Letter from Aoetearoa
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Thu 7 May 2009 06:31
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Hi Folks,
The weather is still blustery with showers, we are
still on the hard stand also, the internal jobs are now underway, these we
expected to do when we returned later on in the year but as the external jobs
are on hold we have to make the best use of the time.
Lyn is still on the outside grimly attacking
the waterline, rubbing down with more wet than dry paper, she sits gnome like on
the scaffold looking like she is fishing for something, probably dreaming of the
sun, warm winds, but the reality is a hot water bottle and an electric blanket
once she goes down south, it has been rumoured that the "800 buck" a month
parents will be arriving in Wellington soon, that's what Gail's friends are
banding about, briefly its a slur on the poms who put the central heating on in
the winter, the cost to the poor house owner who has them to stay I believe
.
No more yachts have left as I write but a few are
prepping for the end of the month, our friends "Rhythm" are also prepping for
the haul north to Tonga, before long it will only be three boats that remain
from "Class of 08" those being ourselves, Seabright and Trenelly, the fleet that
left on Sunday however caught the tail end of the next low that has come rushing
through, would have been a bumpy night for the 30 to 40 fters with bum winds at
40 plus knots, we would have been further North than the rest of them if we had
gone, there's no substitute for water line length and a great advantage on long
passages, the down side when you get there however is draft and idyllic
accessible anchorages.
As I listen to the radio here it is quite difficult
to get a BBC type news service to listen to in the daytime but I have come
across " Talk Radio" which is most entertaining, in the morning we get a
"Pakeha" or European descendant New Zealander with strong views from a white
persons perspective, and in the afternoon we get a couple of Maori lads giving
it large about how the Europeans have striped them of there birthright, not all
the time but they get a dig in where ever possible,but it is a glimpse under the
skin so to speak of the issues that a visitor would not here or really care
about and is the legacy of a colonial past but its not the real Aoetearoa
which I have come to know , if you listened to the am and pm views you would
think the whole place was run by Maori bike gangs on the one hand and White
Supremacists on the other the reality is some what different and the pace
of life here is at a sensible pace, people have the time to say good morning
with a smile, it seems to me to be a far more integrated society than the
one we left in Blighty a few years ago, the racial mix is varied no more so
than in the city of Wellington where we live, its a vibrant city with everything
a city has but on a small accessible scale.
Ka Kate
Lyn and Chris
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