Home is Where the Family Is - New Zealand
HAPPY EASTER!
Greetings from Waimarama, New Zealand!
After a series of long flights, confusing layovers, and a narrowly missed connection, I am finally back with India, Tallulah and Zola. We are in Waimarama, on the east coast of New Zealand’s North island. Waimarama is about a 45-minute drive from Napier, which is an hour flight from Auckland, which (as I found out) is about 30 hours’ travel from Europe. India continues to seek out the remote and beautiful. This house, and its beach-side setting, are spectacular.
VIEW FROM THE HOUSE (PLUS KITE SURFER)
It is wonderful to be back in the bosom of my family. They greeted me at the airport in Napier, and I was very happy and relieved to see all three of them. Tallulah appears to have grown about three inches in the last two weeks. India said she has “also grown an attitude to go with her height.” Zola’s height appears unchanged, but his hair is at least three inches longer.
The kids seemed happy with the gifts and chocolate that I brought back. Tallulah’s shirt from the Cabane des Vignettes was too big, but she decided it was a dress. I gave Zola all of the specialized equipment that I bought for the Haute Route, so he spent the evening marching around the house wearing the heavy backpack, gloves and glacier glasses, and holding the clasp knife and water bottle. It was fun showing the kids my pictures (although I really am a terrible photographer), so they could put names and faces together, and see a little of what my trip was like. Their main conclusion was that it looked cold, and that the huts were bigger than they expected.
Intellectually I knew that the family traveling group (plus Ginny) has continued to evolve since I left them, but it was still strange to experience how they have changed. They have been in Waimarama for nearly a week already, and have explored it thoroughly. Everyone is singing along to a new series of songs -Britney, Pink and Taylor Swift- from a CD that Ginny bought at a petrol station in Wellington. They all dyed Easter eggs together without me, and they talk about places and people that I don’t know. I have been hearing a lot, in particular, about the handsome Maori horse trainer who took the family for a ride in the mountains earlier in the week.
India and Ginny are out for a two-hour run, which they timed for low tide, so they could come back along the beach. Zola and I did on-line math, and Lu and I played Twister together. Later this morning, Zola and I are going surfing. Within a few days, I’m sure I will be back in the swing of family travel. Unfortunately, a few days after that, we fly back to New York, and start reintegrating into a more normal life.
This has been an amazing year. We will miss this lifestyle, for sure.
