The flight into New Zealand brought back memories of my last trip here. Beginning our descent at its northern tip, we cruised from Cape Reinga down the western coast to Auckland. It was so clear I could pick out ninety-mile beach that I drove the length of last time. I could even identify several headlands where I had camped the night.
Just one night in Auckland before heading off to surprise the family, and I have a mission to complete. Leanne, the former campsite warden in Herm, has finally stopped moving around to settle in her native Auckland. She was immensely popular with staff and tourists alike on the island, and many people had suggested I meet her. Besides, I was intrigued to see what someone might look like having survived four seasons as a camp warden!
Rather like a blind date, without the date, I strolled in to the Flightcenter where she works. I had hoped to construct an elaborate itinerary, final destination Herm Island, for her to quote me on before announcing who I was. This plan was thwarted when I couldn’t spot any name badges among the three or so girls behind the counter. Unusually for me, I didn’t want to make a complete numpty of myself by talking to the wrong person.
We met after she had finished work, spending a pleasant evening consuming a few cold one’s and filling her in on all the Herm gossip. Like myself and most who worked there, she has countless happy memories of the place, and hopes to visit again one day. Leanne has traveled a lot herself, so there was much to talk about, and in seemingly no time at all it was time to say goodbye, with a promise to keep in touch.
I always suffer jet lag on arrival in New Zealand, so soon after negotiating my way into the ten-bed dormitory in the dark; I fell into a deep sleep. Unluckily for my roommates, that could only mean one thing; sporadic snoring and lots of sleep talking.
Up early next day, feeling partially refreshed, unlike my roommates, I jumped on a bus to clear the city centre and find a good place to stick my thumb out. I had most of the day to cover the 201km to Tauranga. This turned out to be one of the easiest trips so far; a total of four rides taking me almost to the front door of my destination.
Surprising the family was a great joy - at various times past they have pulled assorted stunts on me so it was nice to get my own back. The last they had heard from me, I was battling the snow storms in Poland, when in actual fact I had been sampling the high life in Honk Kong. I had been sending fake emails with random pictures of European landmarks. It actually crossed my mind that I don’t even have to do this huge trip - I can just sit at a computer and get all I need from the net!
So here in sunny Tauranga I have been, catching up with family, getting to know my lovely little niece Sophie, and taking care of immigration business. I am not allowed to work, but suffice to say I have found a way of filling the days.
If you had not noticed, I am in the Bay of Plenty region, an area that takes in a large chunk of north-eastern North Island. Tauranga is the place of the moment, only recently making city status. The population has passed the one hundred thousand mark, making it New Zealand’s fastest growing location and social G-spot. Of course to me it seems nothing like a city, more like an overgrown village. Take a walk in any of the numerous parks and reserves and you are likely to have the place to yourself. The locals seem pretty excited about this; the current atmosphere is one of growth.
The city wraps itself around a huge natural harbour, and is hemmed in from the north and west by the Kaimai range. Sheltering the vast harbour is the long island of Matakana, and across the narrow entrance is The Mount. This iconic hill gives the small surf town of Mt Maunganui its name, sitting at the end of a long arm of land guarding Tauranga from the ravages of the Pacific Ocean.
The area has long been known for it’s extensive Kiwi fruit farming. It also has the busiest port in the country, where a large percentage of the logging output is loaded and shipped. Sporting wise, the choice is endless. From hiking (known as tramping here) and hunting in the hills, fresh water fishing the numerous rivers, all known action sports and some you probably don’t, golfing and especially the sea fishing, it’s all here. As I am beginning to sound like a tour rep for the Bay of Plenty (BOP), I may as well refer you to the web links at left.
I made a fairly spur-of-the-moment decision to buy a rather neat looking four-wheel drive van. It had a few minor problems, so I secured it for a good price. Relying on my superior mechanical knowledge and ignoring mothers intuition; I went ahead with the deal. A gamble maybe, but one I felt I could handle.
About a week later, the whining noise promptly developed into a kind of expensive sounding clatter, just before the thing rolled to a halt on the busy road home. Oh dear. Worse still I had to go home and tell mother she was right after all. Male pride rating - 0/10
Several days spent touring garages and things went from bad to worse. A major component has given up in the deepest darkest recesses of the engine, Christmas is around the corner, and nobody will give me an accurate quote other than “out of this world”. Oh, and it seems this is the only vehicle of it’s kind ever built in the universe, thus obtaining parts is something akin to walking on water.
I considered the options, of which frankly there were few. The budget did not allow for dealing with garages, I couldn’t sell the thing as it was. I had to fix it myself. And that is where I have been, these last few weeks. I have taken over the family garage (thanks Mum & Dad for putting up with colorful language and oily finger prints everywhere). It has been a steep learning curve. Frustratingly, when I have managed to obtain parts they have been so expensive that the total cost of fixing is still huge!
