The Past I Once Tried to Forget #2

Uncharted Reminiscence#1
The Past I Once Tried To Forget #2

(Continued from #1)
My parents drove around the town centre in search for an information kiosk. We needed a map. The town was filled with mostly single and double stories buildings as of those country cowboy towns in the wild Wild West where buildings were made out of planks with rickety windows and doors, that was before an earthquake struck during the 1930’s. The town was rebuilt and in the present, it was given a revamp for the new millennium to acquire modern day expectations as a developed town for tourism. If it wasn’t for the wine yards and for the name- ‘Wine Country’, Napier wouldn’t even be on the map. Upon arriving at the information kiosk along Marine Parade, we disembarked from the car and requested a map from the counter. The old woman at the front desk kindly highlighted the route on a photocopied map. Before heading out in search of my home stay, the sound of the waves pounding on the stony beach dragged me closer to the sea. The stony beach stretched hundreds of kilometers to the south until there were rocky cliffs emerging along the horizon.

After taking a few photographs, it was time to leave and meet my host father and mother. I was excited to meet them for the first time. Somehow, from emails previously received by them, they seemed to be a nice loving couple, and I was hoping they were as welcoming as their words stood. A certain fear was there out of all the anxiety, a fear that was hiding underneath the velvet carpet. A fear that, when my parents leave me, I would be tormented by my host and bounded down with short 3 minute showers and no snacks after 10pm, which were some home stay stories I heard before I left for New Zealand.

After driving up one or two wrong driveways, we arrived at my new environment, where one day I would call it home. But I questioned myself, why had I chosen New Zealand instead of Australia? I gave a short sigh and started unloading the luggage. I pictured a single storey detached house with modern reflective plane glass windows and a drive way leading to a garage. My expectations were far from reality, I was dreaming. It was an old single storey corner house, with white waist-high fencing, faded green rooftop, a small plot of lawn in front of the house with a cemented foot path from the gate leading to the door of the house. To the front right corner of the lawn a small storage shed made redundant, and a tree in the middle of the lawn just enough to cover the lawn with shade. And the ‘garage’ was behind the house with no drive way. Basically, you would have to drive across the sidewalk into the ‘garage’.

Picture of Napier City. Looks big doesn't it? Red arrow is where I used to live. To walk from my house to the beach only takes around 5 minutes (blue line). To walk from my house along the blue line and then to the very end of the purple line. It takes approx. 15 minutes. The green line, you can work it out.

After unloading the luggage in my bedroom, I stood and glanced around my new room. At that point, I felt real confused and lost. The feeling was like a thousand stones being tossed at a blind man. Wondering which direction the stones are coming from. I sat on the bed and sunk my head into my palms, shook my head and wiped my tears off with my hands. My mom came in and gave me a hug that made me feel better. She kept on saying everything was going to be alright… or as so we all thought. After unpacking some clothes and my computer, checking if everything was working well, no errors and loose chipsets, I decided to join my parents and my host mother for a conversation. We talked, we laugh and getting to know each other better. After 10-15 minutes of ‘getting to know’ my host mother, I decided to go back to my room and started playing with my computer. I was bored.

Webcam shot of the right corner of my room.

Left corner of my bedroom. This picture was taken the day before I left New Zealand for good.

Opposite corner of the room. Seriously, the place where I spent my most of my time in New Zealand - In my bedroom with my computer. You will know why in the later posts...

View of outside from my bedroom door. Go straight and you'll end up in the dinning room. Right the toilet and left the corridor.

The bathroom.

Minutes later, my host father came back from work. My parents called, I went out and greeted my host father for the first time. I was surprised at his height. Normally, you would expect them to be taller than you. But instead, we were almost the same height. My parents, host father and I headed to the living room and started talking, while my host mother headed for the kitchen and started to prepare dinner. My host father was telling us what he does for a living, what is their favorite pass time, etc. He told me that they usually play Dominos on Sunday afternoons, either at their house or their friend’s house. I immediately said ‘boring’. That was something I wished to take back if I could; Dominos is an arse-kicking game like Big Two, AKA Dai Dee- very addictive indeed. Synopsis of who my host parents are. My host father is a Kiwi. He works as a mechanical engineer at this firm where they repair ships. He was married once and had two children. Later divorced and his children and his ex-wife are living in a town about 200km away. He later found my host mother from Russia. He married her and now my host mother is a house wife. Simple enough?

Dinner was served with a Russian touch to every dish. We talked more and complimented how well the dinner was. Which was true, my host mother is good in cooking Russian food. Well, I miss her cooking. Enough said. After cleaning up the plates and more talk after dinner, my host parents decided to go to bed. Which was around 930pm. Yes, they sleep early. All Kiwis sleep early, is just their usual bedtime. My dad decided to watch TV and read the local newspapers, while my mom and I went to take a shower and called it a day.

I’m not going to go into detail what happened every single day. So here are some interesting excursions that my host parents took us before my school started. I just couldn’t care less to post it up in detail. But I will just give you a vague description.

White Pine Bush
My host parents decided to take us there for a trek in the White Pine Bush Forest Reserve some where in the mountains after having the knowledge that I like nature and that was the main reason why I decided to go to New Zealand. They decided that we would trek all the way from the head of the trail to the end. After snapping some pictures at a waterfall somewhere in between the trail, my host dad decided to head back to the car and drive it up to the end of the trail where he would meet us and we would have our lunch. We agreed and so we headed off in different directions, 4 of us started to make our way to the end of the trail. Half way through, the trail seemed to be delusive as it was covered with grass and it seemed to be, we were heading the wrong way. My host mother decided to head back, while instincts told me to go on. We fell in scruple, but because I was younger and I had to respect my host mother, I gave in to her idea. And so we headed all the way back to the car park in hope my host father would know what was going on. Mobile phones in a secluded spot on the mountains don’t work mind you. Behind my head, I kept thinking if we just continued walking along the trail, we would have ended our bloody trek and started eating lunch. But instead, we were sitting at the car park starving which was back to where we started our trek. After 1 hour or so of waiting there, I couldn’t stand it; I decided to walk up the hilly road which would eventually meet at the end of the trail where my host father was waiting with our lunch. Despite the disapproval from my host mother and parents, I just took off walking alone up the hilly road. After a few great lengths away from the car park, my father called out to me and decided to follow me for certain safety reasons. As we were just another 10-20 meters away from our destination, my host father drove passed us and so we flagged him down. Driving down the hill only did I realize how far we actually walked, we drove by the car park and picked my mom and host mom up and headed back home.

The trail...

The waterfall.

Signboard along the trail.

Sight Seeing Excursion around Napier and Hastings
Blah blah blah. Yadah Yadah Yadah. My host family brought us sight seeing, to a strawberry farm and a honey farm around Napier and Hastings.

Thats the end of #2.

Sorry for the long delay.. I was busy on school work and I managed to sneak up some time writing up the 2nd post. Hopefully in two to three weeks time, I will be able to post the next 'series'.. thanks for reading... =).

The Past I Once Tried to Forget #3 is coming up!... is more about the day I saw my parents driving beside me and waved my last good bye as I was cycling to school on my first day, the day I start my journey into my new life, the day I felt lonely in school.
The days where I unfold reality into my own eyes and experienced it.. and how things start to turn sour....