Christchurch - From CentrePoint on Colombo Motel: Mr12 and the Drain

Luckily when Mr12 and his skateboard parted company this morning, it was his skateboard that ended up down the drain…..

“Tamati said that we should make the most of the good weather while it lasts” was the reason mr12 decided to skateboard to school today.

But he was soon back home saying his skateboard had gone into a drain and was sitting in water more than a metre down. Now anyone with a mr/miss12 in the house knows that stories are not always as they actually may be so it was with a dose of salt I took this news.

I asked for a repeat and he said he’d been skating along, got caught on some rubble and went flying, him to the ground and the skateboard into an open drain! Gulp, I thought at least it was the skateboard that went into the drain! But it still seemed just too surreal! An open drain?

After securing the motel I headed off the 80 odd metres to where the “drain” was.

Sure enough there was a drain without a cover. Peering in I could see the skateboard sitting serenely in the drain water, probably about 1½ metres below the road level.

Mr12 wanted skateboard back so I told him to dive in head first while I hold his school shirt. Funnily enough he was hesitant but we had to get on with it! School was starting soon! It was looking to be a bit tricky but then a passerby stopped and offered to help saying, “I’ve done it before.” Made me wonder just how many drains in Christchurch don’t have covers at the moment!

So we both grabbed a leg, upended mr12 and lowered him in! Simple! He reached down and plucked the skateboard out of the drain water. We then pulled the legs with body and skateboard attached out of the drain and sent mr12 off to school….on his bicycle. Hopefully there aren’t any open drains big enough to swallow that!

Epilogue: Dad got to pull the skateboard to bits to hopefully stop it from rusting too much but I think this might be an insurance job!