Taupō couple Bevan and Pauline Choat were happy to give away their upright piano to a young pianist in Tūrangi, with the help of Didymo Dave Cade. Photo / File
Taupō couple Bevan and Pauline Choat were happy to give away their upright piano to a young pianist in Tūrangi, with the help of Didymo Dave Cade. Photo / File
A Taupō couple who thought they would have to dismantle their beloved piano and take it to the tip are delighted by the response they got to an offer to give it away.
Pauline and Bevan Choat featured in last week's Taupō & Tūrangi Weekender with their Meer piano whichhad been a treasured instrument for many years, but neither of them could play it anymore.
They had advertised it to sell or give away, but with no interest thought it might have to go to the dump.
But a last-ditch appeal to find it a home - complete with an offer to pay for reasonable transport costs to relocate the piano - was met with a flood of inquiries.
And for young Tūrangi pianist Merehia Ngata, 17, the timing was perfect.
Merehia, who learns piano with Bev Campbell in Tūrangi, has hired a keyboard for the three or so years she has been playing, and her family had been looking for a piano for her for some time.
When Bev spotted the story, she immediately texted Merehia's mother, Amiria Dempsey, who in turn made contact with the Choats.
As it turned out, she was the first of 38 people offering to take the piano off the Choats' hands.
The next step was to relocate the piano from Taupō to Tūrangi and Amiria had asked her father and brother to transport it on a trailer which would have been a difficult undertaking.
Enter local environmental advocate Didymo Dave Cade, who had also seen the story. Among his many talents, Dave knows how to move a piano without giving himself a hernia.
When he's not moving pianos, Didymo Dave Cade is busy dealing to animal and plant pests or performing his role as Taupō District Council's freedom camping ambassador. Photo / File
"My dad was a piano tuner and I have his piano trolley," explained Dave. "So I got in touch with the Choats and said 'I'm not interested in the piano but I do have the trolley and trailer and I can move it and if it's a young family and they don't have a trailer then I'd be happy to'."
Dave says when he and helper Logan Hume delivered the piano to Merehia and she asked what she could do for him in return, he had one request.
"I said 'you practise on it for a couple of months and give me a call and I'll come and listen to you play it', and this young lady had a smile as wide as the Tongariro River, she was just chuffed."
In a further twist, the piano was one Dave's father Ray Cade used to tune for the Choats, as well as the piano at Waipāhīhī School, where Bevan was principal.
Amiria says Merehia loves her new piano and is doing really well. And the Choats are equally delighted, saying they were grateful to everybody for their interest in the piano and especially to Dave and Logan for moving it to Tūrangi.
