"Well, here it is!"
Naomi's voice broke the conversational drought that had resumed as soon as they got under way again. About fifteen minutes earlier, she had turned onto a narrow twisty road. They turned a corner while going over a slight rise and suddenly, there below, was the sea. The bay was not very big, maybe a kilometre from point to point, fringed with golden sand, and with a few weatherboard, mainly single story houses with corrugated iron roofs scattered amongst the grass just back from the strand. A small marae stood nestled beneath the hill.
"Our bach is just around the far point. See over there where that stand of Pohutukawa is? That's us." Naomi continued, "We have riparian rights on a tiny beach all to ourselves."
"Ooooo, Naomi! This is so beautiful!" Sherri sighed, "I wish I could live in a place like this forever!"
"Wait until you find out there's no piped water and, of course, there is the outside dunny! And the nearest supermarket is back in Kerikeri, and the bank, hairdresser, shoe shops, clothes, hardware, etc, etc. And Kerikeri isn't exactly the Manukau City Centre or Botany Downs, as you saw!"
Somewhat sobered by the though of the outdoors toilet, Sherri decided to reserve any further comments for when she finally saw Naomi's bach. Her trepidation increased as they drove slowly along the narrow track between the settlement and the beach, when she saw that many of the houses were in an advanced state of disrepair, even if people were living in them.
Naomi saw Sherri looking and muttered, "No work up here at all. Families have lived on the dole for years and they choose to spend their money on wacky baccy and alcohol instead of the necessities of life like a good roof over their heads. The saddest thing is that every so often there is a fire, because they light their houses with candles instead of paying their power bills, and somebody dies…usually it's one or more of the kids."
"Why doesn't the Government do something about it?" Sherri asked.
Naomi snorted explosively, "They could put a billion dollars into this lot and nothing would change! Don't get me wrong, these are my people, my hapu, and a lot of them suffer great hardships. But there is a thousand dollars a week in dole money going into lots of these houses and still they do nothing. Some of them even call me an 'Uncle Tom' for studying to become a 'Pakeha doctor'!"
Naomi's little old house was weathered a silver grey. But the roof looked as if it had been painted in the last year or two and it was clear that rotten weatherboards had been replaced fairly recently with new ones. "Henare and I had a good session up here last year," Naomi explained. There was a nice wide veranda looking over the private beach and the sea, and off to one side was a tall narrow tin shed the Sherri took to be 'the outside dunny'. The windows were all shuttered and heavily padlocked, as was the front door leading onto the veranda.
"C'mon," Naomi grinned, "let's see what the thieving Maori have done to the place!"
The two women walked around the outside, examining all the windows and the side door leading to the dunny for damage. There was none. The dunny itself hadn't been touched. There was quite a large, sheltered flat section at the back of the house with a huge round concrete water tank in one corner and Sherri asked what the area was used for.
"Well, that's our water supply…rainwater from the roof," Naomi indicated the tank, "We've never run out yet, even when there's forty or fifty people here! When there's a big family Hui, everybody has to sleep out here in tents…a few of them bring caravans though." She waved over beyond the dunny, "There's a couple of long drops over there as well, covered over now of course, and we rig canvas screens around those. And right over the back there is an offal hole…but we don't usually have a lot of cause to use that. And over here," she pointed in the opposite direction, "Is the wood shed, and the hangi pit and barbecue area."
They returned to the front of the house where Naomi hauled a big bunch of keys out of the glove compartment in the car dash. After she unlocked the padlocks on the door, she took hold of Sherri's hand murmuring shyly, "Welcome to my whare!" and led her inside.
The inside of the house was warm, dry, and not even a little bit musty. At first glance, it appeared to be just one room, except for a small cubicle in one corner where Naomi and Henare had installed a water tank and a shower. But then Sherri noticed another heavily barred and padlocked door.
"Store room," Naomi commented, "There's a gas fridge/freezer and other stuff in there that we don't need for just one night's stay. The main power switch is in there too, but we won't bother."
