Old Faces From Home

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On the way to Asia, I thought I'd stop off in Auckland for a cup of tea and to catch up with some old friends. The flight from Chile was twelve hours, but curiously I left on Wednesday and arrived on Friday! I had crossed the most unusual time zone in the world and had completely lost Thursday in the process. If someone were to ask me "what were you doing on Thursday 27th September", I would have to reply that technically I did not exist on that day. If you fly in the opposite direction, from New Zealand to Chile, you actually land several hours before you set off! (this would be a great way to celebrate New Years Eve twice)

At 5am, Martin, Merle and Ella picked me up from the airport. Martin is an old friend from Cheshire who emigrated to New Zealand several years ago. It was Ella's 11th birthday today, and boy, had she grown in two years. She was almost as tall as me! Which isn't hard of course. Approximately 68% of the world's population are taller than me. After a magnificent fry-up in a posh seafront cafe, I was forced to jump off Auckland's Skytower. Well, not exactly forced. Merle asked if I was up for it and I said yes.The skytower is Auckland's tallest building, and you can do a "cable-assisted" base jump from the top. You wear a chest harness with a steel cable attached to the back, and jump off a platform 192 metres high. As you plummet to the ground, the cable spools off a reel on the platform, and it slows you down at the last minute. Pulling the cable off the winch does slow you down somewhat, so you only fall at a speed of 80 kph with a "freefall" time of about 11 seconds. So it is slower than a bungee or true freefall. But when you are on a legde 192 metres high, looking DOWN on the skyscrapers of Aucckland, the fear factor is most definitely there! The trick is to just stand at the edge with your toes just over the ledge, and then let yourself fall forwards and let momentum do the rest. Merle did it with me, but as she leaned forward and tumbled off, her survival instincts kicked in and she grabbed hold of the attendent on the ledge wit her! She nearly pulled him off the ledge with her, and it was a good job he was harnessed to a railing.

It was an action-packed couple of days with Martin and Merle. Auckland is littered with small volcanoes which casually sit amongst the suburbs. So we climbed Rangitoto, the largest one, which had great views of Auckland from the summit.

Having travelled New Zealand from top-to-bottom several years previously, this was just a whistle-stop for a logn weekend. For the second half I stayed with Dave and Nina, two good friends of mine who also emigrated several years back. For those of you who know them, I can reveal three things.

1. Nina and baby are doing well. She has that healthy pregnant glow
2. The baby is going to be called Gladys (after Gladys Knight and The Pips)
3. They are both returning to the UK imminently

Point 2 is not actually true. They HAVE chosen a name, but it's so top secret that I couldn't prise it from them (even after sharing three bottles of red wine with Dave).

They treated me to a rather posh Sunday lunch , where we caught a ferry out to an island called Waiheke ad dined at a lovely vineyard restaurant with sweeping views of the bay. The winelist was rather impressive, with a 1982 bottle of Chateau Lafite for $3,000! (which works out at $50 a mouthful).

Auckland was a fabulous pitstop to recharge my batteries, revitalise my spirits and re-experience things which I had been absent from my life for the past four months. Such as.....

1. Cheese toasties. A simple pleasure, but highly satisfying. Martin claimed they weren't his best. I pondered his words briefly before wolfing down six of them

2. Indian Takeaway. I enjoyed it, but Kiwi-Indians are clearly cooking on a different page to chefs in the UK. Madras is a tomato-based dish, it should not be yellow! And Madras is Madras strength, it should not come in three choices of mild/medium/hot! It was tasty all the same though, just different.

3. Meat Pies. I tried two meat-and-cheese pies whilst in Auckland, and both were excellent specimens. Kiwis clearly know their pies. Although I have to conceded that they both fell slightly short of the best pie of all time, which I ate in Esperence, Western Australia in January 2000.

4. Home-cooked food. After eating at home for four months, a meal out would be a major treat. After eating OUT for four months, a home-cooked meal is a major treat! It was good to see Dave hasn't lost his touch in the kitchen. Chilli fried scallops and salad, followed by bacon-wrapped blue cod on a bed of mash, with steamed green beans. Drooling yet?

5. Roast Dinner. Whilst I didn't actually consume one in Auckland, I found their closeness and availability comforting. There are "European" takeaways here where you can order a complete roast dinner! Machu Picchu was recently voted one of the NEW Seven Wonders of the World. The Roast Dinner should be one of the "Seven Culinary Wonders of the World"

You may notice a slight bias towards food so far. Whilst I do love food with a passion, point 6 is by far the most important.

6. Being around good friends and family. Whilst my trip probably seems like a year-long jolly holiday, it has been very hard at times. I have met some fabulous people along the way, but it is often for a very short length of time before you go your separate ways. You start to get to know someone, and the next day you say goodbye, and are back to square one. Travelling alone once again and looking to meet people. You miss having people to chat to properly about things. There is always a warmup period with people you meet where you seem to get bogged down in the same conversations. Where are you from? Where have you been? What do you do for a living back in London? It can get tedious having the same conversation over and over again, but it's almost a ritual you can't avoid. Travelling alone, you also miss having someone around to share the highs and lows with. And despite being an industrially social person, I have unavoidably spent some days alone. Sometimes getting off the beaten track means you don't meet any other travellers, and you end up eating in a restaurant alone at night. I have missed my family. I have missed my friends. Phone calls and emails do not replace the people. So the other thing I re-experienced in Auckland was the familiarity and warmth of having people around that know you well, and whom you know well, and who you care about. My homesickness was strangely quashed and rekindled all at the same time in Auckland. I was sad to leave, but I am also edging closer to home from this point onwards, and will have many adventues along the way. Thank you to Martin, Merle, Ella, Dave and Nina. And hugs to everyone at home!

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