Spur of the Moment! Vienna to New Zealand

[Written for OzCon newsletter, June, 2016, Vienna, Austria]

It seemed to be a good time to pop home for a few weeks, with Nick busy at work and with a big family in New Zealand there is always an excuse; a birthday, Mothers’ Day and two young people on school holiday would have sufficed. This time however, it was honey - not just any honey (Austria has plenty of that) - Manuka honey.

It went like this on Facebook one Monday morning:
Me: I just scraped out my last teaspoon of Comvita honey onto my porridge :-(
Sister (works for Comvita): Ooooh, that sucks! ;-)
Daughter (works for Comvita): Uh oh! Time for a trip to NZ to pick some up ;-)

After mulling over this conversation, on Monday morning I booked the tickets home and on Monday night I was flying back to New Zealand.

As well as seeing my family and NZ friends I also felt the need to reconnect with the country itself. From a distance it seemed to me that NZ is heading in a negative direction. There is nothing better to expel some of those unsettling thoughts than visiting the places and people I care about. So begins a road trip. It’s quite a novel experience after 14 months of not driving. I was acutely aware of the public outrage at tourist drivers who get off the plane after umpteen hours of flying and immediately drive off in a jet-lagged state to see the country, while I did exactly that, although I had the advantage of having slept well on the flight.

First stop, Raglan a west coast town with a famous left-hand surf break for a flat white and carrot cake – how New Zealand can that be! I was in time to surprise my daughter and son-in-law at the progress meeting of our shared venture beach house. “I came for the honey”, I said. “Good timing”, she said, “I just picked some up today”.

We chose Raglan as a holiday location because of its surf, laid-back and slightly alternative culture and huge harbour for Nicholas to regain his kayaking skills. The burning feet from black sands, which are result of a strong current moving volcanic material along the west coast from Mount Taranaki, come free. Raglan is the site of many sun-filled and sunburned childhood days spent with my extended family and the beach is a typical, relatively isolated, hill-framed North Island beach.
After Raglan is was across to Mount Maunganui beach on the east coast. Unlike the Australian cross-country trip, this one takes 2 hours instead of two weeks. Although, with the jetlag kicking in, the Son-in-law took over the driving.

Odds are that if any Europe-based Kiwi is asked what they miss most about home, the sea is high on the list. 

Worst Trend:

Doughnut cities – After living in the very walkable inner suburbs of Vienna, the car-focussed towns, peripheral shopping malls and hollowed out centres of New Zealand cities are jarring. It’s far too easy to get into the habit of taking the car, even if by chance the shop you want is nearby. It feels safer and somehow more legitimate to drive than walk. Auckland, Tauranga and Hamilton are the most egregious examples.

Over the next couple of weeks I got to reconnect with the country and with friends and family. The day-long drive from Mount Maunganui to Wellington was a time for a bit of nostalgia. The road crosses the Tongariro Plateau and if volcanic activity is your thing, the trip takes in most of the active volcanic landforms in New Zealand. From Mount Maunganui (where the active White Island is off the coast) it takes in Rotorua, with its volcanic lakes, geysers and mudpools, and the dormant volcanic caldera of Lake Taupo. Taupo is New Zealand’s largest lake that last erupted about 1,800 years ago. This was one of most powerful eruptions of the last 5,000 years. Nearby Huka Falls is always a convenient place to stretch the legs.

Then onwards via the Desert road – no, not like an Australian desert, this one is covered in tussock, - to Waiouru where the national war history museum is located. The volcanic cones of Tongariro, Ngaruahoe and Ruapehu, provide the grand the backdrop.

Arriving in Wellington, I felt a little guilty about enjoying the perfect temperatures and no wind! while the government was finding ways of not doing anything to implement international agreements to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Wellington-based English Sculptor Max Patte, is someone who understands the attraction of living in the windiest city on the planet (average wind speed 29kph). His “Solace in the Wind” is designed and located to represent contemplation and solace in the elements. Blowing out the cobwebs of doubt and sadness is a physical, not just a rhetorical, thing in Wellington.

Best Trend:

The café and bistro scene is as strong as ever in Wellington and the food markets, artisan food and microbreweries continue at a pace there and elsewhere. The continued growth of the café and bistro-style restaurants. New Zealand must have some of the best quality for price food around

In the news

Water Degradation

  

Environmental pressures mean a large majority of lowland rivers are already unswimmable. Dairying is highlighted in the combination of factors that have caused this, and recent water degradation is especially problematic in dry areas where dairying has encroached.

Housing affordability crisis    

Investment properties, sky-high rents, and not enough new builds. People have auction attendances piled up in their diaries as if they were social events and tell similar stories of being out of the running almost immediately the bidding begins. In Hamilton, first home prices are rising by $7,000 per month.

Although my worries about the country heading in the wrong direction are not assuaged, at a personal level, it’s the simple things that matter: a shared dinner with the extended family; strolling around the Wellington waterfront with my son; working on our Raglan project with my daughter; being there when my grandson picks up his guitar and plays a new song that he’s practised because he knows I like it (yes, he’s super-talented); watching my granddaughter’s first football game of the season (and yes, she’s the best on the team); catching up with friends, and picking up exactly where we left off years before.

A hopeful note is the genuine outrage of the public about the degradation of our waterways and the appalling housing situation that has led to babies living in cars. I feel I’ve just seen the resurgence of the ‘fair go’ attitude that used to be a strong part of the New Zealand way of life.

So, after all that, three jars of Manuka Honey are now sitting on my bench in Vienna.