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Oct 21
Sat

In Houhora Heaven

Since 9.00 o' clock in the morning the good fairy of the camping ground tries to get someone responsible from Britz on the phone. We want them to give us a new car as soon as possible and it should be a better model than we have now as a compensation for all the trouble we've been having. After hanging in the wait loop she finally gets the promise to be recalled at 9.45, what is not happening until 10.30. This circumstance makes her waiting for the call in the office all the time. She's dropping her work and joking around with me. Eventually we give up, somehow they'll reach us or we try again later. I ask her how to make good but she wants none of that. She refuses money for the phone calls and she even doesn't want to take a bottle of wine for her patience and helpfulness: «Who knows what it's good for, maybe someday I'll see a mermaid.»

Northland – Houhora Heads Campsite Houhora Heads · more Northland pictures more pictures

We'd like to eat fresh fish, but shops who sell some are hard to find. Kiwi catch their fish on their own. Because we stuck here, I ask a fisherman who is our neighbour on this site, if I can buy some fish from his catch of the day. No, he won't sell the fish, Pete wants to offer it to me. We have a talk. The cabin is continiously his, he's from Auckland and always glad not to be there but here for fishing. In 1964 he had a job in Hamburg. He already knows the story of our car and we agree it's a bloody nuisance.

Meanwhile the good lady has achieved a great deal: Today someone will arrive around 8.00 pm to bring a new campervan. It's already noon and the drive from Auckland is supposed to take 6 hours.

Lazily we're hanging around on the campground the whole day long. Pete offers us a giant fish, a kahawai. It's even already filleted. He tells me to roll it in flour before frying, gives me flour as well and tells me I can use his pans and gas stove and that I'm welcome to watch tv in his cabin if I like to. The tip with the flour is great and the fish really delicious. It's so crispy and so much! The campground is that huge you can take a walk there. In the evening we stroll around in the beautiful garden of the Subritzki Homestead (1862) where dinky parrots are flying around between giant old palm trees. The whole day we've been attented by a wonderful bird chorus.

Later in the evening the good fairy rushes past on her lawn mower to tell us that there was another incoming call: Britz didn't manage it today, but tomorrow at about 7.00 am the vehicle should be replaced with a better one. She's sharing our joy about the better car. We thank her again, touched by the friendliness we've experiencing here. We pack our things and go to bed early, curious about the new car.

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