Just This Once (11 page)

He saw he had upset her, reached for her hand. “I want you
to stay with me. I’ll even promise to take you to Rotorua before the end of
your holiday. But I’d like you to spend the rest of your time with me.”

She hadn’t realized how much her imminent departure had been
weighing on her. She had desperately wanted to extend her stay. But how
embarrassing it would have been to hang around here, and know he was wishing
her gone. Or to have him leave to get away from her. She flushed, imagining it,
then smiled at him in relief.

“I’d love to stay longer. But you have to promise me you’ll
go fishing, and do the other things you came here for. I’m not going to get in
the way. I have my own things to do too,” she insisted. “Reading, and swimming—
safe
swimming. What if I want to look at art galleries? You aren’t going to want
to do that. I’ll keep my motel, too. That way, if we need a break, or you have
something to do, I can stay there.”

“What sorts of things am I supposed to have to do?” he
asked, frowning at her. “Bring somebody else back here, do you mean? Have wild
parties with strippers? Nah. If you’re staying with me, I want you with me. We
only have, what? A fortnight?”

“Twelve days,” she admitted unhappily.

“Right, then. Twelve days. Let’s spend them together. This
is good, Hannah. Let’s enjoy it.”

He was as good as his word. Over the next days they explored
the entire Coromandel, hiking, kayaking, and snorkeling. At Hannah’s
insistence, Drew spent time fishing as well. They bought groceries in the tiny
shop to supplement the fish he brought home, and picked up produce at the farm stands
dotted around the countryside.

The first time he pulled off the road to stop where a wooden
box was nailed to poles at the side of the road, she was confused.

“What’s this?” she asked as he came around to open her door.

“Thought you’d like some tangerines. Lemons too, for the
fish.”

“But there’s nobody here,” she pointed out as they walked
toward the little stand.

He laughed. “There’s a box, see?”

She looked inside. Sure enough, bags of tangerines, lemons,
and avocadoes were piled inside the roughly made stand, with cardboard signs
indicating prices. A small metal cash box, chained to the post, awaited their dollar
coins.

“Don’t people just take things?” she asked. “Or jimmy the
box open?”

“Never heard of that. Just a few coins, isn’t it.” He
deposited them as he spoke, and handed her a tangerine from the bag. “Try one.”

“This would never work, anyplace else,” she told him,
popping one of the sweet sections into her mouth.

“That’s why I live here,” he agreed. “Because it does work.”

“Want to drive down to Rotorua today?” he asked her a few
days later. “I borrowed a bach from a mate. We can do a bit more traveling too,
after that.”

“Yes!” she exclaimed. “That sounds great. But, Drew, why do
you call it a bach, anyway? It’s a vacation house, right?”

“Bach—a bachelor’s house. Made out of anything they could
cobble together, in the old days. Bits of tin, old doors. Every Kiwi wants a
bach, where they can get out of the city. Mostly on the beach, but also places
like Rotorua and Taupo, where there are lakes. For fishing,” he amplified.

“How did I guess? Not so much made of tin and old doors now,
though, I notice.”

“We try to do a bit better these days,” he admitted.

 “What do I do about my car, though? We won’t be coming back
here, right?”

“No worries. I’ve already arranged for it to be collected.
I’ll drop you back at the airport for your flight.”

“You sure make everything easy for me.”

“That’s the idea, eh.”

Hannah smelled Rotorua before she saw it, the stench of
sulphur coming strongly through the closed truck windows. “Phew.” She covered
her nose. “How do people live here?”

“You get used to it,” Drew assured her. “Wait till tomorrow.
You’ll be surprised. You’ll barely notice it.”

As they drove through town, the ground literally seemed to
be steaming.

“Where’s it all coming from?” she marveled.

“The whole place is built over a geothermal area. Vents all
over the shop in Rotorua. Back gardens,” he pointed out. “Golf courses. You
have to be careful where you build, here.”

When he suggested that he take her to the museum, though,
she protested. “You don’t want to do that, though. There can’t be anything here
that’s new to you. Why don’t you go fishing or something, and let me tour the
museum by myself?”

