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Published: February 6th 2010
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Our paper article!!Hearing dogs New Zealand styley week 2
A little despondent that none of the campers were any good we started our second week of volunteering with some media coverage of our good deed. We didn’t really want to be in the local Taranaki midweekly paper but Clare insisted as it would be good publicity along side the fundraising money she was collecting from a local bank.
The rest of the week was a bit more varied, with some visits to the dogs out in socialising to check on their progress. Each dog had its own little issues but two of the three really needed some more work. As usual some great and well meaning socialisers but some dogs that could have benefited with a bit more of a socialising programme. Nath spent the second week in a row on the motorised mower which he was beginning to enjoy too much and the grass cutting itself was becoming something of an obsession for him, how dare it grow so soon after he had cut it thus needing constant mowing. Towards the middle of the week Clare invited us up to her house for dinner with the family. Now we had
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View from an outlook at the base of Mount Egmont also in the mean time found a campervan locally that seemed ok but we wanted Clare’s husband Richard to check it out (being an ex-mechanic). So we borrowed the van and took it to their house so he could have a look at it before dinner. The kiwi guy who was selling it had no issue with us just taking it away for the evening and only accepted the works van keys as a deposit once I suggested it, otherwise he was just gonna let us drive off with it!! Talk about laid back here.
Dinner at Clare’s was great and was cooked my Lisa, it seems that all kiwi kids are brought up as excellent cooks and wouldn’t dare try super noodles or sauces out of a jar, unlike mine and Nath’s speciality “super noodles and a slice of bread”!!! We met Claire’s kids Cole and Lisa and of course Richard who was a small bearded man, not what I was expecting for some reason, and he was very quiet and I didn’t know how to take him. Anyway after a great meat loaf dinner Richard had a look at our “hunk of junk” camper, as I was
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Walk in plimsoles - not a good idea affectionately calling it already whilst I watched Tama getting chased around the lawn by Clare’s two cats!! What a wuss!! We took the van back to the guy that evening, not sure if we were gonna bother buying it. It was an ok van but the electrics were a little dodgey because when the guy had wired in his “$2000 stereo system” with some sticky back plastic, a piece of hairy string and a sledge hammer he had inadvertently messed up the many of the other vital parts like the fridge! Hey who needs fresh food when you have a kicking stereo dude!
Convince New Plymouth was a dull place, that Friday night we took Clare and her family out for dinner in town. It looked to be an early finish to the evening as we had forgotten the name of the restaurant, had the wrong directions and finally where to find a parking space. We did how ever get there in time and I was gonna be Des for the night. It was a bring your own bottle booze type place (as are a lot of places in New Zealand) and we had forgotten that too, oh well!!
The food was lush and we started making our way through the local beers and the bottles of wine that had been brought!! Yes I say we, I was a wuss and easily convinced that I should drink too and we should get a taxi back.
After our meal we went to what I can only guess is the highlight of the social locations in New Plymouth - an Irish bar!!! It had a live band and lots of Irish related paraphernalia. It was reminiscent of the pubs back home less the Irish tinge. After a couple we then moved on to the White Heart, which was much more like home - well Wycombe anyway. Bit of a working man’s club, with wet carpet, sticky tables, a rough looking cliental and a pool table - we felt much more relaxed here!!. Nath, Cole, Richard and I all played a few games of pool, Nath whipping their arses as usual, me doing my bit by not potting the white!!! By this point we could tell that some of the kiwi bravado of holding their drink was wearing off as Cole and Richard where beginning to look a little worse for
wear. I had done what I normally do when we begin to feel like the floor is rolling like the sea in a force 9 - STOP DRINKING FOR A BIT but that obviously wasn’t an option for them!!!
We moved back to the Irish bar and shortly went belowground to the “Basement” which was some mosh club where their cousin‘s band was playing one of the “Six bands for 6 bucks”. We all went in including a now very drunk Richard and very sober Clare (She was Des for the family) to this “club” which was just a little bar, stage and loads of huge speakers in a room. Reminded me of the places you’d go for alternative music at uni. Everyone was in black with piercings and that triumphant “I’m original and wont be led by social norms” look as they compared their outfits and make up -black oh and more black - dead people walking - sorry don’t get the whole Goth / EMO or what ever the kids are calling it these days. Cole who was very pleased with the hub of entertainment for the area and said he bet we didn’t have anything like
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Pohutakawa flowers this back home….no you’re right you would have to look hard to find something this shit!
