Back in the 'West'. The Aukland Skyline
Welcome to Castle Point. A highlight according to The Rough Guide.
Trailer Trash Tim decides to integrate
The flowers growing wild are amazing
I love these ferns. They are the Maori symbol for life - you can see why.
This is the kind of thing you are treated to just driving along
Some of the trees are thousands of years old.
2nd December, 2004 Castle Point, New Zealand.
We are in a trailer park. Honestly. Tim keeps on speaking in a stupid Deep South, American accent and what with his hair looking as bad as it does, those ridiculous side burns and his belly having quadrupled since Venezuela he's fitting in quite nicely. We are so bored that I am finally catching up on my journal and Tim is amusing himself by scaring the gulls and then purposely coaxing them back so that he can scare them away again.
We are not actually in a trailer, thank God, although I do feel like Eminem's sister before he got famous. We are in a cabin that has a kitchen and dining area and a separate bedroom with three bunks in it and no bathroom. Outside my window there are loads of caravans and other cabins. They are horrible and run down. They proudly terrace the coast of the beach here. It would be a lovely coastline if it wasn't for this bloody trailer park. Unbelievably, this place is down as a highlight in the Rough Guide. Someone is either having a laugh at the readers expense or they haven’t been back to check this place out since the fucking 60’s. Lonely Planet, I take back every complaint I have ever made about you.
I don't know what I thought New Zealand would be like, but to be honest in some respects I'm a little disappointed. It's way too British for my liking so far. We haven't been to the South Island yet, which is supposed to be better than the North. The countryside is beautiful, but the architecture in many of the towns is horrible. The houses in all the towns we’ve been to so far all look exactly the same - bar Auckland, which looks like the South Bank in London. The Sky Tower is very cool though and the skyline of the city at night looks really nice. In every town we have been in, the houses are all one storey boxes made out of panelled, white wood with tin roofs. The look like post war pre-fabs.
The moment you get two km out of the towns, though, the countryside is lovely. It's so green and lush and everywhere you look there are volcanic hills bursting with amazing trees and plant life. We’ve just found it so bloody dull though. Everything shuts at five and the pubs are full of British backpackers on their gap year. No joke, we are the oldest travellers we have seen. The worst thing is THEY ARE ALL ENGLISH - even the bar staff! All the Kiwi's aged between 20 and 30 are backpacking themselves - probably back at home.
I think we would be appreciating this place a lot more if we hadn't seen South America first, and if we hadn't been to Polynesia proper. It's very easy to forget that this is still Polynesia. There are often signs that remind you though. The conical black mountains are very similar to those in Tahiti. The Maori language is similar and of course the Maori people look similar. When we were driving back from the Coromandel Peninsula we saw a parrot, wild, sitting on the roadside. The weeds that grow wild here are gorgeous flowers - people in London would pay a fortune for them. It's just the British that have made it all so English. Even the images that you don't normally take in consciously at home, Lloyds Bank signs, McDonalds, cash points everywhere, Christmas decorations, the Guardian Weekly and birthday cards, the ability to put even three dollars on your card, fish and chip shops all over the place and, of course everyone speaking English.
I’ve just read back over this and it looks like I’m painting a really bleak picture. I don’t mean to. We’ve been enjoying our time here. I just think after the complete bizarreness of South America I'm suffering a bit of a reverse culture shock. Apart from the horrific architecture (sorry all my Kiwi friends), it’s a lovely place. The people are really welcoming and friendly. The kind of people that go out of their way to help you, even if they just overhear that you might be lost or need help they offer themselves without being asked. They are rightly, really proud of their country and openly grateful for the tourism we bring in. That's another thing I like about the Kiwi's - they are all really down to earth, honest and straight forward. They fit their stereotype, but that stereotype is a nice one.
Their TV is hysterical. They have a late night music show which is appalling. The presenters are dire and the links are so badly written it's funny. Some of the local news is even worse - the stuff we did at Falmouth was more professional. They show a film every night though which is good and some of the adverts really have me in fits of laughter. My favourite is the car windscreen ad whose catch phrase is 'show us your crack'. I haven't had a chance to check out Breakfast TV yet. I guess I should.
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