amy picked me up at the airport, and we got me into the flat i'm hiring from her and her husband...it's been great to hang out with the two of them, and catch up on everything...
there were others i had hoped to get together with, but plans changed a few times, i was forgotten once, and then there wasn't any more time available..i was disappointed, to say the least...two days later i ran a half marathon...a beautiful morning, blue skies and very very crisp...to me it seemed like fall weather, even though it's spring here...anywho, i spent the first 3K of the race hoping for feeling to come back into my toes...there were plenty of volunteers out on the course to make sure people didn't get lost, which was nice...and there were aid stations (with water, nothing else) every 3 miles or so...the race itself was a loop, us half marathoners did it twice, those running the 11k 'fun run' did it just once...i was pleased that i ran the whole thing...(except for walking through aid stations...i long ago discovered that i can't run and drink, even walking and drinking isn't always the best)...my time was all right, not great, but not bad; and i wasn't sore later that day or the next day, so i had no real complaints...
another night i had dinner with clive and sarah...friends i met the second time i visited new zealand, it was fantastic to catch up with them...clive is in a band, they're doing quite well, and i enjoyed their music...time flew by, and five hours had gone by when i thought to look at my watch!!! sarah's son connor was there as well, but he's going through the quiet teenager stage and wasn't talking to anyone...he's grown like a weed in the past year though...
just before labour weekend, my friend lynne flew in from the states..i know her from uni, and we've stayed in touch ever since..when i lived in germany she came to visit me there as well..this time she came over to run the auckland marathon with me..we saw a bit of downtown auckland (the view from mt eden is brilliant when the weather is nice, and i hadn't been there previously) when amy showed us around..the friday of labour weekend, after ivan was done with work we drove south, to the taranaki area of the north island..it's not a heavily touristed area, though it's gorgeous..in the middle of the area is mt taranaki (the english called it mt egmont) which is similar in appearance to mt fuji, in japan..so similar in fact that "the last samurai" was filmed around taranaki..most of the time the mountain is covered by clouds, even when the weather is otherwise good, we only got to see the mountain at all on our third and final morning..we stayed with amy's mom and her partner, in a beautiful house hand built 22 yrs ago..as we arrived after dark, all we did was bring everything in from the car, tour the house, and sit around to catch up with each other..amy's mom makes a lot of yummy stuff by hand (chutneys, wines, sauces, etc) so there was some wine tasting as well...(these are the times i miss being able to drink)..
the next morning when we woke up we were treated to a most amazing view..from all the bedrooms of the house one can see the ocean and the black sand beach..you can also see the cows grazing in the area..nothing short of stunning..if i lived in that house, i reckon it would be hard to get me to ever leave the area..AMAZING!! amy made a kiwi classic for breakfast, bacon and egg pie..(since it was lynne's first visit to nz, we tried to make sure she had as many traditional kiwi foods as possible..her first night in auckland we had takeaways, fish and chips)..after getting dressed properly, and sending jill off to work, amy, ivan, howard, lynne and i made our way down to the beach..fortunately, jill and howard have quite a few pairs of wellies in the house, because we had to walk through cow paddocks to get to the beach..and cows, well, they're not potty trained..the beach itself is lovely..a black sand beach, with a river coming through part of it..there is a lot of driftwood on the beach, shells as well..
this is a time of year when whitebaiting is allowed..that is, catching whitebait..(it's only allowed for a couple months out of the year, and not allowed to be done commercially)..the mechanics are easy: put a net into the river, the whitebait swim into it..they're small, and not smart enough to turn around and swim back out..take the net out of the water, put the whitebait in a bucket with a little water in it, then do it again..we all did this, i was the only one who didn't catch anything:(..in time for lunch we packed up the net and buckets, grabbed our shoes, and made our way back up to the house..the afternoon was passed it was some might call a lazy way, but i reckon we all thought it was perfect..reading, enjoying the sun, napping (ivan,) and just hanging out..
it was during the walk to and from the beach that we all realized cows are really good at the game of red light green light..though i doubt they would call it that..hee hee..(they probably don't even know it's a game:)..they would follow us as we walked, but would stop and just stare when we turned to look at them..if any of us started to move toward them, they moved away in a hurry..really amusing, but i suppose you had to be there..
dinner was mostly prepared by howard..whitebait fritters..i admit i wasn't too keen on them, but lynne was even more "unkeen"..it was actually amusing to watch her distaste for the idea of eating whitebait..nevertheless, she documented the entire process of making whitebait fritters..she even got a picture where one of the whitebait looks as though it's screaming "don't eat me!!"..(again, i guess you had to be there)..when we ate, lynne ended up eating two fritters..lol..
