Te Anau identity to finally be farewelled
Fiordland identity Fred Inder died nearly three months ago, on the first day of lockdown, and finally his family can give him a proper farewell.
A memorial service will be held for the 90-year-old former Te Anau harbour master on June 27.
Funerals were banned during lockdown so Inder was cremated and his funeral service put on hold.
It had been tough, his son Garry said. ‘‘We haven’t had the family grieving, we haven’t ripped the top off a gin bottle, we haven’t had the crying.’’
The family had waited an extra couple of weeks into level one to farewell Inder because some of his elderly friends were nervous about attending a large gathering.
With Inder having moved to a resthome in Gore shortly before his death, his family was unable to be at his bedside when he died at the start of lockdown.
His son said he had accepted the fact they could not farewell their father during Covid-19, so was unimpressed two British women had been allowed to attend a relative’s funeral in New Zealand before testing positive for Covid-19, putting the country at risk.
‘‘My father has died and we haven’t had the funeral yet because of Covid-19 ... you don’t whinge about it, you just wait,’’ he said.
Inder’s daughter, Viv Tamblyn, said it would be a relief to finally farewell her father with a memorial service and she believed it would bring some closure to the family.
‘‘It was really tough not being able to comfort each other [during lockdown].
‘‘We want to do right by Dad, he was such a community minded person and he deserves a good sendoff.’’
Inder was passionate about Te Anau and Fiordland, particularly its waterways, and was active in the community for many years.
‘‘He wasn’t a limelight person but he was always a behind the scenes worker,’’ his son Garry said.
In 2016 Inder and his wife, Alva, received a community service award, with the Southland District Council saying the couple had contributed a lot to waterrelated activities in the Te Anau community over the decades.
Inder was a member of the Te Anau Boating Club for 51 years, served on the Fish & Game Council for 21 years as an honorary ranger and in 1998 was appointed as a Guardian of Lakes Manapouri, Te Anau and Monowai.
He carried out water sampling for Environment Southland for eight years and was a member of the Gore Boat and Water-ski Club for half a century.
The couple moved to Te Anau in 1988 from Gore, where Inder had been running Inderland Services, a Nissan car dealership.
The business was bought by his son Garry and renamed Inders Marineland before branching out into boat sales.