18 Your letters
KEEP IN TOUCH. EVERY PUBLISHED LETTER WINS A PRIZE
What a dangerous, dangerous magazine you put out. I’m here in Wellington on a cold, rainy day reading NZ Life & Leisure during my lunch break in a loud crowded café, trying to escape from my desk for a little bit and – bloody hell – I want to chuck it all in. Give up the rat race to make goat’s cheese. Move out to the countryside to grow lavender (I can’t even stand its scent but that’s how appealing your magazine makes it look). Start my own rural enterprise. Or maybe that’s too much work and I should just run away to Rarotonga. I’m sorry credit card, but NZ Life & Leisure is making me do it. Thanks for letting me dream. Joanna McLeod, Thorndon We’ve had the best holiday ever touring the North Island. Oke Bay was one of our favourite spots – we loved every aspect of it. The scenery was unbelievable, the water was fantastic and we soaked it all in. We stayed in Russell, taking in the Karikari Peninsula, Matauri Bay, beautiful Wainui Bay, and also managing to tick Whangarei and Haruru Falls off the list. The Bay of Islands really was epic and we were sad to leave it so soon. Next stop the Coromandel. Based in Tairua we toured the whole peninsular fi tting in Driving Creek Railway, Rapaura Watergardens, Kennedy Bay (remote but we had it completely to ourselves), Hahei, Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach (which was chaos). Then we got to Hobbiton, which was amazing as I am a big LOTR fan, before arriving at our lake house on Lake Tarawera. Here we spent two lovely days kayaking around, also enjoying the interesting sights and smells of Rotorua. There was a history lesson for us all at Te Wairoa, finding out about the pink and white terraces and the devastating eruption. Then we were off to our ski lodge at Raetihi, enjoying Huka Falls and Taupo on the way. I still can’t get over the colour of the water, unlike anything I have ever seen. We had a very interesting time here in the shadow of Ruapehu. We were involved in the unveiling of my grandmother’s headstone and met a lot of my adopted Maori relations. My uncle married into a Maori family but his wife has unfortunately passed away. However the family has continued to love and support him in the most amazing way. We were welcomed in and taken to a sacred lake called Rotokura,
which is an incredibly spiritual place – almost perfectly round, tree- lined right to the shore with the mountain overhead. We felt so lucky to be able to participate in such an awesome, inspiring occasion. Next we stayed in Palmerston with my uncle – not the most glamorous of places but a good base to get down to Wellington, which has to be one of the nicest capitals we have been to and about as different from London as you can get. Took the Weta Studios tour and spent quality time with cousins. Next stop Taranaki. We stayed in Opunake and enjoyed an amazing day at the mountain seeing Dawson Falls and picnicking at Wilkies Pools before a quick dash to Egmont lighthouse with enough time to enjoy the turbulent surf along the coast before making our way up through New Plymouth to the Elephant Rock at Tongaporutu. Our final stop was very rural at Kiritehere – a good location for discovering fossils and also enjoying Marokopa Falls, Mangapohue Natural Bridge and finally the spine-tingling beauty of all three caves at Waitomo. Here we came to the end of the most wonderful three weeks of our lives. We have completely fallen in love with New Zealand and are really considering trying to come out and live there. There are lots of things to factor in – like work and children – but it really does feel like somewhere we are meant to be. The Richbell family, London
Your article Dub devotion (March/April) brought back memories of 30 years ago. I was a student and one of my friends