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4 RAGLAN Chronicle
play whenever I get the chance. It might sound childish but not enough of us can let go of the modern day chains and simply go and play or explore. Raglan born-and-bred Kaa Dekker is passionate about both snowboarding and travel – so little wonder he’s thrilled to be one of 13 athletes selected to represent New Zealand at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria next March. The now Auckland-based 27 year old, who as a teen was able to get to the snow every winter with his Raglan family, has been snowboarding competitively for the past three seasons at Cardrona Alpine Resort near Wanaka. He’s currently training fortnightly at Auckland’s Snowplanet to be ready for Austria, where 3000 athletes with intellectual disabilities will compete across nine disciplines. “I’m very excited,” Kaa told the Chronicle this week. “I like travelling … and meeting new people.” His mother, Lisa Graham, who these days lives at Wainamu (Ocean) Beach, says Kaa has developed a penchant for air travel after having made frequent snowboarding trips to the South Island. He’s also now travelled twice across the Tasman and confesses he likes being something of a “jetsetter”. Just recently Kaa headed south, not to the skifields again but to Marlborough, to attend Outward Bound at Anakiwa, where he was described by his instructor as the “keen bean” of his course. “You really embraced everything about your time here at Outward Bound,” instructor Tui Kraal enthused of his attitude and sportsmanship. “You totally smashed it.” While growing up in Raglan, Kaa – who was better known locally by his middle
Kaa Decker has been selected for the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games name Tara (Tarawhati) – had early stints at both Whaingaroa Kohanga Reo and Raglan Area School. From the age of 8 he then attended a satellite class at Crawshaw School, then went on to Hamilton North Special School. For the past five years, Kaa’s thrived at Hohepa residential home in Titirangi, Auckland, where Lisa reckons he has a “wonderful” life. She says he’s quite independent while living in a flatting situation at Hohepa, and he does lots of different things – like cooking and making bread, being a bit of a handyman around the place and even running his own lawnmowing business. He’s also been involved in other
sports like basketball, swimming and soccer, so has “a good level of fitness and coordination”, as picked up in his report from Outward Bound. Now Kaa is fundraising through Special Olympics Auckland to help find the $15,000 cost each of the 13 Kiwi athletes needs to get to Austria. He’s hopeful of good support from Raglan people, who if they haven’t met him personally may know his parents, Lisa and AD, or his brothers, Rowan, Henry and Nick. Edith Symes *Go to www.specialolympics.org.nz to make a donation. Click on the 2017 World Winter Games button, click on Kaa Dekker and select the ‘Donate’ button.
Stranded pilots enjoy Raglan
Last week a group of pilots on their North Island coastal safari found themselves stranded in Raglan because of bad weather. There were seven planes and nine pilots, all in home-built microlite planes, hailing from the Canterbury Recreational Aircraft Club. “Of all the places we couldn’t have picked a better
place to be stranded,” said one of the pilots, Peter Small. Having experienced a beach landing on 90 Mile Beach before visiting Raglan, the pilots were on their way down to Whanganui as part of their North Island safari. “We’ve met some bloody good people… even got some free bourbons,” they said.