Commuters may have noticed the absence of affable Go Bus driver Sonny Tavake the past few weeks, but he’ll be back doing his regular two round trips a day between Raglan and Hamilton – just as soon as he’s finished competing in the Invictus Games, being held in Germany right now.
For Sonny, a Kiwi of Cook Island descent, the Games are the culmination of three months of hard training that he’s fitted in between his trips back and forth over the divvy.
“Hammering it every day, every chance I get,” he told the Chronicle of his preparation for this international multisport event for armed forces servicemen and women, both serving and veterans like himself.
Far from concentrating on just the one discipline, his preparation has taken in everything from archery, rowing and power-lifting through to table tennis, wheelchair rugby and basketball – some of it in the gym with a trainer before getting behind the wheel for that first daily bus run to Raglan, some after work and played as team sports.
Invictus, he says proudly, is all about competitors brought together through serving in the forces and now uniting through sport.
Sonny’s keen to “get the name out there” because, he says, most people don’t know about these Games. The annual event – which this year involves 550 competitors from 21 nations in 10 different sporting challenges – is all about inspiring the recovery of wounded, injured, or sick personnel.
He’s a survivor himself and something of a hero; one of three soldiers from the New Zealand Defence Force who was awarded in 1999 with a bravery medal for helping save the lives of others during a training exercise that went wrong on Mt Ruapehu.
Sonny – in his 20s at the time of the tragedy – suffered frostbitten hands after digging a snow trench among other things to shelter their group of 11 students who were left exposed on the mountainside in a nightmare of snow, ice, and strong winds during an unexpected storm.
After the ordeal Sonny was flown to Devonport Naval Base for compression chamber treatment which saved his hands – “thank God for that!” he says – but left one without the full range of motion.
Sonny says it was a small price to pay considering only five of the group survived the storm. It was the greatest loss of life within the NZ Defence Force in a single event since World War ll.
It’s an experience Sonny reckons has shaped his life, making him look at things “differently”. The now 56 year old is grateful to be alive, and has an obvious can-do attitude that stands him in good stead at work and play. “I don’t focus on the liability of this (left) hand.”
The value of the Invictus Games is that it demonstrates life beyond disability to people like him, he adds.
Work wise, Sonny loves the bus-driving and prides himself on knowing his regular commuters on the Raglan route.
“I have a good relationship with the passengers … and, sure, some of the school kids get up to mischief but I like mischief,” he laughs. “I respect them and they respect me.”
Long time local Leon Wiki was the last passenger to get off the bus when the Chronicle caught up with Sonny at the Raglan West terminal one morning before he left for the Games.
They had a bit of a laugh together as Sonny had taken the backpacking Leon into Hamilton a few days earlier for a “winter walk” down-country, and here he was returning.
“They’re not all as friendly as Sonny,” Leon joked before shaking Sonny’s hand and heading home.
By Edith Symes
