New Zealand

Our 747 inaugural fight Buenos Aires, Argentina to Auckland, New Zealand touched down at Taunga Rererangi o Tāmaki-Makaurau Airport on Monday, 7 September 1981. We had skipped Sunday altogether. 

Silvio with two bottles of milk we got at the local grocery shop. I found them quaint for they reminded of São Paulo in the early 1960s, when milk bottles were still in use in Brazil. Since then they had been substituted by plastic bags or cartons. 

Richard and Silvio straighten up some bedding in the early morning before breakfast.

Silvio plays the toreador to Richard's counter-attack. Richard's secretive dream was to have become a professional ballet dancer. Richard had some friend or connection in Denmark, just like Silvio, who had spent a year in Hamlet's home-country. 

This is the view we had from the beach house we stayed. 

Beautifully green the hills near the beach on the Tasman Sea. 

Myself & Richard climbing down from a family mixed business shop at this resort beach we spend 2 days. Black Goofy, Richard's beloved dog is on the right... 

Luiz, Richard Bruce  & Goofy strolling down the hill in green New Zealand. 

Valo, Richard's Chilean friend took this picture which reminds a bit of the Beatles' Abbey Road sleeve.

a silhouette of Valo (Osvaldo) who had been living in New Zealand for a few years. 

Note left by Silvio written in Portuguese using the cyrillic alphabet: Luiz, fomos a uma exposição e jantar na 38 Albert Street, paralela a Queen Street.  Seria bom se você pudesse vir. Otherwise, você pode entrar pela porta do banheiro do fundo. As luzes acesas te guiarão. Se vc ligar o Richard vai te buscar de carro. Silvio, 07 August 1981. (Silvio made a mistake here; he thought it was August but it was actually September). 

This was a dinner given by Warren, Richard's friend on the first day we stayed in Auckland. I had gone out by myself and missed the dinner altogether. The date is completely wrong. Silvio didn't realise we were in September...not August as he wrote. We had departed from Buenos Aires in the morning of Saturday, 5 September 1981; due to different time zones, we actually arrived in Auckland on the Monday, 7 September 1981, having 'lost' a whole day in the process. 

Our trip from Buenos Aires to Auckland skirting the South Pole was really out of the ordinary. Silvio managed to get into conversation with a New Zealander man who worked as a travel guide to a large group of New Zealand senior citizens visiting Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. This group had some youngish men too. As the trip was long many fellows left their seats there was a little crowd of mostly young men assembled in an area of the plane one could look outside through the windows and see if it was dark or light. I remember the plane took off around 8:00 am and as we were flying against the sun soon it became night... 

As it was the official inaugural crossing of the south Pacific up to the Tasman Sea, Aerolineas Argentinas offered smaller bottles of Argentine wine to the travellers. Soon everyone was high on Argentine wine. That's when Silvio approached me with this slim Kiwi fellow called Richard Bruce Hewet, who had lived in Denmark and apparently danced ballet while in Kopenhägen. 

so he was happy in talking about Denmark to Silvio who had been an exchange student in Kopenhagen only 2 years before. Richard knowing we were heading to Sydney to start a new life, invited us to stay at his house in Auckland for some time...and maybe we'd change our minds and settle in New Zealand instead of Australia. 

When we got off at the Auckland Airport; the hall was packed with a crowd who had gathered to welcome the NZ travellers who had taken part in the first official visit to South America. TV cameras were everywhere. New Zealand was living in thrilling times for the controversial Springbok Tour had been on for almost a month now having split the whole country in two: those for and against the Apartheid regime of South Africa. 

Silvio & I cross over to Argentina

After leaving Porto Alegre around 2:00 pm on Wednesday, 2nd September 1981, we rode countless hours in that bus until it crossed the border with Argentina in Uruguayana-RS and kept on riding until twilight. It must have stopped again before night fall, but I can't recall it at all. 

On Thursday, 3rd September 1981, early in the morning, our General Urquiza bus stopped for refreshment and we noticed the scenery was a complete different one. No more red earth from Brazil but the conspicuous dark soil of Argentina. By the car plate colour one knows we're in Argentina.

