OPINION Great views, birdsong and a pretty darn tasty mac & cheese to boot
Wendyl Nissen analyses the things that make Hokianga great — even if it takes a bit of a drive to get there and friends and family are far way
"When I wake up every morning I look out at the Hokianga Harbour, listen to birdsong and am very grateful for it all."
‘Why on earth did we decide to live so remotely?” I asked myself this question on Saturday evening as I was halfway through a 4-hour bus trip from Auckland to Kerikeri.
At the end of that bus trip would be an hour’s drive home to Hokianga.
As everyone knows up here, flights are often cancelled and so, kindly, Air NZ puts on a bus.
With me on the bus was our daughter, her partner and our granddaughter, who were coming for the weekend.
“Is this the bus to Kerikeri?” I asked nervously before we hopped on at the airport in Auckland.
“No Invercargill,” said the driver.
How he had such a great sense of humour on a rainy, cold Auckland afternoon when he had managed to get to us, the stranded passengers, in under 30 minutes since our flight was cancelled I have no idea.
He was also missing the Super Rugby game, as were many on our bus.
I had been in Wellington in the morning and planned to meet the kids in Auckland, fly up north, pick up my car at the airport then drive us all home.
Ambitious planning, considering it’s the middle of winter, and not something I would do again.
But as we travelled north there were highlights. We got to drive on a bit of the new motorway around Puhoi — 30 seconds of excitement on something we’ve been watching take shape for eight years. My granddaughter and I got to play with her hairdressing app, giving purple dye jobs and mullets to unsuspecting avatars on her phone. We all witnessed the most beautiful sunset I had seen for a while with one guy on the bus getting quite emotional.
And I figured that it's the time you spend with loved ones that counts, whether that is on a bus or at home in front of a warm fire eating Grandpa’s famous macaroni cheese.
But I did have to wonder why. Why make the decision to live so far away from our five kids who live in Auckland, Wellington and Sydney?
Why spend 4-plus hours on the road simply to visit them or pop down for celebrations?
Why require them to drive the same amount of time to visit us?
I don’t know the answer, except that when I wake up every morning I look out at the Hokianga Harbour, listen to birdsong and am very grateful for it all.
I have yet to meet one person who doesn’t drive over the hill at the entrance to the Hokianga Harbour and not exclaim at the beauty they are seeing.
I still do it and I’ve been living here for ages.
When we arrived at Kerikeri airport I thanked the driver as he opened the luggage storage. “Thanks, Mr Invercargill,” I said.
“Get out of here!” he laughed immediately.
“Does he have to drive all the way back to Auckland?” my granddaughter asked, deeply concerned.
“I hope not,” I answered. “He deserves a beer, a good meal and a replay of the Super Rugby.” And then I knew why we lived where we lived. Because it’s all about quality not quantity. I knew we would have a wonderful weekend together and we would have a lasting memory of that bus trip and, finally, Grandpa’s famous macaroni cheese, which we scoffed at 8.30pm.