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NANA PIGGY AND THE IGGY SMILLS
We arrived into Auckland airport on the morning of the 11th December after 13 hours cramped up like sardines in LAN Chile's economy class (not recommended), having lost a day somewhere in the middle of the South Pacific. A bit dazed and confused, we were bowled over when Emma's cousin Angela came running up behind us to give us a massive hug. Now that's the kind of welcome we like! First stop, McDonalds Café for a traditional NZ breakfast to let the morning rush-hour work itself out, and a proper catch up over a strong coffee. Although it didn't feel like it at all, Angela has been out in New Zealand for sixteen years with her Kiwi husband Les, so there was a lot of catching up and reminiscing to be done.
She took us to her home in the north of Auckland where we freshened up before heading out to pick up her youngest son, Dominic (aged 4 ¾), from his playgroup. When we got there we were amazed to see all these little people running around the school in bare feet. Turns out Angela's children tend not to bother with shoes at all -we rarely saw them wearing any - and can run over gravel as if it were a carpet, which seems to be a common trait in New Zealand. We went into Dominic's classroom to pick him up, and were treated to a rendition of Jingle Bells - which finished with the line 'oh what fun it is to have a New Zealand Christmas Day' - which gave us something to look forward to…Dominic (unusually for him, as we later realised) seemed a little shy on meeting us, but when we all went to the car and headed on our way, he soon started chattering about his day and eventually giggling about all the farts that kept popping out - encouraged by Duncan.
From there, Angela drove us to the plot of land which she and Les had recently invested in, where they hope to build a family home but which for now is home to two sheep and two goats. The sheep came running to greet us when we got out of the car, bleating away about something, and quickly devoured a bag of fruit Angela fed them. We headed on down to meet the goats, who looked a little grumpy despite Angela feeding them a loaf of bread. Dominic was convinced that they didn't like him, and quickly accepted a piggy-back off Duncan and the two of them headed off, propelled on by Dominic's fart power as they went. After the animals were well fed, we left, chased by the sheep who tried to sneak out the gates behind us, as Dominic sang the Indiana Jones theme tune. At one point both the goats jumped into the car which left Dominic cowering in the back until we realised what had happened.
We went on to pick up Angela's other two children, Daniella (aged 7) and Kieran (aged 8) from their school, and headed on to the beach, where Kieran discovered loads of red starfish and Daniella wrote her name in the sand. They took us up to a gannet colony, which was an amazing sight with hundreds of nesting birds. We were a little confused when Daniella shouted out 'I can see an igg' until we some sitting on eggs. Back at home, we played with the children and their toys a while. We were a little taken aback when Daniella started talking about Nana Piggy, who we assumed was another of their toys before we realised that she was actually talking about their grandmother, Emma's Aunty Peggy. The accents definitely took a little getting used to! That evening, we met the lovely Les, and Angela cooked a leg of delicious NZ lamb, our first home-cooked food in months and the perfect welcome to the country.
Next day, we went for coffee in Devonport with Angela and Dominic, and then left them and headed over to central Auckland by ferry. On the way across we noticed that there was a peculiar light effect in the sky, like a section of a rainbow near the sun - very strange but we presumed that it was normal for the area, until we mentioned it to our Kiwi neighbour who was equally astonished. Minutes later everyone on the ferry was taking photos of the unusual sight. Wandering around the city was fun - we saw the Skytower and a massive Santa Claus over Whitcoulls (which itself was a real highlight - the NZ version of WH Smith, with all the magazines that we'd been missing for months, including, most excitingly for Emma, the Economist), and had lunch in the very pretty Albert Park, where a wedding reception was taking place. We thought we'd stumbled into a parallel universe when we went into an internet café which was full of sharply dressed, directionally-haired Koreans playing war-games on the computers.
