Buoy’s own story as Aussie voyager crosses Tasman
It sounds like something from a children’s book: A buoy crosses the Tasman Sea and ends up in the hands of Ernie the Kumara King after an ‘‘epic journey’’ that took three years.
However, it’s anything but a fairytale. The buoy is believed to have broken free of its Australian moorings in 2015 before being washed ashore during heavy rain and gales from the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Fehi.
The buoy will soon be on display in a makeshift maritime museum located on the Kumara Box, a property owned by Dargaville farmer Warren Suckling, aka Ernie the Kumara King.
Suckling said a family staying at his bach in Motukahakaha Bay, just north of Taupo Bay, saw the large buoy bob into shore on February 1.
Faded stickers reading ‘‘NSW Roads and Maritime Services’’ and ‘‘Solar Technology Australia’’ offered a clue to its origin.
It was originally located at the Hastings River near Port Macquarie, about 400km north of Sydney, and is believed to have broken free of its moorings during flooding of May 2005.
Suckling reckons the buoy weighs at least 200kg. It took five people to get it on to his ute.
Suckling has been housing the buoy at his place and was keen to add it to the maritime museum he established on his property, which contains a vast collection of shells, fish, shipwreck parts, kauri gum and fossils which are on display to the public.
Suckling is thrilled that Technology Australia says welcome to keep the buoy.
‘‘It’s fantastic to add to my collection,’’ he said.
‘‘To think it’s come all on its own, all that way ... it’s been out there floating around among the ships and things for nearly three years.’’ Solar he is