Thursday, May 16, 2013

Stand Aside, Sting!

A message in a bottle has turned up in Christchurch - not floating in on the tide, but beneath a house in Fendalton.
A former Christchurch woman Sarah Turbott hid the message in an empty Gilbey's Gin bottle in 1958,
when she was 12yrs.old. Her little time capsule has been discovered during earthquake repairs to her family home.
The note instructed the finder to "give this to a museum and tell them to look for me if under one hundred years has passed since 1958".
The bottle was discovered by a labourer when the house was being repaired. Sarah was tracked down, now living in Auckland. She said she often thought of the secret message and said the discovery gave her a great buzz: "I'm so thrilled. I vividly remember putting it there with my brother. I've been back to look at the house a couple of times in the last few years, and every time I've been there I've thought of the bottle and wondered if anyone would find it."
The letter also states: "This is the year the Americans launched their first successful sputnik (satellite)".
Cuurent house owner Jeremy Richardson says it's touching to find a piece of his home's past: "It is a wonderful piece of history. We have always loved older houses and we've been restoring this house to its former glory, so it was rather touching to find this message in a bottle from a little girl."
Turbott lived in the home from when she was 3 until she married at 21. She'd like her children to see the time capsule.

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