We say our sad farewells to Toby, Heather & family – our road trip and time together has been fantastic and we’re incredibly grateful for everything they’ve done for us. For the children in particular it’s going to be hard; they’ve cemented friendships and have spent the last 10 days together while Fi and I went to do our Abel Tasman trek. They will really miss each other.
Our flight to Ecuador is now from Aukland and we have a week or so to make our way up there. Our original plan was to go to Australia next, but NZ has been surprisingly expensive and apparently Australia is even more so (and obviously has much larger distances to cover). What’s more, the culture in NZ has been so familiar and we’re itching to get back to cultures that are more different and more challenging. So we’ve changed the plan and are heading straight to Ecuador.
We head north from Wellington, via Napier to Rotorua. It’s a shame we don’t have longer to stay in Napier; it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and subsequently rebuilt, so is full of beautiful Art Deco buildings. In a country where older architecture is as rare as hens’ teeth, this comes as a wonderful change. It’s got real character and is beautiful – it’s just a shame that we’re only passing through.
Rotorua lies in the heart of a large geothermal area. We go to visit one of these areas that is open to the public; apart from the overwhelming smell of rotten eggs everywhere, the landscape is extraordinary. There is boiling mud and pools of all sorts of extraordinary colours due to the various chemicals that are bubbling up from beneath the earth’s surface. Maybe the children have just seen too many extraordinary sights but they take this completely for granted and are fairly nonplussed!
The extraordinary sights and smells of Rotorua
If the evening, we go to see a Maori cultural show. We’re collected by bus – our driver is Cairo (“the same as the capital of Egypt”), who gives us an introductory commentary on the way to the village. There are a number of buses going and each one has to have a chief who will get to meet the chief of the Maori village we are visiting. I’m definitely up for volunteering but there is a large group we’ve picked up from a hotel and it’s Maurice’s birthday, so he’s the chosen one. Cairo warns us that during the welcoming Haka, we must not laugh or smile as it would be disrespectful to the villages – the children take this very seriously!
It turns out that there are three busloads and the three chiefs line up to receive the Haka and greet the village chief. The Haka is fabulous; it’s extraordinary that this is a friendly, welcoming ceremony. I can’t see that there can be much difference between this and an aggressive war dance! Needless to say there is not even a flicker of a smile along the audience; it’s all deadly serious! Maurice receives a fern on behalf of the three chiefs and we are now able to enter the village.
Once inside, there are various demonstrations of traditional crafts and activities. A number of them ask for volunteers and I feel obliged to set a good example for my children and so volunteer every time! Needless to say, there aren’t many people volunteering so I end up taking part in all of them! There’s a game that involves running round in a circle and catching a balanced post; and exercise that involves stepping / running through a grid of sticks and of course, the Haka. After all of that, I feel I’ve done my duty!The food has apparently been cooked on hot stones in a pit underground, although to be honest, I can’t tell too much different from food cooked in the kitchen. In fact, it’s pretty good for mass catering. The show ends with some traditional singing and dancing, the finale not surprisingly being the Haka. The children are on the edge of their seats taking it all in – needless to say, this was all much more enjoyable for them than their geothermal experience earlier!
We’ve been invited to stay for a few days with Heather’s parents, Graham & Anne (‘Grandy & Gray’), near to Tauranga. They are fabulously welcoming and generous hosts and we truly get the sense that they’re happy to have us. Nothing seems to have changed since Heather and her siblings were growing up here – they have an enormous garden with trampoline, treehouse and dog, so our children are in heaven. They’re each given jobs by Graham on arrival: feeding the chickens; feeding the dog; feeding the cat. They fight over who gets to collect the eggs!
They’re pretty close to the Hobbiton film set, so we go for a day out there. It looks like Grandy & Gray have been waiting for some little ones to stay, to give them and excuse to go too. They immediately invite themselves along! It’s a bit pricey but a fabulous day out for children and adults alike. The whole place is absolutely charming and our guide explains all the cinematic tricks of the trade and the fascinating illusions that have been created in The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. It’s been set up to give the impression that the hobbits have just popped out to the shops of for a spot of pipe weed, with jackets left of the back of chairs and smoke coming out of the chimneys. The original set was not surprisingly built of temporary structures, but shortly after The Lord of the Rings was released, the farmers who own the land realised there was an interest from tourists / fans. So when, several years later, the producers approached them to rebuild the set, they readily agreed but with one condition – that they build it to last, with permanent materials. They must now be making a fortune – way more from tourists than from farming the rest of their land. I wonder how long its popularity will last, but they’re certainly making hay while the sun shines.
A few hobbit houses, but where are the hobbits?
One of the beautiful little gardens in Hobbiton
We finally head to Aukland where our journey to NZ comes full circle. We catch up with Sarah Waller-Yates and her boys once more (Will is away on business) and stay with Mike & Wendy (Munley) – this time they’re at home, so we get to see each other at last! Then it’s off to the airport for our long flight to South America.
New Zealand has been an amazing country and the one in which we’ve spent the most time so far on our travels. Unlike some of the other countries we’ve visited, we really feel that we’ve had time to do it justice. It’s a country of extraordinary beauty, particularly the South Island. There’s so much to do outdoors and a relative lack of commercialism, which is refreshing. It that sense it seems like it would be a great environment in which to raise kids. The people are very friendly and refreshingly direct, and there seems to be a lower awareness of class than at home (Fi has been reading ‘The Luminaries’ and in that it suggests that the struggle for immigrants to survive in a new country was a great leveller).
A number of people have suggested we might not want to return, but on balance, as beautiful as it is, I don’t think either of us would want to live here. While I’m not a historian, I have really missed the historical architecture of British towns and villages, as well as the cities – it’s something I had no idea I was taking for granted (but then again, I suppose that’s what taking something for granted means!). And while there’s everything you can imagine to do outdoors, it seems there’s a lot less to do indoors unless you’re in one of the biggest cities. It seems strange, but the other thing I’ve missed here is birdsong – the bird population has been decimated by the introduction of mammals from Europe and the countryside is often eerily quiet.
We’ve been really fortunate in a couple of ways: firstly with the weather which has been extraordinarily kind to us; and secondly having so many friends here to catch up with, who’ve made our stay so much easier and more enjoyable. It makes such a difference to see familiar faces, to enjoy the warm hospitality of friends and to stay in real homes rather than in guest houses and rented properties. And all of those friends have children, which is not only great for our children but which has made Fi’s and my life so much easier!
We came here with high expectations and this wonderful country has exceeded all of them. We leave with lots of fond memories as well as thousands of photos of staggeringly beautiful views!
Five Go Round The World 