Piha 3
Morning. It’s now Saturday the 2nd in NZ. Writing from Queenstown. I’ll finish the Piha trip.
It was my last morning in Piha.. I packed up.. it was another overcast morning. I didn’t have a ride scheduled and I knew there was no public transportation so I was prepared to start walking with a thumbs up and hoping for the best.. if I didn’t get a ride I was going to treat it as a full day hike back towards the city.
I still had the rugby ball from the previous day and I did consider maybe keeping it throughout the trip.. like a Tom hanks/Wilson situation… but the ball would have 100% become a burdensome. It’s a big ball.. weird shape. Can’t fit in my bag. But I thought it was a cool find and a great memento from this trip
I typed in to see where the post office was and it happened to be by the coffee shops. Post office was only open two hours a day and a couple days a week so I waited for the post office to open at 10 am. I sat outside the coffee shop for about two hours waiting to ship this ball back to the states.
While enjoying my coffee a lady popped up with a pretty, old black lab. Of course.. I gotta ask if I can pet. We ended up talking for awhile. She’s done many different things in her life but lately she had been dog sitting for surfers and locals who go out of town. Dog lover to say the least! We got along well in that category!
She wanted to know all about my thoughts on our politics. She knew more than I did about them. She hated Marjorie Taylor Green… Marjorie Taylor green.. “her cheese is completely off her cracker. And she’s also dumb af”
American politics is like watching sports for her she says… she crossed her fingers when Warnock and Ossoff were getting elected. I also learned from her that the best way to stop a dog fight or a dog biting someone is to stick a finger up their butt… the dog will immediately stop what they are doing.
Interesting, happy go lucky, sweet woman… unapologetic… her name was Maddy and she knew everyone and everything about Piha. Maddy offered to take me to back to Auckland for free… she said it would give her a reason to go shopping and that there was a big sale somewhere in the city. We waited til 10:30.. shipped the ball and hopped in the car.
Where the radio should have been there was a pic of her dog that had passed recently. So instead she had a Bluetooth portable speaker that we put in the glovebox in front of me. Her favorite music was grunge and rap. So we listened to Nirvana, Jay Z, and Kanye. We talked about Kurt cobain a good bit… she hated Courtney love. “Trash music too, mate”
We made a couple stops so she could roll some Ciggies. We also made a stop at the scenic spot that was covered up in clouds the first day I arrived. She said her sisters house was the one below us in the picture. I love the sideways peace sign she threw up.
We laughed a lot on the way to Auckland and towards the end talked about how she ended up by the beach. She has such an easy going outlook on life.. kind of “whatever” perspective on it all. She had faced her own struggles and overcome a lot. Maddy is getting ready to turn 50 and for her birthday party she is inviting the whole town to her “celebration of life” as she is blessed to have made it that far. She said they are going to blare rap music all night. I can’t wait to hear about this celebration of life from her..
The last she said before I left was “you are a beautiful person man.. take it easy all day”
“Arohanui Ki a koe brotha” that means big love to you in Māori.
This encounter definitely helped set the tone for what I imagine the rest of the trip would be like.. happy people.. taking it easy.. and that’s how I’m going to operate as well. Thank you Maddy!
I spent a night in Auckland but tbh it’s not my favorite and I need to give it some more time there before I comment. Auckland is the big city of NZ. I’ve spent the past 4 days in paradise. I hope to get on that this afternoon.
