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Lightning damage to telephone cables
My Story
DescriptionWHATAROA
Ninety miles [145km] South of Greymouth is Whataroa and four staff from Greymouth, which included me, had to go there to repair telephone cables, damaged after being struck by lightning. When copper cables are hit by lightning, the copper melts and pin sized holes are blown out through the lead sheath. We isolated the damaged section of cable and re-laid a replacement length, and we then spliced the old and the new sections together. We were all finished apart from filling in the holes where the cables were joined. That evening, we had a bit of a session at the Whataroa hotel, where we were staying. After tea I couldn’t drink beer as it tasted sour, so I decided to try Rum and Raspberry, like my Foreman was drinking. Not bad at all, so I had quite a few and we were joined by two Housemaid/Waitresses in the bar after they had finished work. Was a fun night, until I wanted to go and sit down on the toilet. I had gone into and locked the cubicle door. While I was in there I got the hic cups, which caused me to be sick, just sitting there, I was spewing up red peas, red cabbage, red everything, all red from the Raspberry.
In a drunken stupor I must have gone to sleep sitting in my mess. Not very nice, eh!
My workmates missed me after a while and realised I was in the cubicle, and banged on the door which eventually woke me up. They kept telling me to open the door, but although I could hear them, I was so drunk I couldn’t move. I was paralytic. They broke the cubicle door open and threw me into bed clothes and all and as I found out the next morning, they had made no attempt to clean me up. “Panic,” I couldn’t find my teeth, but they finally turned up in a drawer in my room. Bacon, sausages and eggs for breakfast. “Yum,” But on this particular morning I couldn’t face it, so I went out and sat in the truck, with the window down, wind and rain blowing in my face.
After the other guys finished their breakfast, we went out to our work site and my Foreman told me to bail the water out of the hole, before we could backfill it. No problem, until my head got too low, and everything spun around and I fell head first into the water. One of the guys pulled me out and took me back to the hotel and dumped me on the still unmade bed I had earlier vacated.
One of the housemaids that had been drinking with us the previous night came into the room to make up the bed saw me and laughed. Her laugh, to my ears, sounded a hideous cackle that echoed through my head. Never again! From that day on and for about 30 years the smell of Raspberry almost made me sick bringing back bad memories. As the driver, I had to drive the truck back to Greymouth, as my nice workmates, full of sympathy for me, refused to help me in my condition.
ContributorBrian McIntyreDate of story eventsBetween 1st January 1960 and 31st December 1960Map[1]
Ninety miles [145km] South of Greymouth is Whataroa and four staff from Greymouth, which included me, had to go there to repair telephone cables, damaged after being struck by lightning. When copper cables are hit by lightning, the copper melts and pin sized holes are blown out through the lead sheath. We isolated the damaged section of cable and re-laid a replacement length, and we then spliced the old and the new sections together. We were all finished apart from filling in the holes where the cables were joined. That evening, we had a bit of a session at the Whataroa hotel, where we were staying. After tea I couldn’t drink beer as it tasted sour, so I decided to try Rum and Raspberry, like my Foreman was drinking. Not bad at all, so I had quite a few and we were joined by two Housemaid/Waitresses in the bar after they had finished work. Was a fun night, until I wanted to go and sit down on the toilet. I had gone into and locked the cubicle door. While I was in there I got the hic cups, which caused me to be sick, just sitting there, I was spewing up red peas, red cabbage, red everything, all red from the Raspberry.
In a drunken stupor I must have gone to sleep sitting in my mess. Not very nice, eh!
My workmates missed me after a while and realised I was in the cubicle, and banged on the door which eventually woke me up. They kept telling me to open the door, but although I could hear them, I was so drunk I couldn’t move. I was paralytic. They broke the cubicle door open and threw me into bed clothes and all and as I found out the next morning, they had made no attempt to clean me up. “Panic,” I couldn’t find my teeth, but they finally turned up in a drawer in my room. Bacon, sausages and eggs for breakfast. “Yum,” But on this particular morning I couldn’t face it, so I went out and sat in the truck, with the window down, wind and rain blowing in my face.
After the other guys finished their breakfast, we went out to our work site and my Foreman told me to bail the water out of the hole, before we could backfill it. No problem, until my head got too low, and everything spun around and I fell head first into the water. One of the guys pulled me out and took me back to the hotel and dumped me on the still unmade bed I had earlier vacated.
One of the housemaids that had been drinking with us the previous night came into the room to make up the bed saw me and laughed. Her laugh, to my ears, sounded a hideous cackle that echoed through my head. Never again! From that day on and for about 30 years the smell of Raspberry almost made me sick bringing back bad memories. As the driver, I had to drive the truck back to Greymouth, as my nice workmates, full of sympathy for me, refused to help me in my condition.
ContributorBrian McIntyreDate of story eventsBetween 1st January 1960 and 31st December 1960Map[1]
West Coast New Zealand History (13th Jun 2015). Lightning damage to telephone cables. In Website West Coast New Zealand History. Retrieved 27th Apr 2026 03:44, from https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/911