Friendship and love, strange concepts
Thanks to my friend Charlie who helped with the story and the editing
This story is a little dated set in the seventies, so no modern digital equipment.
As a young kid growing up I wasn't one of those kids who had a lot of friends. I had kids that I used to go fishing with, or kids I played sport with but we were never great mates.
It wasn't until attending university that I built a real lasting friendship. Grant and I were both studying, for me it was mechanical and civil engineering; Grant's stream was geological engineering. We met not through our studies but rugby. We both played for the varsity team, he as the giant lock and me as the flanker.
Our friendship evolved during a game which exploded into a full on brawl. It started when the opposition prop took a swing at Grant and I grabbed him dragging him back off Grant and giving him a little tap on the chin for his troubles, well that's when the fight started. It was all on, for young and old, fists flying and bodies everywhere. After the game Grant came over, draped his monstrous arm over my shoulder and thanked me for standing up for him. In the clubrooms later we got on the piss and completely wrote ourselves off. That was the start of a very close friendship that endured.
After graduating I chose the easy road getting a position in Wellington with the Ministry of Works as a road and bridge engineer, I say it was easy because it meant I would become a civil servant with all the benefits that went with it. Grant on the other hand decided to take his degree and go overseas, ending up in South Africa where he made a real killing mining diamonds. Me I plodded away as a civil servant slowly working my way up the management ladder.
Grant and I were complete opposites. He was the dynamic go getter and I was more the quiet achiever, the retiring plodder.
I met the love of my life Ashley Godin at a rugby club prize giving dinner. The club had an associated women's netball team and occasionally joined for events such as prize giving. Ashley a recent arrival having moved to Wellington to take up a position with the DSIR as a research assistant had joined the netball team to make friends.
I spotted her from across the room and was drawn to her like the proverbial moth to a flame.
She was there with a gaggle of her friends having a great time, I managed to weasel my way in and we ended up dancing. It was the start of a very short torrid courtship. Ashley was an incredibly outgoing friendly person, they say opposites attract, well that was us in a nutshell. We married 12 months later and started our lives together. It was a typical marriage; we both worked long tiring hours working our collective arses off trying to raise a deposit for our first home. We chose a home, out in one of Wellington's outer seaside suburbs, Lyall Bay where our children Sylvia and Clive were born.
We had barely moved in when out of the blue Grant returned from South Africa bringing with him his gorgeous bride Saskia. He had made his fortune and chose to return to NZ and put his wealth to good use. They stayed with us as they looked for a suitable house. Thankfully they found one quickly in neighbouring, Island bay.
Saskia and Ashley became fast friends and were inseparable. Grant bought a small engineering business specialising in repairing earth moving equipment. Grant being Grant turned that fledgling business into a real goldmine. Saskia got pregnant with their first and only child.
With our kids growing and wanting some independence we decided to build an extension at home, as it was a little crowded. When Grant found out he dived in to help concluding I needed a hand. We spent hours building that extension, every weekend and late nights after work we toiled long and hard, although always accompanied by a few beers to finish off. I learned a lot from him, it was a real team effort cementing what was already a tight friendship.
I learned a lot about Grant, he definitely liked to be the boss, it was his nature and I didn't mind, he made good decisions. I also learned that we made a good team, which I suppose shouldn't have surprised me.
Around that time Saskia found a job selling real estate, Grant however was quickly losing interest in his business he had done the hard yards and turned around a failing business but now that it was up and running successfully he was bored with it. It was on the market less than a month before selling for an eye watering profit. I would be lying if I didn't say I was mildly jealous, well envious anyway. He worked hard for it and deserved it.
He decided he needed a change and went back to mining. He picked up some contract work in Australia, which did not make Saskia happy at all, she was happy and didn't want him buggering off. The upshot being she spent a lot of time at our place crying on Ashley's shoulder.
He was gone for months at a time, Saskia's growing disillusionment with the state of affairs meant if he was going to save his marriage her had to return home. He didn't just come home he came back with a plan.
He came home with a burning desire to become a vintner.
Saskia was stunned, but with him on a mission it didn't take him long to convince her to get on board.
They put their place on the market and with Saskia being in the game, it sold quickly and they were off.
It was a surprise when he whisked the family off to Otago. There was no history of grape growing in the region, if he said Marlborough I would have thought it made sense but central Otago? But there's no reasoning with Grant once he has an idea fixed in his head, he had brought a plot of land, sight unseen. They left with plans to plant the first grapes in central Otago. With his mind set and a plan in place, well the start of one anyway he was going to become set the world on fire and become a world class vintner.
