Our connection was Proos (almost sounds like bruce when the sweeds say it and roll the r's) He was an old friend of Hanky's and had lived down in this area playing rugby years ago. Apparently he had made friends with Steve and Kylee McNab and work for their river rafting outfit. When we met in the park, in fact... they were just coming from the river and were still in the company van. Turns out they had taken the kids out for some fun as the day had turned out to treacherous for tours....the amount of rain + flooding = volumes or flows that are out of control and dangerous for any tours to operate. So instead they took their kids to do some other fun stuff on a RARE day off.
Proos and his son were also down in NZ for the World Cup and to catch up with old friends....so it was a welcomed homecoming of sorts and we were excited to be off to something different than a soggy camper site left to cook our meager rations thrown together meals from the store.
Not too much after arriving at Steve and Kylee's house, you could tell these two lived a face pace life of raising kids and running a very busy and successful company. The phone rang off the hook with appointment bookings and other guides calling in to check schedules and loads for the coming days. So at first it was a bit hard to engage in conversation.... so I played with the kids and tossed a rugby ball around. As it turned out... Steve's son was a world champion already... at motorcycle racing... and he was only 7 !!!!
Yes, the kiwis seem to get their young ones going at an early age no matter what the sport. "Ripper" Rugby, which is flag rugby for the kids starts at about 4 or 5 !!! So, guess it shouldn't be any surprise that you have a world champion as a 7 year old! Anyway, some time went by and things settled down as Steve prepared dinner for us all. Fresh Muscles and Pasta.... again, yes New Zealand is a good place!
It wasn't too much later that Kylee was able to hop in the conversation and soon we were all sharing our stories of travels, where we were from and what we thought of their beautiful country. It really was nice, and almost seemed like Thanksgiving or Christmas back home when all the family members caught up. Just another allure of NZ is its wonderful people....as they welcome you in their homes, or give you willing advice on the road...whatever the case, they all seem to genuinely care about your welfare and more importantly your experience in their country.... really a cool thing.
One could tell Steve and Kylee were passionate people, whether it was their successful business
http://www.raftabout.co.nz/about-us
Or all the places they had traveled around the world...not only separately when they were single...but not together as a family. Kylee was a university scholar athlete in softball and was able to play some professionally abroad, and Steve wasn't much different with his naturalistic routes and stout frame....no wonder they had a man child of a world champion motorcycle son! Anyway, they both had lots of wonderful explanations to our questions since they had a really good hold of not only New Zealand's history and feeling of its own people but how it felt or pertained to world views that they saw when they had traveled.
Not coincidentally, there had recently (within a few days) been a tragedy of epic proportions to a small naturally beautiful country like New Zealand where an oil tanker had run aground and was hung up on a jagged reef near the Bay of Plenty while its contents bled out into the sea. This type of accident which has almost become all too common among American's was particularly disturbing to the Kiwi's on several different levels. We learned from Steve and Kylee that these types of shipments / contents were thought by the Kiwi public to not have been approved for passage….especially in the really pristine part of the eastern coastline of the north island where navigation if very tricky and difficult for any boat or ship. In fact just last week Hanky, Roffe and I had passed through this very same region just south of the Coramandel coast coming only a few dozen meters from the beach at Mount Maunganui and the other beaches near the Port of Tauranga.... See the Cathedral Cove pictures and the Cape of Rodney listed in the prior post during our first week in the van.
Suddenly the pictures I had so proudly taken just a week prior seem to speak volumes to the effects that would soon be handed down.
It’s one thing to build or make a fence like this, but it really does speak volumes about how the Kiwi's truly feel about their surroundings.
So when the news broke of a tanker carrying heavy oil in this area had wrecked....EVERYONE was devastated...but now to hear some things that you don't get on the News or the TV broadcasts was all the more disturbing. It seems, by Steve's explanation that national government had even tricked or superseded the local governments in that area by giving them a false sense of protection. Instead, passage rights and fees had been paid for this difficult route to be navigated by exporters of other countries...this particular ship originating from Greece. This news only made the Kiwi public that much more enraged. On top of the misleading the public, was the slow response to fix or even try to stop the flow of oil encroaching the natural habitats of so many beaches. In quick order to that problem...there were hoards of people flocking to local beaches to clean up the clumps of oil themselves...throwing welfare and the health of themselves to the wind. Even Steve mentioned he was thinking of grabbing the kids to go and help clean up since they were only a short drive from the popular local vacation/destination beaches soon to be affected. I quickly told him of the health dangers that were involved with this type of thinking and that it’s bad enough for adults, but even worse on the still developing systems of young children. He had no thought or idea that oil clumps and their off gases could cause major health concerns...his only care initially was to the immediate impact of wildlife and natural scenery. That same mantra played out all over the TV as you saw locals go out and clean up the beaches without so much as gloves! Just boots, shovels and buckets.
Really Amazing Stuff.
All in all, it had felt in the short time we had known these people that we all were on the same page and really glad to have crossed paths. Plus, we were excited about our plans to head to Queenstown and the south island....and they had all kinds of good info on what to do. These suggestions took up most of remaining stay as we looked online at maps and adventures. Steve had helped us prioritize what we wanted to do and get the most out of our 4 days down in the south island....obviously we were thankful, and wanted to stay and drink late into the night....but just like every day of the week, the next was a work day for Steve and Kylee so we wanted to respect that and get out of their hair. Meanwhile we hoped to see them again and would gladly give up any help, boarding, or anything else should they ever make it over to our countries to visit....after all they had provided us with what seems to be a country wide proud, and constant sense of welcome hospitality.
As they say "Good on ya"...We traded our thanks gave our regards and were on our way back to the campgrounds.
