The Hedgehog Kid

Dave Blair is "the Hedgehog Kid." "I came into the world of wildlife as a five-year-old when my father bought an 83 acre farm in Taranaki. It was here I began to live in the world of animals and birds and begin an adventurous life because of them. They became my escape. From the moment I saw the hawk in the sky, I wanted to fly. With my over imaginative friend Lawrence, it became our dream to travel and hunt in Canada and Africa. Lawrence died young, so his dream to hunt the world died with him. For money we hunted hedgehogs at a shilling a snout, so they called us "The Hedgehog Kids". Underage I joined the army to fight in the Middle East, to escape to adventure, but the war was won in a week, instead I went to the city. There I worked on the railways and wharves, in the freezing works, at a brass foundry and a fertiliser works. I became a motelier and a farmer, a hunting and tourist guide. I came to see all the places we had dreamed of as boys and as men. I made and lost a fortune and almost lost my life, but never lost my love of wild places, or of what matters most for all of us, rich or poor, of life itself." Dreams do come true!