Daily Photo – Lumsden, Lowther & Athol

Twenty kilometres beyond Dipton is Lumsden, then the towns of Lowther and Athol. But, I didn’t feel like stopping at any of these places. The rural feel was giving way to mountain passes and ranges with snowcovered peaks, all of which gave an ominous, moody feel to the far off horizon. I was happy to drive and watch the countryside pass me by. Besides, I was deeply engrossed in an Australian podcast called The Crewe murders: New Zealand’s most infamous cold case. In 1970, Harvey and Jeanette Crewe were shot dead in the living room of their Pukekawa farmhouse, their bodies found in the Waikato River three months later. 

When the Crewes’ were first discovered to be missing, their two-year-old daughter Rochelle was found alive and alone at the Crewes farmhouse, having been cared for by an unknown person/s. Local farmer Arthur Allan Thomas was eventually arrested and charged over the murders, the prosecution relying heavily on a spent .22 cartridge case found in the Crewe garden. Thomas was convicted, appealed and reconvicted and spent nine years in prison before it was revealed evidence was planted by police. In 1979, nine years after the Crewe’s were murdered, Arthur Allan Thomas was granted a Royal Pardon by Governor-General Sir Keith Holyoake on the advice of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, while to this day, the murders have never been solved. 

As I drove with the countryside changing around me, I realised it’s the mystery around the Crewe murders more than the murderers themselves that make the case so fascinating. The actual murders were nothing more than a grisly affair that has happened countless times before. What made these murders so sensational was the sheer amount of unknown intrigue that lasted throughout the case. With the Crewe murders, new evidence doesn’t provide answers, it only raises more questions, and that’s very rare!  

About the time I was whizzing through the small Southland town of Athol, dodging slow-moving cars with Australian bumper stickers that read “I come from the land down under” and “Australian and Proud,” my podcast was ending and I was feeling in a somber mood. I had started the day with the infamous baby farmer Minnie Dean and moved on to the horrific murders of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe. These were heavy topics for 10am and now I was being held up by slow-moving Australians. So, to lighten the mood before arriving at Fairlight, I spent the time trying to remember jokes about Australians.

Question: How many Australians does it take to make chocolate chip cookies?
Answer: Ten. One to make the batter, and nine to peel the M&Ms.

Question: What do you call an Australian in the final of the Rugby World Cup?
Answer: A referee.

Question: Why did the Australian stare at the carton of orange juice?
Answer: It said “concentrate.”