We went on the gondola on top of Port Hills, from which it was possible to see Christchurch panorama 360 degrees, including the Canterbury plain and the Lyttelton port. We then had our lunch at the Monte Bell's Restaurant.
We were having ourselves a good time, chatting, laughing and telling each other stories. We seemed like two old friends... or two lovers in their honeymoon...
We then went again downtown where I rented a car for all the time I stayed in New Zealand. We decided to visit some museums too because I was curious to see some of the Maori art. Christchurch had a history of only a little more than 150 years; it was therefore, for me who came from Italy, an incredibly young city. Anyway it had its beautiful things to show... bedsides Graeme, that I didn't stop admiring.
Graeme was living in Aikmans Road, just behind the McDonald's, where he rented a small room in a widower's house which was too big a house for him after his children married. That day I proposed to Graeme that he stayed with me, at my hotel suite, for all the time I stayed in New Zealand.
Graeme accepted at once and said to me he would leave his rented room and move his things to my room, as he had just two suitcases to take. I asked him if it weren't better to keep that room - how would he do when I had to leave? He said that it would not be difficult for him to find another room, and in the worst case he could anyway go at the YMCA. So he would at least save the rent money.
So we went to Aikmans Road, he cancelled his room rent, gathered all his things, loaded them in the car and I took him to my hotel. He settled his belongings. And when he put his toothbrush in a glass together with mine, it gave me a feeling of warm intimacy... and I embraced him from his back.
"You want to make love again?" he asked me with a mischievous expression.
"Why? Don't you?" I retorted with a smile.
"Yes... It's been all the day since I... didn't think of anything but about it. Being near you and desiring you are the only thing in my mind, don't you know?"
"Do you find me so desirable, then?" I asked him.
"The more I get to know you, the more I find you desirable, Sergio, irresistible..." he murmured embracing me tight and brushing his pelvis against mine, making me feel through our trousers that he already had a good erection.
"You tempter! If you go on doing so, I will strip you naked, push you on the bed and jump on you!" I said, making him feel also my strong erection.
"Sounds like a wonderful plan to me..." he said going on to brush against me. "Should I go on longer before you get on with it?" he asked in a provokative tone.
No, he didn't have to go on for a long time. Always touching and kissing, we started to undress each other. For some time we remained there, standing, totally naked, touching, caressing, teasing each other.
I then kneeled in front of him and starting to take care of his beautiful straight, warm and hard pole, kissing, gently biting and licking it. Each time I passed my tongue on his glans, swollen and smooth like silk, Graeme let out a low moan of pleasure. I took his glans between my lips and, cupping his small, sinewy and firm buttocks with both hands, pulled him to me so that his pole slipped entirely inside my mouth.
Then Graeme took my head between his hands and started to rhythmically move his pelvis back and forth, fucking my mouth. I raised my eyes and looked at him. He bent down his head, met my glance and tenderly smiled at me. I liked being on my knees in front of him, like the worshipper of a pagan god, to give him pleasure. I wanted Graeme to feel how important he became to me...
After some time he made me stand up and kissed me on the mouth. He then caressed my cheek.
"Would you like to take me here... standing?" he asked in a whisper.
"As you like..." I answered.
He turned and leaned his hands on the lavabo edge, pushing back his nice little butt. He was looking at me through the wide mirror in front of him, and smiled at me, inviting. I aimed with my straight and hard rod between his buttocks and brushed its tip up and down, passing again and again on his hidden hole, palpitating in eager waiting. And I finally aimed at it and started to push. His smile became wider and he pushed backwards his pelvis to meet my push.
I started to slip inside him, to sink into him with studied slowness. I embraced him, putting an arm around his waist and the other around his chest, leaning against him, and started to move my pelvis back and forth, moving in and out of him with vigorous strokes, at times long and slow, at times short and fast. Graeme rocked slightly his pelvis at each of my strokes, emitting a short pleasant moan, barely audible.
We were going on looking at each other through the mirror - it was beautiful to look at us, so united, moving at the unison, smiling happily for the pleasure we were giving to each other.
"It's so good to feel you inside me, Sergio..." he whispered.
"And for me feeling so totally welcome inside you... It makes me feel ten years younger, do you know?"
"Harder, Sergio... harder..." he begged me.
I increased the energy of my strokes, "Like this? It's better like this?" I asked, starting to pant.
"Yes... yes... like this... go on... You're a real man... I like you... go on... hammer inside me... fuck me... make me feel it all... I love your cock... it's the right size... and you use it well... go on... like this... go on... yes... like this... yes..." he spurred me almost in a whisper.
