This is a special post as it’s Happy Birthday to me. It’s actually happy 50th birthday to me – big breath out. This Part 1 journey covers the North Island - Auckland - Rotorua - Wellington. Part 2 will cover the South Island.
Several months ago we planned to fly over the ditch to New Zealand (NZ) – we’ve never been there. After feeling like we were the last two Aussies to ever go to NZ, we decided we should go take a look. I had little to do with the preparation as Deb took the lead – I had planned her 50thadventure to the US so she wanted to return the favour. We had agreed the general route and dates but I really sat back and let her do it all and only asked for an itinerary a few days prior to which was like pulling teeth for some reason. Hmmmm??
Departure day arrived and we were flying to Auckland via Melbourne. Deb was somewhat stressed – this was highly unusual as it is often me that is organised, agitated and some would argue, grumpy. She was on the phone from the minute we woke (not unusual really), and suddenly tells me she thinks we need to be at the airport 2 hours before check in. What? Why? We’re going domestic first – I’m cool, calm and collected – I’ve still gotta eat my cereal.
We get to the airport, Deb’s seriously cranky at check-in, and it is unusual. We clear security and sit down somewhere. She takes off - I assume to browse the bookshop as she usually does. We fly to Melbourne and finally arrive in Auckland.
Surprise. Well, that’s where my day turns upside down. Clearing customs and immigration we walk out into the arrival hall and I’m helping Deb look for the shuttle bus signs. The seating area beside the walkway is filled with people waiting for passengers – of course nobody for us right? For the next 10 seconds it went like this…….I glanced to look past the seated people and glimpsed a face, a familiar face, what, couldn’t be, a second familiar face, can’t be, not here, WTF, where am I, am I in Sydney, shit a third familiar face and then I hear a quiet ‘sur-prise!!’….I look again at those faces – and they have little Batman masks on …another WTF….I look back at Deb, what’s going on…my face is in pure confusion, bit of shock….I’m not in Sydney…I do know these faces…are you serious….the penny drops. 3 of my best friends had travelled to NZ to meet us, for my 50thbirthday. I couldn’t believe it and most of you have seen the video which shows my utter surprise and shock. I HAD NO IDEA – I was seriously shocked, thrilled and happy. And so there were big hugs and laughs and Deb felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders. Now I knew why she had been so stressed !!
The planning had been going on for months, secret lunches, messages, planning and conversations. The itinerary I was given days ago was fake – all fake. Deb was stressed at the airport because she needed to ‘manage me’ to miss seeing my friends (known as the chooks) as they were taking a flight via Sydney half hour before us. But they were delayed, thus risking us bumping into each other. They had been texting her earlier about checking in 2 hours before which was why Deb was stressed. Arrh, things were making sense. When she went to the bookshop in Canberra, she was actually meeting them in the Qantas lounge, having a final secret meeting as they were worried the chooks would be delayed further and arrive after us in Auckland. Now I understand why Deb was on the phone immediately on landing in Auckland – she was texting with the chooks who did arrive before us and were waiting inside for us. So everything they had been secretly planning, was finally unveiled. They had got me a bewdie !! I had no idea what so ever – and why would I? They were all avoiding me as much as possible for months, scared someone would give it away. I never suspected, or would ever have suspected, they would come all this way to join us on my 50thholiday.
Chooks. I have a group of friends – we call our ourselves chooks. For my non-Aussie folks, we affectionately call women (usually older women) chooks. We vary in age, but for the past few years, as a chook reaches 40 or 50, we’ve had a weekend away or a big day of celebrations – secretly organised celebrations. We give the chook a fluffy chook, she gives her a name and must carry her everywhere. My beloved chooks had given me my invitation for my special day which is/was to be Saturday 8 Feb. I had therefore been expecting them to be busy planning for that day and was prepared for anything as we tend to go all out with fun and adventure for our chook celebrations. But, I NEVER expected them to do an Austen Powers type international adventure. Yet they decided to step up the chook yard antics and do exactly that – an overseas trip to the New Zealand barnyard. As per tradition, I was presented with my chook at the airport and promptly named her Anne, after Anne Lister – my current Gentleman Jack obsession.
So who are the chooks? In no particular order, we have Chook A, also known as Chewbacca for her hair in the wind style or Uber Zero cause she has NO uber rating despite having taken numerous rides. Chook A is the quiet one on the perch but well known for dropping clangers, making us laugh and being super helpful and kind. Chook S, known as Uber 5.0 because she has a perfect uber rating – and we did discuss reasons why her rating was 5.0 but it was too inappropriate to reveal on this forum. Chook S has a kiwi background and was an awesome tour guide and together with Deb (Uber much less than 5.0), makes a dangerous combination. And then there is Chook M (Uber rating higher than Chook A but less than Chook S), who was the food monster of the trip because she was eating via the clock, both Australian and NZ clocks. She is a wizard of knowledge and is affectionately known as pork chop to me (as I am her good egg).
Auckland. The chooks met us at Auckland and for the first time ever, I had no idea what the plan was. We spent 2 nights in Auckland. We enjoyed a nice meal on the waterfront the first night and caught up on the all the secret planning that had been taking place for months. They could not believe I had no idea – like why would I have any idea? The next day we did the hop on/off bus, had a lovely late lunch at Parnell Village and took a ferry ride to Devonport for some ‘fus n chups’ (written in my best kiwi accent). Chook M, Deb and I took a quick burn around the waterfront on some rental scooters and somehow managed to avoid a collision with people, garden beds and train tracks. Deb won the quote the day following our comparative discussion on Alexa versus Siri…. “when Alexa gives massages, I’ll give her a go”.
