Taking a look at recent, positive, uplifting, news stories and yarns, from New Zealand and all around the world, to bring a smile and a bit of cheer.
Volunteers clean hiking huts
This is a really nice story that sheds light on the fantastic things achieved when ordinary people give up their time to make things better for people they will likely never meet. Anyone who has tramped the many increible routes scattered all over the country will attest to the comfort that comes from staying the night at a public owned hut after a day on the track. There are hundreds of these huts all over New Zealand and not all of them can be cleaned by government agencies, such as DoC. This is where volunteers step in.
“Among them is Suzie Bell, who moved from the UK to New Zealand in 2010. She soon discovered ‘tramping’ – or hiking – and recalls her amazement at coming across the huts for the first time. ‘The fact that there are these epic huts in the middle of nowhere that you can go and stay in for next to nothing, I was just blown away,’ she says. ‘I love the honesty box payment system in huts, the fact that everyone clears up after themselves and the total strangers that you meet, have dinner, play cards with and chat to,’ Bell says.
Bell wanted to give something back and joined the ‘Love our Huts’ cleaning campaign with her family. The initiative was started by New Zealand outdoor recreation advocacy group Federated Mountain Club (FMC). More than 300 people have signed up for the campaign, FMC says.” (Source: “‘Leave things better than you find them’: the volunteer army cleaning New Zealand’s remote hiking huts,” by Samantha Mythen, February 4, www.guardian.co.uk).
5 stars – a brilliant initiative that succeeds only because of truly selfless people – Total upside!
Doing the right thing should be rewarded
When I read this story I wondered, like I imagine everyone else did when they read it – what would I do in the same circumstances? Not everyone would do what a couple did when they found more than $200,000 in the ceiling and a court case in Christchurch is deciding whether they should be rewarded for doing ‘the right thing’.
“The couple, whose names are suppressed, found the mystery money sealed in plastic bricks tucked in insulation at their property in 2021. They reported the cash to the police who said the money should be forfeited because it was the proceeds of crime, probably from drug dealing.
At a High Court hearing on Monday, the couple’s lawyer Mike Lennard said they should keep the money because they had no part in any criminal activity and withholding the cash would discourage other people reporting similar finds to police. ‘It will send a message to people in my client’s position, don’t cooperate with the police, don’t tell the police, just spend it. Just pay cash for your groceries for the next few years,’ he said.” (Source: “Christchurch couple fight to keep more than $200k cash they found in the ceiling of their home,” By Rachel Graham, February 9, www.rnz.co.nz).
5 stars – I applaud the honesty of the couple for reporting and handing the money over to the police. I hope at the very least they are given a portion of it for being honest citizens.
Incredibly loyal dog motivates law change
Lastly comes a touching story from São Paulo, Brazil concerning a recent law change named after a very special dog, Bob Coveiro, that attended its dead owner’s grave for over a decade.
“The new law – already being informally referred to as the Bob Coveiro (the Gravedigger) Law, in tribute to its inspiration – was signed this week by the governor of Brazil’s most populous state, the conservative Tarcísio de Freitas. The law ‘recognises the emotional bond between guardians and their pets’, according to the state government, and authorises dogs and cats to be buried in graves and family plots whose concessions belong to their owners’ families.
Bob’s former owner died in 2011. After her burial, the brown long-haired mixed-breed dog reportedly refused to leave her side at a cemetery in Taboão da Serra, a city of 285,000 inhabitants about 12 miles from the state capital, São Paulo.” (Source: “São Paulo names new law after dog that stayed by owner’s grave for 10 years,” by Tiago Rogero, February 12, www.guardian.co.uk).
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