  

Silvio and I engaged in conversation with this smiling fellow during the bus journey. He told us his story: he had met an Argentine girl in São Paulo during Carnaval 1981, fell in love with her and now he was going to visit her and possibly get married there. I don't remember his name but he was gracious to have taken photos of Myself & Silvio occasionally. 

Paraná, the capital city of the Argentine province of Entre Rios, located at the eastern shore of the Paraná River, opposite the city of Santa Fé, capital of the neighbouring Santa Fé Province. We were all happy to wake up to a new day in a brand new country: Argentina. See that tower in the back of us in the photo? It is Entre Rios Province's government house - Casa de Gobierno, Paraná, Provincia de Entre Rios.

It was twilight some time after we left Paraná, the capital city of Entre Rios province. We made ourselves comfortable in our seats for soon we'd be entering our third night on the road. After sleeping for a few hours I woke up about 3:00 am and felt restless; somehow I knew we were approaching Buenos Aires, Latin America's former largest city. And I was right...traces of a sprawling city started showing up and I knew I couldn't be wrong: we were about to get to our destination. I woke Silvio up and told him I suspected we were at the end of our long bus trip. I couldn't account for all our steps at this juncture but a little after 4:00 am on the Friday morning of 4 September 1981, we were out on the streets of Buenos Aires trying to get hold of a cheap hotel where we could stay for about 24 hours. 

It may seem strange but since we arrived in Buenos Aires, I forgot about my camera altogether. I didn't take any pictures of ourselves in the big city. 

I can't recall how but I guess Silvio was the one who found a hotel we could stay for one day: Hotel de las Americas, on Calle Liberdad, 1020, only a block away from the great Avenida 9 de Julio. We went into our hotel room but were too excited to try and get to sleep off the rest of the night. I don't remember how we spent those 24 hours. I only know Silvio went out by himself after the break-of-day and with an address written on a slip of paper proceeded to search for the abode of a young Argentinian man he had once met in Peru or Bolivia. 

Silvio was back at the hotel after a few hours accompanied by his Argentine friend; we three went to a coffee shop but he didn't stay too long. At twilight time we went out to eat in a real Argentine restaurant. Both of us ate Argentine beef. I wasn't a vegetarian then... and I thought there was too much meat in my plate. This restaurant was on 9 de Julio concourse. 

As I was worried about how to get hold of a van ('micro' in Argentina) that would take us to Ezeiza Airport in the morning, we sauntered down the great Avenue until we got to a spot where vans left to the international airport which is quite far from downtown Buenos Aires. We would have to be at Ezeiza at 7:00 am. I knew if we missed the van or the plane we'd be in dire straits or Desolation Row. After talking to one of the vans' drivers and making sure how far the Airport was and how long the trip would take we decided to go back to our hotel room. 

On Saturday, 5 September 1981, I woke up really early. I slept by turns. We asked the concierge to wake us up at 4:00 in the morning but I was wide awake much earlier than that. We ended up leaving the hotel at 4:00 and walked up to where the vans started from. I was glad everything had turned out all right. 

Myself boarding Aerolineas Argentinas 747, at Ezeiza, ready to take on the whole world... 

Myself saying goodbye to South America. I wouldn't do it again for nothing in the world.

Silvio ready to go into the bowels of Aerolineas Argentinas huge 747 jet, on our way to Oceania. 

On our way to the South Pole & New Zealand... goodbye South America!

Serviette used at Aerolineas Argentinas trans-polar flight from Buenos Aires to Auckland. 

Hotel de las Americas on Calle Libertad 1020, corner with Calle Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear, where Silvio & I stayed for one night, Friday, 4 September 1981, is only a block away from Avenida 9 de Julio, where we would get our van to Ezeiza Airport in the early morning of 5 September 1981. 

We left Uruguaiana at twilight of 2nd September 1981, and arrived at Paraná, capital of Entre Ríos province in the morning of 3rd September 1981. 

