All is not lost thanks to guiding GPS

Make sure to tune in to Adam Green and Megan Banks on The Hits Hawke’s Bay from 6am to 9am, Monday to Friday.

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3,560km. Alaska to Tasmania. At just five months old a bartailed godwit set off one chilly October 13 and for 11 straight days soared over the Earth, touching down11 long days later in Ansons Bay, Australia.

Utilising the knowledge passed downgenetically, the trade winds, the Earth’s magnetic field and an inbuilt sense ofdirection second to none.

Sometimes windingup all theway on our doorstep inthe Ahuriri

Estuary, these incredible birds are a testament to nature’s ability to provide directional prowess to rival GPS.

Whythen, with such abilities available innaturewas I born the exact opposite of a godwit?

Ona recent jaunt to Hastings to grab a sick child from her mother’s place of employment, I figured if I just turned left, then right, I should be on track back to Napier. Howwrong I was.

Just like the young godwit has been blessedwith the ability to head home, I too seemto have been cursed with the ability to turn thewrongway every time an option is presented to me.

Driving down the now unfamiliar streets and hoping and wishing for the large blue road signswith Napier on, Iwondered justhowlong I’d been stuck with this affliction.

WasI, like the long-flying bird, born with this innate inability to findmy wayanywhere? Had I brought itupon myself?

It couldn’t be genetic, my father being a living roadmap.

Wecould drive somewhereonce and return 10years later to immediately, and GPS-free, find our wayto our destination. Nor could it havecomefrommy circumstances, mywife able to formanalmost incomprehensible tomemental bird’s-eye view of the areawe are driving in.

“Whichwayis the ocean?” she will ask exasperatedly ,“U mm mm up there?” I’ll hazard a guess. “Literally the opposite way,” her frustrated response. I just cannot get it right.

Thankfully for me, GPShas been myguide inmanyan unfamiliar situation, but I dowonderhowI wouldhave fared inyears gone by, as even reading a roadmap I struggle to orientate myself.

Perhaps, inthose generations before, I could have trapped and tamed a godwit to sit in the passenger seat, and, turn by turn, point its beak in thedirection of home, whoknows, maybethe GPS-Godwit Positioning System could have been a hit!

I too seem to have been cursed with the ability to turn the wrongway every time an option is presented to me.