July 5th 2022: DCC vs the sea

I had to chuckle to myself last week during an early morning walk to the beach. The frost was still white as snow on the ground. The waves were still calming down from the last southerly whip. At one end of the beach there were orange diggers shuffling sand around, and at the other end they were moving boulders around to prepare for the new $250,000 stairs.

There was a lot of enthusiasm from the contractors and I couldn't help but smile at the irony of it all. It was a real DCC vs the sea moment. Diggers moving sand and boulders to keep the sea at bay. I just love the absurdity of it all.

I got chatting to one of the contractors and he told me he'd been in the game a long time. He said this wasn't the first time (and it wouldn't be the last time) a council thought it could outsmart nature.

Many moons ago he worked on a bridge at Heriot. It took a few months for him and his team to construct the bridge and each day a little old lady would bring them scones. She'd point up to a tree with a swing in it. Her father built it for her when she was a child. She'd ask them, "do you know why it is all the way up there?" They'd look puzzled as she told them that was above the height of the floodwaters when the river was at full tempest.

"You should build your bridge two metres higher," she told them.

Each day she'd bring scones and retell her story.

Eventually they got the bridge built and had a grand opening with all and sundry. The first raindrop fell towards the end of the ceremony. By the weekend it was torrential. By Monday the bridge was gone.

The contractor had a tear in his eye. "You know the kicker?" he asks me. "The poor old lady died that weekend and never got to see the bridge wash out as she'd predicted."

I'm not one for dwelling on the past – I thrive on the thrill of opportunities from the future, but there does come a time when listening to, and learning from, past experience has its place.

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS Looking for some good winter reading? We still have stock of our surf towns book Surf Dreams and our latest book Living the Dream, which steps into the lives of some pretty amazing humans who have made the sea their neighbour. You can buy them both here. We'll even sign them for ya ...