Brotherly Love

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So, an older brother grew up and moved out before I hit teenage years, and then decided to move to the ‘northern depths’ of Norwich, and appeared once a year for the obligatory Christmas visit. About ten years later, one sister arrives in New Zealand, and almost instantaneously receives a mail to say said brother has booked flights to come see (her in) NZ.

Whatever the reason behind the flights, said brother has since arrived, travelled, conquered and left again for the now, I believe, defrosted UK. To start, we had previously booked Big Day Out tickets for Auckland. Now this is a one day music festival, which the locals rave about being a hardcore festival, mainly for the young and brave, so we buy tickets. Now, the Auckland date is held at Mount Smart Stadium, just outside the city centre, and upon arrival it truly is an eye opener. There were 8 areas/stages set not only in the stadium, but also in every single available space of car park, grassed area, maintenance areas and corridors around the stadium, (also in a residential area may I add) To herd 45 odd thous in this area was miles of metal fencing, all routes around 3 metres wide, and with no wind and the sun being faithfully scorching turned the area into one hot and bothered place.

We walked around astounded for a few hours couldn’t find half the places we were looked for, got tired of marching slowly through fencing so decided to grab a beer, but no where seemed to sell it, and we were surrounded by kids. Another hour later, about to storm out we finally were told that one half of the festival was alcohol free for under 18’s and the other half was for the overs, and we had to go with ID to the checking tent to get a wrist band then walk all through the crowds again to where we had been 2 hours prior to get through the gates to the beer tents and remaining areas. Jesus, this was like pulling teeth.

Finally, come 6pm we finally had beer and found a place on a grassy hill to watch Dizzee Rascal send everyone completely nuts. This was pretty cool, but very soon after, Dave’s jet lag started to kick in ( he had landed 7am that morning after a good 24 hours travel and had not yet been to bed.) So after watching Lily Allen successfully flop after the Rascal excitement, we made our way back to the city before the entire 45,000 (which was now all drunk and stumbling) tries to catch a train, taxi or bus home via one small exit. So, after all that and 260 bucks later, it was an experience, not a patch on an English Glasto or Reading, but definitely interesting to see how the other side rolls - perhaps wont be rolling with it again in a hurry though!

So, after some well needed sleep, we made the most of the next day by finally going up the Sky tower, and had one amazing lunch in the sun in the viaduct. I then left Dave to explore the North Island for a while while I returned to the bay. It was weird knowing he was in the country, and he even ended up having my mate as his tour driver! Nearly two weeks later, he arrives up in Paihia for a 5 day visit.

We started as we had finished with some beers in the sun and a beautiful seafood meal at a restaurant where the waitress obviously thought we were a couple - awkward! The next day I had arranged for us to go on a day trip to the Cape Reinga, the northern most point of NZ. Dave was dreading another bus trip so soon after having arrived, but I on the other hand was looking forward to getting out of the bay for a bit more sightseeing!! This day trip is the standard one for the area, and leaves on about 5 different buses without fail every day. You start by visiting the Kauri forest where the Queen had visited to protect the land a few years ago, and the trees there are actually massive, bigger than I have ever seen before. After the forest the bus travels up the east coast of the peninsular through Cable bay, Doubtless bay and finally up an unfinished gravel (kiwis call it metal) road to the cape. It is quite unbelievable that this is a major tourist road used every day and it is not even finished yet - but that seems to be a running theme here. The Cape itself is actually stunning and very newly refurbished, leaving it completely manicured. You can clearly see where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific meet through colours and swells, and the wind up there is very strong. The Cape is a very spiritual place for the Maori culture, and this is very clearly explained everywhere you go, which I found very interesting. After the cape, we stopped for lunch in a small bay, and then carried on to the Te Paki Giant Sand dunes. These seem to come from nowhere and are truly impressive. They are huge and very imposing. Before you can even take it all in, the bus cargo doors are opened, you are handed a body board and before you know it the whole group is marching up this giant dune on boiling sand to get to the top, where the wind is so strong you are truly being sand blasted, only to then throw yourself off the top head first down the dune with only your toes as breaks! It’s quite an experience. Not only do you really feel like you’re actually in a desert, but it is a very steep drop on this board. But, like all things here, it is amazing fun and very addictive! The whole group did one run, about 6 of us climbed again for a second, and then only 3 of us climbed a third time. The dunes are so large, you keep forgetting what a killer it is to climb each time, and it takes a good 10 - 15 mins to climb with collapsing points included. Afterwards we were exhausted and truly covered head to toe in sand.

To continue with our journey back south, the bus then travels along the west coast along the 90 mile beach. This beach is a registered highway, and is actually about 55 miles long. Boring fact alert - One story behind it is that the aussies have an 80 mile beach and the kiwis are being difficult as always, or a second is that is was readily used by a farmer to travel his cattle along the stretch, and it would take them 3 days, and he knew his cattle travelled 30 miles a day. However, he overlooked the slow progress made when on sand.

As it has been used as a highway for many years, it was the first official highway in NZ, but as it is re-surfaced each night by the tide, it is also daily the newest highway too. The beach is enormous, but not the typical family beach as it is a road, and the tides are notoriously dangerous so swimming is not recommended, with 3 deaths last month alone due to currents and rips, even the buses can overturn, like one did last year if caught by a tide wrong.

Anyway - beach was awesome, has a hole in a rock just like Paihia does, and yes - it rained on us 10 mins after the sun was scorching. The rest of the day was simply travelling home, with many now asleep on the bus, Celine Dion made an unwelcome appearance from some backpackers donated ipod, but there was very quickly a mutiny, and a stop was made for the apparently world famous Manganui Fish shop - didn’t have any so cant really comment.

After this long day we were knackered, but had been invited to a mates for a kiwi bbq, so a few tequilas later we had a second wind, and dave was welcomed in style with more fresh seafood and many beers! The following day our mates mum wanted to take us out to a local winery for lunch - with no complaints we settled with a few bottles of rose enjoying a lovely meal. I did however, make the mistake of trying to be healthy and have a “micro-green” salad (which turned out to be a small handful of watercress) whilst the other two had a large pork carvery. Still, it left more room for wine intake…

The Saturday then consisted of water, I took dave on a trip into the bay itself, which cannot do itself justice unless on a boat, it goes out for miles and has 144 islands. We were blessed with not only another beautiful day, but a huge pod of dolphins with a new baby, and about 25 knots of wind - after the last nautical experience, I was very proud of not hurling in public. Dave being the marine geek that he is, loved it so much we docked at 12:20, and he promptly booked to go back out on the 12:30 departure too - like I said - Geek!

On his last night we partied Paihia style - the backpacker way and ended up with our good friend tequila screaming along to bon jovi and many 80’s classics as the kiwi’s seem to do so often. Many later, and a few hours sleep left us sitting at a good old greasy spoon on the marina wondering how we got through 5 days so quickly! It was weird and surreal, but a week with my big brother I never would have imagined doing, and once children and spouses come back along we probably never get the chance to do again. At least now I feel those visits, even Christmas will not be thought of as obligatory again.

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