On Friday we started off by going to Hamilton Gardens which is considered one of the 10 most beautify gardens in the world. We are not sure who designated them as such, but they were beautiful. It was divided into counties, England, China, Japan, USA, India, Maori, Australia, herb and veggies, and fantasy. And the USA one was mainly stonework and glass with a modern poster of Marilyn Monrow – that was unusual compared to other gardens. Then off to the rose garden that spanned a couple acres. This is where we had our picnic lunch including hot tea. But now we were to select our top five rose varietires for the rose contest. There were only 100 to choose from as most were not in the contest. This was great fun and I based it not just on their beauty, but primarily for their smell. It was interesting how few had fragrant smalls to my disappointment. They seemed to be bred for beauty alone. And what was more amazing, all of the people I talked to there also judged them for smell. My favorite was “love me do” and Zosia’s was “Climbing Blackberry Rip”. We’ll get an eMail on who the winners were.
Off to the CTC – Cadet Training Center, the professional pilot training facility where their train potential pilots for Europe and Asia. It is ideal for cadets because there is so little air traffic here. It is expensive also - $27,000 a year for school alone. The selection process is very strict. Fewer than 2% of the applicants get admitted. These are mostly young men, less than 5% women and really need to show initiative. It is an 18 month course. We heard all about the school process and saw the hangers and simulators. Then off to a group dinner for delicious lamb, potatoes, wine and dessert.
You know much of the benefits of traveling with Friendship Force is the interchange with people. We sit in the morning over coffee, paper, and breakfast, and post dinner with tea and chatting or telly with Sue and Richard Harrington discussing our pasts, futures and the differences in the environments that form our lives. We talk about what drives our society, experiences with homes, cars, neighbors, pets. One would never get this in depth experience in a hotel lobby or a restaurant – I don’t care how good the food or service is. You can get good food, beds, stores, or entertainment anywhere in the world, including home. It is the personal contact over a week that is so valuable.
Saturday Zosia and I are off to the beach with our day hosts, Beverly and Brian, while Sue and Richard have a day off and a wedding later in the day. We drive for an hour to Bridal falls, a wonderful 60 meter waterfall that is right out of the travel magazine. A walk to the bottom stimulates the legs, but not as much as the one back up. Now off to lunch and the boat ride in the Raglan harbor. The owner of the boat is an aging surfer from LA who has lots of business around this beach town. They came to visit back in 1990 and never went home, sold his house, quit his job, and cashed in their stocks, never to look back. Everyone was laid back on the boat, which was slow to say the least, but what’s the hurry. The weather was beautiful as it has been every day. The mate gave us a demonstration of the Maori Haka or greeting. It may not look like a challenge/greeting as he yelled with threatening gestures and finally laying a flower at our feet to see if we would bow to pick it up avoiding his glare, exposing our head to their spears and clubs. If we responded correctly, we were friends.
The beach is known for the longest left handed curl wave and was featured in the movie “the Longest Summer”. The sand is also black because of the iron content. The Japanese have been mining the sand for years a little south of there – two ship loads a week. The Maoris have a grass runway near the beach and there 100 private planes rallying and flying about. A stop for ice cream and then a trip back home.
They have bad drivers also. Here they can call *555 and report them to the cops who will intercept them down the road. We had one passing people a fast speeds on double lines around corners. People would honk at him and be disgusted. Ah, but sweet justice – we pass him a couple of K’s down the road with a black and white writing him a ticket. Back at Brian’s we had coffee and biscuits, then off to Beverly’s for dinner. She drove us home where we heard all about the wedding.
Today is Sunday and we went to an antique car show where there were all sorts of old cars mainly GM and Ford products. They had both right-hand and left-hand drive. They were in great condition and we felt like we were in Havana again. We selected which Ford, Chevy, or other we thought should take the prize. I selected the cars I drove, 67 VW Bug, 63 Fairlane 500, and 64 Chevy Belair. Zosia picked the 34 ford.
