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Date: 06 Nov 2008 05:31:01
Title: Tiny the taxi driver in Opua, New Zealand
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35:18.843S  174:07.289E
 
Sorry for the delay - we've been in New Zealand for two weeks now and have been so distracted by various aspects of New Zealand style civilization that the blog has been sadly neglected.  We are actually in Whangarei, at the Riverside Drive Marina, which will be Harmonie's home for the next three months while we travel home to see everyone that we haven't seen for more than a year.  More on Whangarei and the process of preparing the boat for storage 'on the hard' later.  For now, here's a little bit about New Zealand, our stay in Opua and Tiny the taxi driver.
 
First, New Zealand...
New Zealand consists of two main islands named simply North Island and South Island.  Both islands are long and narrow and 1,100 miles separates the northern and southern extremities.  According to one of our guide books, 'no point is farther than 68 miles from the sea' - which makes for a society very aware of, and dependent on, the sea.  For example, we plan to visit some friends we met along the way at their cottage (or 'bach' as they are called in New Zealand) on the South Island in February when we come back.  When we told them we wouldn't be back until the third week of February, they were appalled that we set up our travel plans without taking the scallop season into consideration (we are going to miss it by a week or two).  After breaking this news to us, they were then perplexed as to why we didn't immediately change our plans to better coincide with the scallops.  They are probably still wondering why we can't seem to get our priorities straight.  
 
New Zealand's latitude south of the equator is similar to California's position north of the equator, so has a climate similar to that of California's coastal regions.  This is what the guide book says anyway.  So far we've experienced rain and clouds and chilly temperatures that remind us of Buffalo in late October.  Nothing Californian about that.  The South Island is home to the Southern Alps, which run along its length, and the highest peak, Mt. Cook is 12, 349 feet.  The total land mass of New Zealand is similar to that of the UK.  However, the New Zealand population vs. that of the UK is a whole different story.  The UK's population is about 77 million whereas New Zealand's is just under 5 million - that's only about 32 people per square mile.  There are most certainly more sheep and cattle per square mile in New Zealand than people.  In our view, this is a good thing.  The pace seems a bit slower, strangers are generally more friendly than those at home and the overall feel reminds us of the US in the '70's (but with modern technology).  John, the Australian from Southern Princess (who grew up in New Zealand) is fond of saying that when an international flight arrives in Auckland, the flight attendant advises the passengers to set their watches back twenty years.  Again, not such a bad thing.
 
Before the English showed up in the 1800's, the Polynesians were already here.  The Maoris, a Polynesian sect, arrived in New Zealand from the Society Islands and/or the Marquesas between 800 and 1100 AD.  Per the usual South Pacific Island story, the Maori population dropped from about 300,000 in 1780 to a low of 42,000 in 1896 due to disease and fighting brought on by the Europeans.  Today, about 7% of the population is indigenous Maori and an additional 16% are other Pacific Islanders (Samoans, Tongans, Niueans, etc.).  The rest of the population is predominantly British in origin.  All of this makes for an interesting mix.  Pubs with fish and chips and kumara dishes (a South Pacific potato).  Polynesian tattoo artists and artists that paint scenes with traditional tall ships sailing the high seas.  Craft shows filled with bone carvings and quilts.  TV channels filled with British (and American) programming alongside The Maori Channel.  Towns named Christchurch, Auckland and Silverdale next to those named Whangarei, Paihia and Opua.
 
Speaking of Opua...
We arrived in the tiny town of Opua - which is really more a port with a marina, general store and restaurant than a town - at first light on October 23rd.  We were greeted by two things when we arrived.  First, the sunrise (picture 1).  Not being early risers, it's not often that we see a sunrise and this happened to be a particularly nice one.  Second, Sue and John from Storyteller.  It was seven in the morning, about 62F (very cold for us tropic dwellers), and so quiet that our bow thruster sounded like a jack hammer as Don maneuvered us alongside the quarantine dock directly across from Storyteller.  The jack hammer woke up Sue, who grabbed John, and the two of them immediately bolted up and out onto the dock to help us in.  Sue was wearing only a light and breezy nighty and John was looking mighty fine (although a bit dazed) in his boxers.  Both were barefoot.  Sorry, no picture, but we sure enjoyed the view (especially Don as you might imagine).  Afterwards, we decided Sue and John's dedication to helping others most definitely went beyond the normal call of boater duty.
 
