George now in pursuit of happiness

Standing outside the Waikanae train station in his army fatigues, George Poa tried to light a cigarette.

He never took a puff. Poa already knew the 28 kilometre-long chase was up, as the flashing blue and red lights caught up to him.

Poa was drunk and his girlfriend lay in bed 60km away, unaware he had led a pursuit at eye-watering speeds in an attempt to reach her.

Four-years later — freed from his past mistake, a year into a building apprenticeship, and with a news story from the saga ranking highly in a Google search of his name – Poa and his love, Karleena Poa-Byrne, now want to tell a story of redemption.

‘‘It’s very, very hard to ask for help. If you ever get the chance to, just get it out,’’ Poa says.

Alcohol is the constant theme in his story. Poa recalls being encouraged to have a beer by his grandfather, as a 12-year-old growing up in West Auckland.

At 25, he was a man with an alcohol issue and a young child. He wanted to be a better role model.

But, the army is no place to stop drinking. ‘‘There’s a bit of shenanigans that go on, on base. It certainly didn’t help the situation,’’ he says.

As a gunner, he learnt the required discipline but ‘‘there were some things they couldn’t change about me’’.

He felt trapped at Linton army base, unable to be with his young family – which now included a second child.

The relationship fell apart and he met his future wife somewhere in the midst. And he drank.

Through frustrating circumstances in July 2015, he was on backto-back operations and missed a break he hoped for – and therefore missed his child’s first birthday.

At the end of his tether, his sergeants sent him to the padre, a military chaplain, who offered only slight support. He went back to his room, to drink.

In August came a free weekend to travel to Wellington and see his girlfriend. But first, two-hours worth of beers. He felt fine to drive.

‘‘I was racing to make sure she didn’t crash out on me, before I got there’’.

. He was travelling at speeds up to 180kmh down State Highway 1, and had a blood-alcohol level later determined to be almost four-times the legal limit.

Before long the blue and red flashing lights were behind him.

By November he was in court, out of the army, and had an electronic bracelet strapped to his ankle for a sentence spanning four months.

‘‘It was a hard lesson to learn,’’ he says.

Poa-Byrne has been a firm – she calls it ‘‘brutal’’ – source of support since.

Families and partners of people who make such ‘‘big mistakes’’ should remember it’s never a life sentence, she says.

‘‘They don’t need the judgement, they need the support.’’

Poa says she’s the sole reason for his success. He kept on the straight and narrow, taking any work going with a recruitment firm.

He’s now a year into a building apprenticeship and his employer, Armstrong Downes, says Poa is a ‘‘model employee"

And he ended the excessive drinking. ‘‘That was the clarity,’’ he says. A rogue wave that came out of nowhere on the Wairarapa coast swept a group of fishermen and some of their vehicles into a river.

One of the people caught by the wave on Thursday afternoon had a medical event shortly after and died at the scene.

Four fishermen were whitebaiting at the mouth of the Mataikona River, about one hour’s drive from Masterton, when a massive swell sent a huge wave up the river mouth and over the sandbar.

One of the fishermen from Masterton, who did not want to be named, said he and his wife saw the big surge coming up the river and jumped on their quad bike to weight it down.

Despite being parked several metres from the river’s edge, the quad with its two passengers was washed off the sand.

‘‘It picked the quad up and threw us into the river.

‘‘We went upside down in the river and then scrambled around and my wife popped out of the water and I grabbed her and got her up onto the shore.’’

The woman suffered bruising and a burst eardrum from the incident.

The fisherman said it was the biggest rogue wave he had seen in six years of whitebaiting at the river mouth.

‘‘It was a rogue wave out of nowhere. It was just a massive surge of water and it was the only one.’’

Once they had recovered their vehicle from the river they went to assist another fisherman with his quad bike.

‘‘We had a bit of chat about the condition of our bikes and said ‘wow, that was a monster wave’,’’ he said.

A short time later they noticed the other man lying next to his quad and went over to help him.

Despite attempts to revive him with CPR the man did not recover.

His fishing companions were deeply saddened by his loss.

‘‘I’ve known him for a long time and it’s very sad. I don’t think any of us slept very well last night.’’

‘‘I was racing to make sure she didn’t crash out on me, before I got there’’

George Poa