Okay – they say you get what you pay for. Fifteen bucks, including electricity, for a park at the AMP showgrounds seemed pretty good to a tired traveller. I talked to a bloke who lived there in an old bus – ‘You should be alright where you are, mate, but don’t go over there, it gets a bit boggy.’ At about 11 pm, I woke up to heavy rain pittering on the Mercedes. It rained all night, and in the misty light of dawn, I decided that we were probably in trouble – my first meeting was at 10 am, and if we got bogged, two and a half hours to organise a rescue might be pushing it. I unplugged from the free electricity and gingerly edged my stead forward. The first twenty metres went well, but then, as they say in the technical books, things turned to s**t, as the back wheels lost traction. The slight uphill was a gentle climb of only a few metres, but the heavy vehicle could not do it.
Here, my mountaineering background helped. I decided a very gentle zig-zag might do the trick – and I gained about a metre on each forward zig and then reversed for little gain, but another metre on the next forward zig. I felt a flush of relief like reaching a hard-won summit once I was on the gravel track, but I wasn’t free. The gate was locked – the woman who sold me the package had said, ‘If the gate is locked, enter 2000.’ I did, but the massive padlock was unimpressed by my feeble attempt to gain freedom. I checked whether I could lift the gate off its hinges, but it had been fitted by a farmer, so I drove back to my mate in the bus, who explained the tricky nature of said padlock.
By 9:50am I was safely headed to Kaitaia College. What a welcome I received from the extraordinary Principal, Louise Anaru, and her senior team. I was truly humbled. I hadn’t gone there to talk about our programmes in their school but to seek their advice but I was done by their charm and their ambition for the kids in their care. Putty in their hands I agreed to try to come up with a plan to introduce our programmes to Kaitaia.
Northland is so big – it actually seems bigger than the kilometres covered. I drove south, over the extraordinarily beautiful Maungamuka range, superb native bush and an amazingly refurbished road, winding and perfectly cambered and future proofed, as well as we can predict at this stage.
Back in Whangarei I checked in at a Top 10 Holiday Park – secure concrete pad, not a bog in sight.
In the afternoon I drove into town to meet the Chair of the Regional Council, the amazing Pita Tipene. Our conversation was wide-ranging and in a short time I realised that this man was one of the keys to the future of Te Tai Tokerau, and the success of our programmes here.
I left Pita’s office confident we would have his support.
It had been a good day.