2.2.11

Old news but good news

Willie Butler’s seat home after aquatic escapade 

Thursday 11 December 2008  

Willie's son Patrick and dog Chewy. Photo: Supplied. Willie's son Patrick and dog Chewy. Photo: Supplied.



The Willie Butler memorial seat has been to sea.
The wooden seat was commissioned at the time of Willie's death in 2003 by the families of some young climbers who had been coached by the Hangdog Camp owner, rockclimber, and well-loved local personality. More recently it had been placed at a high vantage point on an island in the Takaka River near Paynes Ford, but the seat washed away in the recent flooding.
Celia Butler explained how the seat went missing and found its way home.
"Sarah Sherratt was filming the flood from the Kotinga Bridge and she noticed the seat being swept by. She let me know and I decided to put a ‘lost' ad in The GB Weekly. The very next day, even before The Weekly came out, the seat turned up on the back of a truck. Somebody had pulled it out of the sea at Pohara. It had obviously been swept out into the Bay and then been washed up. I was really glad to see it back in surprisingly good order. The commemorative plaque has come off but the seat's in Hangdog Camp just at the moment so we'll have to think about where to put it.
"It used to be really high up on the island. It just shows how ferocious the floodwaters were. I think it was because the Waingaro was so high. When it met the Takaka River there must have been an amazing amount of water."
Brian Cooper from Weka Arts at Kaituna made the memorial seat and was also relieved to hear that it had come home.
"Willie would have loved this story," he said. "Knowing him he probably organised it."
Neil Wilson
Thursday 11 December 2008 

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