Our little faithful dog Tommy has been part of Driftwood Ecotours ever since our first kayak touched the water six years ago. In his hay day Tommy was known to climb on board even before we had a chance to launch!

His favourite position is at the prow, as far forward as he dare. He is a great asset to kayak beginners, somehow giving them confidence.

Now in his more senior years Tommy has been known to be so relaxed that he has slipped into the water having nodded off and lost all sense of time and place.

He works for a modest pay of any home made bacon and egg pie and muffins that he can coerce out of our soft hearted clientele. He usually has no problem as he inherited the art of looking wistfully at you  from his mother Misty.

Tommy is an amazing dog because he recovered from a potentially fatal accident with a horse float when he was younger, leaving him very disabled. The combination of open spaces for chasing rabbits and swimming in the nearby river has developed his muscles back to good working order.

Tommy somehow wiggled his way onto the logo and then appeared again on our signage photo.

One of Will’s recent clients said that she did not like dogs but she loved Tommy, she later emailed to say that she loved meeting us all but especially Tommy and that if he should go missing he would probably be at her house.

Here is a short photo tribute to the dog who has made the visit of many travellers to Marlborough, New Zealand memorable.