For a Board member and his wife, the lead up to the conference and National Fencing Field Day can be hectic and stressful.
Trying to get fencing work finished and setting the staff up with easy stuff so they won’t need to ring you at an inconvenient time, like at happy hour! Making sure they have everything they need. Trying to keep the wife believing that you are really organised. Replying to the almost continuous flood of emails, flying back and forth between the FCANZ Board and admin team. Throwing clothes in some bags and stuffing gear in the back of the Ute, on the Sunday that you were driving down to New Plymouth, and not the day before like was planned. As I tell myself, and Angelina, just trying to get another fence finished. Not to mention the pesky little email from Heather, reminding us that we were supposed to get our Wired articles in before the Conference and not afterwards. Sorry Heather, but here it is.
To the stray delegate attending Fencing’s pinnacle event of the year, you probably think the Board is cruising around with not much to do and the admin team are as cool as cucumbers. We are pro’s at hiding how busy we are, and you have your head in the clouds. And, yes, for those that didn’t grace us with their presence, I can’t do much about the weather that happened on the Wednesday, but it is winter, and the rest of it was really good, but I’m not telling you anymore. You should have been there.
It’s really not much fun for the poor wife to be abandoned by her Board member husband every time something needed to be done. I really have to congratulate her. We hardly argued at all, and she even got an hour or so shopping time. Thank you Dear for being such a good wife.
As we headed off on Saturday morning after breakfast, packing and lots of goodbyes, we made the crazy decision to head south. Yes, we were stuffed, yes it would add another 3 hours to an already 6-hour drive, but we sometimes do out-there things.
I’m going to call it a mental health drive, and we have done it before. The plan was fairly casual. Head south to Whanganui, then follow the road to Raetihi, shoot across the pass to Ohakune, lunch at Waiouru, then home via Taupo.
The drive from Whanganui to Raetihi was the best part, lots of winding corners, steep ridgelines that meet the sky way up, with fencing in crazy places. I think I prefer fencing in Northland. You really get a good look at the back country, almost a snapshot into what life might have been like many years ago. And glimpses of the Mangawhero river, with its cascading waterfalls, lazily cutting its way through the valley below the road as it headed out to the mighty Tasman sea.
We had the typical blight that seems to be getting more common, like the occasional set of traffic lights and cones, forcing traffic into one lane, where the rest of the road has vanished into the gully below, and the funny looking fella with a sleazy grin on a pink sign, strategically placed in so many locations. He really must like himself to want to be everywhere.
Raetihi is an interesting place. It reminded me of Moerewa, so we didn’t stop. Lunch at Waiouru was fantastic, but the drive over the Desert Road was a little disappointing. You would think, crossing it in winter, there would be some snow around. But on this occasion, it was just blobs of ice and a few random “Ice men”, and even they looked sad.
Angelina snoozed most of the road to Taupo and I just sat back and enjoyed the drive with a little Genesis and Crowded House, and other easy listening playing on Spotify. As my grown kids say, “old person music”.
Other than the hustle and bustle of Auckland traffic, we made it back home with no trouble at all, but that is to be expected when you drive a Holden.
People often ask us why we drive to Conference. It’s not the drive there that counts, it’s the drive home.
Article written by Shane Beets
www.a1FenceworX.co.nz
Published in the Our People Section in WIRED Issue 70 / September 2023 by Fencing Contractors NZ
