The "Irish" kayak-carrier

Yesterday, there was a highly amusing item in the local paper.

UP THE CREEK WITHOUT A CLUE, ran the headline.  "It defies belief," the item began--

"but this is what police came across on a busy Coromandel road.

"To make matters worse, the Irish tourist driving this car could not see the danger in tying his kayak crossways on his car roof."

Today, the story is different.

POLICE QUICK TO BACKPEDAL OVER 'IRISH TOURIST' REPORT, runs the headline.

The man, it seems, was not Irish at all.  He comes from Auckland.  And, the crossways kayak was a nasty accident, caused when high winds blew off an important part of his roof-rack.  He pulled over within ten metres, he says, and a police officer stopped to help, until called away to the scene of a serious accident.

"Police have apologised to anyone of Irish descent who may have been offended," the report runs on.

Policing manager Freda Grace said: "In this case, while the man was a visitor to the region, he was not Irish and as a result Waikato police wish to offer an unreserved apology to any persons of Irish descent we may have offended."

I wonder if she managed to deliver her speech with a perfectly straight face.

The driver, Jonathan Waters, was not appeased.  "So apparently I am an Irish tourist who decided that tying my kayak onto the car sideways was the plan A of the day," he wrote on Facebook. "Good old Kiwi cops and their direct quotes of immense untruthfulness."