Buzz! (Diane's Visit, Part 3)

(This is my view from the reception desk at Solscape where I’m finishing this entry).


Hey,

How have you been? I had a few phone calls recently with some of you so I guess I know the answer, in a general sense-

East coasters: hot

Wet coasters: smoky

Parents of teens: harassed

Parents of small children: tired, busy.

Non-parents: tired, busy.

It’s been nice to hear about all the things you’ve been doing. Although I’m doing a bit of work here, and the Transition Town planning is engaging, I’m (believe it or not) getting restless to come home, and get busy myself… even though I’m all too aware that, soon enough, I’ll think back to this time and this place with longing.

Sorry it’s taken so long to write about the trip with Diane. I appear to be a perfectionist about the whole thing, to the predictable conclusion of writing nothing at all. At this rate, I’ll be writing about the events of May when I get home in September!

Diane and I loaded Herbert with what was becoming precision, and we headed off to our next stop- Napier, a short hop (just a few hours drive). Napier is known for two things: In the early 1930s the entire town was leveled by a powerful earthquake, and was rebuilt in high art-deco style, fabulously stylized and perfectly preserved today. Napier is also in prime wine-producing country, so we were poised to do one of Diane’s New Zealand goals: taste wine.



Before we left, we booked a promising sounding place listed in the Rough Guide that appealed to us because it had a “spa bath”, and was by the sea. We were discovering that this time of year it was no problem to arrange lodging on short notice.

The drive was lovely. This part of the country is very isolated and rural, hours away from anywhere. Quick glimpses of the chalk-cliff coastline were visible at unexpected intervals- tantalizingly inaccessible.



One notable town on the way to Napier was sleepy, unassuming Wairoa. I saw later in the news that there had been an anti-gang peace march that mobilized 2,000 of its 5,000 inhabitants! Apparently there was a turf war brewing between two Maori gangs. We passed through, blissfully ignorant.

High, whispy clouds portended rain as we rolled into Napier. We found our hotel, a pretty slick place. We couldn’t believe the lighting- banks of high watt incandescent recessed bulbs, perhaps 30 total, which lit the room like a movie set. There were also towel warmers, a powerful heater idiotically mounted on the ceiling, and the massive Jacuzzi. Pre-eco-consciousness splendor! We promptly trashed the place with our raggle-taggle luggage.



I’m sorry to say that the whole time we were in Napier we took not one photo of the splendid architecture all around us. We went for several enjoyable walks, me following Diane following her nose into the residential neighborhoods. We walked along the pebble beach and took a few pictures of ourselves, and the “Hokusai” waves that reared up vertically from the backwash of the steep beach profile.



It was Queen’s Birthday weekend (how did you celebrate?), and the town was buzzing with visitors, teenagers cruising the streets heckling one another (and us), and residents strolling about between the cafes and pubs. On the waterfront, the municipal skateboard park was having a gala. A chaotic mob of children was rolling about on skateboards, roller skates, bikes and scooters. Some just ran up and down the banked walls on foot. Adult supervision seemed utterly absent, save a disembodied voice on a loudspeaker commenting on the antics of one group of kids on a half-pipe. Very few children wore helmets or other safety gear. We stopped and watched the madness, which had the compelling quality of a car crash (but in this case, a slow-motion car crash in progress), and commented to one another that we were witnessing a much less litigious society at play.

The first morning in our glitzy room, I heard a scream from the bathroom. Diane threw the door open and told me to come look out the window, quick!
I looked out, then down, and gulped:



This creature had his paws on the window frame, and was staring silently up at us. He was completely, almost disquietingly, relaxed and stayed in the same position while I ran and got my camera. Diane said that when she first saw him, the frosted window was mostly closed, so her first glimpse of that werewolf face was this:


When we climbed out the window to play with him, he came to frenzied life. We later found out his name was Buzz, and he was locked in the narrow alley behind the rooms while his owners, the managers, worked. He was a manic love machine- here Diane braces herself for a barrage of unsolicited licking.


Today was a day to visit wineries. We had a glass of Trinity Hills red wine in a restaurant in Waihi beach that was wonderful; they were nearby, so that was one stop. Diane found a few more recommendations in the Rough Guide, so after washing Buzz off our faces, we set out.

A few fat raindrops began to streak our dusty windshield. “Why today?” Diane moaned. But by the time we got to Trinity Hill, the skies had cleared, and the sun spilled onto the vineyards.



We had a fun time talking with the knowledgeable French girl who helped us (the only customers). We then went across the road to Clearwater winery, and Diane sampled their wonderful white wines, which are available nowhere else. Then we drove on to the tiny seaside Te Awanga winery, after checking the surf at the well-known surf break. It was awfully tempting to surf the small, perfect waves, but I restrained myself- Diane had been so looking forward to doing what we were doing, and the afternoon shadows were lengthening… We had a fabulous lunch at Te Awanga in their beautiful restaurant, sitting by an iron fireplace, the late afternoon light pouring in honey-gold. It was my favorite meal of the trip- fruits, cheeses, breads and crackers, and wonderful wine. I fell in love with feijoas, a tart little citrus fruit a bit like kiwifruit, but- er- different. The vineyard owner later took me out to see the trees from which they grew.


Feeling mellow after the day’s activities, we headed back to the surf break. I had just enough time to catch a few waves before dark. The wave was unique, a very long ride that broke parallel to the beach, only a few feet from the sand. The sunset was dramatic and atmospheric.



It was wonderfully satisfying to each get to do what we wanted to do that day! The trip was feeling very rich that evening. What a pleasure it was to be traveling with Diane.



As I said, I’ll step it up with the blog. Actually, from here on out, the photos get a lot better, so I’ll probably up the photo content and hopefully that will push things along more quickly yet still be interesting.

I’d like to alert you to my music blog, which has recordings that I’ve made on this trip:

http://jonathanhess@wordpress.com/

Take care. Miss you all.