We had our goodbye luncheon today with the Hamilton Club. We sang Texas songs and gave their club a gift. What nice folks. They are quite differnt from us, yet very much the same. We will remember their hospitality for a long time.
We have become sensitive to importing foreign food and plant products into a county. Hopefully we will come in clean except packaged food we bring in (yogurt and custard powder, and honey). We are going to leave our raw sheep wool here, and bring no plants. Tonight we take our hosts to dinner – hopefully for fish and chips.
Off to the CTC – Cadet Training Center, the professional pilot training facility where their train potential pilots for Europe and Asia. It is ideal for cadets because there is so little air traffic here. It is expensive also - $27,000 a year for school alone. The selection process is very strict. Fewer than 2% of the applicants get admitted. These are mostly young men, less than 5% women and really need to show initiative. It is an 18 month course. We heard all about the school process and saw the hangers and simulators. Then off to a group dinner for delicious lamb, potatoes, wine and dessert.
You know much of the benefits of traveling with Friendship Force is the interchange with people. We sit in the morning over coffee, paper, and breakfast, and post dinner with tea and chatting or telly with Sue and Richard Harrington discussing our pasts, futures and the differences in the environments that form our lives. We talk about what drives our society, experiences with homes, cars, neighbors, pets. One would never get this in depth experience in a hotel lobby or a restaurant – I don’t care how good the food or service is. You can get good food, beds, stores, or entertainment anywhere in the world, including home. It is the personal contact over a week that is so valuable.
Saturday Zosia and I are off to the beach with our day hosts, Beverly and Brian, while Sue and Richard have a day off and a wedding later in the day. We drive for an hour to Bridal falls, a wonderful 60 meter waterfall that is right out of the travel magazine. A walk to the bottom stimulates the legs, but not as much as the one back up. Now off to lunch and the boat ride in the Raglan harbor. The owner of the boat is an aging surfer from LA who has lots of business around this beach town. They came to visit back in 1990 and never went home, sold his house, quit his job, and cashed in their stocks, never to look back. Everyone was laid back on the boat, which was slow to say the least, but what’s the hurry. The weather was beautiful as it has been every day. The mate gave us a demonstration of the Maori Haka or greeting. It may not look like a challenge/greeting as he yelled with threatening gestures and finally laying a flower at our feet to see if we would bow to pick it up avoiding his glare, exposing our head to their spears and clubs. If we responded correctly, we were friends.
The beach is known for the longest left handed curl wave and was featured in the movie “the Longest Summer”. The sand is also black because of the iron content. The Japanese have been mining the sand for years a little south of there – two ship loads a week. The Maoris have a grass runway near the beach and there 100 private planes rallying and flying about. A stop for ice cream and then a trip back home.
They have bad drivers also. Here they can call *555 and report them to the cops who will intercept them down the road. We had one passing people a fast speeds on double lines around corners. People would honk at him and be disgusted. Ah, but sweet justice – we pass him a couple of K’s down the road with a black and white writing him a ticket. Back at Brian’s we had coffee and biscuits, then off to Beverly’s for dinner. She drove us home where we heard all about the wedding.
Today is Sunday and we went to an antique car show where there were all sorts of old cars mainly GM and Ford products. They had both right-hand and left-hand drive. They were in great condition and we felt like we were in Havana again. We selected which Ford, Chevy, or other we thought should take the prize. I selected the cars I drove, 67 VW Bug, 63 Fairlane 500, and 64 Chevy Belair. Zosia picked the 34 ford.
We had our goodbye luncheon today with the Hamilton Club. We sang Texas songs and gave their club a gift. What nice folks. They are quite differnt from us, yet very much the same. We will remember their hospitality for a long time.
We have become sensitive to importing foreign food and plant products into a county. Hopefully we will come in clean except packaged food we bring in (yogurt and custard powder, and honey). We are going to leave our raw sheep wool here, and bring no plants. Tonight we take our hosts to dinner – hopefully for fish and chips.
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