31 Dec 2003 - 11th day in New Zealand - Wedding Anniversary
I'm writing this on the 4th as things have moved too fast for me to keep up in the last day or two.
In the morning, I spent a lot of time catching up on these notes. After that, I took a walk down to the beach. This is a nice motor park just beside the ocean. There are tennis courts, places to rent boogie boards and plastic kayaks.
Around 1000, it was time for me to vacate my spot (#145) and then at 1200, I could occupy my new spot (#67). In the mean time, I drove into town and parked close to where the central clock is.
They have a parking system here. You park and then you walk to a box which is on the same street and you put some amount of money into it up to $2NZ. It prints you out a ticket which says when you paid and how long you are good for. You place this face up on your dash and then you are legal.
I took my laptop and walked to the Internet place and uploaded my new web pages. I had no luck connecting for E-mail, however. I tried to call SR but I missed her. She old me later that she'd just walked out to the gate for a few minutes to talk with Barry who was dropping something off and she missed my call in that short span.
I drove back to the motor camp and parked in my new spot. It was down at the other end of the park near an open grassy area. I sat and read for a bit and then I decided I needed a latte so I grabbed my Brockman book and walked into town - a distance of about 6 blocks.
There were two interesting things along the way. One was as old train station which has been converted into shops. It is really out of the way, however, and it was nearly deserted. They must have more business at other times or they'd never survive. They were selling 2nd hand books and knick-knacky kinds of stuff.
The other thing of interest was the kids skate park along the way. It was a nice big facility and one of the local radio stations was out running a contest and broadcasting live from the park, I think. I sat and watched the kids do their stuff. It takes a lot of skills I never developed.
While I was sitting there, a girl came up and asked if I knew what time the contest started. I said I had just arrived and that I did not. We talked for a minute and she asked where I was from and in not too long, it turned out that she was from Bothell, Washington of all places. Her name was Katy and she was a Christian Missionary working for the Church of Christ in New Zealand. She'd been doing this work for over five years. She was 24. I asked how many countries she'd worked in and, as I recall, it was about six. She said they'd been there is Gisborne now for about six weeks. While we talked, another girl came up and asked her if she could go someplace or doing something. Katy said it was alright and I realized then that she was in a leadership position by the deference shown her. I asked and she said yes, she'd led two or three missions now. I think each mission contained half a dozen or so folks.
We talked some more and I asked who paid for all of this and she said that she had to pay $180/month to do it herself. I asked how she made the money and she said that her parents supported her as well as others in the church. She said it was an act of faith that God would provide and he always had. I liked her. She had a nice straight forward calmness about her. Talking to her was like taking a drink of cool water. All around us was the jangle of teenage hormones and energy and rock music playing and skateboarders doing their thing.
I asked her how long she was going to continue doing this and she said, with a far off look in her eyes, that she thought this mission might be her last one. I don't think I followed up to learn what she was going to do next.
I'm always amazed, when I travel and meet people, at the wide diversity of what people do with their lives. Growing up in North Long Beach in California, a life like hers would have been beyond my imagining. And yet, some young people all over the world just strike out and go global. But, the deeper truth is that most stay home and never aspire to anything farther away than the next town or the next county. Finally, I told her that I was on a search or a latte in town and she said that they would be doing a church service at 8 PM nearby and we parted.
I continued my walk into town. Once I was there, I made one or two passes up and down the main street as I am always wont to do and then I settled into a nice latte at an outside table and read more of my Brockman book. That book is hard to put down. The ideas in it are truly cutting edge visions of current science and near-term futures.
The latte done and another stroll up and down the street completed, I headed back to the motor camp. preparations were well under way for the evening's celebrations (it is December 31st, New Year's Eve here). A large bandstand was erected around the city's central clock and the streets closed off for a block in each direction. I thought I might come back later in the evening and see what kind of insanity was afoot.
Back at the motor camp, an impromptu game of cricket was underway in the grass across from my spot. The other day, curious about cricket, I looked it up in my Encarta Encyclopedia and learned a bit about the game. Having read some about it and having watched it played some on TV in Wellington, watching it now made more sense to me. I have to say, however, that the scoring terminology is still vastly beyond me.
While I watched and read, some of the people camped beside me walked by and said hello and gathered from my accent that I was an American. Later, Jeff from the camp beside me asked if I wanted to come and join them for a beer and I said yes. This was about 2030.
At the camp next door, there were two families. Jeff and his wife, Cath, and his son Lewis. There was also Colin and his wife, LeAnn. Altogether, between the two families, there were six kids but the only one whose name stuck with me was Lewis'. These folks were from the Wellington area. Some place just a bit north of there in the western coast. They were next door neighbors.
Jeff did something to do with Finance in the city and Colin worked for the folks who put up the high voltage power pylons around the country. Cath was a school teacher and I'm not sure if LeAnn did something aside from being a homemaker. They were all friendly and gregarious people and spending time with them was easy and fun.
We talked a lot about sports and music. They continued my education about cricket and told me a bit as well about Rugby, which I am also curious about. The radio was on and it was doing a count-down of the best 100 songs of the 70's and 80's in New Zealand. Colin is, apparently, a master of knowing the name and artist of just about anything he hears so there was a lot of fun each time a new song came on. Maybe 30% or the songs were home-brew New Zealand stuff which were popular here but which never got play in North America. They plied me with beers and all the while kids were coming and going with various triumphs and scraped knees and such. Great fun.
As it got later, one or another of the parents would disappear into the tents to put down the younger ones. I asked and they assured me that they would be glad to have my company to ring in the New Year and I couldn't think of any better place to be so I stayed, happily.
Finally, only two of the boys were still awake - Lewis and another who was younger. I'd just looked at my watch and noted to myself that it was 10:45 PM when Jeff and Colin began saying, "That was it - New Year's!". I almost spoke up and said what the time really was when I realized what they were about. They wanted the younger one to think he'd made it to midnight so that he'd turn in so I played along and off he went happy and none the wiser.
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| All of us except Cath who has the camera | Jeff, Cath, a son whose name I've forgotten and Lewis | Colin and LeAnn |
LeAnn made us some ham sandwiches and we all continued to talk about anything and everything. At some point, I went over an got my iPAQ and showed them the nursery program I was working on. I think they'd asked me several questions about what kind of stock we carried. I also brought back three Tui beers I'd had in my fridge so I wouldn't be drinking up all of theirs.
"Ah, the Aussies - a wonderful people - but
not very good at sports"
- typical comment heard when New Zealanders discuss
Aussies -
Midnight finally came and around us folks set off some fireworks. Jeff was a bit bummed as he had a great box of fireworks at home which he'd left there thinking there would be no place to use them. I got my camera and shot a few pictures of us all and then Lewis turned in to bed and I bid them all a good night and thanked them for allowing me to join their New Year's Evening and I went and turned in.
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| Jeff counts down to Midnight | First photo of 2004 - Left to right: Cath, Colin, LeAnn, Jeff and Lewis |
Tomorrow was going to be a long day as I'd stayed in Gisborne one day longer that originally planned and I still anted to make it all the way around the East Cape and still end near Tauranga by tomorrow night.