Ngô Tùng Huỳnh
On the occasion of the grand reunion and also to celebrate my daughter's graduation from her study, we undertook a trip back to NZ for roughly two weeks with the first week in South Island and the last week in North Island in order to attend some sessions of the ex- Kiwi reunion organized by anh Le Quang Long and others in Auckland,
We started the trip on a never-to-forget episode of frantically searching for my wife Tuyet's passport while queuing for the check in at Sydney airport. I was always under the impression that passport was not that absolutely necessary for the travelling between Kangarooland and Kiwiland, so passports were not very high up in my mind; such as which digital video camera to choose for our duty free purchase etc.. But the Qantas staff insisted that "no passport no go to Kiwiland", I have to think hard... Ah, who else but Doc Uu whom we were dinning with the night before (as guests at a Petrus Ky reunion) can come to our rescue? So, we called Doc Uu ... Within minutes, Doc Uu and chi Lan were at our side. Thank God for that, otherwise, I wouldn't know what to do since it was time to me and Kim to board an Air Canada Boeing 767 bound for ChCh.
When we arrived at ChCh, anh Le Ngoc Chi Minh and chi Dung were there to welcome us although it was quite late (11.40pm). On the next day, we were off to see ChCh and surrounding areas. Christchurch Cathedral square looks the same, except that there is now tramway running a few blocks around the square, mainly for tourists. The square is now mainly for pedestrians, not for cars as in the 1960's.. Since it was summer, trees along the famous Avon river were all green.. and it was lovely to just sit and watch those cute ducks swimming in the crystal clear water of the Avon. Kim took a lots of photos of the river and the ducks there. We also visited the old Canterbury Uni. site which is now part of the museum and art centre with various types of food stalls operating during the weekends at the back of the building.
On Monday, I visited my old Lincoln College which is now called Lincoln University with a wide range of business, environmental and social faculties besides Agriculture. Some of the old buildings still look the same but the inside was completely rebuilt. I met one of my classmates who is now a professor there; also met an old lecturer of my second year. Amazingly, he did not look any older than he was 34 years ago. He said it must be from his mother's gene! On the way back to ChCh, we visited Chch Botanic Garden. It has a very good collection of different types of roses. We were also able to contact Doc Uu who advised that Tuyet's new passport has come through. Thanks to Doc Uu and chi Lan for that.
After Tuyet's arrival, we started our coach trip to Queenstown via Mt. Cook on Tuesday 20/12/01, stopping at many famous tourist places such as Lake Tekapo, Lake Te Anau, Mt. Cook etc. We stayed for two days in Queenstown. The town is now very much a modem tourist town with good facilities such as a range of restaurants, shopping hours extended to 9pm every day. You would think that it’s dark by 9pm but surprisingly during summer time in NZ, it is not. The sun is still shining right past 8.30pm and it is still light at 9pm. Most souvenir shops in the town and indeed in most tourist places in NZ seem to be owned (?) and operated by Koreans or Japanese or Taiwanese while most souvenir items are made in China!
After 2 days, we moved to Franz Joseph Glaciers and for the first time, we saw glaciers although it was raining on that day. Rainfall in the west coast of NZ is always much higher than the east coast so it was not unusual to have wet weather during our time there. The next day we moved on to Greymouth through Hotitika on the west coast. Further wet weather was encountered during the day. Finally we boarded scenic train from Greymouth to ChCh via Aurthr's Pass which is said to be one of the highest rail station in NZ (737m asl). The scenery along the way is really breath-taking!
Back in ChCh, we invited Minh’s family out for dinner at a Thai Restaurant in Riccarton which we found very good and reasonably priced. (Note: Chch’s pop. is 300,000, about a few hundred Vietnamese residents, 3 Vietnamese restaurants but it has a Casino as well). On Saturday 22/12/0 1, we took the train from Chch to Picton, then connected. with a ferry to Wellington. Again the scenery was really nice especially the Kaikoura coast where whale watching is big business.
In Wellington, we were met by Lam Diep Minh who drove us to our hotel on Willis street in the CBD and only 5-10 minutes' walk to anh Tran Quang Duong's residence. We had a lovely dinner at Minh’ and Mai’s place which has a lovely view of Wellington hills and is not far from the Botanic Garden. The next day, Minh and Mai took us around to look at the city by day (and by night as well!). We visited the Wellington Botanic Garden, the place we had our historic group photo taken on the group’s first day out. The roses are as splendid as ever. We also visited part of the Te Papa Museum which is huge and surprisingly the entry is free.
The next day, anh Tran Quang Duong showed us around Victoria University of Wellington where he has been teaching English to newly arrived migrants for some time. The old uni.’s main entrance building looks same but there are many new buildings built at the back since the uni has grown substantially in the last 30 years. All the private houses along Kelburn Parade are now owned by the University.
