I left Ian in the cyber cafe whilst I got to deal with the shopping list Ian had kindly written for me. Actually most of the items on the agenda were for my benefit. I went straight to the FedEx mailbox armed with my thirty rolls of completed film, Ian's six digital DV tapes and several Christmas cards. I was expecting quite a bill so Ian had laden me with his wallet. It cost NZD 135 to send 1.5 kilograms to England. I must admit I felt better about leaving such a valuable parcel in Hamilton, New Zealand than I did in Arusha, Tanzania although the way the office was organised was much the same. FedEx don't have offices they simply authorise copying firms to issue FedEx waybills and despatch and receive consignments.
My important job complete I roamed the streets of Hamilton searching for other items on the list: camera film; digital DV tapes; lithium batteries; contact lenses; pre-paid mobile phone sim card... I had either purchased or enquired about each itme on the list before returning to the cyber cafe to meet Ian. Apparently I'd only been gone for half an hour but it was long enough for him to feel hunger pains and fearing he'd waste away he sent me off to get him something to eat. I returned with muffins and coffee and we spent the next 4.5 hours completing our journals, responding to e-mails and uploading digital images.
We left Hamilton at 17:30 satisfied that we had done as much as we could with the website and I had arranged accommodation in Te Anga for the night. We had a direct drive through Orohotoranga and Waitomo Caves where we stopped for pizza. Ian's gourmet pizza was laden with bananas, maple syrup, cashew nuts, bacon and camembert cheese. A strange combination that somehow worked, especially the bacon, although a whole pizza was too much for one person, even Ian. I opted for a salmon pizza with asparagus, olives and capers which was good.
We tried to find the 'Lazy Hedgehog', our colonial home set in 1300 acres of farmland, but couldn't find it very easily in the dark. Having turned round and searched again we finally found it a little further down the road and chatted to our hostess on her doorstep for a while. Her husband, Hamish, is a Scottish man, ironically. We settled in to the big character house which we will occupy by ourselves for the evening and then went straight back out in the car in search of glow worms at nearby Mangapohue Natural Bridge. We were discouraged to see the glow worms in Waitomo Caves due to the extortionate prices and the announcement that we wouldn't be able to photograph or film anything in the caves. Nicky, our hostess, had suggested we drive to the natural bridge and enjoy the glow worms there.
As we drove to the sight I was getting nervous, remembering our recent experience in Opononi during our twilight walk. I'm not one for walking in forest areas in the dark where there is wildlife about. We reached the bridge and ventured out to be instantly greeted by a possum leaping from the first bridge in to a nearby tree. We continued and immediately saw thousands of blue luminescent glows above us and on the sides of the bank. They were everywhere and some were pretty low down so we could get quite close to the glow worms and take a good look. Neither of us were successful with capturing the amazing sight on film but we both had a go. You could clearly see the threads that the larvae spin to catch their food. On the way back to the car I leaped out of my skin as I turned a corner to see two possums in my path. One leaped on to the hand rail of the bridge, the other disappeared off the other side. The one left balancing on the hand rail stopped and stared, tried to go head first off the side and decided not to. He regained his balance and stared at me again. Despite my trying to hiss at him and stamp my feet he was happy to just look at us. I quickly took a picture of him hoping that the flash would induce a Gremlin reaction but to no avail. Ian told me to just run past him and instantly the possum disappeared, luckily. I entered the car moments later, then laughing about the whole affair. I really don't like possums. They look cute enough but they are just pests who destroy Kiwis and forests. There are four possums to each human being in New Zealand and they have the fearless nature of rats.
From Hamilton to Te Ange we travelled 173 kilometres.
Copyright 2002 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.