Thread: Gadgetman

Surprised and saddened to hear of the death of Gadgetman, he was entertaining on this site, condolences to his family on his sudden passing.

I had the pleasure of meeting Brian a few times at the Toby shoots in both the North and South Island’s. I met him again in ChCh after he did me a favour.
A true GC

RIP Brian

home the hunter .home from the hill
home the sailor home from the sea

Safe journey to Valhalla gadget mate

Sad news Condolences Gadget family. RIP Brian.

I met him only once. Seemed a real nice chap. Enjoyed what he gave to this site. Sorry to hear that he has passed on.

Go well bro.

Home now from Brian's (gadgetman's) funeral. This will take some time to process - the loss of a good mate. Funeral was well attended - maybe 150 people - and our shooting team were there, plus a good representation from this forum. Half a dozen NZHS people in all including Kotuku, Smithy, Longrange308, @Bob Da Browning, me Mudgripz and others.

Was a hard hour - but special. My teammate Neil and I shared a 5 minute tribute talk - both of us struggling to get through our script. Not many dry eyes in the house it seems. We spoke simply of Brian's love for the outdoors, his 140 or so trips with us, our successes, our memorable moments. We talked about his selfless and generous character - always ready to go the mile for others, put them first. Came through in all the speakers. I also mentioned his NZHS forum involvement, his many helps and services here, and the 60+ tributes to him on this RIP thread.

Here are the last bits of my short script today:

"A final note – we can never know when our hour will come, But with Brian he was thoroughly enjoying a deer stalk on a beautiful day, and had only been walking for 20 minutes from the hut when he suddenly fell, passed instantly. Neil performed so well the duty of a friend. He was with his mate Brian, tried CPR for 30 minutes with no response, then activated locator beacon which bought Westpac chopper to the location in 45 minutes. But prior to this moment of passing, Brian was happy, in a beautiful mountain environment, and he passed instantly without pain, doing what he enjoyed. And you know - that's a great blessing. From the shooting team members and his many hunting and forum site friends we say - Go well brother, and all Blessings to the family at this time . Amene"

Gone too soon.. but he is well remembered. Mike

Originally Posted by mudgripz

Home now from Brian's (gadgetman's) funeral. This will take some time to process - the loss of a good mate. Funeral was well attended - maybe 150 people - and our shooting team were there, plus a good representation from this forum. Half a dozen NZHS people in all including Kotuku, Smithy, Longrange308, @Bob Da Browning, me Mudgripz and others.

Was a hard hour - but special. My teammate Neil and I shared a 5 minute tribute talk - both of us struggling to get through our script. Not many dry eyes in the house it seems. We spoke simply of Brian's love for the outdoors, his 140 or so trips with us, our successes, our memorable moments. We talked about his selfless and generous character - always ready to go the mile for others, put them first. Came through in all the speakers. I also mentioned his NZHS forum involvement, his many helps and services here, and the 60+ tributes to him on this RIP thread.

Here are the last bits of my short script today:

"A final note – we can never know when our hour will come, But with Brian he was thoroughly enjoying a deer stalk on a beautiful day, and had only been walking for 20 minutes from the hut when he suddenly fell, passed instantly. Neil performed so well the duty of a friend. He was with his mate Brian, tried CPR for 30 minutes with no response, then activated locator beacon which bought Westpac chopper to the location in 45 minutes. But prior to this moment of passing, Brian was happy, in a beautiful mountain environment, and he passed instantly without pain, doing what he enjoyed. And you know - that's a great blessing. From the shooting team members and his many hunting and forum site friends we say - Go well brother, and all Blessings to the family at this time . Amene"

Gone too soon.. but he is well remembered. Mike

a tribute spoken from the heart .well done both of you on such a sad occasion.

Tear to my eye right now @mudgripz !!

Well done

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Yup. It was good to put names to some more forum faces.
Pretty teary eyed myself especially passing on my condolences to gadge2 and timerider, two of his daughters.
I had nowhere near as much time with him as some but he was such a good chap that it doesn't really seem right

Yes very hard day.. and some kind messages from site members here - thanks. There were good strong men and women crying all over the place - but you know what - that's good. Healing.

I looked at the replay of us speaking and it looked pretty harsh, but after watching it I've come to realise that's what funeral days are for. Letting the grief of all present really come out - a very good step for us. Oddly enough, all the teammates tonight are feeling better for this experience, and we've begun to plan for the next shoot, for the future. Like something got released there - or alot of it - and now we're appreciating the good mate we've had, and starting to look at new adventures.

May take months to walk out fully, but today was important healing/closure step for many. Our team will be up and running again very soon - as will many other site members affected by this death.

And Brian wouldn't have it any other way..

Cheers Mudz

I can't believe I have only just seen this thread. Never met Gadgetman but was intrigued by his dietary journey.

Condolences to the family, I too have been through similar but a long time ago.

if one is to pan the river of life for the immortal gold nugget then meeting gadget is just that nugget .

A tragic loss to family and the community!

I had the pleasure of a forum hunt up the Nelson lakes with Brian as my companion and a couple of trips made down to okiwi.
A man that asked for nothing and gave so much.

I still have one of his original headlights lights that he designed / improved and imported then gave away!

I loved how he would yarn and his dry humor , on the walk out of the Tirmea he gave me a detailed breakdown of the GPS he had built . I didn’t want to let him know I no idea what he was talking about because he was passionate about it.

He came to okiwi brought his kayak a rod and reel (still in the wrapper that he’d brought on special 5 years ago) and an improvised long line , paddled up Squally Cove caught some pannies and returned all with a crook back and bad hip.

He was incredibly proud of his daughters , even if he was lured into marriage against his will!

Rest easy Brian , you will be terribly missed !

Thank you for your company and the memories , I’ll treasure them!