There’s a theory that there’s only six degrees of separation between people around the world. Want to get a message or a parcel to someone anywhere in the world, you should be able to manage it by using personal connections. In New Zealand it’s more like two degrees of separation, a fact I put to the test this weekend.
I spent an hour with friends in Kaikoura yesterday. My daughter left her handbag there, a fact we didn’t discover until arriving in Christchurch, two hours later. I rang up Ralph and Ruth to check that the bag was there. I then rang up Rob, my wife’s brother in Kaikoura, to ask if he knew of anyone coming down to Christchurch today. Indeed he did. Rob met up with Ralph and Ruth at a combined churches picnic to collect the bag, and then gave it to friends who live only two minutes away from the motel we’re staying in. The bag arrived a few minutes ago. Sweet as!