Come Play With Us...

Dolphin Days.
A pod of twenty to thirty dolphin had a play
near Leigh on Auckland's beautiful Hauraki Gulf
the other day. Who'd need a second invitation
to engage with these amazing creatures...

This Distressed Dog Swept Out To Sea On A Log Is Rescued By The New Zealand Navy...

Every dog has it's day.
This dog who's name is Masefield was having his daily 'walkies' on a beach on New Zealand's Great Barrier Island at the height of a major storm the other day when he was
washed out to sea.
He wasn't wearing any sort of buoyancy aid at the time and had left his mobile phone at home. But the lucky dog was able to clamber on board the large log and set off it's EPIRB, a emergency locator beacon which, under New Zealand maritime law is mandatory on logs over thirty feet long. Never the less, there was no warm blankets, no doggie treats and by the time he was spotted by the keen eyes of Able Seaman Filipe Latu, one of the crew aboard the NZ Navy Patrol Vessel HMNZS Hawea, our canine chum was in a distressed state.
The commanding officer, Lieutenant Anthony Norris sent an inflatable with four crew to rescue the panicky pooch and took him ashore.
I'll never go down to the sea again,
said Masefield, to the lonely sea and the sky.
I'll never again seek a big log
or a star to steer her by...

Big Brother Got Me...

Well it was Big Sister actually.
Last evening was Census night in New Zealand and Jean was going to make sure nobody was left unaccounted for in her area.
It wasn't the first time I'd been in an isolated part of the country on census night and they've always managed to catch me in their bureaucratic net.
Not that I went to great lengths to avoid them.
I was just living my life and doing what I do.
One night many census's ago I was on my yacht Sofia in the beautiful Bon Accord Harbour at Kawai Island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.
The sun was going down and friends and I were toasting the fact that we had escaped the census when there was a put-put-put of a little outboard motor and sure enough, in the tiny dinghy was an intrepid census taker with their reams of paperwork. He came aboard, we had a few laughs and he went away happy and satisfied with a job well done.
Last evening I was sitting once again with a few friends at Tokerau Beach and we were wondering if we were going to be counted.
They were voicing their concerns about not existing. I'd just said they shouldn't worry,
someone will turn up.
And moments later someone did.
It was Big Sister Jean.
So I guess I'll continue to exist as a statistic.
Until next time...

Jeanette. Living The Dream And Her Tiny Home On Wheels...

Some of Jeanette's story will be familiar to many. Met the man of her dreams at fifteen, married at eighteen, four children and a marriage of forty seven years.
There any familiarity may well end.
One day while waiting for the school bus which she drove, to be serviced, watching the small planes at the adjacent airfield touch and go,
she decided to fly.
There was more to life than going to tupperware parties, coffee mornings with the girls and various committee meetings.
Her children were grown up, she was forty years old and there was this dream.
One lesson and she was hooked. Now many years later, she can recall the challenges, the fears, the weight loss before each flying lesson and the joy of being offered her dream plane,
a Cessna 172 to pilot.
For ten years she was a private pilot and then after getting her commercial licence, together with a friend, founded a little airline that flew between the island on which she lived and the mainland. Or anywhere else.
This remarkable lady has been living life to the full since she grew up in the famous Mansion House on Kawau Island in New Zealand's Hauraki Gulf where it was home to the country's first Governor General Sir George Grey in the mid eighteen hundreds.
And a few years ago, not being put off by the fact she hadn't ever ridden a motorbike, Jeanette did a road trip through India on a Royal Enfield.
I caught up with her here in the Far North, freedom camping in Ishvari, her beautifully decorated little home on wheels.
Jeanette plays the flute and we've been making music together...