Wellington, New Zealand

From the moment of our arrival in Wellington we were welcomed in true Portuguese style by Tereza’s cousins’ Joe, Rita, Andrea and Daniella De Atouguia. We were collected from the airport by Joe and, an initially shy but later very vocal, Andrea. They whisked us off to their home. Tereza: “I had not seen them in about 10 years or so - it was really good to catch up. Andrea and Daniella you have the cutest Kiwi accents (sorry Andrea – I know you say you have a South African accent but I am afraid you are becoming a Kiwi).” The next day we went for lunch at the waterfront which had a fantastic out door aerial photograph display on (see the disturbing photo of the abandoned city of Pripiat near Chernobyl).

Wellington is situated on the shore of a large bay which looks like a Titan inspecting a sapphire between the tips of its tropical forest clad forefinger and thumb, with the centre of the town nestled in the crook between the Titan’s thumb and forefinger and the airport on the narrower forefinger. Marori legend considers the entire Northern Island to be a great fish with the bay as its eye. Obligingly, the bay has an island as the pupil in the middle. Humorously, locals are quick to point out that by way of comparative location, Auckland must be the asshole!

While the centre of the town has some modern high-rises and a few stately older buildings, the residential areas are generally very picturesque with neat cottage-like wooden buildings painted in soft pastels and laced with decoratively carved eves. While it has similarities to Cape Town, the weather was colder and wetter. Tereza: “Oriental Parade was one of my favourite areas - beautiful Victorian houses and modern flats clinging to the hillside with great views over the bay – apparently a very expensive area.”

Joe was an ineffable host and, between his hectic working hours doing training and auditing for Burger King, he took us all around Wellington, showing us the boat used for the King Kong Movie, the “South African” shop, the coastline and more.

Tired from our travels and lulled by the great hospitality, we took a few days to recuperate and settle in. As a result, we didn’t have the time to travel by sea and land to Queenstown and the scenic South Island and, unfortunately, it was too expensive to fly - so maybe another time. We did, however, explore Wellington and some of the walks around it.




















Exhibition in the park: Picture of Chernobyl, Ukraine

Auckland, New Zealand

This is a quick synopsis of our week in New Zealand. We left Adelaide and arrived in Auckland at 4am to visit Justin Glyn. We’re not quite sure how Justin managed to convince Tamara to fetch us from the airport so early in the morning, nor were we sure whether we would recognise her after 5 years. It was therefore a great relief when she spotted us and whisked us to the Glyn residence on the far side of Auckland. After a few hushed, “Hello’s” we were lead up a number of sets of narrow wooden stairs and shown to our beds. The rambling house was charming and through the haze of exhaustion we couldn’t be blamed for thinking that we were in one of Harry Potter’s adventures and had just arrived at Weasley’s house. Expecting to be woken up by Ron Weasley and having had no sleep since leaving Australia, we slept in until 11h00.

After a late breakfast, Pam (Justin’s Mum) adopted the role of tour guide and took us around the suburb of Howick and the beaches surrounding the bay, which was very picturesque. The bay is protected by the Greater and Lesser Barrier Islands and so it is more like a giant lake than the sea. Looking out over the bay from the aegis of a bowed tree, milky reflections of the surrounding hills and sky dream on the lugubrious turquoise surface before melting into the sandy shore with gentle sighs. Hypnotised by the mercurial sheen, ephemeral thoughts swell, fold and dissipate.

It was great to catch up with Justin. He really is quite incredible – In addition to being a successful commercial lawyer he can sing and speak several languages (including Russian). In the last few years he has taken his singing to new heights, having made a fantastic recording. This year he intends to complete another grade in singing, learn Cantonese and complete his doctorate about the rights of immigrants and refugees under domestic and international law! Impressive!

That evening the Glyn’s took us out for dinner at a Mongolian restaurant – more ice-cream for Tereza! After dinner we played the “Da Vinci” game and we were annihilated by Pam and Justin. It was great fun but we clearly need practise. We’ve put the game on our “to get” list.
The next day was to take a ferry to the city from Half Moon Bay. The weather wasn’t great but the views were beautiful. Lots of yachts sailed in the bay, little coves with small beaches and/or houses on cliffs. We decided to do a tour of the Maritime Museum. It was very interesting. We learnt how the Maori Polynesian ancestors travelled to New Zealand from Cook Islands. The incredible thing was that they travelled without any tools and navigated by looking at the stars and studying the waves and currents. Maori still trace their lineage to the boats that arrived in New Zealand. The museum covered all aspects of boats, from replicas of the ships that Dias sailed on, to Sir Peter Blake, the successful New Zealand yachtsman who won the America’s Cup and was killed in 2001 by pirates in Brazil. After a quick lunch it was time to head for the airport to Wellington. Thanks to the Glyns for making our stay wonderful, it’s just a pity it was so brief and we missed Justin’s Birthday Party braai which promised to be a United Nations gathering.