Now getting on for 3am and forcing the knife from my wrist before it was too late we left the “Basement” and went back to the Irish bar upstairs. Richard was now so drunk he had knocked into the live band on stage and sent the mic flying into the crowd, not that he was even aware of this. It would seem they had caught on to the fact we weren’t as pissed as they were so Cole bought us all a “backdraft”. Basically its perno and some other highly flammable drinks mixed together in a shot glass and then lit. A pint glass is then used to catch the fumes before being placed over the shot glass extinguishing the flames. You are then given a straw to insert under the pint glass to suck out all the gases that have formed before downing the shot. Now I must admit to thinking this was nothing special and disagreeing that it would “hit me later” but I would say that yes, yes it did!!
We got the taxi suggested taxi company to take
us back to the hearing dogs site- instead of having to get back to town the next day to collect the van, the taxi people come in pairs, one driving your vehicle back and the other driving the taxi, all for $30 which wasn’t bad at all. I could tell we were quite drunk from the usual, fumbling with keys and mistaking random objects for people to hold conversations with but the main thing was my reaction to the snow pictures sent from home that I opened when I got home. I burst in to tears and started feeling sorry for myself - how selfish is that, I’m half way round the world in a perpetual summer and all I can think about is how I would like to be home with some snow. I’m sure everyone I know would like to switch places.
Next morning, well I say morning, more like early afternoon, Nath and I were still suffering form a massive hang over, one of those you get that lasts all day and you just don’t want to do anything, even making breakfast was too much. We spent the day watching TV and every now and then
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Sea front at New Plymouth looking over at each other saying things like “how can I still feel drunk” and “did we really have that much”. Funnily enough though the words “never again” didn’t pass our lips!!! We did manage a few hours in town in the afternoon, figuring we should do some Xmas shopping before we ran out of time. However it would seem that the run up to Xmas was still not reason enough for the shops to stay open past 4pm, we were walking around on the last Saturday before Xmas and there was really no one about and only a few shops left open. Still suffering with our hang over we both felt tired and decided well if no one else was gonna be open this “late” then we may as well go home to bed too…so we did….
Sunday was a bit livelier as we headed to mount Taranaki to see if we could climb it, you know I’m sure it’s easier than it looks!! I had read that more people die climbing this than any other mountain but as usual we figured they were making it all up!! Well by the time we got there (ok the hang
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Giant sweets over lasted a day and a half) we didn’t have much time till it started to get dark and the weather was a bit rubbish. We decided as we’d driven all this way we would do one of the shorter walks and got so far only to find the path had become washed away all the rain and falling branches so turned round again on that too. Probably a good thing as I had come suitable prepared in….flip flops!!! Yes definitely still hung over.
The following week we had only volunteered for a few days as it was Xmas week and we were planning on leaving on the 23rd to head to Tauranga for Xmas. It was not until the 21st we had finally bought a campervan - ironically from the first place we had looked at with Clare when we arrived here nearly 3 weeks prior!! It seemed a better bargain than the rust bucket we had borrowed the week before with the dodgey electrics. We were very excited about our trip away from New Plymouth, it was an ok place but quite dull really.
On our last day we needed to do some shopping as
we still hadn’t done any Christmas shopping (given our hang over and rubbish shopping hours the previous weekend) so met up with Annette, one of the socialisers who had offered to show us around. In the end she spent nearly all day showing us around the sights and good shops and spots of New Plymouth (our previously knowledge extending as far as the super markets) which was wonderful and just what we needed. The best spot was a café shaped like a big wave that sat by the beach and served organic hippie style smoothies, cakes and other items. It was lush especially the old peoples home furniture they bring out and place along the sea front so you can relax and eat your organic cherry muffin etc whilst enjoying the view - what a find and what a great lady Annette is!!
With Christmas-eve morning here today was the day we were due to collect our campervan. Whilst I left Nath doing that I stopped over at the local paper to grab a load of copies of our article about volunteering. Nath got back with the van and we loaded up with everything we had arranged the night
before. Gave Clare, June and Kerry (June - HD employee, Kerry volunteer) a small tour and then went off on our way. We couldn’t wait; not only to leave New Plymouth but also to have Christmas and New Year with our friends only stopping in town to check the tyre pressure and grab a quick MacDonalds lunch.
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