© Richard Randall

Caribbean

Sundries

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

UPPER HUTT

Why is it that no matter how far you travel, the journey home is always quicker than the journey out? Anyway, the drive back seemed to pass very quickly. Along the way there was the odd stall on the roadside selling various different things. We stopped by one to buy a drink, the man was also selling Christmas trees. I know it was not long until the 25th, but with the weather being so beautifully warm it just didn’t feel at all like Christmas. We arrived back at my aunty’s house in the early evening, and I didn’t see one sheep all the way home. I thought there were supposed to be lots of them in New Zealand. I guess they were already on the supermarket shelves! My aunty’s daughter, my cousin, lived in Auckland. She had invited mum and me up to stay with her for a while, unfortunately we never made it. It’s a shame that after we went all that way to New Zealand we didn’t even get as far as Auckland. We never saw any of the South Island either, which I would have liked too. Strangely enough, my mummy had never visited the South Island either and she had lived in New Zealand for years, so I guess I shouldn’t have expected to see it, we were only on holiday for a month! I think we were too busy talking and eating and relaxing with my aunty, the time just flew by. We did visit some other places locally to my aunt in Upper Hutt. My mum had a good friend who she hadn’t seen for years, so we went to visit her.

LEVIN ~ Taitoko

Mums friend lived in Levin, which is the largest town in the Horowhenua district. I’m not sure of the size of the other towns in the district, but Levin was small to me. The town was named after a director of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company. The name is a variation of the Jewish clan Levi. I think Levin was a popular place for elderly residents, it felt very much like a retirement town. We were not there to see the town, we were there to see my mum’s friend. She was a lovely women who made us so welcome. Obviously as they hadn’t seen each other for years, she and mum spent hours chatting. We also went to see some other friends of mums, I can’t remember where they lived, I think it was also Levin. Anyway, I do remember them, or more specifically, their food. They were a really sweet old couple that mum knew from London. They were Jewish and as soon as we set foot over the doorway, the lady said she wished she had known we were coming as she had nothing in. Mum had wanted to surprise them, they didn’t even know she was in New Zealand, let alone going to be knocking on their door! No sooner had we sat down than the lady disappeared into the kitchen. A few minutes later and we were surrounded by food, lots and lots of delicious food. If that was her idea of having nothing in, I wonder what would have happened had she known we were coming! We sat and chatted for hours, and stuffed ourselves too. The food was all too tempting to resist, we ate latkes, gefilte fish, bagels, pastrami, roll mops, olives and cups and cups of tea, delicious. When it came time for us to leave and return to my aunty’s, we could barley move, we had eaten so much! When we returned to my aunty’s she said she wished she had come with us, I think her mouth was watering at the thought of all the delicious food. We visited lots of other places locally to my aunt. I can’t remember everywhere we went, but I do recall, Foxton in the Horowhenua region. Foxton was named after Sir William Fox, and is known for its history of flax stripping which was used in the production of baskets, ropes and tools. Soon it was Christmas day, we had a lovely family meal at my aunts house. My aunts two children came with their partners and two children. As it was a warm sunny day outside we decided to keep the curtains closed to make it feel more like a traditional English Christmas. Obviously it didn’t work, it was way too warm. I remember, as we sat eating our huge roast lunch, that we were all feeling rather warm and uncomfortable. Oh well, we tried, once the washing up was done, we opened the curtains and doors and it was summer once more. We really enjoyed our trip to New Zealand, but we would like to have seen more of this beautiful country. I guess at least I always have a good reason to go back there, to see everything I missed on this first trip. Actually I often daydream about living in New Zealand, I loved the people, the lifestyle, the wide open spaces and the fact that it was all so clean. Richard wanted us to move to either Sicily or Italy and I refused to move any further away from my mummy than France. So I know I won’t ever emigrate to New Zealand, Richard wouldn’t like living there, and we both love living here in France so much. Mum and I said a sad farewell to our relatives, and to New Zealand. We flew from Wellington to Los Angeles for a stopover, before flying back home to the cold weather of London.

Oceania