“Because the point of this trip is for me to show you New
Zealand,” he said as patiently as he could. “Which I can’t very well do if I’m
out on the water, and you’re here by yourself.”

She was enthralled by the exhibits of Maori artifacts and
history in the excellent museum, converted from a Victorian-era bath house and
spa. She found herself moved and saddened by the film about the famous Maori
Battalion, the most decorated Allied unit in World War II, and with some of the
heaviest losses.

“It’s so sad,” she told Drew, when they were looking at the
war memorial outside the museum. “Some of these families lost two or three
sons. You can tell by the names.”

“It is. It’s a warrior culture, though. Nobody fiercer than
the Maori. I’ll show you more tonight, when I take you to the Maori concert.
You’ll see why they make such good rugby players. It’s more than just their
size and strength. Bit of a challenge for Pakeha like me to match them.”

That evening, he parked in a lot surrounded by paths in the
native bush, with a building in the distance. He spoke briefly into a cell
phone, then waited until they were met by a smiling man who shook hands and touched
his forehead and nose to Drew’s in the traditional greeting, then led them
around the side of a building to an outdoor stage, where Hannah could see a
group of people filing in.

“Are we late?” she asked Drew softly as they approached the
group.

“Nah, just skipping a bit of the preliminaries,” he told her
as they were seated in the front row in the dark.

The man bent down and spoke to Drew again, shrugging when
Drew shook his head. Finally, he shook Drew’s hand again and smiled at Hannah. “Enjoy
the show,” he told her. “We’ll make it special, eh.”

Hannah looked at Drew, still confused, then turned back to
the stage as the show began. She forgot about the encounter as the talented
performers enacted the traditional greeting ceremony, from the opening karanga
of welcome
,
to the fierce challenge by a young warrior, finally
ending in a speech from the village’s chief. A demonstration of weapons
practice with clubs, sticks, and spears had her marveling at the group’s skills
and prowess, while the powerful harmonies and haunting melodies of the songs performed
by both men and women moved her almost to tears.

“The songs are so beautiful,” she whispered to Drew during
the applause.

“Thought you’d enjoy it. Wait till this last bit, though.”

The village’s chief was talking about the haka, and Hannah
remembered Drew telling her about the chant. She was unprepared for the
ferocity and power of the demonstration. Although she knew it was a
performance, and they did this every night, she found herself shrinking back
into her seat from the shouting, stamping, gesticulating warriors. For some
reason, they seemed to be directing their entire performance toward herself and
Drew, and she found herself wishing that they weren’t quite so close.

The show ended, and the audience headed back toward the
tent, where, Drew explained, they would have dinner. Drew stood as the group of
performers hopped down from the stage and came towards him. Hannah stood up too,
uncertain and confused.

One by one, the men and women greeted them. Hannah was charmed
to find herself receiving both handshake and the gentle face-touching hongi in
welcome.

“Awesome show,” Drew congratulated them. “Cheers for that.”

“Shame we couldn’t get you on to do the
Ka Mate
with
us, though,” a young man named Rodney, who seemed to be the spokesperson for
the group, said regretfully. “Teddy said he asked you.”

“I wanted to see your haka
.
Wanted Hannah to see it
too. Bloody fierce. I’m going to remember that.”

Drew turned to Hannah to explain. “Every tribe has their own
traditional haka. They’re not all the same. And this is a good one, eh.”

“It is,” Hannah told the group with genuine admiration. “I
have to admit, you scared me.”

Rodney laughed. “Then you haven’t seen Drew here in action. He’s
a warrior. Puts the fear of God into the other team, I reckon.” The rest of the
group smiled and agreed.

“We’ll be off, let you have your tea,” Drew said, shaking
hands once more all around. “Thanks again.”

“Cheers, mate,” Rodney acknowledged.

“What was all that about?” Hannah wondered after they were
escorted back through the darkened path to the truck, by a young woman this
time. “Why didn’t we go to the whole thing?”

“Because that’s the best part. Except the hangi
—
the
meal they roast in the pit. Every footballer loves a good hangi
.
But this
way I can take you home while you’re still stirred up from all that,” he
grinned.