We rode the cable down fil7orn Salamaca Rd to Lambton Quay and back again. The cable car, however, is completely enclosed with glass windows, not open as in the 60's, one way fare is now $1.50 not 20 shillings (?) as in 1965!
I am happy to report, especially to the lady members of the group, that the "4 Square" comer store on Salamanca Rd where we used to buy "Tip Top" ice cream on the way home after classes is still there. The "Tip Top" ice cream is still as good as ever. Both Tuyet and Kim got very quickly hooked on it in no time! We were also taken to Parliament House, Mt. Victoria look-out and also the old house at Hobson Street (Thomdon) where I used to stay during my time studying English in Wellington. This area is now a very "up market" residence area, mainly for diplomats since it is so close to the CBD and the Parliament etc.. My host family has moved somewhere else long time ago. (I heard that the couple have actually split up a few years back).
We spent Christmas evening with Duong and Nga's family with a full traditional turkey dinner and Christmas presents for each of us which was completely unexpected. Thank you so much for your hospitality, anh chi Duong & Nga. The next day, Christmas day 25/12/01, we drove north in a rental car with anh chi Duong, Hieu and Thuy An leading the way. The road was good and mostly free of traffic since most people stayed home for Xmas with family and friends. We arrived at Lake Taupo at around 13pm and had lunch there before we split up with anh chi Duong continued to Auckland we made our way to Rotorua.
We stayed with a Kiwi family who run a homestay business. The place was very nice and their hospitality was terrific. The husband was a keen a fisherman and he cooked for a us a lovely freshwater trout. We made a number of tours of all the area's tourist attractions such as the thermal pool, boiling mud and geysers and rainbow trout farm etc... The distinct sulphur smell of the place is something not everyone can forget easily!
After one and a half days at Rotorua, we drove north through Hamilton, a beautiful city with lovely parks and impressive flower gardens. We arrived at Auckland then continued on to Orewa which is about 40 minutes north of Auckland. It is a popular tourist region during summer for Aucklanders.. The site of the reunion was only a few minutes drive away. So, it was a convenient location. We attended the dinner on 27/12/01 with about 15 other families (more details at http://www.wtcnz.net/ReunioNZ/home.htm ), We thoroughly enjoyed the dinner/meeting and the many joyful, hilarious as well as very sad stories each participant took turn to convey to the group, especially the many stories "cuoi ra nuoc mat" during "cac chuyen di vuot bien" by boat, by road, "chui", "ban chinh thuc" as well as "chinh thuc". The star of the evening must be anh Duong who has many joyful as well as very moving stories to tell during his time with the Commie. In the conclusion and looking ahead into the future, anh Duong was quite uncertain whether he will live or die, and if he dies, he is uncertain whether he would go to heaven or hell. However, he concluded that "It doesn’t matter anyway since if I go to heaven, I will see some of you up there and if I go to hell, I will probably see some of you down there too… So, I will have company either way!…". This probably applies to our ’65 group as well!
Due to pre-arrangments, we were unable to attend another reunion farewell lunch on the next day, but continued with our trip north to a farmstay retreat, i.e. staying with a Kiwi family who have a small farm an tourist venture on the sideline. Again, we enjoyed their hospitality very much. Kim loved to feed those lovely lambs and sheep and also picking plenty of fruit from the garden.
We came back to Auckland the next day to catch up with a Kiwi friend of mine whom I kept in touch with for the last 30 years. We had a good reunion and dinner at his place. Kim also managed to get in touch with a hospital colleague she knew from Sydney and was able to go her separate way for a couple of days. We were taken to most of Auckland's favorite tourist haunts and enjoy the City of Sails (America Cup is still in Auckland) very much.
Finally, we were invited to 2002 New Year dinner by anh Tu & chi Lieu on 3 1/12/0 1. Since anh Tu is a keen fisherman, we were treated to a lovely dinner with "ca’ nu+o+’ng cuo^’n ba’nh tra’n" with fresh vegetables from the garden. We had a whale of good time, again a great deal of stories and jokes during our many attempts to escape and for some, during jail and/or re-education... Thank you so much anh chi Tu & Lieu and Vicky for a memorable evening. Let's hope we can meet again some time some where in the future.
On the New Year morning, we boarded a very early plane, leaving Auckland at 6.45arn and arriving back to Sydney at 8am then catching a connecting flight to Darwin at 7.25pm and arriving back to Darwin at 11.40pm.
Overall, we enjoyed the trip very much and would unreservedly recommend it to all ex-kiwis, especially those outside NZ, to make similar trip down under to another re-union. You will not regret taking it. The next is said to be in Sydney or Wellington in 2003 or so. We do hope to see you all again some time some where in the future.
Huynh, Tuyet and Kim Ngoc.
No comments:
Post a Comment