MY PERFECT SUMMER
Wellington Deputy Mayor Justin Lester shares his holiday plans.
My perfect holiday is . . . Camping somewhere in New Zealand, preferably by the water, and ideally in glorious sunshine. A backyard cricket pitch close by is always an added bonus. But in reality I’ll be . . . Camping at Lake Tikitapu near Rotorua, hoping for glorious sunshine, but preparing for anything else that may be thrown our way. It’s our first time taking the family camping for an extended period and with a 4-year-old and 2-year-old things could get a little interesting. Lake Tikitapu is spectacular and surrounded by dense forest. It’s largely a sandbased lake and not too deep, so the water is nice and warm too. My best summer ever was . . . The millennium summer. I bought a Bedford van together with a group of university friends and spent the summer touring New Zealand’s best beaches between Bluff and Northland. We had surfboards on the roof rack and lounge chairs and a mirror ball in the back. The millennium New Year’s Eve was quite a big deal in itself . We ventured to The Gathering music festival near Takaka and eventually made our way to Auckland in time for the Big Day Out, where the Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chemical Brothers, Blink 182 and Shihad played to 55,000 on a cracking summer’s day. The van broke down just short of Whangarei, but, unperturbed, we split up and hitched our way through the remainder of the country on the return leg. We met some colourful locals in far-flung locations and it made me realise how lucky we are to live in this beautiful and diverse country. The best thing about 2014 was . . . Teaching my daughter to ride a bike and watching her grin from ear to ear when she took off by herself. Nothing can quite replicate the sense of pride you feel when your children achieve something by themselves for the first time. The worst thing was . . . . Being the person my daughter subsequently held responsible when she crashed. Fortunately, I’ve learned to take the bad with the good. In 2015, I’m most looking forward to . . . New Zealand hosting and