Te Ika A Maui (The Fish of Maui) = The North Island
First things first.
Happy Anniversary Malc & Justine & may you have many more.
I am sitting in Bill & Linda's place in Auckland ( Tâmaki-makau-rau ) having travelled from Marlborough yesterday. I feel just as jet-lagged as I did when I flew all the way here & I have only driven 650kms.
I caught the ferry yesterday,
2 hour crossing to Wellington( Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara ) , picked up my rental car from a man with a very small penis (just guessing by the way he drove) & headed up to Palmerston North ( Te Papa-i-oea ) where I was booked into a motel for the night.
The journey was stress-free & I arrived in time for the haka at the beginning of the crunch match of the Bledisloe Cup. Result. NZ won after a nail-biting last few minutes.
Wellington is the capital of New Zealand I apologise in advance to any Wellingtonians when I say the best thing about it was that I was driving through it.
I don't know if it's particularly ugly or it's just that I have become city-phobic so I'll let you judge from a couple of snaps I took. I was very happy to see the back of it.
Some 20 minutes out it improved dramatically & I was driving along State Highway 1 with huge breakers crashing onto rocks on my left.
My rental car is a surprisingly nifty Mazda Familia, I was expecting a poky, ickle Daihatsu Charade type thing so was pleasantly surprised to pick this up
I was even spared the moron-speech of 'Here's the accelerator' type stuff from Mr. Small-Willy.
After a very enjoyable breakfast in the motel
I was on the road again for 9am headed for Matamata or whassamatter ? as Bill calls it.
Just North of Palmerston North is some of the most dull & uninspiring countryside I have seen since arriving.
Flat flat flat.
Now, don't get me wrong, it's pleasant & green & perfectly acceptable if you haven't seen the rest of NZ. It's pleasant in the same way that Lincolnshire is. The problem is that NZ has scenery which knocks most of the UK into a cocked hat so with your expectations raised way above what they would normally be, disappointment is inevitable.
Luckily, the boredom was relieved soon by gentle rolling hills.
Then the drive through Desert Rd. I had been warned by Mal & Mike to expect harsh driving conditions here & the road is quite often closed off in Winter so I knew what to expect. Most of the land either side of the road is closed off to the Army to practice shooting each other & dropping bombs. Quite frankly, I can't think of a safer place as no-one in their right mind would want to get out of their car.
Mile upon mile of parched, dry, brown tussocks, horizontal hailstones & wind strong enough to permanently re-arrange your facial features. Nice.
If you have ever driven alongside Saddleworth Moor on the Pennines & experienced that very uncomfortable feeling of wondering what you would do if you broke down alone then this place has a similar air about it.
I approached Matamata at about 1.30 thanks to some very excellent directions from Michelle (we'll discuss Bill's later) & met the lovely Tanners. They were exactly as Queenie had said they would be. Great welcome & a beautiful place to park my bones for a couple of weeks while job-hunting.
Imagine if a kid drew the perfect farm with cows, sheep, rolling hills, a lovely house & even a pool & you have imagined Cedar Lodge. It is an idyllic place & they have got it looking lovely.
I have my own little flat to live in with a lovely sunny yellow bedroom & they expect me to leave again when I have a job.
Hello ?
They also have 2 of the biggest, friendliest black labradors I have ever seen, Ben & Inca.
They wrestled me on the floor just to make me welcome (the dogs not the Tanners)
Within minutes of arriving one of the cows, Twink, had calved & as the girls, Alice & Harriett went to look I remarked to Eric that I couldn't imagine a better place to raise kids.
I am going to like staying there :)
After a very quick hello & goodbye & dropping all the bulky bits of luggage there I headed off to Auckland & Bill & Linda's which is where I have to drop the rental car.
Bill had warned me that Auckland was a s***-hole as have most other Kiwis. He also told me that they were looking to move from here to a quieter place & a bigger house. To say I was unprepared for where they live is an understatment. It is palatial. As we drove in to the (electric) gateway I saw what I assumed was the block of flats where they lived.
Wrong. It's all theirs.
Enough cars to open a garage.
Huge, huge house with wooden floors, lots & lots of rooms & floors & very tastefully decorated (obviously Linda then), beautiful gardens & lovely balconies. Bill has the added advantage of being able to look straight into his neighbours teenage daughter's bedroom which would explain the binoculars !
Right - enough for now, I have monopolised the computer for long enough.
I hope everyone is well, I know I have neglected Blog just lately & I feel a bit isolated because of it. Trouble is that as much as Q tells me to 'tell dem how you feeel' whenever I am blue I find it easier to retreat.
The last couple of weeks have been the weirdest in my working life.
The best ever cos of everything I got to do & the worst ever cos I have never felt so unwelcome before.
I wish I had Blogged every night because I am sure I will forget loads but I just felt too fed up to concentrate & get it all down.
Right, time for dinner,
Later you lot,
Cx
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