Delivering medicines and a good dose of humour

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Delivering medicines and a good dose of humour

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Baz Hastings
Baz Hastings doing the rounds on his Vespa

Long-time Waiheke community resident Baz Hastings volunteered to deliver medicine for this local pharmacy and got more than he bargained for, Paulette Crowley writes

After volunteering to deliver medicines for his local phar­macy on Waiheke Island during the pandemic, long-time resident Baz Hastings has hung up his helmet.

Over lockdowns, Baz could be seen whizzing around the island on his trusty red Vespa, happily delivering meds for Waiheke Unichem as vulnerable customers struggled to get to the pharmacy.

Back in March 2020, Kiwis through-out Aotearoa waited it out at home, appreciating the new-found quietness imposed by an Alert Level 4 lockdown.

Baz loved it, at first. But after a chance to marvel at how the birds came back in the “whisper quiet” island, catch up on rest, household jobs and exercise, he found himself twiddling his thumbs.

“The word went out that the phar­macy was in a bit of trouble,” he says. “We had got a lot of people who were in lockdown at home and they couldn’t get to the pharmacy to pick up their meds.”

Baz jumped at the chance to help out with deliveries for Unichem Waiheke and became part of a roster of volunteers who gave them a hand to get meds out to cus­tomers in the community.

Armed with a “little letter saying I was allowed to be doing the job”, Baz zoomed up the footpath to the pharmacy on his Vespa scooter.

Planning his two-to-three hour journeys a few times a week gave him respect for courier drivers.

“You could do a lot of driving if you try and deliver in alphabetical order. So I’d get the map out and plan my route, lift up the seat of the bike, put all the packets of drugs in there and off I’d go.”

Surprise reunions

I was zooming around on my wee bike with all my drugs in the back and they’d say – here comes Bazza Escobar!

Baz, who retired about 10 years ago from a marketing career, ended up delivering meds to people he hadn’t laid eyes on in years.

“I saw a lot of people I knew on the island that I commuted with 25 years ago.”

Seeing old friends – some of whom were “quite unwell” – was a bit of a shock.

“Some people were bedridden. Some had instructions stuck on the door saying, ‘Home alone, can’t get out of bed, please come around the side of the verandah.’”

After tooting his scooter horn and delivering the goods, he would often have a chat with the customer through a window, or from standing a safe distance away over a gate.

On his way around the island, Baz used the opportunity to deliver “little bags of vitamin C” to some of his friends.

“We have a very, very highly producing lime tree…the tree was laden. So I took some to the gin-drinking Onetangi crowd when I was out that way. That was a bit of fun.”

Along with his wife Kate – a former community board chair and long-time charity worker – Baz has been involved in a few community projects, including gardening schemes and even making over a ramshackle old bus shelter in Oneroa. Although Mr Hastings remains available for voluntary deliveries, the pharmacy has returned to using courier services.

Still, he looks back fondly at his deliv­ery adventures. “Even though I enjoyed lockdown it was good to get out. And hopefully, it did a bit of good.”

He also misses his old nickname from that time.

“I was zooming around on my wee bike with all my drugs in the back and they’d say – here comes Bazza Escobar!”

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