| About Matt |
| When he came to Intermediate School Matt was very popular-especially with the girls. He would get phonecall after phonecall everynight, though it was rarely from the same girl. |
 |
| Matthew Scott Taylor was born on October 14th 1987 in Auckland New Zealand. He was Debbie and Lex's second child of three. The other 2 being Kristin(born in 85) and Kimberly(born in 89). He was a happy and healthy kid who loved the beach, surfing, skating, playing his guitar and was generally a real boy-he liked getting into trouble and annoying his sisters. |
| When he was younger he played soccer and rugby but as he approached his teenage years he would spend all his summer days surfing, often at Omaha beach where we used to rent a batch every year. Shortly before his death he was accepted into a rugby team where he would play on the wing as he was so fast. The day of his death he was meant to be going to the shops with Mum to get some rugby boots before his first rugby practice. |
| On May 10th 2000 at 3.30pm Matt was killed getting out of the rear doors of a "bendy" bus at the end of our road, when the rear doors shut on his schoolbag and trapped him there while the bus took off down the road. He was then pulled under and killed instantly. Despite all the kids on the bus telling him he'd run over someone the busdriver did not stop. The driver appeared in court showing no remorse. He was found guilty twice - on 2 charges - careless driving causing death and failing to stop after an accident. He did not serve any time and pretty much got off scott free. Matts funeral was held on 13th May 2000, and was attended by hundreds of people. So many infact, that people filled the main room, the adjoining food room, the entrance and there were even people standing outside. A reminder that Matt touched a lot of peoples lives, and that though he may be physically gone, he will never be forgotten. |
| Matts future ambition was to be a famous surfer, surfing in Hawaii. Although he had only been surfing for a few years, by the age of 12 he was pretty good. He had also been bodyboarding since he learnt to swim. By the age of 3 Matt could jump in our pool and swim a length(with his back floatie on). He was also the only 3 year old at his kindy's "Trykathon" riding a two wheeler bike. Although I was 2 years older than him, we always seemed to learn things at the same time; how to ride a 2 wheeler, jump in the pool unaided etc. |
| Matt also enjoyed fishing and going out on our boat-he was the only one that could hold it while Dad went to get the tractor to get the boat out of the water. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Matt had the same friends for most of his life, most of them with the same interests as him-surfing and skating. |
| Another love of Matts life was our family dog Bumper who we got in 1999. Matt would often sit downstairs where his room was, with Bumper watching TV and talking on the phone.....even when Bumper didnt want to. Matt did like our cat Kahn, until we got Bumper. After that he acted like he "hated" the cat...though he was nice to him when he thought no-one was looking. |
 |
 |
| However he still managed to win second place in the boys 33.3 m freestyle. A pretty good accomplishment considering all the people he raced were people that had probably been swimming training for years. |
| Matt was a natural at sports. In April of 2000 his school had their annuel "swimming sports" competition. Matt won places in several races so he went on to the inter-school swimming sports. Almost all of the competitors at the interschool event are people who train in swimming, according to Matt they were all wearing speedo's and goggles. Matt of course was just wearing his boardshorts. |
 |
| I LOVE YOU MATT XOXO |