Greg Blunden entered my life as the Far North Representative of the QEII Trust. It was his task to evaluate Te Ohu as suitable for protection with a QEII Covenant.
Brian was with a group of us out on the West Coast. I invited Mary to join us. Brianand Mary met, spent the night in the sand dunes, and began a relationship which would enrich all our lives.
It was a very ordinary state house before Basil bought a brick kiln which was to be demolished. The metamorphosis goes on but any visitor to the wonderland would be hard pressed to find any sign of the original house.
I first met John when he came to the airport to farewell Mark, off to Nairobi on one of my craziest assignments. We had a lot in common. He loved flying up West Coast beaches just above the surf or finding archaological sites dotted around New Zealand which could best be seen from the air.