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Adelaide

Next it was off to Adelaide where we traded Caron and Michael’s five star treatment for Julian’s royal tour. Julian has a beautiful apartment in the city near the main conference centre. Tereza, “Julian, your Italian mamma taught you well - we had white robes, towels, slippers, soap, smarties all waiting for us! Oh, did I mention we also had access to the gym and Jacuzzi!” Julian did the tour guide thing and took a day off work to take us around Adelaide and its surrounds. Adelaide is a beautiful little city, with wonderful old buildings, churches, galleries, Boer War Memorials, libraries, universities and “oh yes!” the mandatory red light district. The centre of the city is a square mile with planned parks all around. The residents are quick to point out that the city was founded by free settlers (as opposed to convicts) and is one of the more liberal and progressive regions of Australia, having been the first to acknowledge women’s right to vote (well before the UK). It is also the site of the Governor General’s plush residence (ie the guy who is in charge of Australia on behalf of the Crown – all rather archaic stuff to me) as well as a large Free Mason’s Lodge (intriguing – perhaps their arcane rights of initiation require sheep!).
Julian took us to a wine farm in a small village founded by Germans called Hahndorf which Julian’s father aptly calls Kokstad (Ricky missed it until Julian explained that “hahn” means chicken in German. Ricky, “And I thought it was a reference to the hallucinogenic drug “harn” referred to in the book “Brave New World” which I understand is derived from a Greek word meaning “to make one Godlike”). Not surprisingly the wine farm was called “Hahndorf Wine Farm”. This wine farm has been established by two South Africans (previously from Mulderbosch wine farm). They have been very successful in Adelaide and have won awards for their wine. Their farm is beautiful setting with picturesque vine fields, rolling grass lands with scattered copses of gum treas. Like this infusion of South African’s into South West Australia, the surrounding countryside reminded Ricky a lot of the Orange Free State and Stellenbosh rolled into one.
Then it was drive through to Port Elliott where we had a fantastic seafood lunch at the Flying Fish overlooking the sweeping azure bay and drinking delicious wine. After lunch Ricky and Julian waddled out into the sea and played like kids jumping off a bleached wooden jetty. All in all a glorious day! Julian thanks for an unforgettable time, filled with great food, great sites and great conversations.
The next day we spent touring the library (all libraries in Australia conveniently have free access to the internet), galleries, a quick trip by tram out to GlenElg (similar to Manly Beach in Sydney) and Central Market which had a mouth watering range of cheeses, meats, fruits and vegetables. And lets not forget the “Zuma café” (perhaps he has a plan!).
That evening we had slow dinner with Julian at Grange café watching the sun set over the sea before heading for the airport to fly to Auckland. It was a fitting end to our brief travels through Australia, leaving the gold embossed waves slowly fading in the back of our retinas as the plane taxied onto the runway.

Melbourne

We stayed for two days with Caron, Michael, Claire and Ryan who were incredible hosts. Not only did the arrange for a double mattress to be brought in for us and provide us with chocolates and other treats but they also bought us tickets to the Commonwealth Games. They tempted us with the perfect family life - a Victorian house, picket fences, 2 lovely children and 2 cute cavalier spaniels called Eva and Milly. (Ricky thinks we can maybe manage pets when we finally get home). Thank you Caron and Michael for having us while Ryan was still trying to figure out what planet earth is and how he got there, Claire was trying to ensure nobody had forgotten her and Milly and Eva were having to resign themselves to a further step down the pecking order. You really spoilt us rotten, and while it was only two days, by the time we left we were starting to feel part of the family.

Melbourne is a beautiful modern city with a number of controversial modern designs of questionable aesthetic appeal, but at least it’s courageous enough to try. Melbourne was hosting the Commonwealth Games and the city had been turned into a giant festival full of plays, musicians, mimes, walking puppets, galleries, and more. There was so much to explore. Thanks to Caron and Michael’s generosity, we were lucky enough to attend the Commonwealth Games in the MCG stadium. While we were somewhat sceptical at first, we were soon swept up by the atmosphere of the stadium, the crowd and the cheering. We were standing there shouting “South Africa!” when we won gold in the men’s shot-put and silver in the woman’s 100m. It was an awesome experience with a scintillation 5000m finale during which Kenya managed to hold off Australia.

While generally the Ozzies were very friendly and helpful, the Ozzies partisan TV coverage of the games was extremely irritating. When SA won the gold medal in the swimming for the relay, the coverage only showed Australia receiving the silver medals - forget about the rest. They were quick to suggest that if Thorpe had swum, they would have won. This was typical of all events. Their commentators never showed any sportsmanship towards any other competitors and nor did they acknowledge other nations achievements.

Goodbye Rainbow, Hello Brisbane

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Town of 1770 - Lady Musgrave Island

Before we left the Sunshine Coast, we decided to treat our selves with a trip to Musgrave Island, one of the outer Great Barrier Reef islands. The boat left from the Town of 1770 (named after the year Captain Cook landed there). After an hour and a half boat ride we arrived at Musgrave Island which was spectacular. The sea around the island was an iridescent turquoise. Underwater, fingers of light stretched through the crystal clear water to play on the coral seabed - everywhere we looked there were colourful armadas of tiny fish which at our approach would suddenly scatter as if a squall had hit them or retreat into their coral harbours. There were also larger fish, turtles and more. The island itself was inhabited by bomb-diving Shearwaters and Terns. The female Terns require the males to collect hundreds of leaves from the trees on the island to build their nests. The leaves exude a sticky sap that eventually glues up the males wings – the result a sticky end. Males are clearly gullible!?

Before we knew it our stay in Rainbow Beach was over and it was back to Brisbane to catch our flight to Melbourne - just in time – the next week Cyclone Larry hit the Sunshine Coast and the pictures of the aftermath were all over the news!

Noosa and surrounds

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