Christmas Break 1 : The Northland Trip

Most of NZ goes for a two to three week break during Christmas. While the offices close a day or two before Christmas, people are in celebratory mood all December. On the last working day of the year at Spark office, champagnes were out at 10 in the morning and whiskeys by noon. There was no one working on that day of course. And by mid-day we were ready to take on the three week break. 

Nitish and I had planned a small vacation to the Northland just after the Christmas. In the hurry or excitement to buy this 18 year old car, I forgot to notice that it did not have an aux or a USB -all it had was radio, CD and yes of all things a cassette player! So I spent two days getting the music in place. On Trademe, I got someone who was selling a 10 pack CD set for $6. Imagine who uses CDs (me) and who buys them (me again) and the icing was the seller located 3kms away! I used Grant’s desk top computer to burn the disks into new, mid and old songs. The whole exercise was anything but prudent, rather funny and mostly futile. As Rupali remarked, you have to find ways to kill time on your break so carry on. On 26th morning, I was prepared to face Nitish head-on as he keeps complaining about the audio system. On his part, he had downloaded 700 songs from Spotify! And had brought a Bluetooth speaker. A better solution but I forced him to listen to my CDs first which I had painstakingly burnt. 

 Anyways, after loading the ice-box with beers, we were on road on the MCY 1, listening to music which sounded like, well, music to my ears. We reached Michelle’s rather small house (airbnb) with just three rooms on a 5-acre plot of land next to a lake. On her farm, Michelle perhaps nearing 60, lived by herself where she grew lots of fruits and vegetables. After she gave a short tour, Nitish made nice ginger tea which we relished with khakhras. Thing about us is that we are very particular about food like most Indians. Evening was spent sprawling on her carpet listening to soulful Buddhist tunes sipping whiskey and beers.

We were pleasantly surprised by the breakfast spread that Michelle had for us – fruit platter with strawberries, raspberries, water melon, musk melon, cherries and cantaloupes with a splash of cream followed by toast, bacon, ham, eggs and grilled tomatoes. While suggesting an itinerary, she warned that the breakfast on the rest of the days would be lot simpler.  Important to set expectations straight. We moved north and visited several beaches on the way – Kaimaumau, Houhora Heads, Rarawa Beach and Hendersons where I took a nice little swim. Now that I think about it, on this 4 day trip surrounded by miles and miles of lovely beaches, Nitish never took a dip in the salty water.

The first highlight of this day was the Giant Sand Dunes near Cape Reinga. Rent a sand board, climb up the dune which is quite an exercise and slide down blissfully. This was a place where I think we were having more fun than a child or an adolescent.  That’s the thing about us. Unleash us and we surprise ourselves. On his first slide Nitish tasted mouthful of sand. On my last I fell bad and hit my chest and stomach. But we had fun nevertheless. And what awaited us was even a bigger adventure. 

By the time we were done with the dunes, we were tired, sandy and hungry. As we were driving out from the car park we were told that we had a puncture. Thankfully we had spare tires. For those who may not know, in many countries, the spare tire is not the same size as the regular tire. It works but it is not as efficient as you cannot drive at regular speeds. Its smaller and more like a temporary arrangement. Why do they do this? The last food joint was 40kms South, Cape Reinga was 15km North and we don’t remember an open tire service station. Remember it’s holiday season and we are in New Zealand? And then we moved north! That’s how brains of masters students of analytics function. Its lots of analysis, followed by self-confidence followed by stupidity.

After painfully slow drive, we reached the northern most point of NZ where the Tasman sea meets the South Pacific Ocean. Unlike what I had seen in South Africa at Cape of Good Hope where the colour of water is different when the Indian Ocean meets the South Atlantic Ocean, at Cape Reinga, the waters blend seamlessly. It is BEAUTIFUL but not dramatic. The Maoris (first locals of NZ) believe Cape Reinga to be a holy place since it is here that the spirits separate the body and goes into the depth of the oceans. (Reinga means underworld in Maori). There is a track that leads to the light house and the Pohutukawa tree from where the spirits are believed to jump into the waters. Beautiful alright but there was no food because it was a holy place. God forbid, if Indian religions changed course and stopped food in and around the place of worship. Half of us would never visit a temple, masjid or a gurudwara. The highlight for me is the prasadam!

Hungry we drove back 80 miles to Michelle’s home without incident. The bath to get rid of the sand reminded me of one you we have after playing a rather rough Holi. Just like colours keep dripping from all parts of the body, the sand sticks in imaginable and unimaginable body parts. I think we were finally confident of getting rid of the last bit of it after our third bath. To our pleasant surprise, knowing we will be late, sweet Michelle had cooked pastas for us, not a part of the deal.

A few tips for sand dunes… wear sun glasses and may be Covid masks to cover your mouth. Wear a cap or cover your head well. Caution: Irrespective of what you wear, the sand reaches your undies! Alas there are no pictures as we left our phones in the car for the fear of spoiling or losing them in the sand. But there is this short video that will give you a glimpse of the dunes. 

Next day the breakfast was just the fruit bowl. Nothing fancy, as promised. But on our mind was the punctured tire. We headed to the largest closest town Kaitaia. With a population of 6000, Kaitaia boasts of three Indian restaurants. But on 28^th December, a Monday after the Christmas break, there was not a single tire shop open. At a petrol pump, we kept asking people if they knew someone who could fix our puncture till one Samaritan who was carrying his dirt bike on a trailer offered to fix it using his tubeless tire patch kit. Maybe people in NZ carry such things with them – like every household has a drill machine and an extensive set of tools but we found it miraculous that someone offered to fix it randomly. Later when I narrated this incident to my mom, she said he was god Krishna! Maa, I love you! And for your sake I love Krishna too. The Kiwi one!

If you ever want to feel like a bird, ride on spare tires in rural hinterlands. And once you fix them, they seem like wings. And so we were ready to fly. On this day we went to the Karikari Peninsula which had a lovely looonnng beach where MCY 1 could land. And ride. For 25 kms. Wow… riding on a wide beach, on perfect sand, for that long was magical. We were the only dudes on a 18year old sedan on this wide beach as the rest of them were riding pick up vans or SUVs. With fresh wings, MCY 1 was gliding with full on music…. Nitish had to accomplish his part of the antiques… playing Rangeela’s Urmila… first with t-shirt and then without, he ran on the beach, me on the wheels…filming. What chutiapa… what fun… 

Lunch was at the Karikari Estate Winery. Perched on a hill overseeing the vineyards and beyond that the seas, the restless us changed three tables to find the best one to have a decent lunch with chilled beer and poor service. But who cared! 

Taking advantage of the long summer days we canoed the lake next to our house in the evening. The night was spent drinking, reminiscing and sulking as it was the last night of the trip.

The return had interesting stopovers, first of which was the Mangonui village, where time seemed to have stopped. Mangonui is a quaint little town in front of a small little harbour which used to be a fishing village. Art and antique shops, museum (in a town with a population less than 3000), cafes, boutiques (that sold jholas… know that simple cloth bag? for $32 - Rs. 1800)… Anyways, towns like these is what romanticism is made of. Towns like these are where people say, “we will settle here, run a café or a book store”, towns like these is where clocks seem to stop to help you wander… aimlessly.

The next stop was another interesting town on the way called Kawakawa. This town is known for its interesting design and its train track that runs across its main (and only) street. Its public toilets were designed by Hundertwasser, an Austrian designer who was a resident of the town for many years. Inspired by his design, many other modern buildings are aped on his style of tiles and colours.

A lunch here a coffee there, we were in no hurry. MCY1 though punctured and on a makeshift fix, was not deterred and brought us home by evening.