Kauri

I should have put this picture up yesterday. It’s a clear view of the Duke of Wellington and his nose that we climbed yesterday.

Large spiders inhabited my dreams, and a visit to my dead friend Kathy. I tried to visit Dad, too, but he refused to come back to life, even for a minute.

Another stupidly early morning awakening today (5:30). I wish my internal clock would adjust.

I’ve never been so continuously cold as I have been here, and I’m not even at the snowy South Island yet. Locals parade about in a t-shirt and maybe a light sweater while I enshroud myself in multiple layers of wool and down, and still shiver. Heating is not a popular amenity. In this morning’s dawn I dressed under the covers and now I am here in the kitchen typing away in two pairs of pants, two shirts, a jacket, a hat and gloves.

I got my first peak at the nighttime southern skies just now, stars crisp and brilliant. There’s something that looks like Orion’s Belt, but I suppose it can’t be that.

On today’s agenda is a visit to the giant, ancient Kauri trees that exist only in one place in all the world. according to Lindsay and Stefano, our wonderful hosts here at Kahoe, to whom will be soon bid farewell, after the rest of the world wakes up and we get our morning flat whites. In my suitcase is newly washed laundry.

. . .

Lesson of the day: have more than a flat white for breakfast if you are going to be driving through lunch and arriving at your hostel at dinner, for you might find yourself in a town that’s all closed down with no food for sale.

Today was a largely boring because it was largely driving. But it was a beautiful day.

So since I have nothing to say, let me tell you a little about New Zealand. Originally there were no mammals here. Not a single rat or kangaroo or koala or rabbit. Only birds. But over the years various deer and pig and possums and stuff were introduced. Now they overrun the island. Possums alone now consume 40,000 pounds of native plants a night. They’re cute though, judging from the roadkill we’ve seen: fuzzy ears and sweet little squashed-flat faces. They use their fur for yarn, and I hope to buy some while I’m here.

And here’s some more pronunciation. A book is a boo![k]. A thing is a theeng.

Okay, so today I drove and drove and drove from about 9:00 till 1:00. We stopped to see the oldest kauri (pronounced ka-oo-ree) tree in the world, about as old as Jesus, were he still kicking. This tree’s name is Tane Mahuta, which means Lord of the Forest. Needless to say, he’s sacred to the Maori.

Kauri is a type of pine, native to New Zealand, whose ancestors lived over 100 million years ago. There are very few old ones left because they were massively logged for ships, houses, furniture and maybe even shoes, but that’s just my guess. Now you can’t log them any more. Their roots are shallow so they’re easily killed, and human shoes bring them fatal diseases, so we had to disinfect our tootsies before we entered the grove. There’s also a resin that bleeds from the tree when it’s insulted (I mean physically; you can say what you want around them) that the Maori used for chewing and lighting fires, and Westerners turned into lacquer, varnish and linoleum. That’s your lesson for today.

Then Syd took over the wheel and drove and drove and drove. Our GPS woman, a Kiwi, lied to us, but we finally found our way to this B&B called Piha Beachstay, at 5:00. We were famished, as you can imagine, but all I could find to eat was a baking potato and some cream and packaged parmesan. I bought a can of black beans in case we get into this predicament again.

At the beach next to this B&B is where they filmed The Piano, a fact that means nothing to me because I haven’t seen it but perhaps you care. Here, there are about a dozen people staying, quite a different experience than our private quarters up north. But it’s nice too. Everyone here is eating dinner (as I look on hungrily) and showing pictures of where they’ve been. So far, Tongoriro Crossing is the place that looks most interesting to me. It’s south of here but still on the North Island. But it’s very snowy and the forecast for the next days is dismal. So now I have to go, to discuss with Syd where we’re gonna go tomorrow.