I have woken this morning with a terrible cramp and restless dreams about my mother’s china, unused for fifty years and perhaps now unusuable. There has been a heatwave in New Zealand for the past few days and Nelson is bearing the brunt of it. The landscape is parched yellow, very beautiful with the sea […]
Down south
Yesterday we finally checked out of the tomb-like hut. I was not sorry to leave it; aside from the tomb-like bedroom and the remnant distaste from illness, it was very grimy feeling. We left Waihiki – for the first time I saw many places in daylight – and took the ferry back to Auckland, and […]
Global suburbia
The GF’s mother put it like this, and it seems accurate. So safe, so clean, so faraway. Today was the first day I felt well, afer the first full night’s sleep. But I was very tired with work. In the evening I strolled down to Onetangi beach where I was to meet the Gentleman Friend […]
Sick week
Over a week of illness, first me and then the Gentleman Friend, has made Waiheke a place I am eager now to escape. My flu is now gone, but a cough remains thanks to congested lungs, and my voice sounds strange. He has had a less terrible time to begin with, but had a relapse […]
Road to Ostend
A sleepless night but a less ill one. I felt strong enough in the morning that I accommpanied the Gentleman Friend on a 5km walk to Ostend, the nearest town, there to buy some groceries. It was a plesaant walk past fields and vieyards and hills and bays and marshes. Along the way we saw, […]
All is explained
I no longer feel foolish about not leaving the airport, clearly my body knew what was what. Towards the end of the longer flight, from Beijing to Auckland, I was coughing and feeling a little raw of skin and by the time I arrived on Waiheke I was ready to collapse. Then, around 3 in […]
On the road
Today was my flight. The cousin who is a former rally driver, and can drive indefinitely it seems, offered to take me to Whangarei airport by the long, scenic route, and the Gentleman Friend would go as well to see me off. (Something very alien to the British side of him, though a way of […]
On the spirit way
An early start this morning, as there was a long drive north and a tide to catch. The Hilux was loaded and we left; Lady Bright and her son in front, the Gentleman Friend and I behind. We caught the ferry to Opua in good time, then drove back along the coast to Paiha (of […]
Tapeka point
Last night the music continued at the pub nearby till past midnight. Execrable rock covers, with a really unnecessary bass. It kept us up, so that we ended by sleeping through what we were told was a fire alarm, with sirens blaring. There was no work today and the two new visitors had gone sport […]
New arrivals
Two new arrivals today: Lady Bright’s son and his partner. Not my preferred company by any means (they are the ones previously described as ‘insalubrious’, but there it is. It also meant that dinner was ham so I ate salad instead. Fortunately there was chocolate mousse afterwards. Work all day.