With a hand I was teasing his nipples, with the other manipulating his warm and hard genitals. He palpitated his anus so to increase our pleasure. He looked at me in the mirror and his eyes were bright. He then turned back his head, and first we played for a while with our tongues then kissed deeply with tender passion.
All of a sudden he moaned, his moans muffled by our kiss, my hand that was brushing his pole felt it jerk and strong jets of his lukewarm seeds filled my hand. The contractions of his orgasm triggered mine and I emptied inside him. I started to moan too, seized by the indescribable intensity of the pleasure.
We remained still for some time. Our mouths parted and we both were lightly panting, satisfied but, I knew, not yet fully sated. When our bodies resumed some calmness and my penis slowly withdrew from him, softening, Graeme turned in my arms, embraced me, gave me another long kiss then emitted a low sigh.
"I'm never tired of making love with you..." he whispered.
"Neither I, Graeme. It is so great to do it with you..."
"But now let's wear our clothes. Tonight we will make love again, won't we?"
"You can bet on it!" I answered him, brightly smiling him.
We dressed again. I accompanied him downtown as he had two interviews for a job, and I waited him in a coffee shop. He came back after some time. He was serene.
"I didn't get anything. They said they'd keep my c.v. for reference but that at present they have no positions to offer me."
"Let's hope you can find something soon. Before I have to go back to Japan. I would be really glad to know that you have a job." I said caressing lightly and shortly his hand that he had on the table.
"Yes... at times I forget that you have to leave soon, to go away..." he said in a regretful tone.
"Yes, unhappily... just two more weeks... I would like to be able to stay longer, now that I found you..."
"I'll miss you terribly..." he whispered and lowered his eyes.
"I too will miss you a lot, Graeme... a lot!" I said and felt a strong desire to start crying.
But I didn't want to sadden him more than how he evidently already was, therefore I tried to control, to assume again a merry and careless tone.
"Where can we go, tomorrow?" I then asked in a forcefully serene tone.
"I'll take you to see the open air museum of the Maori civilisation. There are ancient houses nicely restored, with all the wooden parts sculpted... they are really fine... There's also a community house, possibly the most beautiful of all." he told me.
"All right. And this evening, what can we do?" I then asked him.
"Before going back to the hotel to make love?" he asked me with a cunning and provokative smile.
"Yes, and before dinner. We have still some time..."
"We can go to the botanical garden and, if it's open, we can visit the McDougall gallery... We could still be in time..."
We went there, but the gallery closed at 4:30 p.m. so we could not visit it. Therefore we walked wide and far in the garden, that is in a bight of the Avon River, chatting. While we were walking, at a certain point Graeme took my hand and that little intimate gesture, shown so carelessly in public, gave me a strong emotion. I would have even embraced and kissed him there, in the paths of the park... but it was possibly better not to overdo.
We then went back and decided to ride the tramway that toured the historical centre, just to spend the time. Then we went to eat at the Friday's, near the cathedral. We went then to the Country Ways, where I bought a nice woollen jumper, polychrome and cheerful, made in the local style. And we finally went back to the hotel.
We watch the TV for some time, half embraced on the sofa, caressing each other in an increasingly intimate way... until none of us was watching it any more. Then we stood up, to take refuge in each other's arms, feeling as happy as we never had been.
The following day Graeme went to look for other job offers, unhappily without any luck again. Then we went to visit the open air Maori museum.
"Graeme..." I said to him while we were standing in front of one of the beautiful typical Maori houses, admiring it.
"Yes?"
"I'm feeling so good, with you..."
"And me too, with you. I never felt so good with anybody like with you, Sergio. And I'm not saying only when we make love..."
"Yes, it's true. And I, Graeme... I..."
"Yes? Tell me..."
"I don't know if I'm right to tell you, but... but I am no more able to keep it inside me... it could possibly make everything more difficult, but... I, Graeme... I feel that I'm terribly falling in love with you."
"Good Lord, Sergio... I didn't want to tell you, but... at this point... the problem is that I'm... I'm hopelessly in love with you too."
"What can we do? How can we do? I in Japan and you here... We really didn't need this... I'm so sad, Graeme, knowing that I will soon have to leave you... that who knows when and if we can meet again..."
The boy let out a of choked sob. For some time he kept silent, possibly unable to utter a word, so moved as he was.
He then said, in a low and sad tone, "I tried not to think about it, but... why do have to be so unlucky? It was possibly better if we didn't meet at the McDonald's that day... or possibly just contented ourselves with a nice fuck and nothing else... I tried not to fall for you, do you know? But you are way too special. What can we do, now?"
