10 Things # 42

An NZ edition

1/ It was with this in mind that we recently spent two weeks in New Zealand - for me a first break since COVID, and a bit of an attempt to…..

But because, as Pete often says, ‘everything is content’, I thought to report back. Remember slide nights? This is mine.

2/ It was a great trip, thanks for asking. Because most people tend to go to the South island, we went to the North; because most people going to the North tend to flock to Rotorua and the Bay of Islands, we avoided those too. J had instead programmed many of our favourite things. These include….

3/ Scenic grandeur, obviously, from Auckland’s volcanic Rangitoto Island….

…to the frosty top of Whakapapa.

…and all the amazing shades of the Waikato.

4/ I mean, it’s not all sweeping vistas and natural wonders. Kiwis don’t seem much bothered that a lot of their country is either a sheep run or a plantation forest - you will get sick of pie-bald hills with pine-tree combovers. And that’s a pity because, among many firsts including female suffrage, New Zealand, as the result of an 1894 competition, rolled out the first stamp in the world to feature scenery? It’s of Lake Taupo, with Mount Ruapehu in the background.

New Zealand also gazetted the first national park in the Commonwealth, and the second in the world after Yellowstone: Tongariro.

We went both places, and the latter was, frankly, a revelation - we never tired of its tracks, so various depending on the time of day, the weather and the elevation.

We stayed at a hotel that, as J observed, was a bit like a chalet in a Bond film; we were sorry to find the nearby Chateau Tongariro boarded up, because it looked like a superb setting for a whodunnit by Agatha Christie (or New Zealand’s own Ngaio Marsh). ‘You may be wondering why I’ve brought you all here….’

You don’t think of New Zealand as a beach country, meanwhile, but it is. While the volcanic black sand is at first a challenge to your jaded Aussie expectations, you get used to it, and even find it pretty awesome.

This, by the way, is Ocean Beach, where there’s a memorial for the only New Zealand naval vessel lost in wartime - the minesweeper HMS Puriri which, ahem, hit a mine. Just saying….

5/ I’d always wanted to travel on the North Island Main Trunk Railway in honour of Bob Blair, and I reread Norman Harris’s great book about the Tangiwai rail disaster and the epic Ellis Park Test in preparation. I had forgotten that for weeks after the disaster, Blair received letters from his deceased fiancee - just imagine it.

It’s really great.

Viaducts sure have not gone out of fashion - and if you like them, New Zealand is calling. Here’s the old Hapuawhenua, finished in 1908….

…and newer Mohaka, highest in Australasia.

6/ Most of all, I confess, I’d wanted to get to Napier, reputed to contain the world’s finest collection of Art Deco buildings, thanks to a rapid and visionary rebuilding after the 1931 Hawke’s Bay Earthquake that transformed the town from this….

…to this.

It didn’t disappoint. I mean, every newspaper should occupy a building like this…..

….and every tattoo parlour should be so lucky as Blue Lagoon Studio, who inhabit this jewel.

They weren’t open, but were kind enough to let us look around inside.

I almost wish I could sing in order to play this lovely soundshell….

….while the National Tobacco Company is enough to make you take up smoking.

And wait, there’s more, because the effects of the Hawke’s Bay Earthquake were felt further afield, with the result that you get such delights in Hastings as the Westerman’s Building…..

…and the Clocktower….

You knew you’d get sheep eventually, didn’t you?

…not to mention, in Wairoa, the Gaiety Theatre.

The story of the earthquake itself is excellently told here…

…while at the Customs House in Ahuriri they have the actual bell of the Acacia-class sloop HMS Veronica, which was in harbour that day and rendered priceless assistance.

Again, the house wasn’t open, but, again, the kindly quilting ladies let us in, and I was even allowed to ring it.

7/ What did we survive on? Coffee was on the whole, I have to say, underwhelming, although Linc at The Bean Genie in Gisborne knew his stuff, and also happened to be a knowledgeable DJ.

Napier, meanwhile, provided the dining highlight - this unassuming rendezvous on Emerson Street….

….where Endint, from Albania, and Soo-Yeon, from South Korea, who met in an English language school in Frankfurt, prepare some of the best pasta I have ever tasted, charmingly served by their daughters Ilo and Ona.

I mean, Pete and I are rusted on to Marios, but Endint’s self-created Verde Velvet is to die for. And I did it, God help me - I actually photographed something I was about to eat, my excuse being that I knew it was great because I’d already ordered it twice before.

8/ You’ll note, by the way, Soo-Yeon’s inspirational message.

…for not only is she an aspiring writer, but New Zealanders, I’m glad to say, still like bookshops, even celebrate them with an upcoming day.

If not for J, in fact, I might still be in the Little Bookshop in Napier.

9/ Aviation topped my list of interests….

…and it also turns out that New Zealand is where a lot of DC-3s went to die, festooning, for instance, this venue in Gisborne….

…and what’s reputedly one of the world’s ten coolest McDonald’s, in Taupo.

10/ OK, one last thing. It could be letterboxes…

….or lighthouses…..

….or the overlap thereof….

….but I think it has to be cemeteries. What can I say? I like cemeteries - there, I said it. Anyway, New Zealand’s are enchanting, from what looks like it could be part of a one-stop shop in Wairoa….

…to these little charmers in Raupunga….

…and Taipopo.

The simplest tombstone can outdo the proverbial six-word short story for pathos, don’t you think?

….while I admired this bold double-sider in Taupo.

Park Island in Napier features a handsome cenotaph dedicated to the earthquake dead…..

….designed by the same architect, the great Louis Hay, who reshaped so much of the town. And there are stories everywhere you look, including of aviation.

But unlike the permanent rest of cemeteries…..

….a holiday can only ever be….

Kia ora everyone, and thanks to Pete for keeping Et Al ticking over. Will revert to cricket shortly.