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Prologue

My name is Thomas McCallum and my story is about a journey through sixty years. I am writing this prologue last as my memory is beginning to falter, and I am not sure if I will be able to complete my story. It is a wonderful story about the passage of my life through joy and sadness, high mountains and deep ravines – the testimony of a life which leaves me with few regrets.

My journey begins as a small boy with much love for his family and a passion for all things in nature, growing up on the family farm with his companion dog Skipper. I am going to tell you about meeting Rose, the love of my life, and how our love overcame our differing beliefs and in time merged them into a wonderful understanding of spirituality. I am also going to tell you how a little boy came into our lives in circumstances beyond our control, but with an extraordinary conclusion.

I am going to take you to several countries and to an amazing place where events took us to terrifying heights of emotion as we risked our freedom. These events had a long-lasting impact on the rest of our lives, and those of our families. There are weddings and there are funerals in the magnificent settings of Queenstown, Wanaka and the Crown Ranges of New Zealand’s South Island.

Even though I am writing this now, my story is unfinished. I am really sorry about that, but my health is failing me and I think that I may soon depart this life. It has been a life of colour and fragrance, like the changing seasons of Otago, the winter snow, the emerging life of springtime, the warm glow of summer, incredible colours of the deciduous trees in autumn, and our wonderful lake surrounded by magnificent mountains. I am now happy to die a contented man.

My story begins in April 1949. I was aged ten and lived on a farm in Otago, New Zealand, with my mother, father and sister Rachel.