Swimming like a dog

When I was a kid we would go swimming in the Waikato River

- not something you'd do now due bloomin' algae -

in the hot summer days which have returned this year swimming in the river was bliss

especially when you'd go with your family and heaps of other families and have a bbq dinner

Like these guys below, making the most of a hot, hot afternoon.

Ngaire and I wandered down to the river in search of perfect wedding photo places (Ngaire is a fantastic wedding photographer who puts in heaps of prep work and does the most amazing photos but most importantly makes the whole wedding photo experience really fun - you can contact her at nagirereedy at hotmail dot com if you are in need of a photographer - she travels)

But my post today turns sinister here....

This is the Narrows - I guess where the mighty Waikato River narrows - I was nine and at a family picnic thing. All us kids were in the river paddling and splashing around when I stepped of the sand bank only a metre or so from the rivers edge.

My dad was sitting under the trees (as you can see not far from the edge) and as I drowned, yes freaken' drowned he sat chatting.

Good thing Mags had her eagle eyes on that day. Good thing I have a complete inability to panic, because by the time Mags shouted to Greg (my dad) and he got of his big fat butt, I had swallowed a heap of water (probably got a good fill of algae) and dog paddled my way back to the sand bank.

I remember looking at him as I went under, thinking "WTF?" except that I was nine and thought that bugger was a swear word so I was probably thinking "WTB?" I remember my toes reaching the sand bank, trying to get a grip with my big toe only to feel it falling away under my feet. I remember trying to have enough breath to call out and not having any. I was drowning. I could feel the river pulling me out and north (yeah I find it strange the river flows north, I also find it strange to say going down to the mountains when you have to go up a mountain even though they are south of us) anyway, needless to say I saved myself - story of my life really - and Mags says that it totally wasn't like that but I think she only says that to abdicate any responsibility for this near tragic event in my, and her life.

Oh I forgot -BOTH my parents were LIFEGUARDS!!!!!! Geez louise (also a swear word when I was a kid) shows how much they valued their kids. I guess Mags could still have more kids, except that Greg had a vasectomy by then, you would too after having us kids.