“Are you vegetarian?”

I goggled at the woman until it came to me it was a serious question.

“Um, no, why?”

“Oh Andrew couldn’t remember if you were vegetarian or not. You’re having tea at his place aren’t you? He’s cooking mussels.”

That is how, after having vainly looked for Andrew at his work, we ended up knowing we were having mussels for dinner before his colleague actually gave us the directions to his new house. The Hills had moved since my last visit, and apparently, they now lived a bit out of town.

We drove and turned back a few times before finding the house, set amidst meadows and pastures — and a golf course. As we went up the driveway, we had to pull over to let a 4WD pass the other way. Andrew was at the wheel.

“Hey guys! We’re just going sailing with Arlo — they’re in the back, in the garden! See you this evening!”

And he drove on.

It was quite fitting that he did not even bother telling us we were welcome, or that we were to make ourselves comfortable, or anything of the kind; it was all obvious, unneeded to be said.

Three years ago, Mary had burst into the Luxmore Hut when dark had already settled outside on the mountain; she had started cooking dinner with her friend Natasha with great smiles and laughs. In her backpack was a bottle of wine — an actual bottle of wine made of heavy glass — but, amazingly, no cutlery to eat her food with. I lend her my spork. She invited me to stay at her place.

When I came back from the tramp, three days later, I found a message on her porch telling me where to find the key. They were out of town for a while, so they had simply given me the key of their house. I was welcome, as we were this time, three years later.

Mary was not here when we arrived, but Martha was, though she did not remember me. (At least Arlo did.) She was babysat by Svenja, a German girl working as an au pair there, who was of great help to Ladina by cooking a vegetarian alternative to the mussels Andrew had in mind. And when we were all in front of our gorgeous meals, Andrew matter-of-factly offered:

“I can bring one of you hunting tomorrow, by the way”

I smiled. One such sentence had once propelled me in a helicopter and then running down a mountain behind him.

That was how our magnificent stay in beloved Te Anau, something I had looked forward to for years, began.

 

See you in three years, or else not much more than that, hopefully.