As a reward for their efforts, the two men are now nursing deep knife cuts to their hands.
Somewhat further down the scale of scumbag behaviour is last Monday's car break-in at Kerosene Creek. The overseas tourists' treasured valuables including passports were stolen, bringing their holiday to an abrupt end.
A similar level of scum-like behaviour, depending how you look at it, was the theft of two wrought-iron gates from a Christchurch home. A shocking blow for the family whose husband and father has terminal brain cancer.
How encouraging it is that the low-life who bring so much misery to the world are outnumbered by those who go to incredibly generous lengths to soften the blow. The donations of over $250,000 to the family of the lady who jumped in and thwarted the bag-snatcher is just one example.
Like many, I am sick to death of the actions of scumbags, who destroy the lives of others, but as long as we have the generous gestures of others, there is hope.
What a fantastic show of people to greet transtasman kayaker Scott Donaldson when he held a talk here in his home town on Tuesday evening. We don't need to repeat the despair he went through when his oh-so-close journey was beaten back by foul weather at the final stage.
Despite being dropped food and water and finally needing to be rescued after 84 days at sea, Scott has been regarded as a hero. Make no mistake, this was a meticulously planned voyage where the safety of the kayaker was paramount. His team were right on the nail, every moment of the trip, and had pledged to pull the plug - ah, perhaps "call a halt" would be a better choice of words - at any time should an emergency arise.
Those who heard Scott were quick to find that he is an extremely fit and disciplined character.
With surprisingly few callouses evident on his hands and a no-sugar diet en route, he claims to be fitter than ever, and he certainly looks it.
Mind management and task priority was certainly a key part of Scott's technique. Despite being elated by the sight of Mount Taranaki on the horizon, he emphasised how important it was to concentrate on the job at hand, reading the waves and manoeuvring his rudderless craft accordingly.
Needless to say, the audience were keen to know if Scott will have another go. He teasingly rounded off his address by saying that he certainly intends to go out and knock off the last 30 or so nautical miles of his epic voyage - "and also the other long bit leading up to that".
Smoke detectors. Within a week of going on about batteries in my last column, our household was woken up by - you guessed it - a flat battery warning. Perhaps we should bite the bullet and consider what a reader has done with the smoke detectors, had them connected to the main household power supply. Ideally, however, with a battery backup in case of a power failure.
• Brian Holden has lived in Rotorua for most of his life and has recently celebrated 10 years writing And Another Thing.
