Nelson Weekly Locally Owned and Operated
tuesday 6 September 2016
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Returned to sender Message in a bottle from Golden Bay found on Boulder Bank 18 months later
Andrew Board A message in a bottle found in the Chatham Islands last week has helped solve the mystery of another letter in a bottle found on Nelson’s Boulder Bank more than a decade ago. Cheryl Baird, of Richmond, and Sharon Gomulski, of Brightwater, found a message inside a plastic Coke bottle on the Boulder Bank while out for a walk on March 24, 2000. When they got home they read the note from a ten year old girl, who wrote that she had “long auburn hair with freckles on my face and my arms”. The message was thrown from the Pakawau Beach in Golden Bay 13 months earlier and the young girl finished her message by scribbling: “If you try to find me go to Pakawau and find a house that’s pink.” Cheryl and Sharon did, several times, but had no luck finding the pink house and over the years forgot about the message – until last week when an article which featured in several news outlets told the story of a Blenheim woman who threw a message in a bottle from Picton in 1995. It was found washed
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BRIGH BRIGHT FUTURE FOR FOR NELSON BOULDER BANK
Maria Gibney, left, is reunited with the message in a bottle she wrote as a ten year old with the two ladies who found it a year and a half later, Cheryl Baird, centre, and Sharon Gomulski. Insert: The journey that Maria’s message made. Photo: Andrew Board. up in the Chatham Islands last month. “When we saw the story on the Picton lady I said to Sharon, ‘do we still have our message in a bottle?” says Cheryl.
They did, and a quick Facebook search revealed the writer of the message immediately. “I couldn’t believe how easy it was after all these years. Of course, there was no Facebook
back then. But I put in her name and there she was, Maria Gibney.” Now 27, Maria, who lives in Tahunanui, vaguely remembers writing the note and says she
was stunned when Cheryl sent her a private message via Facebook. “I was like ‘whaaaaat?’ This is crazy.”
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