Tauranga photographer Erin Armstrong captured this orca surfing the waves at Mount Maunganui. Photo / Supplied
OPINION
We sure could use a little good news today. Anne Murray sang those words in 2003, and boy, do they ring true 18 years later.
Let's push pause on the pandemic, bushfires, the National Party's self-immolation, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Texas and all the other things that crowd our news feeds and trouble our minds.
They will exist regardless of how much time we spend worrying.
Sometimes when I read an enlightening, interesting or funny story, I promise to file it away in memory for later retrieval.
Then, my kids ask me a question, or I start burning dinner or the dog needs to go out. And I forget those good stories.
So here are nine things I hope will restore your faith in nature and humanity, or at least make you smile.
1. Safe and sound: A father and his three young children reappeared on Thursday after being missing for two and a half weeks. Tom Phillips and his kids, ages 8, 6 and 5, had all been located in the South Waikato settlement of Marokopa. They were living in a tent in the bush while dozens of searchers scoured the rugged Waikato west coast.
2. Super snap: A Tauranga woman snapped the photo of a lifetime when she captured the image of a whale riding the waves off a Mount Maunganui beach. Erin Armstrong took the picture last Sunday. "You never really know looking at that little screen on the back of the camera," she said. " But I had a moment of 'oh my God, I think I've got the shot'. It's just so exciting, it's what you strive to do."
3. Wild ride: Sticking with the whale theme, a rare encounter was caught on video last month when a southern right whale seemed to play with a woman on a paddleboard off the coast of Patagonia in Argentina. The whale pushed the board forward as it swam beneath. "They are rare moments and banned," said Oscar Comes, a local water sports tourism operator. "It isn't like you can go in a kayak, standup board, a boat, or whatever, to look for the animal."
4. Super sky: Tuesday's sunset in the Bay of Plenty was spectacular. It was a pink and ruby affair, the horizon lighted like a Dylan Thomas poem: "Do not go gentle into that good night ... Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
5. Potty-trained cows: In an article published last month in the journal Current Biology, researchers showed that cows could be potty trained, enabling waste to be collected and treated. In a process dubbed MooLoo training, the research team of scientists from Germany and the University of Auckland rewarded calves with sweets when they urinated in the latrine. Eleven out of 16 calves learned to use the MooLoo within 15 days. If only potty training a toddler were that fast. I tried to bribe my firstborn to use the toilet by offering M&Ms when she was 2, and it was an epic failure.
6. Powerlifting centenarian: Edith Murway-Traina proves you are never too old to pump iron - or push your limits. The great-great-grandmother, who recently turned 100, now holds the title of the Guinness World Records' oldest competitive powerlifter in the female category. Murway-Traina started hitting the gym a few years ago after a friend invited her. "While I was watching those ladies doing their thing, I thought I just as well should pick up a few bars, and I did," she told Guinness for a story on their website.
7. Lockdown hero: A skipper from Tauranga relocated his boat to Northland to provide kaimoana for people in need. Roger Rawlinson (Ngāti Awa) last month worked with local hāpu to donate 3 tonnes of fish, worth about $12,000. "There's a lot of people struggling in the Far North and I'm just doing my bit as a Māori fisherman," he told NZME.
8. PPE from plastic: Plastic waste is being transformed into PPE for workers on the front lines of the pandemic. Employees at a textile factory in Thailand are breaking down plastic bottles into filaments, which are woven into a water-resistant fabric used to make personal protective equipment (PPE) suits. It takes about 18 bottles to make each PPE suit. An estimated 18 million bottles have been collected and recycled so far. The process helps save lives while saving the environment.
9. Rising vaccination rates: 92 per cent of Kiwis over 65 have had at least one jab. About 78 per cent of us over 12 have received one dose (according to government statistics, as of 1pm Thursday). We still have a mountain to climb, but we can do this.
Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town, Nobody OD'ed, nobody burned a single buildin' down, Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain, We sure could use a little good news today
- Anne Murray