The Far Side of the World, Pt 6

Late November 1974: Tony Reavley's made it to New Zealand, and is living and working in Auckland cutting grass for the council. This letter picks up where he left off last time, describing life in his Antipodean paradise.

(It's an increasing pain in the arse to link to every previous letter sent by Tony when I do a new entry, so on the off chance that you've just stumbled across this series and want to start from the beginning, you can find all the links you need via the last blip.)

30-11-74

Auckland, New Zealand

As we have now stopped travelling, temporarily at least, there isn't so much news to relate. However, by the time I leave NZ you should get a pretty good idea of what the country is like. I'll start by giving you the run-down on food prices: the best buys are bread and milk which are both subsidised. Milk costs 2p a pint and bread 11p for a large loaf (one and a half lb)! Bread is superb and all the numerous milk-bars in and around the city sell superb wholemeal loaves of which there are at least six varieties. Half a pint of cream (also subsidised) costs only 11p, and petrol, which has gone up recently, is still only 38p average a gallon - far cheaper than UK where we hear it will cost 75p a gallon soon - bet Cyril's glad he got a Mini!

Did I mention ice-cream in my last letter? Lots of people eat it here and it's far cheaper than England. A half gallon block costs about 40p and gives us five good-size helpings each. Cornets cost 2p and are big. Double cornets, 4p, are bigger and trebles are gargantuan - a meal in themselves - and cost about 7p. We usually have a cooked meal each evening and then nip round to the nearby milk bar for a "treble" each. Baz is getting fat and has lost his Belsen Body but my 100 miles a week burns any surplus off and I can demolish enormous amounts without any discernible ill-effects!

The most important ingredient of the diet, naturally enough, is BEER! I am happy to report that it's good and cheap! Most beer is bought in bottles. They are called "quarts" but in actual fact they hold one and a quarter pints. From a wholesalers they cost 17p a bottle - which is about 13-14p a pint - and our fridge is amply stocked as we sample the many different varieties. The 9th November was a historic day for us as we went in our first NZ pub. Most pubs have 3 bars and the one we visited was fairly typical. As our clothes are all in tatters and new clothes cost a fortune it's just not on to buy any, and we encountered one or two problems on this, our one and only drink in a NZ pub. All pubs employ bouncers and one rotund but powerful-looking Maori decided he didn't like the look of my colourful USA flour-bag trousers purchased cheaply in Bali for the express purpose of working in once I reached NZ. Halfway upstairs en route to the "trendy" bar, our oriental friend decided that I'd be more at home in the downstairs bar along with my contemporaries: the artisans, yobbos, plebs and other general riff-raff, criminals and scum of New Zealand society. He regretfully, reluctantly and politely pointed out his sad duty as a bouncer, and being a trifle on the large side, I hastily agreed with his prompt assessment and was relegated to the dark, dingy depths below. Baz, in his dirty jeans, never even made the first stair!

Hence our visit to the wholesalers which is the cheapest way to buy beer - a pint in a pub would cost about 18-20p depending on which bar you went into. NZ beer is better than the Aussie variety and much cheaper, and although they have nothing like bitter or mild, they have draught beers which are similar to a British light ale. The bottled stuff is mostly like light ale, brown ale or lager, and is quite good. We sometimes have a few if there's a good TV programme on. However, TV is pretty poor. There's only one channel and it's like English TV used to be fifteen years ago - mainly dull, trite and unimaginative. They've been televising the All Blacks matches live at 3am. Needless to say, Baz and I prefer our z-z-z-z, but we've watched the telerecordings the same evening of the Ireland and Welsh matches and are looking forward to tomorrow night's recording of the Barbarians when we hope the All Blacks will get hammered. Rugby Union in general and the All Blacks in particular are like a religion here so we're hoping the Poms'll give 'em an 'ommering!

Tony


Editor's note: I've taken the liberty of looking up the address at which Tony was staying on Google, and have found that Wallace Street in Herne Bay still exists, though judging by Street View it seems to play host to a fairly modern-looking housing estate now and there's no sign of a block of flats called Wallace Court. Still, it gives a nice view of the bay just as Tony described in his last letter.

Oh, and the Barbarians drew 13-13 with the All Blacks in that day's match; not the 'ommering Tony was hoping for!