Putting a kontiki out at Waihi Beach often at 2am and 3am has been the best cure for Heather Bustard's insomnia since her husband of 50 years Graham died in 2009.
Instead of counting sheep, this fisher chick would rather count fish.
Looking at the stormy sea lapping the stairs down to the beach, Heather says, "I'm not going out in that, it's going to be shocking."
"I better go and have a glass of wine instead," she says with the cheekiest grim.
There were lots of "Hi Heather" and "hellos" from locals checking the sea conditions; one said, "you're not going out in that are you"?
Heather turned 80 in May and has lived at the beach for 33 years. She's a bit of an icon and regularly pushes her specially made trolley onto the beach with her electric kontiki on board.
Heather Bustard. Photo / Chris Steel
Before the storm that brought king tides, Heather was catching well and going out twice. "Now I'll be doing stuff called maintenance and housework, it's terrible," she chuckles.
Heather's got her spot on the beach and goes out at dusk and dawn no matter what season. She baits 25 hooks and reckons mullet is the best bait.
"I've used squid for 10 years, but this year decided the fish had changed their diet. Somebody else had a good catch and I asked them what bait they used."
Seventeen is the most fish she's ever caught.
"The inspectors know me, so you can't ever cheat."
Most of the fish she catches is given away to locals. Pip and Jo Coombes from the Surf Shack asked if she could get them some gurnard for a special pie they were making. One night she saw a young man on the beach with a light above his chest and asked him what it was.
"He was a plumber and said it was a heated jacket." She liked the idea of it being heated, so she has one now.
Heather's lost 12 kontikis in 12 years and got eight back, that either washed up or people had phoned her. One came back into 3 Mile Creek.
During Covid last year she got it stuck in the same place. She had to ask someone to go out on a surfboard and undo it from the log.
"Insurance paid up four times, but they don't think I'm a very good risk anymore."
Logs and all sorts float around out there and there's lots of brown kelp, she says.
"I changed to a 40lb breaking strain, but if you do get stuck on something and can't get it off, the nice men at Coastguard and the Surf Club help me out.
"Any fish on there they can take it. I'm just happy to get it back. Most people are honest cos it has a phone number on it."
Heather loves children. While she has three grown-up children, six grandchildren and 4 ½ great-grandchildren, she also looks after Indian couple Dipika and Pravin Patel's two sons, Nishi and Shiv.
The Patels had been in New Zealand for only two years when they took over the Waihi Beach Dairy in Seaforth Rd. They couldn't speak English and didn't know a soul. Heather has looked after the boys since Nishi was 1, and Shiv was a newborn. Most people who came to the dairy had small children. She's had kids from Israel, South Africa, Maori, a cross-section coming to play, and they often come back to the beach during school holidays.
"I like it," she says.
During Covid she was in their family bubble, so didn't have to go to the supermarket. She could also give fish away. "I enjoyed that the most."
The Patel family have taken Heather to India three times. She has spent time at their village, Simalgan, in the state of Gujarat.
Heather says she was well looked after and has got to know many of them. The last time she visited was in 2019 for a knee replacement.
Nishi is now 15 and attends Katikati College. Both boys are good at fishing. Nishi says having Heather has helped them to speak English.
She plays lots of board games with Shiv, 9, who says, "she is very kind and a very wise woman."
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