Silvio & I covered a lot of ground inside that Argentine bus having left São Paulo on Tuesday night, stopped next to Florianópolis in the early hours of Wednesday; then stop over at Porto Alegre at Noon. Left Porto Alegre at 1:00 pm; crossed the Argentine border after dark; had a stop at Paraná (here in the map is a city opposite to Santa Fé) on Thursday morning and finally arrived in Buenos Aires at the dawn of Friday. 

the distance between Uruguaina and Paraná, the capital city of Entre Rios. 

Entre Ríos Province is in red...just north of Buenos Aires Province... 

Silvio & I stop in Porto Alegre, on our way to Buenos Aires, in 1981.

After our Argentine bus left the bus terminal, it went southwest down Avenida Rebouças in order to get Rodovia Raposo Tavares or Castelo Branco, I don't remember which. When the bus passed in front Escolas Fisk and CCI, the English school both Silvio & I worked for a few weeks, we looked at it and could see a female teacher doing her thing. It looked like Melanie, a Jewish girl we had met at the tearchers' training course and was teaching her first group there. We waved towards the place but only we knew we were being silly and prepared to get to sleep for the trip would be long. 

At around mid-day on 2nd September 1981, our Argentine bus stopped in downtown Porto Alegre, and we had the chance to get off and walk for an hour around town... We took as many pictures as possible...  

Wednesday morning, 2nd September 1981.  Only a few hours before we reached Porto Alegre. After having ridden the whole night, the General Urquiza bus made a stop in a resting area from where one could see the island in which Florianópolis is located. It was still dawn and we were glad to step out in the open and breathe the pure air.

When we finally stopped in downtown Porto Alegre, we were told the bus would stay put for an hour. So, me & Silvio went out into the city to see as much as we could... 

Mercado Público (Public Market) is the building on the right; Palácio do Comércio is on the right; the cranes in the background belong to Guaiba's Harbour.

Follow me to the Public Market on the other side... 

I followed Silvio through the crowd and buses... children liked his antics.

Silvio next to a queue of red VW beetles customized as taxi cabs...

Porto Alegre's Bus Terminal - Estação Rodoviária Central... See that fellow's bell bottom flares; he was a little old-fashioned for this was 2nd September 1981. 

Silvio was intrepid in his search to get to know interesting places in downtown Porto Alegre... it looks we made it to the local financial district.

Judging by the signs of Sloper and C&A we must have been in the shopping district. 

a very young shoe-shine boy hawking his trade...

A sandwich-boy advertises he buys old gold (ouro velho). I didn't know gold aged... 

downtown Porto Alegre with both Public Market & Palace of Commerce next to the Harbour.

The distance Silvio and I walked from Porto Alegre Bus Terminal on the right and Public Market on the left. 

Silvio & I at Rodoviária, on our way to Buenos Aires, in 1981

I had met Silvio at an English as-a-foreign-language teachers' training-course in Santo Amaro in early 1981. Silvio had lived in Denmark for a year during 1977-1978 school year, as part of a student-exchange programme sponsored by Rotary International, having learned Danish as well as English over there.  

After arriving back in Brazil he taught English AFL at CCAA in 1979-1980. I don't recall every bit of his teaching career but in early 1981, Silvio was trying to get to work for a different school just as Myself, who had left Fisk Schools and was adrift in a world of my own.

We met in Santo Amaro every morning to attend this training course of a newly-franchised US method given by Paraná, who I already knew, having worked for Gloria, a Japanese-Brazilian lady who was the owner of a school on Avenida Rebouças, opposite Escola Fisk. By the end of 2 weeks, Silvio and I realised we had a lot more in common besides the English language. We both took the same bus back to Pinheiros where he had been living with Elaine, a piano playing lady who had rented a flat on rua Theodoro Sampaio. Actually, they had parted ways and were on the verge of moving out. When Silvio took me there I noticed the flat was nearly empty except for an upright piano next to one of the walls.

