Congratulations, John, for representing the IOR spirit.

Travelling can be unpredictable. You never know what will happen on the road, what lies ahead or what might happen in the middle of the night.

Recently, Denise Markham and her companions were travelling from Central Coast to Wellington near midnight when a kangaroo appeared, jumping straight into their car, causing it to break down.

Denise and her companions were stranded in the dark with no mobile service and no “Plan B”. Moments later, a petrol tanker pulled over. A man carrying a torch approached them and, out of concern, let them borrow his mobile phone so that they could call for help. The man had to meet delivery deadlines so he offered to leave his torch and phone, telling them he would be back in a few hours. Assuming they would have received help by then, he told the travellers to just leave his phone beside one of the white posts on the side of the road. On his way back from his delivery, he spotted the group and stayed with them until help arrived.

IOR Petroleum is so very grateful to have team members like John Ralston: the man with the torch, the phone and the petrol tanker.

From the whole team at IOR, thank you John for embodying the spirit of “bush” service, and to Denise for sharing with us this story of mateship from one of our own.