We then caught the train out to Huapai, where we met up with Angela and the kids for the annual Christmas parade, with all the local businesses and schools participating and sponsoring floats full of children dressed up in Christmas costumes, throwing out sweets - which they call lollies - to the people lining the street. There were a lot of waterguns being brandished around, but one guy - a parent - bit off a little more than he could chew when he took on a passing fire engine with his supersoaker, only to be drenched by the engine's hose. Afterwards, we went to a carol service, which was fun if a little surreal, sitting outside eating barbecued sausages as we contemplated the prospect of a warm and sunny Christmas. Duncan was a little perturbed when one of Angela's friends asked him 'is that your first Kiwi sausage?', to which he replied that he didn't realise they ate their national bird, let alone minced them into sausages. Of course, the woman was merely asking if it was his first sausage in the country…
Next morning, we were sad to leave the family, as it had been great getting to know them and spending time with them. Les gave us a lift into town, and took us to the top of Mount Eden, one of Auckland's many volcanoes, which gave us a fantastic view over the city. We headed on to the campervan depot, said our goodbyes to Les, and picked up our new home for the next three weeks which we christened Nobby as it was a Nomad van according to the company.
Our driving experience up until this point in our lives was limited, to say the least. Emma hadn't driven since passing her test aged 17, and Duncan since university, with the exception of one Brussels-Strasbourg-Brussels marathon in 2001. We hadn't quite thought through the implications of hiring a campervan to tour NZ - particularly that we would actually have to drive it. Duncan started out driving, and spent a little time driving in the back streets around the depot before venturing out onto the main roads. We were barely in the van fifteen minutes when, after an argument about navigation, he pulled up sharply by a curb and managed, somehow, to get a flat tyre and dent the wheel rim. Oh dear. A quick call to the campervan company and an impressively speedy response by the AA, and we were back on the road, our confidence dented a little but otherwise fine.
Duncan got the hang of things from there and we quickly grew to love Nobby. Spending our first night in the campervan, in Omokoroa near Mount Manganui, was lots of fun, transforming the living area into a bed and making hot chocolate on the little hob. Very sad, but you gotta get your kicks one way or another… The next day, the sun was shining brightly and we took a drive down to the nearby peninsula where we stumbled across a bunch of people sweating away in Santa costumes. As more and more gathered we realised it was a sponsored Santa run/walk which they were taking part in.
Later we drove down to Lake Rotorua, famous for its thermal springs and Maori heritage. We visited the thermal park of Wai-o-tapu, which had lots of stunning steaming pools coloured by various minerals, but which was perhaps even more notable for its evil sulphurous eggy smells, or iggy smills as our second cousins would say. From there, we spent three days driving down through the North Island, taking in the beautiful sights of Lake Taupo, New Zealand's largest lake, and the Tongariro National Park - where we stayed on another patch of land that Angela and Les own.
Our road map had little symbols on it to show where the Lord of the Rings was filmed - and there were hundreds of them. Unfortunately Duncan had fallen asleep in the only one of the trilogy that we had bothered to go and see, and Emma had found it instantly forgettable, so it didn't mean much to us, but it had been a massive tourist draw when the films came out, and understandably so, as the sets were spectacular. There were times, though, when we just had to imagine what the fuss was all about as some of the mountains remained shrouded in clouds and rain. We also felt very sad for the wildlife of New Zealand, which generally seemed to have no road awareness at all, as the roadsides were frequently strewn with squashed animals.
When we reached the bottom of the North Island, we spent an evening in Wellington, the capital. Being the geeks we are, we went into the national parliament and right on up into the viewing gallery of the debating chamber, where we watched the maiden speech of the youngest member of parliament, who had spent a few years working for the UK civil service before heading back to her own country to get political. Afterwards, we took a cable car up to the top of the hill to Kelburn, where we could look out over the city and the bay beyond.
From here, we took a car ferry the next day across to Picton, through the Marlborough Sounds, a world-famous crossing for its three hours of breathtaking scenery. We spent part of the journey planning our route through the South Island on the ship's own stationery which also doubles as sick bags during rough crossings. With so many amazing places to visit, we knew we would have our work cut out trying to see everything, but drew up a tight schedule that covered as much as possible.
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