My New Zealand Adventures
Why put these pages in, my adventures around the place? Basically, it is to tell my story, have on record some of the adventures or unusual activities that I have had through the years, and to create a bit of a heritage for family and friends to remember me by after I have long left this world! I was born in New Zealand and was lucky enough to have seen most of my country before I left it in 1978 for Australia. There are not many photographs from those time, a lot were just never taken, some were lost when I lost a case shipping out of China in 1990 and some are just stuck away somewhere waiting to be found. There is one photo of me with a Fire Engine I used to go and fight fires on, but none in my fire-retardant suit on airport fire duty, or of me running into a wall of flames from a tussock fire in trying to rescue a cow trapped, or on top of the roof putting out a chimney fire, or even in the smoke-filled kitchen we had to extinguish the flames on after the cooks put water onto the fryer! But the memories are there, along with the Hercules, helicopter and Bristol freighter flights. Learning to drive the tanks to evacuate them and then even getting to fire a few rounds, one which I hit on target! It was the time I was hitchhiking around New Zealand, being picked up by young ladies, once being given the spare room for the night and no concern about this 6’ 2’ army man! Another time I was picked up by a Māori family going around the East Coast and we stopped at an old whaling station, bunked down on blankets, lamb and damper bread from the fire and friends made! Hard to see these things happening these days. Sometimes I did not make it to a bed at night and particularly in Rotorua had to sleep in a doorway in the pouring rain while I waited for the day to break and my friend to arrive! Between the hiking and my 350 Suzuki bike I toured around a lot, visiting out of the way places, bare and barren beaches that are now filled with rows of expensive houses, up the bush roads and winding country lanes.
I finally got my bike license in the Bay of Islands, where I had to go across to Kaitaia to sit my theory paper, failed it, picked up the helmet from under the stairs and drove off! Went back a few weeks later and this time passed it, but when I inquired about the practical test, got told to “bugger off”, here’s your license and we have been seeing you drive around for months!!! A bit like in Chennai when I was between visas and had not left to renew yet, but again the police told me that they had seen me, had been speaking to my colleagues who all spoke highly of me, and so had just left me alone for the time! My father’s side of the family were mainly South Island West Coasters, Westport where they ran a pub and it is known for the coal mines, so driving my Aunt Ellies nippy pink car around on that visit, to Milford Sound where I worked at a Christmas season job, flying in on a light airplane through the mountains then having the staff privileges to sight see around the sounds. Another job took me to the Bay of Islands, sailing the bay, tripping on the Cream boat, as the mail service to the islands was called and playing around with my colleagues at Cape Reinga and on the sand dunes on the way there! Good times!
Whilst my mother was alive Marg and I used to go back to New Zealand every three years or so and on these trips, we went out and about of course, visiting more places, staying in farm houses and watching the ducklings and the new seasons lambs frolicking, always dropping in on relatives where we could and just enjoying the beautiful country. After Marg died then I took another trip around New Zealand, a bit of a healing trip and to visit all the people who had known Marg and mourned her passing, like Graham in Opotiki north-west of Auckland, where we had spent some god days with him and his dogs. This was the trip I did the sky dive, some more bungee jumping and a few other things which I am posting up here. It was also the trip that I over did things and came down with a bad case of anxiety, which I had always thought was a mind thing, as my mother suffered from it, and I could never understand it. But this was bad for me, having to drive many miles, stopping very half hour to try and get things calm, and when I finally reached my aunt and a hospital check three days later, the pressure was still something like 240 over 140, something ridiculous anyway. It took me many years to get the anxiety under control, luckily the BP came down or I would be dead, but the anxiety tried, and ultimately failed to screw up my life. From being totally carefree sitting on a plane, even on the last flight out of Hong Kong in the middle of a hurricane, to thinking I was having a heart attack every time I flew, then to finally realizing that it is not actually my problem but the Stewardesses on board, to now being once more totally at ease, it was a sometimes-challenging journey. Some pill-popping support, but very little as I had heard too many stories about being hooked on the pills! Even my father helped at one stage, introducing me to Buteyko breathing which also helped. Even had the 360 scan for the heart, nothing wrong except a bit of a blocked artery to the brain, which is no loss as it is little used, and all these years later is still pumping good (well, I hope so anyway!) So, this is the New Zealand page, with a little bit of younger Aussie things as well, and on a second page I have my diving activities while a third page has other adventures from the rest of the world, and finally the bits and pieces of marathon and half marathons I have run. See, how one sided the beauty and the adventures are to be had in New Zealand! You and visit one day if you have not yet, it is full of some great people and wondrous sights! You need time for both islands and Steward Island also if you can though. But do you know why only good people are in New Zealand??? It is because they kick all us bad ones out!!!!