Welcome to my blog

I’m Louise Maich, Frank Erceg’s niece. Here’s how the whole thing started…

In 1998 I was working on a film being shot in the Queenstown Lakes region. I distinctly remember the day when driving to our next location near Wanaka, that it hit me I was in Uncle Frank’s country – and it got me thinking about him.

Next stop was Christchurch, and while poking around in the Arts Centre Bookshop I came across Philip Holden’s recently published book New Zealand Hunter. I scanned the contents page and noticed the name Erceg. On page 87 was a reference to Frank, and that he was “perhaps the greatest hunter of them all.” I bought my first hunting book that day.

Many New Zealand hunting books mention Frank and talk about his exceptional abilities as a marksman, mountaineer, and wildlife photographer.

His talent seemed to know no boundaries and he was on his way to carving out a place in New Zealand history with his photography already published in the Weekly News and other periodicals of the day.

There’s no doubt he would have gone on to produce his own publications. He was already talking about it with his mates. The tragedy is his life ended at age thirty on June 1^st 1965, along with his mate John Cummings – they were the first fatalities in the helicopter meat-recovery industry.

Since 1998 I’ve been researching and collecting stories, anecdotes, photographs and correspondence relating to Frank, and the book I’ve always wanted to produce is taking shape, it’s a big job for sure, however the support thus far has been tremendous.

This blog’s been set up to generate further interest in the project. Please contact me if you have anything to share, any stories, photos, letters, anything you think I'll be interested in that helps to build the story of the life of Frank Erceg. I’ll be keeping you updated on progress. Let's get Frank his own book; he bloody deserves one!

Frank Erceg  early 1960s