A life changing moment in Hawera
Nelson Mandela said we should buy a house 100 metres from where we were born. Or something to that effect.
So during the holidays I took the family through my home town of Hawera in the mighty Taranaki. I texted my dad for the address. He told me and I took the photo above. And do you know what? It was a special moment. That was the house I came home to as a baby! My sister was two and I was a snot-ridden crying ball of eyebrow.
I thought about knocking on the door but that would have been pathetic.
The next day I thought about that house a lot. How it sat beneath Mount Taranaki. How it was surrounded by other lovely homes. How my parents were only 23 and 25.
I texted my dad the photo. But I got the wrong address. That wasn’t the house I was born in at all. As Dad said, ‘Our house had a garage at the back.’
And now I’m back in Auckland and the house I came home to as a baby is a little further than 100 metres away. Road trip anyone?