Later that same day and true to her tour guide form, Sue arranged for a taxi driver and van to take us (crews from Harmonie, Lady Kay, Southern Princess and Storyteller) to the nearest real town of Paihia.  This was the first of many encounters we had with Tiny the taxi driver.  He is also the taxi business owner, and likes to tout his taxi service as 'Driver in control service' - we were left wondering what 'Driver out of control service' might have been like.  Anyway, Tiny, who is anything but Tiny (picture 2), relocated to Opua from Auckland about four years ago and runs a taxi business, tour business, tow truck business, commercial fishing business and junkyard.  We know this because he drove our taxi, took us on tours, had to cut one of our tours short to attend to a car crash with his tow truck and took us to his home, where his yard doubles as a junk yard for the crashed cars, and where he had his son run out from the house to give us a giant bag of fresh tuna caught earlier that day on his fishing boat.  Tiny might well have other businesses, but these are the few we were exposed to.  Tiny himself drives the taxi van, luxury tour bus, tow truck and fishing boat, but he does employ four or five other 'blokes' to help out when needed.  A very enterprising and especially colorful fellow.  In fact, he got more colorful as the days progressed.  On our third day with Tiny, he really started to loosen up and as we passed through Paihia on our way to Keri Keri, he tooted the luxury bus horn at a woman that was waving crazily at him and yelling 'TINY!' from the side of the road.  'That girl is crazy!'  said Tiny.  'She flashes her boobies at blokes all the time after a drink or two!  Her problem is that she keeps her credit card in her brassier and when she flashes, the card goes flying out!'  Booming laugh.  'That girl needs to find a new place to keep her card!'  All this said with such a strong New Zealand accent that we all had to strain to understand his words.  When he finished the story, we were left looking blankly at each other.  'Did he just say what I think he said?'  we all asked.  Yup, he really did say all that and his rendition of the story was probably peppered with a few f%$#'s and s&#%'s as well.
 
Speaking of the New Zealand accent...They have a very unique way of pronouncing vowels here. I's are pronounced like u's and all the other vowels have a unique twist too.  Therefore, 'fish and chips' is actually 'fush and chups'.  There are some unique New Zealand expressions as well.  For example, instead of telling someone to 'hurry up', the _expression_ 'rattle your daggers!' can be used.  Sue filled us in on the history of this _expression_.  It goes like this: when the sheep are sheared, all but a small area near their back end is cut off.  Afterwards, when the sheep defecate (sorry, I can't think of a more delicate way to put this), some of their poop sticks to these long hairs and turns into hard clumps (anyone feeling queasy yet?).  Then, when the sheep runs, these dried poop clumps (or daggers as they are called) jiggle together and make a rattling sound.  Therefore, 'rattle your daggers' means 'hurry up'.  I'm not making this up.  This is New Zealand.
 
Ok, back to Opua stories.  When we arrived in the town of Paihia that first day, after making the obligatory stop at the ATM, a few of us shuffled down to the appliance/cell phone store.  As we waited for someone to help us with a cell phone, we all found ourselves staring at the rows and rows of electric appliances.  Blow dryers, space heaters, waffle irons, microwave ovens, fans, curling irons.  It's been so long since we have been in a place with 'real' stores that the shear magnitude of what lay before us was mesmerizing.  Sad, but true. 
 
