Tiny the taxi driver in Opua, New Zealand
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Thu 6 Nov 2008 05:31
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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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