the next morning i woke up earlier than everyone else, and went for a run..(remember that i came back to new zealand to run the auckland marathon..given that i hadn't trained much, i reckoned i really needed to do a long run)..so i ran to the end of the road and back..including the driveway, that was around a half marathon! i came back, showered, and hopped in the car with amy, ivan and lynne..we drove to new plymouth, about 30 minutes away..(howard and jill live just outside urenui, a VERY small town)..new plymouth is by far the biggest city in the area, with 50-55,000 people..not a very exciting town to begin with, and since it was a holiday weekend, even quieter than normal..a nice brunch for us, in a cafe near the boardwalk, ice cream for dessert (when i'm around, dessert is always on the menu:)..on the way out of town we stopped at a lookout point, new zealand has lots of them..it's one of the reasons i adore the country..it's BEAUTIFUL!! dinner that night was at the cafe where jill works..very slow service (definitely NOT the fault of the waitstaff) but good food, and we knew it would be slow, so we didn't mind..good conversation, which included meeting a dairy farmer named taemon..(sp?)
taemon is a dairy farmer..we learned he milks 172 cows twice each day..lynne had expressed an interest in seeing a dairy farm, so ivan arranged for it to happen the next morning..we awoke to another BEAUTIFUL day, appreciated again the BEAUTIFUL view and life jill and howard have every single day, and got ready to go to the dairy farm..again, the wellies proved helpful..when we first arrived, taemon saw us, and brought out a big bucket of fresh, warm milk..he indicated that we should poor it into a giant funnel looking thing that had rubber teats around the outside lip..on the inside of the funnel looking thing, each of those rubber teats was attached to a tube that went down to the bottom, and into the milk we poured in there..each of us put a finger in the milk, then found one of the brand new calves in the pen, and put our finger in it's mouth..the calves were so young that they didn't yet know that the funnel looking thing held milk for them..one of them seemed to think it could find milk by drooling all over my knee..we had to bring them over to the "teats" and get them to start drinking..calves have no teeth, and they seemed to love our fingers!! soooooooooooooooooo cute..once drinking properly, they drank rather quickly..from there we moved into the milking shed..the cows are lined up in two rows, with their backsides faced inward..in between is a lower pathway, about 2m wide..along this pathway, on rails, are the milkers..each one is like half an octopus..that is, there are four little suction things that are attached to the cow and when turned on, do the milking..it's an easy process, you just want to avoid being kicked, peed, or shat upon..(it's not the cleanest area i've ever visited..lynne and i were the only ones who actually wanted to try putting on the milking machines..i've gotta admit it was a little scary when the cows stamped their feet as i was reaching toward their udders, because i know i wouldn't have been able to move fast enough to avoid being kicked had they decided to do so..anywho..at one point i looked up to see ivan, amy and jill laughing hysterically, though i hadn't seen or heard anything funny..it turns out, they had..remember me mentioning that cows aren't potty trained? taemon had been putting on the milking machines as well, but had also been watching lynne and i with the cows..he had noticed that one cow was about to go #2, and that it would've gone all over me..so he "defended" me..he stepped in between me and the cow..so everything that exited the cow went all over him, and almost none of it onto me..he did such a good job of blocking me that i had no idea anything had even happened!! and he didn't say anything either..i wouldn't have known it had happened had amy, ivan and jill not seen it..sooooooooo funny..anywho..after getting out of the area between the cows, taemon shows us the barrel into which he had some of the fresh milk being pumped, and told us we should try it..so we did..who knew that fresh cow's milk could be so good? YUM!!! next we took milk out to some more young calves, though they were old enough that they recognized what was happening, and drank 100L of milk i about 10 minutes..our last activity on the farm was to feed the mama pig who had just given birth..she is a wild pig, and quite ugly..she got to drink the same fresh milk we had tried ourselves and given to the calves..the entire time the piglets were cowering in the back corner of the pen, climbing over themselves continuously in order to try to get warm..very very cute..after taemon had taken off his rubber apron and put on some clean clothes, he took us to his house in progress..it's gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous..it's not finished (howard reckoned it had taken him 10 years to get to where it is now) but it's easy to see how amazing it'll be when it is finished..taemon has done all the work himself, including milling local logs!! he also took us down to the creek, and fed his "pet" eels..ugly suckers!! they recognized him, and would eat pieces of luncheon right off his boot, or out of his fingers!!
that was our last morning in taranaki..upon getting back to jill and howard's, we cleaned up, put everything in the car, and drove back up to auckland..amy and ivan dropped lynne and i off at the airport, where we were able to hire a car, as she and i were planning to do a little traveling for the next few days..lynne drove the car back to amy and ivan's as no one trusted me to do so:)
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