Woke up in the night, very snaggy bed, surf crashing in the distance, stars blazing in the sky over the trees - hard to believe it's true still. I looked at the stars last night, poor old Orion is upside-down, couldn't see the Southern Cross, lots of lights around the site didn't help. Strange to think that we're upside-down too, doesn't feel like it!
Got up 6.30ish, packed the bed away, all works very easily, just a PitA when you're pissed and haven't done it yet! No sitting space after it's up either. Hmm. It is comfy though.
Jen went to see the sunrise on the beach - magnificent is a cliche but it works for me. Majestic? Even our little sun is pretty cool, no idea what a Really Big Star would be like, considerably less friendly I suspect. Then I went for a run along the beach, pretty hard work on the sand, while Jen walked along too, and I met her coming back. A quick change out of her now wet-legged jeans (not sure why I had those on ;-o ) and my very sweaty t-shirt and we went for a swim in the Pacific waves, before a shower and breakfast. These look quite surfable - there's a reasonable rolling beach break which doesn't close out too early. I should get a board. It's lovely to see Jen in the water, laughing and shrieking with the cold (it's not really very cold), and swimming around in the waves and surf. Lovely lovely lovely.
Pootled off through Bowentown until we had to stop to shut off the forgotten gas bottle - took advantage to call Neville and arrange meeting. He was going to be down at their place on Tauranga around 2, so left it for then. Cool. Pootled on some more - lots of orchards and fruit trees, with huge tall pine trees or similar planted as windbreaks, trimmed to be almost completely flat rather than conical. These aren't particularly picturesque, but are certainly striking - huge green walls all over the place.
Katikati - the mural capital of NZ! Another not very big town, had a coffee upstairs at the Balcony Cafe, having dropped in a couple of craft-style shops, some nice stuff, some utterly cheestastic stuff including massively decorated heart-shaped blobs encrusted with super-tacky gilded crosses etc. Someone has had an artistic vision of spray-painted corrugated roofing cut into shapes - corrugated art apparently, various seascapes, I can't bring myself to look too closely!
But KK has a USP - the murals are part of an art-based effort to attract business. Some of these are excellent tromp l'oreuil - there's a garage with a mechanic that's quite striking on the main street. This also includes the Haiku Pathway, which is a series of large boulders engraved with haiku poems, matching the landscape and the context. These are pretty well done and selected - quite a result. Plus I got to talk to the nice lady in the library who showed me where it was - Jen rated the loos at probably a 9 minimum, I can't see the library ladies taking any shit as it were!
We descended towards Tauranga, arriving 12-ish, time for a cup and a sandwich. We parked down by the harbour across from Mount Maungetaini-thingy, excellent to sit looking out at the bay, drinking tea and eating cheese and salad. A passing lady chatted with us about her son and his post-operative ankle, his dedication to windsurfing, in the harbour apparently, and how she'd like to live down here but has yet to convince her husband who is a committed Aucklander. Another call to Neville - he's arrived in Tauranga, head for the harbour apparently, so time for us to head off. He does sound pretty chilled, wondering exactly how this is going to work…
Drive through the shopping bit, down to a turnaround for boat launching, called Neville again. Instructions - he'll be standing in the road, on the harbour side, just look out for him. Jen wants to know if could recognise him - yeah sure, kinda tallish, looks like a New Zealander Grey hair or dark - yeah! Hmm. Then there's Nev standing there, as advertised. Swing into Prince Ave, and park up, the house is right there, Practically harbourfront!! Large, pinkish stucco, quite a villa. Apparently they'd owned the section and the old place on it for 30+ years, and recently built two places on it and funded the third. What a beautiful spot!
And I just can't believe I'm here, In New Zealand with Neville after all these years!! He's the most relaxed guy imaginable, totally a farmer, fatalistic but kinda cunning with it. Still has the railway I got to know him through, although now partly dismantled and trying to become a diorama in the garage!
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