The Mr X factor 20: Home in New Zealand – Jan/Feb 2009

Home for 6 weeks :) - Auckland – Coromandel Peninsula – Camping at Hahei – precious time with family – walk to Cathedral Cove – Kuaotunu and the Saunders family - Hot Water Beach - drive to Wellington with Nics - Wellington – Catching up with friends: Picnics and parties – My feet get better!! – Beach, Cricket, Golf: A dream, an aim and a prayer – Tawa Trojans cricket – Golf: Return to Judgeford – Walk up Mt Kaukau – Tongariro Crossing birthday weekend – Christchurch for 4 days – Goodbye to Wellington, friends and family – Back to London!

For Coromandel family holiday photos visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhodgkinson/sets/72157616791031399/
For photos from the rest of my NZ trip visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhodgkinson/sets/72157617765409663/

Home sweet home... and again, it was everything I anticipated/hoped for! It was my second time back home, since leaving New Zealand to live in the UK, in April 2005. Once again it was so special to be with family, friends, and journeying around my homeland of Aotearoa – ‘the land of the long white cloud’, where I spent a fabulous six weeks.
On January 8th I flew out of Heathrow with my sister Nicola, who was also going home for a month. We flew Korean Air, which was pretty good all up, and after a 2-3 hour refuel stop in Seoul, we reached Auckland, around noon on Saturday January 10th.

We were met at Auckland airport by Cathy, our family's favourite Aunty, and my God-mother, who drove us back to her place in Auckland. During the afternoon we chilled out, chatting lots – a much anticipated holiday had finally begun!! Cathy also had a spa pool, so that was lovely to relax in, especially as Auckland was unusually cold for January, whilst we were there. The night before we left we went out for a nice meal together, in Mission Bay.

On the Monday, we jumped aboard a ferry, down by the Auckland waterfront. It took us on a two-hour trip across the Waitemata Harbour and Hauraki Gulf, towards the Coromandel Peninsula.
The destination was Hahei Beach, where we were going camping with our family, whom had driven up from Wellington over the previous couple of days.
It was a stunning day out on the water and when we docked at Coromandel township, we had a beautiful and much anticipated family re-union moment, with the two of us ‘UK-based Hodgkinsons’ embracing Mum & Dad, sister Wendy and her husband Murray, as well as their 3 lovely and fast-growing up kids – Adam (7), Amelia (5) and Ben (2). We drove back to Hahei in the afternoon, where we would be camping together for the next 10 nights.

This holiday was to repeat a bit of family history - as we had holidayed at a beach house at Hahei, way back in 1979 (gulp!), something I have a couple of faint memories of – so it was interesting to head back and see how the place had changed from the shots in the family photo album. Highlights of the camping holiday at Hahei were many:
Hanging out with the family around the campsite – cooking together, eating together, washing up together, mucking round together – just being all together!!
Playing games with the kids - cricket especially - I was particularly excited to discover I have two cricket-mad nephews, with some pretty good hand-eye co-ordination (Amelia’s not bad either!).

We also played plenty of Swingball tennis, card games – pairs, and Scotland Yard board game (see the About Me section of this blog for more on that – it’s a bit of a theme!)
Hanging out with the adults amongst us, when the kids were asleep, was precious and fun. As well as just chatting about all sorts of things, we played some Scrabble & Scotland Yard, as well as some at-times-hilarious charade/quiz games.
Sunbathing on Hahei beach, just a minute’s walk from our tent site, was also great. This also included swimming and body-surfing in the waves – you certainly miss the coast and sea when you live in London!
We also made several day-trips to explore places on the Coromandel Peninsula – such as Whitianga township, Cooks Beach, Otama Beach.
Our family walk to Cathedral Cove was a particular highlight – a 5km round trip, with lovely coastal views along the way.

Upon arrival, Cathedral Cove was simply breathtaking. We swam in the sea and sunbathed on the beach for a couple of hours.

We also visited Hot Water Beach, built our ‘sand-walled baths’ and sat in the (very) hot water from the geo-thermal system underneath the sand, as the high tide rolled and inundated the beach.
I also managed to visit a friend from my Uni days - Andy Saunders and family, at their holiday home in Kuaotunu, about a 30km drive from Hahei. I got there by hitch-hiking, which I hadn’t done for years – a lot of fun, and always a bit of a random adventure! Andy and Helen are friends and mentors from when we were each involved with Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship (http://www.tscf.org.nz/), so it was lovely to see them again, as well as their sons. I stayed overnight and had a really good catch up, which was great – we even got some kayaking, diving & snorkelling in out in Mercury Bay.
But alas, our lovely time on the Coromandel had to come to an end. Ten days passed too soon, and it was time to head home to Wellington. For this, Nics and I hired a car and drove southwards.
With the sun high in the sky and the music blaring on our sound system, we made our way down State Highway 1, along very familiar roads and passing familiar North Island sites: Lake Taupo, mountains of the central volcanic plateau, the Desert Road (always a favourite!), the Rangitikei river basin, turning left at Bulls, Foxton Strait, Fish’n’ Chips at Levin, finally seeing the sea again at Paekakariki, start of the motorway at Paremata, and then, a lovely few moments - down Ngauranga Gorge, under the railway bridge, over the fly-over, and then Wellington Harbour opened up before us – and we were HOME!
Hanging out at home in Wellington was great. As it was summer, there were plenty of things going on. I managed to make it to Rob Edgecombe’s 30th birthday party – he lives in the UK too, but was also home for a holiday – and his own party!! There were a fair few people I knew there, so it was a great opportunity to see heaps of people from various walks of Linden, Tawa and Wellington life.

