeksyde and was surprised when Tonnie stopped bidding and someone else bought it.
The ‘successful’ bidder then told Hayes he needed to get his chequebook, got him in his car and then took him to Creeksyde, where Tonnie revealed the other bidder had been his agent.
Hayes says he so admired how he and Erna came from a plumbing business to become successful in tourism accommodation, when they had no knowledge of it, and then got into environmental initiatives well before they became fashionable.
Tonnie was ‘‘the quirkiest sort of guy, some of the things he designed and built are just one-offs — unbelievable’’.
He also salutes their ‘‘extreme’’ generosity, even extending to a sizeable donation to a Lions Club-initiated Cyclone Gabrielle fundraiser days before he died.
One legacy will be a summer luge at Naseby, beside the ice luge, using Coronet Peak’s former cresta run which Tonnie discovered abandoned in a paddock, and which he, Erna and an Aussie cousin subsequently donated to the Central Otago township.
Uan is amazed how his dad, in his final days, left full instructions for the whole family on tasks to be completed at Creeksyde, and their Dalefield property, amidst frequent laughs with family members.
He enjoyed his helicopter trip home, with Erna and Uan, including the ‘‘quintessential drop from Double Cone’’, before landing.
‘‘He could have had another 10 years and still not got through his storage of items he was going to repurpose and recreate into his art works,’’ Uan says.
‘‘I can say for sure his investment in the community will be felt for years to come, and his memory will live on through not only his family but through his art and creations at Creeksyde, and mum and dad’s charity.’’
And Erna confirms, as per his instructions, Creeksyde will stay in the family as a precious central Queenstown green belt.
A memorial service will be held on April 29 — RSVP to [email protected]
