KEY POINTS:
A small piece of the icebergs that created a frenzy of interest as they travelled past New Zealand is set to help a man battling for his life against cancer.
Dunedin fisherman Keiri "Boyboy" Samuel, 33, found out in October that he had a brain tumour after suffering seizures and having problems with his memory and speech.
Most of the golf-sized tumour was removed but now he faces a huge bill for the unfunded drug temozolomide, which is used to help kill the remaining cancer cells during his therapy.
To cover the estimated $46,000 drug treatment, Mr Samuel's family have tried desperately to come up with innovative fundraising ideas.
His uncle, Terry Broad, who has taken him under his roof since his surgery, got thinking about the icebergs hitting the headlines as they floated off the South Island's east coast.
"It passed my mind that someone would try selling [an iceberg] on the Trade Me [auction website]," Dr Broad said. "And you guessed it, a couple of days later one of our country's budding comedians had an iceberg on Trade Me. It was fun, it was a joke, but that was all.
"Trade Me [removed the auction] because, among other reasons, the seller couldn't prove ownership. That got me thinking, 'Perhaps we could put together a nice package and sell the iceberg as a fundraiser for Keiri to auction on Trade Me'."
The family were able to get their hands on the melted remains of a piece of an iceberg that had been analysed by Otago University. But they needed a story to prove ownership and so they drew on the family's Maori heritage in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.
"We needed to develop a story that wouldn't step on anyone's toes," Dr Broad said.
The family came up with the name of a mock iwi covering Antarctica, Tiro o te Moana ki te Tonga. It then named the iceberg Haupapa Kahurangi, or Blue Ice, and said it was owned by the iwi.
The family put together a package of Haupapa Kahurangi water in a cut glass decanter, a mock commemorative certificate of title, a framed photograph of the iceberg that the water came from, and a genuine water quality analysis showing the amazing purity of the water.
The auction on Trade Me ends on Friday. The bid had reached $350 yesterday, but Mr Samuel's family hope it will push past the $1000 mark.
* www.keirisamuel.spaces.live.com.
* www.TradeMe.co.nz (search for Haupapa iceberg)
