I had to call 111 today ...

I had to call 111 today ..... but not because of the GOM .... a young woman tried to drown herself in our beautiful Ladies Bay.  As I write this I’m still finding it quite surreal .... I’m still finding it hard to believe that we stopped someone taking their own life ... did we have the right to do that .... did we have the right to care?

Maybe that’s what’s so wrong with society today .... not enough people are prepared to get involved when they’re exposed to something which is contrary to the norm.  The Police told us that too ... most people wouldn’t have worried ... most people wouldn’t have cared.

Initially Julia and I weren’t sure if it was a person out in the bay ..... the object was about 400m out at sea .... the only movements it was making were when the current turned it ... we thought it could be a fishing buoy.

We were on the beach for over an hour with the dogs and this “thing” didn’t move .... just swayed with the ebb and flow of the tide.  It worried us though, we kept trying to get a better look at it to assess if it was a person or not.  Finding the large red handbag on the beach was the clincher ..... that bag hadn’t been washed ashore - it wasn’t wet ... it had been placed there by someone .... there were no clothes with it and no towel.   

The small black bobbing "thing" out at sea

When we first phoned the police I felt a little foolish speaking to them as we weren’t 100% certain that it was actually a person but, in retrospect, I’m so glad we did. They asked us to keep an eye on the object until they could get someone up to us and to phone them if anything changed.  

The red handbag

And change it did ... she waved ... she shouted for help .... so we dialed 111 again.


The New Zealand Police are tremendous .... they arrived en masse, 4 cars and a police launch,  and we took them down to the beach and along to where we’d seen her trying to get back to shore. 

She was a young Chinese woman, mid twenties ... wearing jeans and a black long-sleeved top ..... she was as white as a sheet, shivering uncontrollably and looked as if she was about to collapse.


All she could say as I took her arm and tried to get her to sit down was 

“You saw me” .... “You saw me” ......


The Police have since phoned us to say thank you and to let us know she’s ok.  They took her to the hospital and, as she’s admitted she was trying to take her own life, they’ve arranged for her to be assessed by Mental Health.  She’s only been in our country for 2 days.  

The taxi driver, who’d driven her from her hotel to the view site and been asked by her to wait, was also concerned ... he’d had a feeling something was wrong when she climbed in the taxi.  She’d asked him to take her to a scenic spot where she could swim.  When she didn’t re-appear he’d walked down to Ladies Bay but there’d been no-one on the beach.  It was only when he saw people gathering at the view site that he realised she could be the reason for our concern and came over to tell us about her.  He went beyond what was expected off him ... coming down to the beach with us again and helping the police get her into the launch ..... a true Good Samaritan.

Julia and I normally walk at 7 in the morning ... it’s only on Fridays, when Julia doesn’t work, that we walk at 8.  For some reason unknown to any of us, that young woman was meant to cross our paths today .... she wasn’t meant to drown .... it wasn’t her time. 

I’m still in shock as to what has unfolded in front of our eyes.  We only get one chance at life ... this is it .... there’s no rewind or fast forward ... there’s no pause .... only a play button.  We don’t get the opportunity to EVER live life again.  

I hope this young woman is able to move forward in life ... to put behind her whatever it was that made her contemplate taking her own life.  I’m just so glad Julia and I were there on the beach this morning .... and .... that we cared.

The Police Launch, coming in to Ladies Bay