Hectic night on water for taxi drivers

By Alison Horwood

The tranquil waters of Endeavour Inlet in the Marlborough Sounds stirred on New Year's Eve, 1997.

As 140 boats jostled into place in the shallow bay, the still water and air were cut by the criss-cross of wakes and the hum of engines; hundreds of boaties were taking water taxis ashore, to celebrate at Furneaux Lodge.

The activity building on the sea that sunny afternoon was matched by the bustle at the lodge and its grounds as 1500 revellers gathered to see in the New Year.

Some of the water taxi drivers called to give evidence in court have sniggered or shrugged their shoulders when asked to estimate how many trips they did that night.

One, Donald Anderson, said it was at least 100, but it was difficult to tell.

"It was a hectic night. The chronicle order of events of things is very hard to tie down exactly," he said in evidence.

Despite the frenzy of that evening 18 months ago, the drivers are being asked to recall in minute detail a single ride crucial to the murder charges against Scott Watson.

Water taxi driver Guy Wallace is yet to give evidence, but the Crown's case is that he took Olivia Hope, Ben Smart and Watson to his boat, Blade.

The young Blenheim couple have never been seen since that night.

The court heard on Thursday how a fellow-driver, Mr Anderson, told police he took a man resembling Watson to Blade at about 2.30 am. When asked to pick out the man in a police montage of photos, he selected Watson and another man as looking similar.

However, Mr Anderson said in court that he saw footage on television last year of Watson walking down the street, but not clearly. "The person who was walking down the street did not look like the person I had given a ride to."

The court heard this week that at midday on December 31, 1997, Furneaux was operating one inflatable Naiad to ferry people to shore. That afternoon, another two were inflated to cope with demand.

It was an eve of celebration, but for the five water taxi drivers it seemed nothing short of a night of hell. For most, their day started at 8 am, setting up the garden bar, mixing drinks, ushering boats onto moorings. Most knocked off between 4 am and 6 am the following day, and were lucky if they had taken a couple of short breaks.

One driver, Matthew Wilkinson, told the court he had to change into gumboots and waterproof pants because of a leak in his water taxi. Another Naiad had a slow leak and had to be pumped up.

The hand-held marine-radio system used for boaties to order a taxi broke down after midnight, and very soon the sounds of horns, whistles, and yells filled the air as people hailed rides. Between midnight and 2 am, queues of people jostled on the jetty.

In order to cope with the crowds, the drivers divided the bay into specific areas. Security guards hauled one man from a water taxi when he refused to leave after being told the Naiad was not going in his direction and he should take another.

Some drivers began to lose patience with their drink-addled charges.

Mr Anderson told the court a young couple got into his boat just after midnight and told him they couldn't remember the name of their boat. He was instructed to head out the back of the inlet, but part-way recalls the couple recognising their yacht, Tamarack.

Tamarack, chartered by Olivia and her friends, was described as a "very noisy yacht." One driver, Robert Mullen, estimates he did about eight trips out to it during the evening and early morning.

Mr Anderson told one man who had been left behind that he would have to find his own way back to Tamarack

"The people off Tamarack were very demanding on our services," he told the court this week. "At various times I had asked them to gather up all their people on shore to do a ride together."

Mr Anderson said the lighting on the water that night was good, but by early morning, after people had gone to bed and turned off their boat lights, it was hard to see. Despite slowing his Naiad and keeping an eye out for dinghies at the backs of boats, he nearly had two collisions.

Mr Anderson also told the court how in the early morning of New Year's Day a young couple asked him for a ride to a jetty on the other side of Endeavour Inlet.

"I told them I wasn't meant to take people to Solitude and told them there was a walking track around."

The couple set off towards Furneaux Lodge, but returned with another driver, Mr Wallace. Mr Anderson watched the couple and a second couple climb aboard the Naiad with Mr Wallace.

Mr Anderson said he recognised the young woman wanting to go to Solitude - she had a short, bob haircut - because he went to school with her.

The court has heard that Amelia Hope, Olivia's older sister, and a friend were in the water taxi with Guy Wallace when it stopped at Tamarack to drop them off. It was at that point that Olivia and Ben allegedly climbed aboard and disappeared shortly afterward with another passenger in the water taxi, Watson.