Before they had arrived in Auckland, they weren't really sure where they were going, so on my recommendation, I suggested we check out one of the west coast beaches (probably Piha, but I was gonna decide on the day).
Two days before the day though, I got a message from Akihiko asking if we could go to Rangitoto instead, and I happily obliged. I hadn't been there before either so it would be a bit of an adventure for me too.
I checked out the timetable and suggested we meet at half-nine to catch the 10:30 launch, and return on the last ferry back at 3:30, giving us a good amount of time to hike up, picnic, and take lots of photos. It was on.
Because their English isn't very strong, I was anticipating having to speak in Japanese. It'd been two years, almost to the day (wow - it's been that long?!) since I first arrived in Japan. So suffice to say my Japanese was pretty rusty, and most certainly nowhere near what it was like in Japan. I thought about scratching up on it, but in the end decided I would wing it.
The next day I got up early, and knowing very well the Japanese custom of NEVER being late (because anything later than a few minutes is extremely disrespectful), I made sure I got to our meeting point on time - Britomart McDonalds.
I arrived on time but they weren't there!
No worries, I can look cool standing here, I decided.
At ten-to I started to get worried, and decided to look around in case they got lost. We still needed to buy our tickets and our food. They didn't have a phone so I had no idea what to do. And then I had forgotten that there was also a McDonalds inside Westfield, so ran up there to check. Nope. Ran outside, and with a sigh of relief ran into them at the entrance to the mall.
Turns out their bus was late (not surprising at all), and then I felt all nostalgic again for the timely and very frequent trains of Tokyo. I felt a bit embarrassed on behalf of Auckland.
We sauntered off to the terminal to get tickets, and were kindly informed that the 10:30 ferry was cancelled. The next departure would be at 12:15. Boo!
We weren't sure if we were still wanting to go, because we would barely have time to visit the summit (based on the estimated hiking time there and back), let alone visit the detour to the lava caves, let alone have lunch.
But we thought, what the heck, let's just go.
Back to the ticket counter and the lady additionally informs us that Rangitoto wharf is under renovation, and that we'd be dropped off of the other side of the island. Okay, not a huge problem. And also, she adds, the last ferry back will be leaving half an hour earlier at 3pm due to tidal restrictions. Crap. We would thus have 2 hours to complete an estimated 130 minute hike.
We got tickets anyway and as they had already seen Queen Street (our main street in the CBD), I decided to show them my university (because apart from shopping, there isn't much else interesting within walking distance). Akihiko was excited about a sakura (cherry blossom) tree in full bloom in Albert Park. He reckoned everyone would be jealous for his new photo in front of Sakura on the other side of the world.
Hanami (the season of flower viewing, when the sakura blossoms for a few weeks during springtime) is a special and well celebrated time of the year for the Japanese.
After uni, I took them to the Auckland Art Gallery. I don't really get art, and I asked them if they did, and we were all in agreement that art is weird and confusing. We went through anyway and I pretended to be interested. I was hoping they weren't bored, but they seemed interested enough. Perhaps they were just faking it too.
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| Pretty neat 'art piece' |
Afterwards we went to get lunch. I'm kind of poor, and so walking past St Pierres Sushi I decided to get my staple sushi-of-the-day. It was California Roll day though (bleh), and so I splurged on double avocado and salmon. I was hoping it wasn't annoying to come all the way here to eat Japanese food. But the only other cheap eats were food they've had before. They asked me what was traditional kiwi food was, and I explained that we didn't really have anything. I could only think of pies and pavs.
I asked them if they reckoned the quality of the sushi is lower here - to which they replied, "the quality's pretty good, but yeah, the flavours here are weird". They also said that they ate at a Japanese restaurant with their host mother, and they were appalled by how expensive it was. I told them that legit Japanese restaurants are usually more expensive then their sushi franchise counterparts, typically owned by Koreans and not Japanese people.
After a quick detour to the supermarket for water and snacks, we headed back to the terminal and boarded the ferry.
The ride over was smooth. It was somewhat overcast but the sun was shining through. We talked a little bit, and Akihiko gave me a gift from Japan - Yui's latest CD (awesome!). We are both big fans. He had a rather bulky overcoat on and I suggested that he might want to take it off because he'd get pretty warm hiking up. He said 大丈夫 (daijyobu) - which means "I'm fine". It's something all Japanese say regardless of whether they are actually fine or not. They would rather say daijyobu rather than inconvenience anyone else.
Right after disembarking I reminded them that we'd have to walk rather quickly if we were to get to the summit and back on time. I asked if they were cool with that, to which they (of course) replied 大丈夫!
They wanted to use the restroom, so we lost the 10 or so other people who got walking right off the boat. It was nice though, our group trekking alone on this mysterious island. Setting a brisk pace, we walked on the metal road, looking at the volcanic rock, pest traps, and bush that surrounded us.
"Have you been to the forests in Japan?" I asked.
"Yeah, they are quite similar to this."
Rangitoto is nothing like the real forests of New Zealand, I tried to explain. The national pride in me wanted to boast about our natural forests. I wished I had taken them on a bush walk in the Waitakere Ranges instead.
About 20 minutes in, I could hear Hiromi breathing more heavily. It was still relatively flat ground. It suddenly dawned on me that these city slickers had nowhere near the same amount of stamina I was expecting. Akihiko stopped to take off his coat. "I told you so." He laughed.
We didn't talk a whole lot on the way up. Usually I was getting too far ahead of them, and when I did stop for them they didn't have the breath to talk. I insisted that they keep drinking water because I didn't want them to faint.
I kept encouraging them and checking up just to make sure they weren't gonna hate me forever for making them rush up the mountain. I almost did think that at one point, because after a lot of "are you alright?"s, I finally heard a 大丈夫じゃない (not okay) from an exasperated, but still humourous Hiromi.
After just over and hour we finally reached the summit. The views were quite breathtaking (pun fully intended). We all took photos, and then I reminded them that we needed to repeat the journey back down, otherwise we'd have to spend a night in the bush.
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| View of Auckland City from the summit of Rangitoto Island |
I challenged them to speak in only English for the rest of the day. And they did pretty well. They struggled, in the same way I struggled when finding my confidence in speaking Japanese, so I did my best to help them out.
We arrived in time for the boat back. I ran ahead for the last kilometer or so, because I wanted to be doubly safe. By that time it had started to get cold as the clouds had rolled in. We were beat (them especially), and they were nodding off on the ride back.
Hiromi had mentioned that one of her favourite things about New Zealand was our ice cream. To that I wholeheartedly agreed - there are way more flavours in Japan, but nothing beats the creamy blends we make over here. [Disclaimer: I have worked at Tip Top, the market leader in ice-cream here :p]
Anyway, I decided to take them to Giapo. They seemed to be particularly impressed with the whimsy of cotton candy on top, and they said it tasted great. We hung around, talked a bit more, and then I had to head off.
It was a really fun day. It was a great excuse to go out and discover more of my own backyard. I've still got to hit up south of Palmerston North. I got to speak heaps of Japanese. And I got to see my friends again. Success all around!
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