After a week at home, I realised I was going to run out of time to see everybody I hoped to see, so I hastily arranged a picnic at the Botanical Gardens for whoever was around to make it – it ended up being moved to Mark Edgecombe’s flat in nearby Kelburn, as there was the threat of rain that afternoon – Thanks heaps Mark! It was cool seeing people again, having not seen many of them for ages.

It is with great joy & thankfulness that I share the following with you: A strange and wonderful thing happened whilst I was home. An ongoing heel-ache problem I’ve had, seemed to get a lot better, for the first time in years. This meant that I was able to be a lot more mobile - doing heaps of walking and even some much-missed sports action. This improvement was partly due to some shoes I came across in the UK last year – called MBTs (Masai Barefoot Technology - http://www.swissmasai.co.uk/), they work my calves more and take pressure off my heel. Things have been on the improve, since September last year - they’ve been a bit of a life-saver for me.

Despite all the problems with my feet in recent years. I’ve had ‘a dream, an aim and a prayer’ about getting better, since November 2006 – in my mind’s eye I have pictured 3 things which for me would be symbolise being better – they were to walk on a beach for as long as I wanted, to play cricket for my old cricket team, and to play golf on the course that I played on regularly, during my teenage and Uni years. I did the beach-walk thing on the day trip to Cathedral Cove, and the others unfolded in the following ways. It was simply wonderful – thanks be to God, and to everyone who has prayed for me over this - Psalm 25:15, Habakkuk 3:16-19.

On my first Saturday back in Wellington, I played for the 'Tawa Trojans' cricket team (world famous in Tawa!). This comprises of a bunch of friends from Tawa, who formed a team during their Uni days in the early nineties, and have played every season since -for getting on for 20 years now. I hadn’t played for them for about 6 or 7 years, so it was very special to get back on the pitch, and also a tonne of fun. We got trounced in our first game, but got a good win in the second one.

The first game was at Karori Park, where I was thrown into the fray pretty quickly, as the ‘third seamer’ (bowler). My five overs of left arm medium pacers were a bit erratic – a few wides and four-balls – I hadn’t bowled in years! But in my third over I managed to get a few dot balls in, and then got the first wicket of the innings – LBW – after a thunderous appeal - the batsman caught plumb in front. This was just as the Karori team were starting to up their run-rate worryingly. I finished up with 1 wicket for 25, off 5 overs.

Batting was less successful – despite my batting stance looking very comfortable & relaxed! Despite middleing everything in the nets the previous night, it was not a glorious return. My sister Nicola was quick to get the photo above, but it belies the truth! I was batting at number 3, and was in early, only to get bowled second ball, leaving a swinging delivery from the opening bowler. I was naturally disappointed, but also philosophical – these things happen in sport - and I was just ecstatic to be playing again, after a long absence. Also, it was great to be playing sport with some school-mates from Linden School days – some still-close ties from (gulp!) 25-odd years ago.
The next Saturday we played at Ngatitoa Domain and won convincingly. I bowled first-change again and got amongst the wickets once more. My line was much tighter and I put a few more ‘effort balls’ in, claiming 2 wickets for 15 off 5 overs. I was very happy. I didn’t bat – demoted after my previous week’s display(!!) and not needed, as we coasted home.
In between the two Saturdays of cricket, my dream of playing golf again, came true. To dial my golf swing in again, prior to the ‘return to Judgeford’, I played nine holes at Hutt Park, with good mates Matt Berg, James Edgecombe and Simon Cuff. I was pretty awful for most of that – we gave James a shot a hole – as he has not played much golf, and he duly beat the lot of us!
A few days later I headed back to Judgeford golf course, on SH58 between Paremata and Silverstream. This was very special - if there is any sport I think I would like to play forever, I think it would be golf. I’ve probably played between 50-to-100 rounds at Judgeford, but hardly any in the last ten years. So, to stand on the first tee, tee off, and then walk up the fairway, was something I’ve dreamed of a lot. It was a lovely, sunny afternoon, and sharing it with me was Mark Callagher, a mate from my church in Wellington. And on the 9th tee I bumped into a mate that I used to play Junior Pennants golf with as a teenager!
I even managed to shoot 5 (bogie) on the difficult first hole, and birdie the second hardest hole on the course, during the back nine. In between all that there was also some erratic stuff, which left me with a four-foot putt for par and 99, on the last green - which I missed, meaning I ended up shooting 100 – 99 would have been good, but I guess it means I’ll just have to go back sometime! My best and final round whilst home was at Karori golf course, where Matt, James & Cuffy had another round. My mate Nigel, who has got his handicap down to scratch (0), gave me some tips to try and fix my slice off the tee. I tried them out, and my driving off the tee started to go perfectly for several holes – I was absolutely nailing it down the fairway - very exciting, as I’ve always had slicing problems! Matt was my main opposition in this round, and I beat him on match play, though he won on stroke play (94 v. 97). Problem for him was that we had agreed on a match play competition!

