Surf 'n Sky

I've peeled 'em, sliced 'em, diced 'em, done just about everything short of mashing 'em, and each approach feels awkward. I like 'em, but I don't know how you're supposed to eat a kiwifruit.

So I asked a Kiwi. The answer is to cut them in half, and use a spoon as a scoop. So there you have it. I'm gonna be a whiz by the time I come out of here.

We drove into the main part of Tauranga yesterday, and I spent a little bit of time strolling up Cameron Road, a main drag through the city. Remember that scene in Pulp Fiction, when Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta are talking about the international McDonalds menu, right before they quote the Bible and blow the crap out of some dudes? They've got a lamb burger over here, I see. Speaking of the little differences, college over here is what we'd call high school, and they're a few weeks short of back to school time, which means that the administration is already back. I walked through an all-male college in Tauranga, a whole slew of buildings, offices, an outdoor amphitheatre, recreation field, and because of the Maori population and the fact that the curriculum includes the language and the culture, there's a marae (meeting house), all decked out in traditional carvings and used for special ceremonies.

Stewart is heavily involved in Rotary International – with a population of over 100,000 people, Tauranga has five of these service clubs, the Otumoetai Club meeting at the yacht club on Monday evenings. I've been to Rotary meetings in Corner Brook and St. John's (in high school they sent me to Ottawa for a week), and had a great time in Rotaract throughout my undergrad, so the invitation to go to a meeting on the other side of the world was too good to pass up. Away we go, sitting around a table where New Zealand politics was the topic of conversation – I didn't know any of the names involved, but the issues are pretty universal. And it turns out that, in the company of local business people, I am the exotic one. After the meal, a guest speaker delivered a talk on ShelterBoxes, a Rotary relief effort originating in England that sends tents, cooking equipment, and survival gear to displaced families in the face of disaster. Our Rotaract Club did some fundraising for ShelterBox when Japan was assaulted by a tsunami in 2011, so it was pretty cool to get this perspective, and to see the kind of work that the fundraiser has been doing since then.

This morning was sunny and 24 degrees – at this point, saying it's beautiful is almost a moot point. I got dropped off at the foot of Mount Maunganui on the other side of the harbour around 10:00, and spent the morning hiking to the top of the 232m hill, thrust out into the Bay of Plenty. I passed sheep tracks ascending the slope, along a well-worn trail much like Mount Eden, wrapping itself up the hill. Each new bend gave a new view of the green-blue waters of the Pacific (a colour I've never seen before in real life), sailboats lazily floating, and islands off in the distance. As I passed hikers coming down, most smiled and said hello; one woman even recognized my [inevitably sweaty and gross] CBC t-shirt, and picked me out as a Canadian in the shade of leafy, sub-tropical trees, a long way from home.

  

At the summit, the crowds were out in droves, getting a panoramic view of the ocean, the long sandy beach, and the little bay that houses the port, as well as a cruise ship (there were two different ones there yesterday – Tauranga will see more than 80 pass through this year). 

 

In a lot of ways, the path down was more difficult that the climb, because it was so steep and gravelly; go too fast, and your legs are going right out from underneath you, which I wouldn't particularly like. The path went from clinging to the rocky wall of the hillside to plunging through the forest, and every time you got in the shade, you were near deafened by these insect chirps, steadier and louder than a cricket chirp. 

 

I made the leisurely walk back around the other side of the mountain, and found myself headed to the gorgeous white beach I'd seen from my vantage point a long ways up. Jaw-dropping, I'd go so far as to say.

I kicked off my shoes, waded through the lapping waves that I shared with beginner surfers, and lay down my head to soak up some sun. I only got a mild burn on my forehead, you'll be happy to hear.

By lunchtime, I kept walking along the sand, until I came to another jutting point of forested land, this one much smaller: Motoruki, which is naturally known as Leisure Island. I mean, why wouldn't it be? I ate a pastrami sandwich and banana (both heavily battered in my knapsack but still good) along the rocks of a little cove on the tiny piece of land, wondering what in the hell someone from Tauranga would ever be stressed out about. Sunburns, maybe.

  

I think I played the cafe card correctly today. I went to a little spot, on a boardwalked strip on Maunganui Road, a real nice street lined up with shops and things for the beachgoers, and ordered a flat white, an Australian coffee. I drank it under an umbrella, watched the people go by, and felt that if no one asked me any questions or knew the logo on my shirt, I could blend in pretty well.

Just about midday, I went to the Port of Tauranga. For the next ten days or so, the port is holding bus tours, showing people what goes on on the other side of the fences. I think I had the darkest hair on the bus (significantly), but it was still a pretty cool hour – the port itself is over 2 km long, and we started on the clean side, where the cruise passengers come through and where the fruit, butter, and cheese are handled. The port handles some 18,000,000 tonnes of stuff each year, so there were plenty of other things to see on the dirty side – logs, oil, huge loading cranes (one is just now being built on Sulphur Point), trains of supplies, workers, and steel crates, literally thousands, all over the place. Apparently the spot is in a constant state of change, responding to demand and supplies. As New Zealand's busiest and most efficient port, it's the least pretty spot I've seen, but it was worthwhile to get a glimpse into how this commercial link operates.

I made arrangements this evening to travel to Havelock, just on the norther tip of the South Island, for a few weeks once I head out of Tauranga. I've only been here a short time, but already I feel a connection to the place, and the idea of packing everything up again is a bit strange – but, moss grows fat on a rolling stone, and I came this far to build momentum, not lose it.

Still, there are a few more days in the Bay of Plenty to enjoy the Kiwi hospitality. Although, tomorrow I'm visiting a different sort of home altogether. Whoever heard of living in a hole in the ground?

As I pick sand out of my hair, there are much worse spots to be. Lucky me.

Cheers,

rb