Terrible shock this weekend: Tui Slade has died.

I worked with Tui in my first job in journalism, on Radio 4ZA in Invercargill, at the end of 1984. I couldn't wait to get out of the place and managed after a seemingly interminable 18 months. But I always kept in touch with Tui -- she came and visited me in Edinburgh after I moved here, and while I never went back to Invercargill I did compromise on one visit to NZ by meeting her in Te Anau. We went sailing on the lake in her brother's yacht, a terrifying jaunt once a squall blew up and we realised that each of us was expecting the other to a more experienced sailor than ourself!

I got Tui's Christmas card last week, as I mentioned, and in it she told about her most recent tramping exploits, round part of Stewart Island and the new Hump Ridge Track near Tuatapere. And yes, she asked me to write. But by the time I got the card it was already too late, she was unconscious and close to death. I didn't know that of course -- I got an email from my brother yesterday breaking the news, and another one today from another ex-Invercargill friend (kia ora Bill). I feel bereft.