So, to play golf & cricket again, was awesome! My feet were still feeling really good, so when an opportunity came up to walk the Tongariro Crossing over Waitangi weekend, I jumped at it. For training, I hiked up Mt Kaukau in Wellington a couple of times – my first time was with Matt Morris, a good mate from Wellington College days. He is a fire-fighter and on a pretty tough fitness regime, so while I was gasping for air on the way up (chatting about the past 2 years of our lives), he was just cruising!!

We got to the top though, and it was pretty special – my first time up Mt Kaukau since 1 January 2000. Not much of a view though, as it was cloudy and the mist rolled in, just as we made the summit. A week later though, I went up again - it was a lovely day and I got some great photos of Wellington Harbour.
The Tongariro Crossing was part of a 30th birthday celebration weekend for another Wellington friend, Antonia. It turned into a double celebration, as Antonia had got engaged to Ashley Milkop – another Tawa & Trojans connection – the week before the Crossing (congrats guys!!). Antonia organised a wonderful & relaxing weekend away. We took the Overlander train up to Ohakune on the Friday, walked the Crossing on the Saturday, had a really nice BBQ-party on Saturday night and caught the train back to Wellington on Sunday afternoon, lovely ambling through the southern North Island scenery at non-London train speeds!
For the Tongariro Crossing, described as ‘the best one-day walk in the world’, we had the most perfect, blue-sky day – a complete stunner! It was pretty warm too. As it was a long weekend, the track was virtually a highway in parts – very busy.
After ascending the Devil’s staircase, paused for a rest and a snack, before heading across the Red Crater, before another ascent. To avoid the crowds, a small group of us headed off on a diversion – up Mt Tongariro (1967m). We had lunch on the summit, gazing across to Mt Ngaruhoe & Mt Ruapehu, way off in the distance – amazing views.
Then we self-navigated our way around the North Crater, before descending down a steep scree-type slope to rejoin the track, as it headed down to Ketetahi Hut. The views northwards of the Turangi and the Lake Taupo area, were just as stunning. We reached the car-park and pick-up point at about 5pm, as arranged, and got our bus back to Ohakune.
Back at the bach, Antonia’s birthday party was a sumptuous BBQ in the warm evening, where we could all celebrate the day’s achievement, and of course, Antonia’s 30 years. It was very relaxing & enjoyable. The next day we boarded the afternoon train and wound our way back to Wellington.

Unfortunately, I now had just a handful of days left in Wellington. I spent these seeing friends and family in various places for coffee breaks, lunches & evening meals – having commandeered Mum & Dad’s car when they didn’t need it!

We had a lovely family picnic in Oriental Bay one evening, and staying over with the kids at Wendy and Murray’s, was special fun, as was a final meal out together. However, time as usual, was sadly running out.
On Thursday February 12th, I jumped on a plane for a quick trip to Christchurch, where I have several friendships from TSCF days and my year there at Teacher’s College, in 2000. I stayed with close friends Mike and Helen, proud (and often shattered!) parents to their 15 month old twins Rachel & Emma.
Mike took a day off work, so we visited Oxford for the day (had a lovely lunch at Jo Seagar’s Cafe), and relaxed over the weekend, which included playing some competitive backyard cricket with Mike, Paul Roper-Gee and me.
We also headed to Ilam Baptist Church on the Sunday, which I used to attend in 2000, and had a lovely picnic with several Christchurch-based friends – catching up on what they are up to in their various lives. It was lovely to spend time with my southern friends, and hear their stories.
Then it was back up to Wellington for a couple of days, where I packed my gear and said a not-so-easy farewell goodbye to family. On the evening of Tuesday 17th Feb, I caught a plane to Auckland, stayed 3 nights with Cathy, catching up with her, and also seeing a few friends in Auckland, before jumping on board my plane bound for London, heading back to the other side of the world, and my life back there.

And that was how another special trip home unfolded!!