Paraparaumu

I was invited to speak at the Paraparaumu Rotary Club on 12 September. It is about an hour outside of Wellington, so it was arranged that I would take the train from Wellington to Paraparaumu and then spend the night at the president's home so that I could do a bit of sightseeing the next morning.

I can't remember the last time I have been on an actual train. I think it was the train we took on choir tour from D.C. to somewhere in Georgia, the overnight train. I was very excited about taking the train. Michelle, my friend in my POLS classes, was laughing at me in our tutorial on Monday, saying I shouldn't be excited because the trains aren't that nice. I caught the 3:20 train, and it was a 55 minute ride. I was on the correct side of the train to see the gorgeous scenery as I traveled up the west coast. I had my mp3 player and my daily newspaper and had a very enjoyable train ride.

Geoff met me at the train station (I am happy I made it off at the correct stop!) and drove me back to his house. We dropped off my overnight bag and chatted for awhile before leaving for the rotary meeting. My presentation went very well, and the club was very inviting. It is an older club, so it was a bit quieter than some of the other clubs I had seen. They get a lot of speakers from Wellington, so the speaker is nearly the first thing on the program, before the fines and everything. This is so people can make the drive back to Wellington and not get home too late.

After the meeting, we went back to Geoff and Ann's house. They were so nice and accommodating for me. They even went out and bought some soy milk for breakfast, just one meal! I couldn't have asked for nicer hosts. They had recently purchased a Nikon 4600 (the kind that I had stolen from me), so I taught them how to use some of the cool features. We sat around with hot chocolate and coffee and tea and talked for a long time. They have a daughter and her family in Springfield, Missouri, right now, so they talked about their last trip over there. We talked about what I had done in New Zealand, what I wanted to do, and a whole lot of other random things. I started to get tired early, so we all went to bed around 10.

We left the house at 9:30 this morning to do a bit of sightseeing. Paraparaumu is basically New Zealand's version of a retirement beach community. It is on the Kapiti coast, and it is gorgeous with a mild climate. As we were driving around, I was strongly reminded of my grandmother's retirement community in Florida, The Villages. There were subdivisions that looked exactly like the maze of identical houses that makes up the areas of The Villages. More and more people are retiring to the community to live full-time, but there is still a large portion of people who just come up for the weekend.

The first thing we did was the drive over to the Otaki Gorge. There is a one lane bridge that goes over the river, so first we drove over it. I wanted to take pictures, so we parked the car and walked back onto the bride. Some Lord of the Rings scenes were shot here, mainly from the first film (leaving Hobbiton, etc). While we were standing on the bridge, a woman came driving along. She stopped to chat with us, and when she found out I was a tourist, she told us to continue on up the lane to go wander around her gardens. She said the rhododendrons and magnolia trees were magnificent right now. This is a lady we had never met, who had never met us, inviting us to basically tour her home. "Just ask for Pierre," she said, "He's cutting down trees outside." Well, we went on over and toured around her 'gardens.' What she really has is a couple of acres planted with grape vines, apple trees, lemon treets, tomato trees (yes, there is a kind that grows on trees), an olive grove, etc. It was beautiful. It was high enough up so there was a nice view of the sea as well. She had a large house, and it was very quiet and peaceful; no sounds of the city here! This is a prime example of how friendly Kiwis are. This woman had no worries about a group of strangers wandering around her gardens while she was at her pilates class. It was very nice.

After this stop, we continued on down to follow the Otaki river. We were in an old (late 80s?) Corolla driving on gravel roads that would have been more comfortable in a 4-wheeler, but no matter. We drove right down to where the river forks (rather, comes together from three seperate streams). It hasn't rained in over a month and a half in this area, so the river was the lowest than Ann and Geoff had every seen it. I still enjoyed the drive, though. Everything is so green in New Zealand. I was told today that in the height of summer, the grass will die in some places and turn brown, so it is just about the opposite than my grass back home.

After driving back out, they took me to a nature and wildlife reserve. It was very nice. I saw all kinds of birds and native flora. There was a nice bush walk around the whole property, and I climbed to the top of the lookout. The view reminds me a bit of the views I saw in Wyoming, with rolling farmland meeting tall mountains. I also saw a real Kiwi bird! Strange little animal, waddling around. There were ducks and geese and eels and owls and all kinds of other animals. When we were leaving, a lamb had gotten loose from the adjoining paddock and couldn't figure out how to get back in. That was an experience, trying to get a scared lamb to climb through a wire fence!

We drove Ann back to get her car (she had a prior community service commitment), and then Geoff and I went out to lunch. We ate a cute little cafe, the Beach Deli, right on the coast. The sun was streaming in the windows, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and we got to watch the people walk by. After lunch, he drove me back to Wellington. He does part-time freelance work still and coincidentally had an engagement in Wellington that day, so I didn't have to take the train back.

Overall, it was a very nice overnight trip. I would definately enjoy going back to the area and exploring more of the coastline, perhaps visiting Kapiti Island. The entire island is a conserve, so you have to get permission to visit, and you have to go with a specific service because only so many people per day can visit the island.

In other news, I have been working on my schedule for this summer. It looks like I will have plenty of time to explore areas of New Zealand, so I am happy with that. I also sat down and figured out what courses I have left before graduating. My major has recently undergone revamped itself, so there have been a lot of changes there. I have also been accepted into an International Plan program, so I have new requirements for my degree. Oh, well, I will graduate eventually. Let's just travel around 'til then!