I’ve come to the conclusion that ‘weekends’ in New Zealand are slightly different than they are anywhere else. Well, at least if you’re me. Yet again, I left Auckland last Friday “for the weekend”, but after the wedding, I was invited to the far north to stay with a friend and his family, so I have only just got back! Since I was already in the north and the ‘plan’ is to head progressively south from now on, I thought I’d make the most of the invite and take advantage of the lift had been found to take me up there.
Matt’s family live on Doubtless Bay, looking out over the open sea and the Karikari Peninsula. I was welcomed into their home despite the whole world descending on them, including Matt’s sister and her husband and 19 month old daughter, Cara, who were over from Tasmania. My time seemed to be split between playing with Cara, going to the beach, developing a taste for ginger beer and a few random activities.
The first morning, we headed down to the beach to gather ‘tuatua’, a small shellfish which hangs out just under the surface of the sand, so around low tide you can find them by “doing the twist”. This causes your feet to sink into the sand allowing you to find them with your toes and then duck in to grab them with your hands (some people get wetter than others when doing this…). They do their best to try to escape, but being molluscs, they don’t move very quickly. In the afternoon we went to a vineyard and found a good place for climbing up the rocks and jumping off into the sea (oh come on, you put a bunch of climbers together, what do you expect?). The second day was spent helping Matt with his pizza oven. He had bought a kit and done the majority of the work leaving just the final layer of plaster to put on before the finishing touches. I was started on the job of mixing the plaster and then my responsibility level increased as I was allowed to touch the oven itself, laying on and smoothing out the top layer of plaster. I think Matt was looking for the ‘woman’s touch’, though perhaps if he knew me better… Wednesday involved an early start to go on my first ever fishing trip, but it was certainly not a case of beginner’s luck, as although I caught two snapper, both were too small and had to be thrown back. We basically were feeding the fish rather than catching them. On Thursday we went for a speedy walk to a swimming hole, which obviously involved more climbing up and jumping off rocks and a bit of trail running. The trip to the far north was topped off by a visit to New Zealand’s oldest building, the Kerikeri mission house, finished in 1836. I guess history has to start at some point…
