John ‘J.R.’ McCormack - Risky business

He’s saved many lives in his time and risked his own a few, just for the thrill of a good ride, but these days one of Queenstown’s original 1970s rafting guides and tandem paragliding pilots, John ‘J.R.’ McCormack, is an artist, kicking back eating whitebait on the West Coast.

J.R.’s been hair-raisingly close to being attacked by sharks, was bitten by a scorpion while kayaking down the Grand Canyon, purposely ran over the Queenstown traffic cop’s foot, and lived to tell the tale.

It was all in a day’s work for a Southland surf lifesaving champion, well used to the term ‘toughen up’, biking 15kms to Invercargill’s chilly Oreti Beach at 12, then dragging an old longboard from the Surf Club to the water by himself. “I’ve surfed near Curio Bay over dark, black, shark-prone waters, my hands and feet up on the board. Once the sand was frozen and there was snow on the beach.”

J.R. grew up in the water, one of five kids and the son of a car dealer. “I also learned to understand rough weather, which proved valuable in my later years guiding, tacking to school in side winds on my bike.”

He had his share of wins in the Southland Swim Team until at 17 he was brought out to compete for the Oreti Surf Lifesaving Club, swimming in a relay across Foveaux Strait at 15. J.R. won Southland and Otago titles. “I was quick in the ocean – no flip turns! We patrolled the beaches in summer with a spotter plane up looking for sharks,” he says. “We pulled a number of people out of the water at Oreti Beach, the little kids were the worst, and I’ve seen more sharks there than any other beach I’ve surfed at around the world.”

J.R. and his mates once tried ramming a docile shark with the club canoe to move it away. “When we turned around our boat flipped and we all fell in right beside a very peeved off shark!” They managed to scramble back on board. “But that was not a good feeling.”

He was offered an American university scholarship at 16 and at 69 J.R. is still number one-ranked NZ Masters South Island Age-Group swimmer.

After leaving school to be an apprentice chef in Westport, J.R. discovered Queenstown was more fun having been here skiing with friend Rob McCrostie.

He travelled widely, cooking and surfing, including long stays on the Gold Coast, but “Queenstown was as nice as anywhere”.

One hot summer he’d left work at The Continental taking a dip in the lake and a cold beer at Eichardt’s where he met Queenstown original commercial rafting founder Dale Gardiner, of Dane’s. “I was offered a job with Dale, whose American river guides trained me up – a partner within three years,” J.R. says. “Training on the Shotover really positioned me in a good place to work anywhere. That’s the best training ground you can ever get.”

It was intense and at times dangerous, no technology to guide them then: “We just had marks on rocks to guide river levels.”

They were fun times, J.R. riding his Vespa once into the Mount Cook booking office to check bookings, riding on out the back door. On another occasion traffic cop Chris Blackford tried to enforce the new ‘no parking’ yellow lines outside, a rebellious J.R. driving off and over his foot with a vanload of rafts! “In future we had a good relationship.”

On summer nights the boys would don their speedos for inter-firm swimming relay competitions in the old unheated Ballarat Street pool.

J.R. also did stints ski patrolling and was one of the first to kick off commercial tandem paragliding off Skyline Hill. “Fifteen of us formed Queenstown Commercial Paragliders Ltd, working with DOC, the council and Skyline to establish leases and concessions. Once we were licensed the Civil Aviation Authority and NZ Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association got involved.”

J.R. was well used to licensing having worked for the Transport Ministry’s marine department licensing river guides.

His historic apricot-coloured cottage on Gorge Road heading out of Queenstown was renowned as “a bit of a central drop-in spot”, and later his art studio, that he purchased for $25,000, aged 23, in 1981. “I had a week to find the $5000 deposit.” It was sold 10 years ago and transported to St Bathans.

“I sat on that verandah and watched the change in Queenstown over a long period of time.”

In more recent times J.R. has been making waves with his art, in particular his ‘Stolen Westy’s Teapot Series’, an idea stemming from an alcohol-fuelled late-night theft of the large green teapot from popular 1980s Queenstown restaurant, Westy’s. “I woke up after a night out and there it was in my house,” J.R. grins.

It was inspiration for great teapot art; however, others took a liking too and stole it from him during his ‘Stolen Westy’s Teapot Series’ exhibition of 35 paintings at Sky Bar in 2006. “They posted photos of it to me in various strategic locations around New Zealand – from the Beehive and Cook Strait ferry to Auckland. No social media in those days.”

J.R. moved to Cape Fowlwind, near Westport, in 2023 when teapot thieves struck again but just now it’s back at his home. Westy’s co-owner Kevin Templeton, now in Invercargill, was so bemused that he now has one of the paintings.

Just late last year J.R. created vinyl car stickers depicting paintings of his teapot labelled ‘Stolen’. “They’ve taken off. T-shirts are on the way. I’m already sending orders overseas.”

To check out The Stolen Teapot Series and stickers: jrmccormack.com