Take the high road

OPINION: Take a tower crane on construction work at the courthouse, a friendship with Nick Hamlin, the project manager from Arrow International, and in no time I had a Southland flag flying in the breeze above the city, writes Gerry Forde in this week's Southlander.

Next day, I invited the media to attend. The blue sky faded, the rain came and the flag looked like a damp tea towel.

"Any chance the driver could swing the crane around and get the flag to flutter?" I asked Nick.

Apparently tower cranes don't swing. We all looked helplessly up at the flaccid flag.

"Have you got a spare flag, Gerry?" asked one of the photographers.

"Of course I ..." the words died on my lips, "Don't!" I tried to hide the flag up my jacket but the game was up and so was I up a vertical steel ladder heading for the top of the crane seven storeys high.

"Just make sure you have one hand on the ladder at all times," Nick warned.

I followed his instructions to the letter and it took me five minutes to get up the first rung. Nick went first to blaze the trail and I was following, drips showering down from above.

The ladder had a safety device an occasional landing that you went through like a manhole cover. This meant that if you slipped you would never have to fall more than three storeys.

At about halfway I was getting soaked, my hands were going numb and I clung to each rung for dear life. Gradually, I became aware of some people in an office block waving at me through the window.

I wasn't waving back!

At the three-quarter mark they were waving and pointing.

"OK, my pants are wet, I know!" I muttered back at them.

Finally I reached the top, gripping the crane, and the office workers were waving and holding up a sign: Do you need life insurance? It was the people from State!

As Nick and I held up the Southland Spirit of a Nation flag for the photographers, I glanced around for the first time. The city melded into forest, then into the snowy glory of the Takitimus.

Whatever move it is in your life that you're afraid to take step up, because the view when you get there is worth it!

» Gerry Forde is the Venture Southland regional identity brand manager.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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