Whitianga & Auckland

On Monday morning, Jan 7th, Peter drove Kasi and Aunty Tina back to Auckland in Kasi's car so he could catch his afternoon flight back to Melbourne. The girls and I carried on carrying on, this time up to Whitianga to spend 3 days with Donald, Mary and Co. The journey passed quickly thanks to my new Navman, Christmas present from Peter who must have got sick of me constantly asking him to find me routes on googlemaps. Navman took us on a less-travelled route that enabled us to make good time enjoying some empty country roads. After crossing the one-lane bridge into the Coromandel Peninsula we took the gravel road over the mountains which I don't think I'd ever been on before. The road wasn't bad, especially with our Pajero and the scenery was magnificent. We stopped and walked up to the square kauri, the lone remaining one in this area, saved from felling at the end of the 19th century because of it's unusual flat side.

The fact that we had predominantly grey (but pretty calm) weather didn't deter the kids or Donald from leaping straight into the water as soon as we got to Simpson's Beach, Ollie and Gabe on skis and our lot on the biscuit for thrills. Donald is always happy to oblige with a fishing trip for us city-slickers which has become one of the most eagerly anticipated activities for the kids. The rest of us are very happy to eat the resulting sashimi too.

Land cavorting, including a circus visit (highlight: Donald being dragged onstage with 3 other blokes for a hilarious stunt) alternated with watersports until it was time to leave on Jan 10th. We took Ollie and Gabe to Auckland airport to save Donald the drive. They were going back to Wellington to start diving training and Mary and Donald were staying another few days in Whitianga before Mary leaving for Antarctica!! and Donald going back home to the kids.

The main reason for prolonging our NZ stay to take in Auckland this time was the 40th anniversary reunion of Auckland Normal Intermediate Class of 1968, my Form 2 class. Many of us had not clapped eyes on each other since then. There were 3 events, the first of them a casual cafe meal in Ponsonby. This was just for the 15 classmates who showed up and our teacher who is looking great at 81.

During the day the girls spent some of the time around the motel pool (with Kasi) but poor Sophie was restricted to dangling one foot in as she had contracted a nasty infection in the other one after cutting it on something at the orchard. We saw a doctor who prescribed antibiotics and complete dryness for several days.

The reunion continued with a more formal dinner for classmates (total 17) and partners, some kids and another teacher (Trevor Rowse, our physed teacher and his wife Eve who is Sandra's mum - she married Trevor after Sandra's dad died when we were still at school). Our teacher, Allan Hanlon, was presented with the gift of a Kauri tree which he will plant on his beloved golf course at Whangamata. We wrapped up our weekend with morning tea and lunch at the school interspersed with wandering around trying to figure out where our long-since demolished classroom had been, finding the original parts of the school still there and some forward planning for the next reunion. We put a call through to 3 absent classmates who were having their own mini-reunion at a swanky London restaurant at the same time as our lunch.

We had one free day in Auckland before our flight home so managed to hook up with long-lost Jennifer, the entertaining Chinese lady who used to look after Eric Lawson (the kind man who sold me my violin for a song) until he died just before 2000. She took us and Kasi and Raymond to a Chinese buffet joint for dinner. Then of course we visited our special Auckland ladies, Janetta and Heather, my former piano and violin teachers respectively. Sophie is now the same height as Janetta and the juxtaposition with Jessye's standing photo with Janetta cracked us up. She was in fine form as was Heather who has revamped her garden to make it lower maintenance without losing any of it's colour and charm.

Finally it was time to go back home for a rest - just kidding. Actually, we hit the ground running with Rosie starting a 2-week intensive occupational therapy programme the day we got home, Jessye off to a 6-day rowing camp a few days later and me off to Mt Buller for a week-long music school 5 days after we got home. Now we're all back home and resuming normal life.