Glenn Turner says his brother Brian, who died yesterday, was inspired by nature right up until his death.
The 80-year-old poet and conservationist was the country’s Poet Laureate from 2003 to 2005 and was awarded an OMNZ for his services to literature and the environment.
Younger brother Glenn, a former New Zealand cricket captain, said his mountaineering sibling was a gentle and philosophical person who had conquered many of the country’s peaks.
The pair had just spent three weeks together in Wānaka before Brian’s death. They had visited Glendhu Bay about three days ago, reminiscing while looking across the Matukituki Valley to Mt Aspiring.
“He was really … inspired by it because he’d climbed it,” Glenn said.
“Even in his state of dementia he wanted to talk about it and he remembered it, you know – ‘you went around that side, the left-hand side of it, you know to access a certain point which made it a little bit easier to get to the summit’. He would’ve spent 10 minutes talking about that.”
Brian had bridged the gap between the arts and sport, Glenn said, at a time when doing so was uncommon.
He had played hockey for New Zealand in the 1960s and senior cricket, while his love for the environment had flourished since his move to the small Maniototo town of Oturehua more than two decades ago.
“Although the hills, to a lot of people, look quite bare, he made the point that only the blind couldn’t see that there was a lot more to it than that.”
The three-year age gap between them meant would-be bullies were put off when the pair attended Otago Boys’ High School.
“By then Brian was already in the first cricket XI so I was probably saved from the possibility of that,” Glenn said.
“Obviously we played backyard cricket and out on the street and so on, with a rubbish tin and soft ball … both of us were very competitive and of course it was more challenging for me because of the age difference, and I reckon that was pretty helpful.
“Ever since, he proved to be somebody that I would go back to for advice and chat through issues and debate issues and so on. I was dealing with a very clear thinker and that’s always been great.”
