Dear Virginia
I have never encountered a 600 kilo rodeo bull. I’m sure Steve, the cat, would be able to outstare one.
I did organise an Easter egg hunt once.When the kids went out to find them they were covered in ants and half melted. That’s tropical Auckland for you, even in autumn. I never did it again.
This year the family biked the Hyde to Middlemarch Rail Trail. The best thing about it, according to Tane, were the starry starry nights and the food. He FaceTimed me from a hilltop.
“Can you see it, Grandma?”
“I can’t get any visual. The screen’s totally black.”
I am frantically pressing screen icons and feeling old and incompetent.
“Can’t you see them now? There’s a shooting star. Look!”
Then the light dawned. Well, the darkness dawned. My screen was looking at his night sky. Tane’s delight in seeing the stars was gratifying. We don’t get lots of starlight in the city.
What did I do on a scorching hot, blue sky Easter Day? I went with family to Waiheke where for the first time ever we had the use of a car. Our chance to see Stony Batter, the gun emplacements and tunnels at the ‘other end’ of Waiheke. The massive, smooth volcanic, 8 million year old boulders that dot the landscape there were the first amazing thing, only the first of many.
Andrew shouted: “In the shadows, under those trees. I’m sure that’s a bull.”
“No,” we all shouted.
Turned out he was right. No idea how much it weighed.
We took the guided tour 42 metres down into the tunnels. Solid concrete, floor, walls, ceilings, stairs. We were given dim torches so the darkness still retained the atmosphere. We were told to ‘focus’ when we descended the stairs. I grabbed the bannister.
During WW2 the US felt the Japanese might extend their reach into he Pacific more than they did. The plan was to shelter the US fleet in the Hauraki Gulf! They paid most of the cost of the tunnels and stockpiles of explosives, and giant gun emplacements at the entry points into the harbour and on Stony Battery. The tunnels were dug by hand and lined with concrete. The digging involved 190 men who lived in barracks above ground. The whole work was top secret. Amusing fact: The work was completed in 1948.
We saw huge rooms, for stores, ammunition, diesel generators. We walked long smooth corridors. One huge room was the plotting room where nautical maps were spread on a large table. Very large photographs of the plotting people were on the walls for us to understand their crucial work. The plotters were all women! The things I never knew. They slept next door to the plotting room, in a similar completely concrete cube. Ghastly.
The whole experience made me feel wobbly. We were all glad to see the light again when a door opened and light poured through bush and birds sang.
stonybattertunnels.nz is the website for photos.
We drove to Onetangi where the bay was full of swimmers and paddlers. A different world.
On the ferry home an Australian tourist told me about his bad experiences in NZ. They’d arrived at Auckland airport and picked up their rental car. When he got the keys he asked the receptionist what was the best way to get into the centre of the city. she replied. “Don’t know. I don’t drive!”
When they did get to their hotel, beside the Sky Tower, they had to wait one hour for their dinner in a restaurant on Federal St. Being as they were from Perth , and a three hour time difference, it had been a very long day.
I got through Easter without chocolate.
Janice
Stony Batter
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