30/n: Full circle
Te Araroa — the long pathway — has left a map engraved on my allegorical heart.
Not like an aching wound inflicted by sorrow and sadness, but like a beautiful ornament filled with love and happiness. A map of the earth and the sky and the sun in between. A map of the wind and the clouds in the sky and the beautiful mess they create. A map of forests and birds and lizards. A map of the fish and the sea. A map of people.
A map, that is much bigger than these beautiful islands. And it will continue to grow and grow. And my heart will grow with it.
Back to Kaiwaka
Driving back to the North Island, I feel like on my way home from school. So many familiar places, that became mnemonics for countless memories and emotions.
I’ve walked through the backyard of New Zealand and I made it my own. So even though it is a 24 hours journey from Christchurch to Kaiwaka — I really enjoy it.
I arrive in Warkworth, north of Auckland early in the morning, where I got picked up by my aunt and her partner for a day of sailing at Kawau Bay to Kawau Island. The best activity after a long bus ride and the perfect pastime for my still recovering body.
The tendonitis on both feet is healing well. But I’ve torn my right calf muscle in the days after Bluff and my feet are still swollen and sore from the month of very hard work.
It feels good to be back at my aunts. She is the perfect host, carer and a even greater aunt. She shares my passion of hiking and her appreciation of my adventure feels like a new pair of socks after a week of wet shoes.
I stay with them for a few days before I go south again. There still is a promise to keep, also my aunt goes on a tramping adventure herself. So together we drive to Auckland, where she takes a plane to the South Island and I take a bus to Whanganui.
the return to the house of the wood pigeon
Another long bus drive through “my new backyard”. “You’re going from Copenhagen to Frankfurt to cook dinner!” my cousin texts me. But it doesn’t feel odd or unusual. And as I walk into the driveway of Rob & George it feels like I’ve never even left.
There they stand — Rob & George and Antonin — in front of Henry’s Hut — deciding where to place Antonin’s trekking pole. It is another donation to the growing installation of Te Araroa mementos at the wall of Henry’s Hut. Like my shoes. They also will get their place at the wall before I leave.
There is a couple from Switzerland also staying at the house of the wood pigeon. Te A NoBos (you know the lingo). Later that night we will discover, where we’ve met before. And it feels just consequent to meet here again here.
Rob prepared a delicious dinner followed by a beautiful desert for the six of us — tomorrow he will entrust his kitchen to me — and I can thank them for all they’ve done for me, for us, for the trail and for who they are.
My idea to cook a german dinner didn’t originate from me being a proud german but from Rob telling a story about a Germany-themed party they improvised for another protégé and friend of theirs to celebrate the world cup triumph of Germany in 2014.
Also — I AM german and I am a decent cook and I know the recipes almost by heart. The dishes are no high cuisine but there are a lot of steps and so it takes me all day to prepare the dinner and also left overs for the next days — most of the dishes are too intricate just to do six servings, so I just cooked — a lot.
Antonin contributes a desert. He organized a family recipe for a Breton desert speciality.
The menu:
- “Maultaschen” / Swabian Ravioli on typical german-restaurant-salad-variation
carrot, cucumber, potato and green salad - “Des Gröschte” / the biggest
lentils with “Spätzle” and frankfurter - “far breton aux pruneaux”
Breton flan pie with prunes
So we sit together and eat and talk and share our stories. And the ornament on my heart expands and my heart grows. And it feels like this could be forever.
Kapiti Island
Antonin and I stay for another day and then go to Waikanae. My cousin organized an over night visit to Kapiti Island for us. The island is an birds refuge north of Wellington.
Kapiti Island is way more than just a pest free island, a conservation success story or a beautiful bird refuge. It is a piece of New Zealand — the way it could be.
Kapiti Island is a family enterprise, that is rooted in a long and proud Māori history. It is also this rootedness in tradition, culture, country and nature combined with modern entrepreneurship, number eight mentality and liberalism, that makes up this mentality, that goes beyond the barriers of being Māori or Pākehā (from European decent). It is a genuine New Zealand identity. No Commonwealth- , no European- , no American-lifestyle copy cat. In fact no cats at all.
It is hard to explain, but it is the first time I really feel like being in a country, that is and not in one that is still becoming.
The vegetation and the amount of birds on Kapiti Island is incomparable with all the other places I’ve seen before on this trip — sadly. We discover so many new birds like the Whitehead / Pōpokotea, the Long Tailed Cuckoo / Koekoeā, the Yellow Crowned Parakeet / Kākāriki or Morepork / Ruru and many familiar feathered friends like Tui, Kākā, Weka, Robin and Kererū. More birds in a few hours than in four months. It is also a lovely experience to walk through an almost only indigenous vegetation.
In the evening we are regaled with a delicious hapa / dinner before we go on a guided walk through the dark, hopping to spot some kiwi birds. But even though we are very, very quite — I could hear the digestion of the others — we have no luck. It would have been the cherry on top, but it doesn’t make this experience any less exciting.
After Kapiti Island we return to “the House of the Kererū” for one more time. Rob & George will pick is up from the bus like the friends they are and they will make us the greatest gift of all. Real friendship and a pavlova with goody goody gumdrop.
