Thank you, Waitati

by Katherine Petters

My partner, Josh and I were involved in a head-on collision car
accident about 2km south of Waitati on 13 November at the Donalds Hill
Rd intersection and our dog got such a fright that he ran off down the
highway and into the bush. We could not find him that night but the
next day we hit Waitati with some flyers for our missing dog, and what
we discovered was an extremely kind and compassionate community.
Everyone we spoke to was so concerned. Mandy Mayhem made calls to
those she knew and Jan from Waitati Valley Rd had copied some of our
flyers and was handing them out in people's mailboxes and we hadn't
even talked to her yet! The ladies at the general store were all
lovely. We even had a suggestion to print loads of flyers and give
them to the mailman to hand out on his mail run the next day. Bev, the
mailman's wife was very obliging. We ended up finding our dog at the
end of that day and went home feeling so moved by people's kindness.
The people I have mentioned are the ones whose names we caught but
there were so many others whose properties we visited who said they'd
look for him and even in the week after the accident I received calls
and texts asking if we'd found him. I have only been in New Zealand
for a year and this experience has made me feel very welcome and happy
to be in such a great place where people take time to really help you.
Josh, Scruffy and I say a BIG thank you to everyone who helped us so
kindly on that day.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: katherine petters <katherinepetters@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: 23 November 2011 21:44
Subject: Thank you
To: "editors@blueskin.co.nz" <editors@blueskin.co.nz>

Hi
I know that articles should be handed in by the 22nd but I hope that
you may publish this anyway.
My partner, Josh and I were involved in a head on collision car
accident about 2km south of Waitati on 13 November at the Donalds Hill
Rd intersection and our dog got such a fright that he ran off down the
highway and day into the bush. We could not find him that night but
the next day we hit Waitati with some flyers for our missing dog and
what we discovered was an extremely kind and compassionate community.
Everyone we spoke to was so concerned. Mandy Mayhem made calls to
those she knew and Jan from Waitati Valley Rd had copied some of our
flyers and was handing them out in people's mailboxes and we hadn't
even talked to her yet! The ladies at the general store were all
lovely. We even had a suggestion to print loads of flyers and give
them to the mailman to hand out on his mail run the next day. Bev, the
mailman's wife was very obliging. We ended up finding our dog at the
end of that day and went home feeling so moved by people's kindness.
The people I have mentioned are the one's who's names we caught but
there were so many others who's properties we visited who said they'd
look for him and even in the week after the accident I received calls
and texts asking if we'd found him. I have only been in New Zealand
for a year and this experience has made me feel very welcome and happy
to be in such a great place where people take time to really help you.
Josh, Scruffy and I say a BIG thank you to everyone who helped us so
kindly on that day.
I hope this is ok and not too long winded. Even if you just want to
make it into a short thank you that would be fine too, but this
describes how it happened.
Thank you
Best regards
Katherine Petters

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