Ex-Pilot, in Bathing Togs, Surprises Fiancee

Northern Advocate, 7 December 1946, Page 4

Ex-Pilot, in Bathing Togs, Surprises Fiancee

RANGITIKI ARRIVES...

• An English girl who arrived on the Rangitiki had an unusual meeting with her fiance, a former RNZAF pilot. Too impatient to greet her to await the berthing of the vessel, he put on a bathing costume and left Point Jern-

ingham in a canoe to meet the Rangitiki as she dropped anchor in the stream. Making the canoe fast to the anchor chain, he climbed up on to the deck by means of a hawser line.

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, This Day

With the assistance of sympathetic, if surprised, members of the crew, he located his fiancee, and, after excited greetings, she watched him scramble down the hawser, back to his canoe, in which he rowed away to await the opportunity of greeting her on the wharf

in more orthodox attire. The Rangitiki arrived in the stream at 6.30 p.rn. yesterday, but dicl not berth until this morning. She carried nearly 900 passengers, including 59 service personnel and 123 dependants. Also on board was a small party of Polish soldiers, who are eager to be reunited with their children eft the Pahiatua Polish Children’s Camp. They will see their children for the first time since early in tlie war. They were among those who, after imprisonment in Russia, were released to go to the Poles’ assembly centre in Turkestan, later joining the British forces in the Middle East.