NATASHA GORDON/NZ Herald
A young man’s memorial seat was miraculously discovered months after being swept out to sea in the severe Tasman flooding, despite being bolted to a concrete pad.
On Friday, 21-year-old Jack Robertson’s memorial seat was spotted hundreds of kilometres away on the Kāpiti Coast, after it disappeared in early July from a private property in Golden Bay. Jack was found dead in 2018.
Jack’s mother, Jo-Anna McKay, told the Herald that the specific location where the chair was found was very sentimental.
“I’d like to say how special it is that Jack has ended up facing Kāpiti Island, which is where his grandparents are buried, at the cemetery in Waikanae,” she said.
“He’s come to say hello. It’s remarkable. It’s amazing. Like, very emotional.”
Before it was swept away, the special seat sat on a local farmer’s land, she said.
The farmer had told her that the flooding in July was “unprecedented” because the floodwaters reached the chair that was perched on high land.
“Jack’s chair was quite high; he’s never seen the water come up that high, and off he went on his adventure.”
Jack’s sister-in-law made a desperate Facebook post on July 14, sharing the news of the missing bench.
They received a message from a family who discovered the chair and googled the name on the plaque, and the “missing chair” post popped up.
“I had a feeling it might [be found] like I thought that Jack was just off on another adventure.
“I didn’t think he’d travel that far, though,” Jo-Anna said.
A local trucking firm is going to bring his chair back to the family. The young man’s chair was made by Weka Workshop in Golden Bay. The plaque said he loved to swim in the river.
“He passed away when he was 21, and he loved to swim in the river. That was one of his favourite pastimes, which is why we placed his chair there. He was a good guy,” she said.
Jo-Anna said she looked forward to having the chair back and often used to visit Jack’s chair on her lunch break, but its new location is yet to be decided.
“The chair will come home for a while, and we’ll get him sanded and sorted and then, you know, he might like a different location now, so we’ll see.”
