To Taupō

After a very refreshing stay in the beautiful New Plymouth region, our next destination was the North Island’s interior. As we pulled out of our AirBnB and started towards the highway, we noticed a hitchhiker standing in the pouring rain on the street corner. With New Zealand having just recently emerged after so many weeks of the tough COVID situation, and with us having benefited so much from the kindness of strangers, we were feeling generous….or, more likely, just desperate to talk to someone else after so many weeks of isolation! Whatever the reasoning, we decided to offer a lift.

The hitchhiker, Chris, was in his 20s, of Samoan/Maori descent and heading to the Bay of Plenty region for some sort of Maori language/culture class (to be honest, our memory is pretty hazy on the details–one of the downsides of putting off writing this blog for a year and a half! So Chris, if you ever end up reading this, please correct us!). He did a fantastic job entertaining us (and Stefan’s incessant questions) over the next several hours, and it was so interesting getting to hear his perspective on life in New Zealand and Maori culture. He gave us insightful anecdotes about the land we were driving through, and pointed out some interesting spots to make stops, including a small museum in Mokau, the town where the electric dog collar was invented (supposedly–some brief googling shows that who gets the credit seems to vary by the source).

We ended up dropping Chris off at Te Kuiti, a small town at the junction of two highways, one heading north towards his destination and one heading east towards ours. We made sure to take photos at two notable statues: one celebrating the shearing industry in the region, and one dedicated to Sir Colin Meads, a famous rugby player who Chris knew his family would be very excited to see him take a photo with.

As we left Chris, we had the very special experience of him saying goodbye with a hongi. This is a greeting/parting tradition used in Maori culture which is in some ways similar to a handshake or a hug. In it, two people gently press their nose and forehead against one another, and then both inhale deeply to share a mutual breath. This obviously sounds rather harrowing in the times of COVID, but recall that at that point, New Zealand had completely eliminated any cases inside its borders for some time. In fact, this already meaningful gesture of shared intimacy was made even more special by the way the pandemic had provoked fear of physical proximity. It was a genuinely touching moment to be welcomed into by a native Kiwi, and even though we had only known him for a few short hours, we knew as we parted ways that we had made a really special connection we would cherish as we looked back on our time in New Zealand.

We continued on to our final destination of Taupō. Situated in the center of the North Island around New Zealand’s largest lake, Taupō is variably pronounced either “tau-poe”–technically considered incorrect, but still used by many outside the region, particularly “pākehā” (a blanket term used to describe non-Maori Kiwis, or sometimes more narrowly just those of European descent)–and “toe-paw,” which lines up with Maori pronunciation. Confused? Here’s a fun little video on the topic.

We had previously gotten conflicting answers from various Kiwis on the pronunciation, but the second pronunciation was definitively confirmed while visiting a museum in the city. That museum had various interesting exhibits including a 50-foot waka (Maori canoe), information on the area’s timber industry, and “Kiwiana,” assorted knick-knacks which for one reason or another have become associated with national identity.

Among these was an antique tin of Kiwi shoe polish, which has an interesting story: originally developed in the early 1900s in Australia, the Aussie founder chose to name the polish after the bird native to his Kiwi wife’s home country. When New Zealand soldiers went abroad during World War I (more about their experiences there in a previous post!), they brought this shoe polish with them, and this led to the demonym “Kiwi” to describe people from New Zealand–at least according to some accounts. Wikipedia, on the other hand, says that regimental insignia were more likely responsible for the name.

While in Taupō, we enjoyed some outdoor activities as well, including a short walk to Huka Falls (where we had briefly stopped on our bus tour the year before when visiting over Christmas with our parents) and a dip in the hot pools at Spa Park. Even though it was the middle of winter, we stripped down to our bathing suits and were surprised at how comfortable it was!

Stefan had been looking for some nice Merino wool socks for several months, and finally pulled the trigger in Taupō. This turned out to be a terrible purchase, as the socks didn’t even lasted a year before falling apart. This has since given him the opportunity to practice his sock repair skills in the form of “darning” (a word which appears to be etymologically unrelated to the euphemistic exclamation), but further repairs will soon prompt a Ship of Theseus argument about whether these are even worth keeping as souvenirs.

At home, we enjoyed a virtual trivia night with Dagmar’s coworkers and organized a couple of phone calls with friends, as well as with Ruth and Thomas, a YouTuber couple from Dagmar’s alma mater who collect date ideas that you can try out for yourself!

A big reason we made so many calls during this time was that we had booked a particularly luxurious AirBnB with the express intent of lazing around–not because we are lazy people (which, don’t get us wrong, we most certainly are) but because we had originally intended to unwind in Taupō after completing the strenuous Tongariro Crossing. With bad winter weather making the route unsafe, we ended up doing our lavish relaxation BEFORE the hike…something you’ll have to tune in next blog entry to read about! That ended up being quite the adventure and, unlike this post, we have tons of beautiful photos to show for it. So make sure you don’t miss that one, and in the meantime, leave us a comment to let us know what you think!