At one side of the room, there was a massive wood burner stove and a kitchen unit with a sink. There a few old, but clean armchairs scattered around, plus a small wooden dining table with four chairs. And over against the opposite wall to the stove, by the side door that led out to the toilet, was a large old-fashioned double bed. Sherri's stomach churned and her knees felt weak when she realised that she and Naomi would be sharing that bed tonight, unless one of them rigged up something else with the armchairs.
"Well, what do you think?" Naomi asked.
"It…it's very nice, "Sherri stuttered. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the bed. She had never shared one with another woman before!
"Are you sure you like it?"
Sherri's thoughts raced: And Naomi and Henare have probably had sex in this bed! "Oh…oh yes, it's really lovely…shall we bring our things in?"
Naomi hugged her arm and Sherri felt her face redden at the feel of the woman's breasts pressing against her elbow.
They brought their gear in from the car, took the shutters down from the veranda windows and made up the bed. Naomi had lit the stove and just finished showing Sherri how to operate the damper and where to feed in fresh wood.
"Keep the fire going is the only house rule! Especially for the first person up in the morning, or nobody gets a cup of tea, or a hot shower!
"C'mon, let's go for a walk on the beach. If I don't keep moving, I'll fall over!"
"You really look totalled," Sherri observed.
"I am knackered! The hospital called me back almost as soon as I got home yesterday afternoon. But at ten o'clock, I told them to get stuffed! I wasn't going to let them spoil this weekend with you. Sorry if I didn't talk a lot on the way up, I had to concentrate on my driving."
"Oh, that's Ok. Look, why don't you get your head down for a couple of hours now? I can amuse myself."
"Maybe later, after I have shown you around."
They strolled hand in hand along the main beach. At first, Sherri felt self conscious at the intimacy, but this soon dissipated as Naomi told her about the history of the place and its people. As Naomi predicted, the early spring wind coming off the sea was quite keen and Sherri had to put on her fleecy top, although the sea itself was relatively calm and only rolled gently onto the sand. Also, the sand was still too cold for bare feet, so they kept their sneakers on.
When they started out, there wasn't another person in sight. But soon Sherri found herself meeting innumerable women, who were introduced to her by Naomi as 'my kuia' or 'my whaea ke'. And each greeting demanded a hongi and a long explanation of who Sherri was and what Naomi was up to in the Pakeha world. They saw several men up at the houses, but, with the exception of two ancient kaumatua who came to say 'hello', they all kept their distance.
At one stage, when they had a moment alone, Sherri joked that so far she had met six of Naomi's 'grandmothers'. Naomi gently informed her that, "It is still the Maori way in rural areas like this. When I was young, I often stayed for long periods with the other families in the hapu. It is a way of strengthening bonds in the tribe. Not one of those old ladies you met is a blood grandmother, but they are still my kuia."
They collected shells and dodged the occasional rogue wave. With a squeak of delight, Naomi spotted a cowrie shell at the edge of the surf and got wet shoes when retrieving it. She held it up before Sherri's eyes end on end. To Sherri, it looked just like a female vulva. And when Naomi brought it to her nose, Sherri understood the unspoken message; 'This is your smell, and mine.'
The signals she was getting from Naomi were so confusing, but Sherri was too nervous to ask for an explanation. The turmoil in her mind said, 'Here is this lovely, accomplished woman who is popular with men and has lots of boyfriends, and who has a gorgeous hunk as a long-time lover, yet at times she acts as if she is courting me! Can Naomi possibly be bi-sexual?' And at the same time, Sherri was nonplussed by her own reactions. She would have expected to be repulsed by such an idea, but she found herself warmed by it, and even more, she found herself seeking out the attention Naomi was giving her!
The two young women sat on rocks on the point at the end of the bay and ate the filled rolls from Kerikeri. The sea was rougher here and the waves crashed and splashed at their feet. All the meeting and greeting had taken up a lot of time. It was now mid-afternoon and they were both famished. In around chewing mouthfuls, Naomi said, "I was going to rely on kai moana for our tea, but I wasn't sure how you are with mussels and oysters and other shellfish."
"Oh, I'd have been Ok…mum and dad bring seafood home all the time from the supermarket."
"Wow! That's a surprise!"
"How come?"
"Well, so many of you Pakeha sheilas go green at the thought…"
"So, I'm not your average 'Paheka sheila'…"