Rotorua. We hired a car and drove to Rotorua which was quite busy and took longer than expected. The smell of Rotorua was quite offensive due to the steam geysers but it was easy to see why this place is popular for mountain bikers and other adventure activities. Chook S had organised our first night activity at the Tamaki Maori Village where we learnt the history of the Maori culture, saw the famous Haka and other fabulous Maori presentations showing their cultural traditions. We enjoyed a lovely hangi dinner and singing/dancing performances. I really enjoyed this as I know little of the Maori culture and found the whole evening entertaining and educational. If you’re coming over, I definitely recommend the Tamaki Maori Village for a visit. Once again, Deb won quote of the day as we talked about eating croissants at breakfast. Why aren’t the French fat from eating all those pastries and breads……..Chook S explains because they only eat one where we eat 17. So Deb says ‘you think they would have evolved by now like the rest of us (to eat 17)…..and Chook A snorted !!
50th. The next day was my big 5-0 birthday. We had initially planned to meet a friend for a mountain bike ride but plans changed for a few reasons so we decided to check out the local forests and do some canopy suspension bridge walks and ziplining. The suspension bridge canopy walks in the Redwoods was a bit scary for both Chook A and me given our fear of heights. In the afternoon, Chooks A and S decided to stay on the perch while Chook M, Deb and I ruffled our feathers and went on a 3 hr zipline adventure in the forest treetops. This involved several scary as shit suspension bridge walks and 6, yes 6, long ziplines through the treetops. I am not keen on heights despite my Batman alter ego so this was always going to be a ‘shit my pants’ experience. But given I was the big 5-0, I had to do something wild. It definitely got my blood pumping and I did scream a few times and yell terrible words throughout the forest as I zipped along the wire. But, it was a fun afternoon and worthy of any 50th birthday adventure. We enjoyed a nice dinner out that night and despite everything, the highlight of my 50th birthday will always be seeing the chooks at the airport and spending time with me on this holiday. That has been the most wonderful present – I love them all dearly.
Wellington. The next day we flew to windy Wellington which is the capital of NZ for those of us that incorrectly think that Auckland is the capital. We were all feeling quite tired after several days and nights of action. We decided to spend the night in, and bought a picnic of cheese, dips and meats to enjoy in front of the TV. There might have been some pizza there too which I may have eaten a few slices on the walk home. Deb was in jester mode and was enjoying hanging my undies off the internal balcony (into the lounge room) via the computer power cord (rolling my eyes). Windy Wellington lived up to her name as it was windy and cool on our day of exploring. We visited the Gallipoli exhibition (now permanent) at the Te Papa (the NZ museum). This was brilliant, and I mean brilliant. It was so interesting to read about NZ experiences from Gallipoli – it was still sad, awful and heartbreaking but the displays and information were interesting, personal, intimate – it was one of the best displays I’ve ever seen. The statues were 2.4 times real life size. Gallipoli was a failure for the ANZACS despite the significant loss of life so learning about this history that shaped our ANZAC bond is always important to me. We took a little time to explore some of the rest of the Te Papa museum but it is huge and definitely needs a full day or 3 to explore. I did make sure I saw the skeleton of Phar Lap, noting his stuffed hide and heart are back in Canberra and Melbourne.
In the afternoon we took the cable car up to the top of the botanical gardens to take in the beautiful views of Wellington. We strolled down through the botanical gardens – just beautiful – and passed the Beehive, the NZ Parliament House (photo below), back to the city. Deb and I hadn’t quite got enough of the wind so we convinced Chook A to join us for a trip up Mt. Victoria to check out the views of Wellington. It was worth the trip and the wind was in full force, thus earning Chook A her alias of Chewbacca. This trip provided an hour or so of knowledge googling on our return to the apartment as we googled the memorial to Bryd on Mt Victoria – whose expedition followed a direct line from there to Antartica (he used ships and planes). I also needed to know the length of the Wellington airport runway and we discussed the lengths of several runways – as you do? Chook M also announced that back when dinosaurs roamed, the days were only 23 hours – apparently the moon was closer to the earth, increasing the gravitational pull, the earth spun quicker so the hours in a day were shorter. Anyway, feel free to dispute this barnyard fact with Chook M. We did also discuss quote of the day and noted that Deb did not deliver yesterday…she said she didn’t have one today but stated she DID have one the other day but nobody laughed, except for her?? And we all laughed at that.
It was our last night together and we stayed in again, finishing off the cheese, dips and chips….and pizza while we discussed various world topics of interest such as duty free shopping, kidnapping Jacinda Adern to be our PM, the cost of car registration in NZ (which is around $56 for 6 months according to my Uber driver), how to get Chook A to actually get an Uber rating, why would Deb blow dry her hair especially in windy Wellington and other interesting topics. If anybody can shed light on why she hasn’t got any Uber rating – please leave a comment.
Message to the Chooks. Tomorrow our chook run ends as the chooks return to Australia and Deb and I continue down to the South Island for the rest of the week. For my dear chooks who I hope will read this, I want you to know that I have loved every minute of this adventure. I was so surprised to see you all at the airport and I feel incredibly special that you went to ALL this effort to make my 50thbirthday a fantastic and memorable experience. I love you all more than words can say. You have always been there for me and I know that we will be the best of friends forever. Thank you so much, I truly feel so lucky to have you in my life and for spending the past week with you scratching around New Zealand. I’ve loved it so much. xx