It had become his dream, and like with everything he did he threw himself into it with great gusto. He was brave, fearless, this was something new to the region, it wasn't a renowned wine growing area but he had a dream and nothing was going to stand in his way, with his goal set and his never give in attitude it was always going to be a dead cert.
What did come as a shock was a sneaky phone call asking if I could get some time off to go down and help him with the construction process. I had a chuckle to myself, he might have had a plan but he still needed help, his ego was bruised having to ask for help. A quick chat with Ashley and we packed up the kids with us for a six week holiday over Christmas so I could help him design and build the house. It was a fun six weeks. The kids all got on great and Grant and Saskia, they were the sort of unofficial god parents. It was hard work, we again worked our arses off and got the house started, mapping out and setting the foundations. During the evenings once we lost the light we planted the grapes planted. My big mission had been to set up a wind powered irrigation system. It was a novel approach to a real problem.
I went back several times over the next year to help with the construction. Eventually he got exactly what he was after a huge rambling house built from local timbers and stone. It was huge a big grand monster of a place that stood out even in this area, the entrance was extracted straight from House and Garden magazine. Big strong front stone pillars, monstrous oversized doors opening into a wide foyer. It would have easily been home to a Hollywood movie. His plan was not only to make this a successful vineyard he wanted it to become a homestay where visitors could come, sample the wine and stay in style, look around the vineyard and see the wine being made.
We sort of lost touch for a couple of years while he focused on building his business and becoming a world class vintner. We had the children to raise, and Ashley returned to work. Work, children and their needs. It took all our time which meant we didn't see much of Grant and Saskia for long periods of time.
We did all got together when our daughter Sylvia went off to Lincoln University in Canterbury. God knows why she decided on agriculture but there you go.
Clive was the next to leave the nest and then Glen their son. Saskia stepped up like a mother hen and did a great job of keeping an eye on Sylvia for us. God knows how many hours she spent on the road picking her up from school and ferrying her back and forth so she could spend weekends at their home, and we will be forever grateful for getting her through that period unscathed.
My 50th birthday, Ashley decided to throw a huge party and of course, Grant and Saskia came to stay. It was a sort of joyous reconnecting and it brought about us spending time together and holidaying at each other's place, although their's was so much more palatial than ours. Ashley sort of fell in love with it and that ensured it was us doing most of the travelling.
Not long after that things turned to shit. Saskia... Oh sweet Saskia, she was a wild little thing and she loved to drive. She had a little Triumph Spitfire which really suited her nature, she was a lead footed girl racer. I hated to drive anywhere with her because she was never happy unless her foot was on the floor. It was my only concern with her picking up Sylvia, although Sylvie reassured me she never drove to fast with her in the car, it was bloody different when she had me in it, she took enormous delight in scaring the shit out of me.
It seems inevitable looking back but that doesn't take away the tragedy. One day, out racing around the twisty windy back roads of Central Otago she had a fatal crash. If there was a good thing it is that she would have died quickly.
Grant was a mess after the accident bawling his eyes out as he told us the news over the phone. We jumped on a plane and flew down immediately. When we got there he was drunk and sobbing his heart out. Ashley wrapped him in her arms comforting him. He poured me a drink and we sat out on the deck and got totally shitfaced. Ashley spent the night cleaning up getting ready for the mad influx of people expected tomorrow.
When I finally climbed into bed Ashley was still awake sobbing quietly. "Jesus what a mess, honey he is not coping well, you are going to have to be strong tomorrow, you are going to have to take control."
The day dawned with Ashley focused on preparing food and getting ready for the visitors. I went down to the police station and organised for the removal and disposal of the car. Jesus what a wreck, it was smashed beyond recognition. I found a specialist car wrecker who was interested enough to collect it.
Back at the house Ashley had spread the food out with a constant stream of well wishers looking to offer Grant condolences and promises of help. He wasn't quite catatonic but he barely functioned.
That night after everybody had left there was just Grant, his son Glen and us. Ashley cooked dinner but it was sombre, we tried to get Grant to open up and talk but he was a lost soul, totally immersed in his overpowering grief. This was a side of him we had never seen, a testament to how much he loved her. He refused our continued attempts to get him to talk about what he was going to do, he walked away leaving the table early leaving us to talk.
His son was very worried; he was studying architecture at Massey University in Hamilton and was deep in his studies. He could not afford too much time off.
The funeral was a huge affair Grant had certainly made an impact on the local community, he always was a big hearted bugger the sort of bloke who would give you the shirt off his back.
In the days following the funeral he became really morose and glum, especially after his son left to return to University.