After our experience in the appliance store, we moved on to more important things, like eating.  Over the course of the next several days, with Sue in the forefront determining our direction, we ate our way through Opua, Paihia and most of the surrounding area - with Tiny as our driver and eating companion, of course.  Our second day in New Zealand was spent with Tiny at the helm of his luxury bus (picture 3 - that's not Tiny, but that is Tiny's luxury bus) toting all nine of us through the incredible green, rolling-hill sheep and cattle filled countryside to a succession of food and wine venues.  We started with the cheese factory.  Excellent.  We bought cumin gouda (pronounced 'gowda' by the cheese people) and old edam.  After that we moved on to our first winery where lunch was served, wine tasted and wine bought (picture 4 - lunch.  Starting with me and going clockwise, that's John from Storyteller, John from Southern Princess, tour guide Sue or camp mother as Tiny called her, Don, Jackie and Michael from Lady Kay and Storyteller's crew for the New Caledonia to New Zealand trip, Chris and Terry).  After the winery came the chocolate factory, where chocolate was tasted and bought in quantity.  Then the second and last winery, called The Fat Pig.  This was a one man show with a tiny tasting spot located under a corrugated iron roof (good thing since it was raining).  The owner (a mate of Tiny's) proudly showed off his blush, sauvignon blanc and syrah - proclaiming his syrah could 'crack a horn on a jellyfish!'.  Hmmmm....crack a horn on a jellyfish?  Tiny had to translate for us - 'crack a horn' apparently means 'cause an erection'.  Again, I'm not making this up.  This truly is New Zealand.
 
Our third day in New Zealand, Tiny taxied us to the dock in Paihia where we picked up the ferry which took us across the bay to the town of Russell.  There, we watched as sailboats finished the Coastal Classic - a two-day race up the coast from Auckland to Russell.  It was raining and had been raining and fiercely windy for the entire race.  We were exceedingly glad that none of us had felt the need to subject ourselves to such grueling sailing conditions.  After watching the racing crews attempt to dry out, we moved on to more important things, like eating.  And so it went. 
 
Day four - Tiny picked us up in the luxury bus for a trip to the neighboring town of Keri Keri, where first we, yup, ate breakfast before heading to the marvelous Keri Keri farmer's market where everything from locally grown oranges to homemade bread and wine from The Fat Pig winery were sold.  After that we moved on to the giant grocery store.  Do you see a trend here? Eating, cheese factory, wineries, chocolate factory, more eating, farmer's market, giant grocery store.  We topped it all off with dinner on day four at the Opua Cruising Club where we had excellent fush and chups with the whole Storyteller, Southern Princess and Lady Kay group.
 
Day five - Storyteller and Southern Princess left us to head for Auckland where they had reserved berths at a marina and where Beneteau was waiting to complete varnish repair work on the cabins of their twin Beneteau 57 boats.  Sadly, this last trip to Auckland marked the end of Southern Princess's odyssey which started five years ago when John and Irene picked up their brand new boat in France.  Since then, they spent four seasons in the Mediterranean, crossed the Atlantic, joined the World ARC rally in the Caribbean and carried on across the Pacific with the rest of us to finally land in Auckland.  Irene says since she has spent five years sailing with John, it's now time for John to spend five years playing golf with her.  As the New Zealanders (and Brits) would say, 'fair enough'.  We will miss them of course, but since we know their last name, and have their Sydney address, we suspect we will be seeing them again next year in Australia if not before.  Yup, another set of lifetime boater friends.
 
With Storyteller went Sue our tour guide and camp mother extraordinaire.  Never fear though, we'll see them next Monday in Auckland before we fly home and will see them again when we come back to New Zealand and again throughout all of next season since they plan to loop back to the South Pacific Islands with us and Lady Kay. 
 
Without Sue to direct and guide us, our food and drink consumption decreased dramatically for the remainder of our stay in Opua.  The weather was nice for at least one day, which allowed us to capture this view of the Opua Harbor area (picture 5).  We were also visited by many gigantic leopard-looking jellyfish in the marina (picture 6 - don't think this one 'cracked a horn', must not have been exposed to enough of The Fat Pig's syrah).
 
We left the Opua Marina with Lady Kay on October 28th and spent some time anchored out in the lovely Bay of Islands before sailing the rest of the way down the coast to Whangarei.  More on that later.
Anne
 
 

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