A strange noise around every corner

Michael here – I wanted to recount a recent experience Naomi and I had the other day when we were off to her Girl Guide meeting – Girl Guides are the global version of Girl Scouts in the U.S. The Girl Guides are having their annual jamboree in a few weeks and the group of girls from our area met to go over information and preparations. This entire event brings a bit of difficulty for me as a father. It will be Naomi’s first real trip away from us, other than an overnight or a weekend away. She, and 3000 other New Zealand girls from all over the country will be in Christchurch for ten days. That feels like an awful long time from where I sit, but we’ll see how that goes.

So the meeting was in the next community up the coast – Raumati (with the “au” pronounced like ow, as in, “Ow, I stubbed my toe!”) - just about ten minutes from here, at the Scout Hall. Easy enough, Scout Hall in Raumati. A couple of things to know here. For one, there are three different distinctions in Raumati: Raumati, Raumati Beach, and Raumati South. This is a relatively small community, but nicely spread out. As Naomi and I drove into the village, I asked her if she knew exactly where the Scout Hall was. Before we left our house, she insisted that she knew exactly where the meeting was, with the kind of confidence and annoyance that only a ten-year-old can offer. Now that we were a bit closer, she was a bit less so. “Actually Dad, I’m not entirely sure where it is,” she admitted, as the clock showed we had just a few minutes to find the hall.

Another thing to note: There are lots of halls in every little community in New Zealand, at least the ones I’ve seen. A Memorial Hall, a Community Hall, maybe a hall connected to a church or a library. A hall attached to the Bowling Club, a hall for the knitting club, the croquet club. You probably get the idea. So when we asked an elderly couple walking their dog where the Scout Hall was, they asked which one. “The Scout Hall in Raumati,” I explained. “Raumati Beach or South?” they asked. Their dog seemed quite interested in the whole conversation. We were getting later for the meeting, as Naomi kept reminding me. We were closer to Raumati Beach, so I opted for the close one. They ended up telling me where both Scout Halls were. We headed off. Two quick wrong turns later in the general correct direction, we saw what clearly looked like a hall of some sort on the other side of a playground. As we pulled in to the hall’s parking lot, we heard that strange, unmistakeable sound that can only come from a half dozen people playing the bagpipes, each warming up to their own bagpipe tune. (A sample and testimony to Pipes in NZ.)

Already thinking that this must be the wrong Scout hall, I noticed the large sign over the front entrance of the hall. “Scot Hall” it read, not Scout Hall. Scot Hall, I thought. You must be joking. I mean, where else would there be bagpipe practice? This must be in a movie somewhere. I went inside just to make sure that there were no groups of 12-year-olds planning a Jamboree. I found one nice, elderly woman sitting at a folding table, sorting through what must have been sheet music for bagpipes. No she said, there were no Girl Guides at the hall. And, No, she didn’t know where “Scout Hall” was, but thought that one of the bagpipers outside did. What that meant was going back out to where the practice was going on. By this time, the Scot Hall parking lot had filled with more bagpipers – clearly, the weekly bagpipe practice was just about to begin. Another interesting note here: there were a whole lot of people playing their bagpipes. Older people, younger people men, women. Bagpipes are either quite popular, or are experiencing a surge in popularity. And the number of people of Scottish descent in New Zealand must be significant, as to warrant a whole hall.

So when everything was said and done, we found the right Scout Hall – in Raumati beach – and we were only a half hour late – a blessing in disguise as the meeting went on for another hour after we arrived. Naomi is all prepared for the Jamboree. I’m more emotionally prepared for her time away. And I know where to go when I decide to pick up playing the pipes!

Caption: Naomi (in the center) with the rest of the Paekakariki Girl Guides in the Anzac Day parade.

NOTE: If you want to see our year in review in Photos, go here.