For most of his life, the Hollyford Valley has played a significant role in Murray's life. As a boy it was a distant place where his father, Davey Gunn, tried to make a living as a high country farmer. On the other side of the country, Murray grew up in Oamaru surrounded by women, his mother, aunt and two sisters. His first visit to the Hollyford was as a schoolboy in the late 1930s when he was one of a party on a walking holiday. The contrast between his home environment and that of his fathers was pronounced: he was not encouraged to visit by his mother who only saw her husband's home territory after his accidental death in 1955. That same year, Murray gave up an office job in Invercargill and stepped into sort out what had been left of his fathers pioneering tourism venture. For the next fifty years, Murray battled against government bureaucrats, financial hardship, even loss of his home by fire, and was finally forced to leave the valley in 2005 as a result of an accident. This interview only touches on some of those topics and should not be considered a full oral history recording.