Lightening causes heartbreaking fire

Easter Monday 11am, horror struck for Ron & Joy Olds. Their beloved boat shed up in flames after 2 strikes of lightening & the volunteer rural firefighters unable to get the blaze under control for several hours.

Ron (81) & Joy (76) from KeriKeri, built their precious boat “Zora” from the shed over a 9 year period. She was pulled out of the water in 2021 to complete repairs & get her ready to sell.

Thankfully Zora was not in the shed. However, it contained several parts of Zora, all of Ron’s tools (including all farm equipment) & their valued travel memorabilia.

In amongst all of this heartache, Ron has just been discharged from hospital after having spinal surgery & Joy managed to pull a ligament in her knee (after fainting in the hospital waiting room). So they are both worse for wear!

Unfortunately they did not have insurance, as their only income is the pension (which doesn’t go far in todays living costs).

With Zora out of the water (still pending repairs) & a farm still to maintain, they are completely at a loss as to what to next…

- Ron has no tools to complete Zora,

- They have no lawn mower(s) to mow their 3+ hectares of land,

- Everything they had in their second home / storage / workspace is gone,

- A massive clean up is involved,

- A new shed needs to be built…. The list continues!

If you can please spare a few dollars to help them get back on their feet, it would mean the world!