TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Wednesday, December 31, 2003

5:49 AM
Posted by jodi rose

Takaka
Golden Bay, NZ
An action packed, fun-filled family adventure so far. It's quite strange coming from my relatively disconnected life in Melbourne back to the farm, where I'm surrounded by family, and seem to have cousins scattered all over the country. I didn't meet a single person in Wellington who hadn't been involved with lord of the rings in some way. Erin's partner Mark's mother and sister were hobbits, Paul went surfing with Viggo and the boys - although he didn't know it at the time - and their neighbours Jo and Karl did visual fx and lighting/extras casting - he also taught some of the lads to surf. Damn, got here a few months too late! Karl is from a chiefly line in the Cook Islands, and he was dropped in the ocean by an elder at 11 months old, to get used to the waves and ebb and flow of the water.
Never quite got my bearings in Wellington, constantly surrounded by hills and water. Went to the chocolate fish cafe, very funky and lush, right on the beach in seatoun, and then stayed at Titahi Bay.
It's quite strange being back in Takaka which always had some 'alternate lifestylers up in the hills', but it seems is now a major hippy tourist destination. Also visionz dance party is being held on farewell spit, just along the bay. so the town has been packed with 'alternate lifestylers', the funny thing is that at home I would be more likely to be one of them, but here it's a very different project, and I'm with the generations of dairy farmers. We've been to the salmon farm where Philip works, out to Bencarri where tame eels are fed in the river 3 times a day - the eels are very cool, the female ones live in the estuary or river and where between 60-120 years old, the males hang out at the mouth of the river and impregnate as many of the females as they can, who then swim to fiji to lay their eggs or lavae? and promptly die. The new baby eels find their way back to nz from fiji and hang out together until they're big enough to survive in the adult eel community. Robbie and the boys used to catch eels when they were kids - on the stretch of river that Fran owns. Quite amazing waking up on a 200 acre riverfront farm with mountains all around and two farmhouses of Rose clan to have breakfast with. We had a spontaneous family trip to Paton's Rocks last night for a swim, which ended up with about 20 people hanging out on the beach building sandcastles and talking in the twilight - quite a feat to get everyone out at the same time. Visited Collingwood, a small coastal town about 28km from Takaka, not much happening but it amused me, coming from Collingwood, melbourne.
The school swimming pool where Fran taught me and hundreds of other kids to swim, is much smaller than I remember - funny that, but otherwise the same. Did a few laps yesterday - or was it the day before? All going a bit vague. Mum and I are heading to christchurch in a few days, and tonight we've all been invited down to Marie's bach at Ligar Bay for NYE on the beach with a bonfire and fireworks.
Happy new year, xxxx jr