For Amanda, Cindy, & Sarah

A couple of us spent an idyllic morning on the river the other day, splashing bout in a small dinghy as a surveyor measured the profile of the banks, and sounded the depths. The mist had cleared, the sun shone, it was tranquil and all was at peace.
It is not always like this.
Last Christmas day, we were to go to a friends place to have Xmas Dinner. An especially tasty wild pig had been dispatched with extreme prejudice, and we were to provide the deserts. The cars were packed and as we readied to leave and travel down through the Awakino Gorge, the skies suddenly opened, and for twenty minutes there was a torrential deluge. Sporting a new Father Xmas hat, and a handknitted jersey with a clown on the front, I didn't fancy getting soaked, so I dallied till it eased and then headed off in my little MX5. Two kilometres into the Gorge, all was confusion and horror. A van, carrying seven, had failed to take a 45 kilometre corner and was in the river. There were three children still inside. The river was high and running fast. There was no sign of a vehicle. The emergency services were arriving in force. A helicopter made sweeps of the river. A brave paramedic was winched into the river and towed upstream to see if he could feel a vehicle with his legs. I had a flouro jacket, boots and swandri in my car, so I changed out of my hideously incongruous Xmas clothes, and set up Traffic Control. The van was found, fairly close into the bank, and a good two metres under the surface. We all knew the outcome. The normally chatty fire brigade were pretty quiet. A line was attached to the van and secured by the local towie, and the long wait for cranes, and the police dive team to come up from Wellington began. Xmas dinner consisted of hamburgers, our table the bonnet of a police car.
It was getting on for 10pm when the crane finally & slowly lowered the van onto the road. Fruit, travel snacks, and Xmas presents spilling out of the shattered back window. The three girls were still strapped in, they were taken out by the fire brigade and finally finished their trip to New Plymouth in two unmarked hearses. The van was righted and lowered onto the towies trailer. We cleaned up, generators roaring away, nobody saying much. It was nearly midnight by the time I finally made it to my friends place. I didn't feel like celebrating Christmas. I thought about drinking an awful lot of whisky, but I didn't. I went to bed.
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