Is this goat the G.O.A.T?

Friday, 15 December 2017

Now there's something you don't see often, a goat in a boat.

A mail-mad goat has been spotted going to extreme lengths to collect the post.

Billy goat Boing lives in the Pelorus Sound, in Marlborough, where he waits patiently at the jetty every week for the mail boat to arrive.

But the sprightly goat literally jumped at the chance of a trip in a row boat when his owner had to paddle out from a different bay to collect the mail in person.

Billy goat Boing takes a boat ride out to collect the mail from the Pelorus Mail Boat.

The Pelorus Mail Boat is run by husband and wife team Jim and Amanda Baillie.

**READ MORE:

Boing is joined by a fleecy friend while he waits for the mail boat on the jetty.

* Postie run can be a pig of a job

* New mail boat in the post for Marlborough Sounds**

Boing normally waits at the jetty with Natalie and the dog.

Skipper Jim Baillie said the dark brown and white goat was a common sight.

'He's a regular customer and usually waits at the jetty, dancing on his hind legs. That week though they were in a different bay and they came out to us to collect the mail.

Pelorus Mail Boat skipper Jim Baillie armed with biscuits to feed curious kunekune pigs and dogs.

'He was delighted and seemed quite happy with it all.

'Apparently he's a great swimmer so he would be OK if he fell in,' he said.

The Pelorus Mail Boat is one of the last in the world still delivering mail and groceries to people living out in the secluded Marlborough Sounds.

Pets of all shapes and sizes often come out to greet the boat.

Mail was first delivered to the Marlborough Sounds by government steamer in 1869. As demand grew, mail and parcels were delivered to smaller post offices on shore and residents had to row to pick up their mail. But then the mail boat came along.

The Baillies were the ninth owners and skippers of the mail boat since it began in 1918 and had been running the service since 2011.

'Of course we also see the various and eclectic pets that the residents have from dogs to chickens, kunekune pigs to ostriches and from goats to llamas,' Baillie said.

Unlike posties in other parts of the world, the Pelorus mail man had to worry about '200lb slobbering' kunekune pigs with a penchant for Scooby Snacks hijacking his boat.

'We have biscuits [on board] to keep friendly with the dogs, as any postie does, but one day this huge kunekune pig jumped onto the front of our boat,' he said.