Speech
Surf Lifesaving New Zealand
May I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand - English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language .
Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni - and as it is evening [sign].
May I specifically greet you: Jim Campbell and Graham Cullen, President and Chair respectively of Surf Lifesaving New Zealand; staff and volunteers of Surf Lifesaving New Zealand, BP Retail Manager Frank van Hattum and the other representatives from BP; distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for inviting me and my wife Susan to be with you tonight for the 2008 BP Surf Rescue Awards.
In addition to being here tonight as Governor-General and as Patron of Surf Life Saving New Zealand, we both have connections to the movement. Firstly, John Campbell and I both served together on the Council of the New Zealand Rugby League in the early 1980s.
But secondly, and more directly, Susan's brother Owen Sharpe, and his three sons are all long time members of the Piha Surf Life Saving Club.
For these and many other reasons, a comment by the renowned Kiwi author Maurice Shadbolt has a particular resonance for us. He wrote in his book about our country as follows:
"New Zealand begins with the sea and ends with the sea. Understand this and you begin to comprehend New Zealand and the New Zealander. The thundering surf is our frontier...."
Everyone who came to this country, before just a few decades ago, came by sea - in a waka or a ship. Many literally came through that "thundering surf" and landed on a beach.
It is therefore not surprising that the beach has a huge place in the New Zealand heart - and in the New Zealand lifestyle.
This happy national relationship with the beach may be one of the reasons why some New Zealanders display what one might call a cavalier disregard for the dangers of our beaches - and some of them, as all of us here are aware, can be very dangerous indeed.
Surf Lifesaving New Zealand literally saves New Zealanders from themselves at the beach.
It marks out and monitors the safe swimming spots. It provides rescue services. And it carries out education so that people, particularly children, are aware of how easy it is to get into trouble in the surf.
I am advised that in the past year, surf lifeguards saved more than fifteen hundred lives, made more than sixteen hundred first aid interventions, and completed more than 300 searches.
About 40,000 school children attend Beach Education programmes every year, and Surf Life Saving New Zealand provides classroom resources for those unable to attend.
This is an effort that has been going on for almost 100 years - with the centenary of surf life saving in New Zealand set for celebration in 2010. In that time, I am told that it is estimated surf lifeguards will have saved some 50,000 lives.
I would like to add thanks to the Surf Life Saving New Zealand organisation, and its sponsors, for the huge effort it makes on behalf of all New Zealanders.
And I would like to pay tribute in particular to the volunteer members of the organisation who give their time so freely to sustain this essential life saving service that our society so much relies upon.
As the late Sir Edmund Hillary said: "People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things." Surf Life Saving New Zealand proves that to be true many times over -every summer's day.
I would like to congratulate all those who will be receiving awards this weekend - and to wish Surf Lifesaving New Zealand all the best for its forthcoming centenary and the next 100 years beyond that.
On that note, I would like to wish everyone good health and fortitude in your endeavours in New Zealand's first language, Maori: No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.