It’s in stark contrast to my last NZ trip. Then, I covered 15,000km in a van without a single problem. I am very reflective about the situation; you can’t be lucky all the time! In fact, I can be thankful that I have not arrived here for my first trip on a tight budget, as so many do. That would have been an utter disaster. I also have good family around me and use of facilities. So really, I am very lucky.
Over a two week period, accompanied by doubtful language and bruised knuckles, I have dismantled the engine of The Nemesis, as she has affectionately become known. I have not the slightest clue what I am doing. So I labelled everything and took photos. I cleaned each part, became intimate with them along the way, and worked out what they did.
I am pleased to say, it is now back together and actually running - a mere handful of bolts left over. At last, I can take off on a road trip. There are a several far-out corners of the country I never got to see last time.
I am normally quite an upbeat kind of person, but before Christmas I did suffer a lack of motivation for the upcoming journey. I fretted over it for some time, wondering what I should do, if anything, and why I was feeling like this. I made the decision to more or less put it out of my mind for a few weeks and just enjoy being in New Zealand. I figured that leaving Herm and all the good people I met there was something of an anti-climax. I began to believe that perhaps after all I should grow up and use my savings to set up this new life in NZ. That maybe its about time I found a wife, got some kiddies and a dog and took on a mortgage that would take the rest of my days to pay off.
I’m fine now. I realised that growing up can’t be rushed, it simply comes in it’s own good time. Reading some great travel books and making plans has got me back on track. I am now once again excited about the journey, and focussed on my aims. I remain impatient to get on with all the exciting things I want to do in NZ, but now accept they will come in time.
So with gusto I have been researching the intricacies of getting a visa for Russia, Mongolia and China. Due to the nature of the trip, it is wise to have these in my passport before departure. It seems I am able to acquire my Russian and Chinese ones while here; the Mongolian will take around four days in London. The Chinese application form offered a reminder to me of the great notices you find in the country. On the substantial list of do’s & don’ts (mainly don’ts) it says
“The applicant should not engage in activities incompatible with his / her status when he/she enters China”. So I have been warned! Please, if any of you ever think I am behaving in a way that is incompatible with my status, I trust you will quietly let me know?
Christmas was a quiet family orientated time this year, with little happening on the social front. It never really crossed my mind that moving to a new country would mean initially having no friends! Still, I had plenty of catching up to do with the folks, and that is where my priorities lay.
I have experienced a southern hemisphere Christmas before, and so hot weather and BBQ’s are no great surprise, however wrong it may seem. It’s more like a public holiday weekend and a chance for a good knee’s up than anything remotely festive. After an extended family brunch some of us joined the rest of the kiwi population and headed to the beach with a variety of toys to entertain the boys. Our range of equipment included a boat, surf boards, kayaks, wake boards and, of course, beer. The latter being perhaps unwise, but in my humble opinion essential item to have along on such a trip. I made two important discoveries that day. Firstly that large Sting Rays do not appreciate being followed into the shallows by a kayak and will not hesitate to warn you of this with a flick of their razor sharp tail. Secondly, that surfboards when towed behind a boat have a habit of diving below the surface when one stands too far forward.
In fact, that reminds me of a funny image my Dad left in my mind when telling me about his last trip out to play with the boat. He was trying his luck with the wake board, it’s like a snowboard designed to go on water. The operator is supposed to float on his back, and as the boat gathers speed pull himself up and the board begins to plain the surface. But in Dad’s case something didn’t quite work and the thing dived down rather than up. With his feet firmly attached he followed it, faster, deeper. The boatman was surprised when he looked around to see the towline disappear under the surface with no sign of Dad! It could be new sport - dive boarding!
One of the many huge cruise ships was in last weekend. It is something of an event here. I like the fact that people still make time to go out and stare at big ships. Her departure time is widely advertised; and just like a hundred years ago all the people who can’t afford to be aboard line up to wave at strangers. In this case, mostly impressively overweight Americans. The shallow sandy-bottomed Tauranga harbour has a very narrow shipping channel that cuts extremely close to the land. I’d have to concede, it is an impressive sight.
The time here has passed really quickly. Things are almost complete with my immigration application, just the elusive job offer to secure now. In the few remaining weeks, I have a fishing trip and an extended trip out to the bush in pursuit of a Deer. Also, I hope to kayak some of the rivers, walk the world famous Tongariro Crossing and explore the East Cape. So hopefully there will be a bit more to write about in the next journal, my final one before getting into Europe and Russia. |
