TOP TANE

Sometimes people just follow their gut instinct and take a risk and do something out of their comfort zone.

Derek Fox and some of his mates did just that - Last week , armed with a huge BBQ - Tunutunu from Flaxmere and promises of much food they drove from Hawkes Bay to Christchurch to feed those affected by the quake. They headed to the less well off parts of town like Aranui.

And they started cooking , and they flipped burgers and rolled sausages, thousands and thousands of them.

And there were mussels and kina and some beautiful smoked eel.

Derek says he reckons they put some warm kai into the pukus of a few thousand people, and there was also the korero that just happens when people join together at a common table.

Foxy will report on what he saw and experienced in a special Earthquake edition of Mana Magazine.

Derek says many of his mates supported their trip which came about after he visited Christchurch two days after the quake. He saw that the efforts were centred on the central city and decided that he could do a little bit to help those in the suburbs.

So he rounded up a posse and headed south. As Derek says it was a tiny attempt to live up to the proverb, "he aha te mea nui o te ao Maku e ki he tangata he tangata he tangata,"

So Derek and his band, joins the cast of thousands of people around the country who downed tools and headed to Christchurch to lend a hand, or those who stood in kitchens and baked till they emptied the pantry, or filled containers of food at Marae to be sent south, or the people with hammers and tools who went door to door to do the little things to make peoples lives a little more comfortable - kiwis all.