I know that it has been several days since my last post and the only excuse that I can come up with is that the chamber choir has been so engrossed with performing for the residents of Whitianga (pronounced “Fit-tea-anga”), being welcomed into their homes and lives, and walking around for the last three days with our jaws dragging on the beaches.
For as flowery a writer as I am, it is tremendously difficult to explain how strikingly and mesmerizingly beautiful this portion of New Zealand is. Our host families have been utterly welcoming and accommodating of us and our presence in their homes.
For Ben and me, we had the pleasure of staying with our host-father Mike – an engineer with a home that faces one of the areas beautiful and numerous beaches. The view from my room on the second floor looked onto the beach into the bay. It’s pretty fantastic, folks.
Our first true chamber choir concert on May 20th was a massive success, where we performed twenty-three pieces of our repertoire with two of the songs performed with the Mercury Bay Community Choir – “Hine e Hine” and “Holy Spirit, Don’t You Leave Me.” A successful performance to say the least!
The next day was wrought with Hot Water beaching, cafés, boat rides around the local and stunning coastline – particularly to Cathedral Cove and to the beach where the arrival to Narnia in the second movie was filmed.
This was followed up with another beach visit to further encourage me to move to New Zealand where I am going to live on a boat in the bays: this is going to happen. Oh! And have I mentioned the food and fellowship that these loving folks offered us! Green lipped mussels, pavlova, and New Zealand wines to name some of the bounty! All capped off with singing, life lessons, and astronomy lessons about our brand new celestial views of the southern stars.
Our last day consisted of a visit to the local area school where we hosted a residency for the students of Mercury Bay and collaborated with them to increase musicality and the transfer of shared musical experience between cultures and ages.
Followed by a day trip hike to Shakespeare Point and the surrounding area. Megan, Ben, Dan, Troy, and I were fortunate enough to be invited around to explore Whitianga from the air in a two-seat plane, built by Mercury Bay Area high school students, and a gyrocopter: the only one in the area and one of seventy in all of New Zealand.
A perfect three days in paradise; unrivaled by anything I have yet seen or experienced in this realm. I have not stopped smiling since landing in Aoteoroa (Land of the Long White Cloud: New Zealand).