More to this Leap Year yarn than meets the eye

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Following the story in The Gisborne Herald on Wednesday about a nonagenarian’s Leap Year marriage proposal, further digging hints at a wider story and, perhaps, the twinkle of an Irish eye.

Isaiah McSaveney — a well-known sheep farmer of Rakauroa around 1900 — was undoubtedly well off and well-travelled.

But was he also inclined to “stretch” a yarn for his amusement?

More on Mr McSaveney in The Herald next week.