 He spent his early years living with his family at the Wairau Bar near Blenheim where, in 1939 as a schoolboy, he discovered early human skeletons and associated artefacts including necklaces, stone tools and moa egg.Eyles discovered several more burials on the bar, and assisted with the excavations carried out by Roger Duff from the Canterbury Museum.The site is regarded as one of the oldest and most important archaeological sites in New Zealand.