Mudslide turn brings joyride for all

Tim Whittaker won with this shot from the regional waka championships in Wairoa.

Photographer Tim Whittaker still remembers the look of pure terror - later replaced by pure joy - when he asked 10-year-old Wairoa boy Denton Rewi to slide backwards down a steep, muddy bank into the Wairoa River.

The resulting photo, taken more than 10 years ago, won Best Picture at the following year's Qantas newspaper awards.

Whittaker was so delighted by the win that he decided to do something special for the "little boy with guts" and treated him to a flight over Wairoa with a bunch of classmates.

Back in May 2000 Whittaker was sent to Wairoa by Hawke's Bay Today to cover the regional waka ama championships. But to his dismay, he arrived in the middle of a two-hour lunchbreak and nothing to photograph. Whittaker wandered down to the road and spotted Denton and his friends sliding down a muddy bank into an equally muddy river.

He started shooting film from the bank but soon realised he couldn't capture the kids' expressions from behind. Faced with a waist-deep wade in the river to shoot front on, Whittaker took a punt.

"I'll bet you can't slide down that bank backwards," he challenged one plucky boy. "The first time he (Denton) did it he had this terrified look on his face," Whittaker recalls.

Denton's mates stood on the bank, razzing him about being scared.

"So he did it again."

That's when Whittaker caught a look on Denton's face which the photographer describes as "pure joy".

"I still remember it, it was a very special day."

After the photo won the supreme award, Whittaker - a qualified pilot - decided to find Denton and thank him. Whittaker hired a four-seater Piper Cherokee and spent an afternoon giving joyrides to Denton and six of his classmates.

Denton, now a 20-year-old refuse collector in Taupo, remembers the day at the mudslide clearly. He still has a large copy of the photo - "People say I still look the same, only taller". He recalls Whittaker turning up in his plane.

"He took us for a ride, I'd never been in a plane before. I held the controls for a few seconds. It was an awesome day."