To cut a long story short; neither Silvio nor I ended up working for Gloria's CCI school too long. Silvio left after a few weeks and I left a little after that. By May 1981, we were back at square one. To tell you the truth, since I had returned from the USA, in 1977, my real goal was to make my way back there. 

Since now I had a new friend who also wanted to live abroad, I proposed Silvio we could travel together. It so happened that while I worked at Gloria & Paraná's school in 1980, I had met a Brazilian fellow called Edson Rosa, who taught there. Edson & his wife Mirian had lived in Sydney, Australia since 1974. They had traveled the world, and now lived in São Paulo temporarily for they had to go back to Oz in order not to lose their permanent residency. When back in Oz, Edson wrote me a letter suggesting I should try Australia. 

When I showed Edson's letter to Silvio, he immediately took to the idea of flying away half the planet to get to Shangri-la. By June 1981, I had already talked to Licia Espalato Wielenska, the travel agent who helped me get to the USA in 1971 and 1975. Licia worked on our papers to fly to New Zealand on the next available plane. Aerolineas Argentinas flew to NZ only once a month. 

July 1981 turned out to be too late, for Lícia would have to send our passports to Brasilia, to get tourist visas from both the New Zealand and Australia's embassies. We thought we'd fly on the August flight but unfortunately we had to wait another month. Our flight would leave on 5 September 1981, a Saturday morning, from Ezeiza Airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

As neither Myself nor Silvio had much money, we decided not to fly to Buenos Aires, but to take an international bus leaving Rodoviária on Tuesday, 1st September 1981, at 8:30 pm. I figured it out we would arrive in Buenos Aires early on Friday, so we would stay in a hotel for only one day until early Saturday, when we'd get into the Trans-Polar 747 jet to the other side of the Globe. 

So instead of saying goodbye to our relatives & friends at an airport we did it at the Bus Terminal... and these are the photos we took that night. The last time I saw my Father alive.  

1st September 1981, Tuesday, at 8:30 pm at Rodoviária: The 2 boys leaving for Sydney, Australia and their Mothers; from left to right: my Mother, myself, Silvio's Mother and himself.

Myself holding Mum & Silvio watching... 

Sandra, Luiz, cousin Dulcineia, Silvio & sister-in-law Clelia Hiroko. 

Myself, Rute, Silvio & his young brother in the back; Sandra & Cícero in front. 

The Gang's all here: from left to right in back: Silvio's friend, Silvio behind his Mother, my aunt Dulce Roza, Ivan Gabriel, Myself, Silvio's young brother, Maria Lucia Martins; in front, from left to right: Sandra, Josué, Rute & Jaime. 

Rute, Silvio, tia Dulce, Myself & Cícero smiling in the back...

Fernando, Clélia Hiroko, Myself, Dulcinéia & Silvio. 

Silvio, Dulcineia, Ivan Gabriel (in the back), Myself, Sandra & Jaime.

Friends & siblings of Luiz & Silvio gathered to say goodbye on 1st September 1981; a fairly cold night.  

Silvio's mother in the back; Rute & Luiz. 

Rute & Ivan Gabriel. 

Pedro, Luiz & Antonio Carlos aka Totó (Jaime peeks in the background).

Josué, Rute, Ivan Gabriel, Jaime & Myself.

Silvio in deep conversation with his brother Cícero while Sandra looks at the camera. 

A motley crew next to General Urquiza's ticket-office on the upper floor of the old São Paulo Bus Terminal (Rodoviária) opposite Sorocabana Railway Terminal.  From left to right: Rute, Jaime, Sandra, Josué, Ivan Gabriel, Cícero's friend who played guitar well & a friend of theirs. 

Jorges, Silvio's youngest brother, two friends & Cícero. 

Silvio, Myself & his Mother...

Yolanda, João, Luiz Carlos & Josué. 

Silvio holds his Mum; my Mum holds my Dad & I hold my hand...

Bus ticket from São Paulo to Buenos Aires for 1st September 1981, a Tuesday, leaving São Paulo bus terminal (Rodoviária) at 8:30 pm (20:30).