“Nice to be able to arrange it that way, then,” she
commented dryly.

“I don’t usually do things like that,” he agreed. “But they
didn’t mind.”

“No, that was pretty obvious. I’m not sure I understood all
that about the haka, though. They wanted you to do a different one with them?”

“Yeh,” he shrugged. “The one we do before test matches. But
this is their show. It wasn’t about me.”

“I can see what you mean by the ferocity, though,” she mused
as he drove them back to the luxurious lakeside home he had borrowed for their
stay. “If they play rugby like that, I mean.”

He smiled. “Yeh. They play just like that.”

“Ready to see Mount Doom?” Drew asked the next day. “We can
walk through a geothermal area on the way. Think you’d like that. And then go
on to Lake Taupo.”

“Mount Doom? I know what you mean.
The Lord of the Rings,
right? Does the area look like that, around Lake Taupo?”

“It really
is
that. One of the locations for the films.
There’s a track, the Tongariro Crossing, outside Taupo, through a volcanic
field. That area was Mordor. Mt. Ngauruhoe—one of our most famous volcanoes—that
was Mount Doom. Bet you’ll recognize it when you see it. Course, the Maori
thought it was something special long before that. It all makes a long tramp,
but a pretty good one. What do you think?”

“I’d like that,” she agreed instantly.

 She wasn’t so sure as she shivered in the predawn cold two
mornings later, standing outside another beautiful bach overlooking the immense
lake.

“It’s awfully early,” she complained. “It’ll still be dark,
won’t it?”

“It’ll take a bit to drive there,” he explained. “And we’ll
want to start at first light. This is the most popular track in New Zealand. Hundreds
of people a day do it in the summer. We want to get out ahead of them.”

“Because you don’t like to be in a crowd,” she guessed.

He laughed. “Too right. The only time Kiwis have to queue is
at Christmas, in the post office. And we complain about that.”

“The advantage of living in a country where the sheep and
cows outnumber the people,” he said complacently as he settled her into the
truck to begin the drive.

Once they started up the track in the early dawn, with just
a few other intrepid souls making an early start, Hannah was glad he’d pushed
her.

“It’s so beautiful,” she said wonderingly, looking at the
creek beside the well-formed track, heather-covered ground rolling away and up
toward the huge, threatening mountain looming above them. “It reminds me of
pictures I’ve seen of the Scottish Highlands. I thought you said this was
Mordor.”

“Just wait,” he promised. “You still have almost 20K to go,
remember. It’ll change, no worries.”

As they climbed steadily for the next two hours, she began
to see what he meant. The landscape became starker, the plant life finally
reduced to a few hardy grasses. More mountains were revealed, among them the
iconic volcano, its reddish crater clearly showing.

“Mt. Ngauruhoe,” Drew explained. “Looks threatening, doesn’t
it?”

“It does. It’s not going to erupt, is it?” she asked
nervously.

“Could happen. The last eruption in this area was just
months ago. But before it does, you’ll see more smoke and steam. No worries
today. She’ll be right.”

Hannah had thought she was in good shape, but she found the
long uphill climb a challenge.

“It’s annoying,” she told Drew as they pushed through an
especially steep section, on their way to the track’s summit amidst the
craters.

“What is?” he asked, turning to give her his hand.

“Your basic lack of condition,” she grumbled. “Couldn’t you
at least pretend to be breathing heavily?”

He smiled. “How hard is your job, most days?”

“Not that hard, now that I know what I’m doing. Why?”

“This is conditioning. Part of my job. Reckon you’re doing
better at this than I would at those sales projections. I’ve never been with a
woman who’d do this with me.”

“Really?” She was pleased.

“Really,” he assured her. “But I have a surprise for you at
the end. Make it all worthwhile.”

Two hours later, they came out the other end at last. Hannah
was weary and footsore, but Drew seemed, to her irritation, as if he could have
turned around and run the whole thing again. They were met by a young man who
shuttled them back to their starting point.

“How do you arrange these things?” she wondered as Drew
opened the door to his truck for her again.