I nervously went about breakfast at our Kaipara bach, not entirely confident that my trusty Mercedes would get up our steep drive, but we cruised up through the gorgeous avenue of ancient trees – no trouble at all. At the top, we entered an ethereal world of mist and early morning sun.
A light was on above the driver’s seat and so I stabbed at various buttons, and stuff me, the light didn’t go out, but a female voice greeted me – ‘Hello, this is Mercedes-Benz.’ Oh my god, am I talking to Berlin – I’ll never know, probably AI, I thought.
We crossed the Bryderwyn Range, not an oak tree in sight, and were soon at Barnardos Whangarei, and what a welcome. Eliza Wallace, CEO of Barnardos, Whangarei, was at the gate to give me a warm welcoming hug. The lugubrious sound of the conch called me on, and after karakia and mihi, we settled down to korero, and what a wide-ranging discussion it was: what their work entailed, the meth issue in Northland, housing, Maori migration, the settlement for Ngapui, ancient history, tsunamis, and so on. We were bonded forever.
At Kerikeri, I met with our dedicated coordinator in the Bay of Islands, Lisa Fairbrother. Lisa delivers our programme in Bay of Islands College and has been scoping opportunities for expansion to primary schools in the area, because we want a flow of young people through from primary to secondary in communities.
Continuing north, we passed beautiful inlets and beaches. At Mangonui I remembered Jo-anne’s and my pathetic attempt to kayak down the coast at the Millenium. We camped near the harbour entrance, but a storm kept us in our tent for three days, dog warmly positioned between us. On New Year’s eve I lit a very smoky fire, and then committed the most heinous sin under the circumstances – I kicked over our only bottle of champagne!
At Kaitaia I found a place to park at the AMP grounds – $15 including electricity, seemed pretty good to me. It’s a very quiet field on the outskirts of town with many horses looking over a fence seemingly asking who are you and what are you doing here. Sorry horses. I’m here to help young people – maybe horses next life.
Day two – many kilometres, many new friends, even some new ideas!