More of the Pacific

Monday 9pm

Wouldn't it have been great if my first view of the Pacific Ocean had been a twinkly azure blue-green sea, stretching to a distant horizon, glimpsed through primordial Norfolk Pines. It wasn't. It was a fertiliser factory seen in the dark through the rain. Let me explain. We arrived in New Zealand at Auckland in the middle of the night. After stopping the rest of that night in one of those souless instantly forgotten boxy motels with souless service and a souless breakfast, both of which I would like to forget, we picked up a hire car and headed for Havelock. What we thought would be a sixhour journey became eight then ten, and as we came down into Hawkes Bay it was long since dark and the rain had started. We were all tired and just wanted to arrive. Driving out of Napier towards Havelock, as I gazed sleepily out of the car window ( Nicola was driving ) I saw in the vague lighting . . . dusty factories, vandal decorated railway wagons, and chimneys. "Oh my God " I thought, "what have we done " The rest of the journey was coloured by this, all I could see in the dark were row upon row of houses and more factories. ( we were driving through orchards ! ) In the daylight, well yes the factory is still there but on the other side of the road is also the pacific, azure blue-green and yes, bordered by a row of Norfolk Pines. Sometimes we just do not see what is really there. Sometimes you need to look in a different way or different direction, the answer is there.

The Pacific Ocean, for me a symbol of everything we dream of but never expect to find. But you can you know.

Picture of fertiliser factory by Nicola ( hope she was not driving while taking this ! )