"I possibly have been wrong telling it to you, we have been wrong..."
"No, we couldn't help but to tell it... sooner or later it would have come out... what we are feeling is too strong..."
We went to sit on a bench. Then Graeme told me about two men who loved each other, who probably lived around the first half of the 1800's, whose names were Tütänekai and Tiki, around which a Maori legend started.
In the centre of the lake Rotorua, up on the north of New Zealand, there is an island called Mokoia. About one hundred and eighty years ago there lived a family that had several children, the youngest of whom was called Tütänekai. Their mother was Rangiuru and their father was Whakaue Kaipapa, the ancestor of the Ngäti Whakaue tribe that now lives in Ohinemutu, on the shores of the lake Rotorua. But Rangiuru had cheated on her husband, lying with Tüwharetoa, the ancestor of the tribe Ngäti Tüwharetoa that now lives around the lake Taupo. Rangiuru's husband, Whakaue Kaipapa, who was a generous man with a good heart, accepted anyway to raise and love Tütänekai as one of his children, notwithstanding he was an illegitimate son.
When Tütänekai was a kid, he met Tiki, another kid living in that area, and soon they became intimate friends, so that "their spirits united like those of two brothers". And soon the two boys also started to make love with each other, and so they became lovers.
Tütänekai was playing the pütörino, a flute made with the bone of a leg of Murirangaranga, the priest that had consecrated him at his birth, but who had been caught eating too soon after the ceremony, therefore put to death for having infringed the taboo. This fact had surely given a special power to the sound of that flute.
Also Tiki played the flute, but a smaller one called köauau, that had a more delicate sound than the flute of Tütänekai. The two young lovers, after they made love, played one for the other, sitting on the platform that Whakaue built on a cliff of rocks on the south shore of the Mokoia island, that stands in the centre of the lake Rotorua.
At that time on the island also lived a beautiful girl, the daughter of a high rank man, and she was called Hinemoa. This girl was the daughter of a very important chief. Her family lived in Owhata, on the east shore of the lake Rotorua. Because of her high rank, the girl was declared "puhi" that is sacred. The elders of her tribe and her family would choose for her a husband as soon as she reached puberty. Many young men were going to see her,among which were those who came from very far away, hoping to get the hands of Hinemoa, whose beauty and grace reached even the farthest villages. But none of the several suitors did yet get the approbation either of the girl's family or of the elders of her tribe.
Each of the elder brothers of Tütänekai declared his love for the pretty Hinemoa, and all of them were determined to get her hand. But none of them succeeded in getting the necessary approbation of the people of Hinemoa.
Tütänekai was incredibly beautiful, and he excelled in the games that in those times the Maori used to do to develop the coordination and the skills needed for the war times. These games were held exactly in Owhata, where Hinemoa lived. So the girl saw Tütänekai and was conquered by his skill, and even more by his wonderful aspect. Thus the girl fell in love with Tütänekai, and each time that the tribe gathered and she could see him again, both were feeling increasingly attracted to each other. But both could communicate their mutual feeling to each other only by throwing each other glances, and none of them had yet the chance to talk with the other one.
It was a sad situation, as none of the two could imagine a way to express to the other the love they were feeling; it was a hopeless situation. Tütänekai then went to sit on the shores of the Mokoia island with his beloved Tiki and played sad music with his flute. His music floated on the waters of the lake and reached Hinemoa, who was sitting on the opposite shore, she too filled with sadness because of her passion for the wonderful boy. Her sadness came from the fact that she didn't want to marry anybody but the handsome Tütänekai, but she didn't know how to realise her desire. Her people started to suspect the reason of her mood, and to prevent her from fleeing away to threw herself in the arms of that handsome boy, beached all the canoes of the village, that were too heavy for her alone to push back one in the water.
Nights after nights she listened to the notes of the songs of the boy she loved, until her heart was so overcome by the sadness that she was no longer able to stand it. Therefore the girl decided that, if she couldn't use a canoe, she would reach the boy swimming. So a night the girl told his family she was going to see the dances but really, after stealing from the kitchen six big jars made with empty gourds, she went at the lake's shore. She rested on the rock Iri Iri Kapua that can still be seen in Owhata, and tying together the gourds, she made a floater.
When she heard the sound of Tütänekai's flute, the noble Hinemoa glided with her improvised floater on the water, and from the beach called Wairerawai, she started to swim towards the island of Mokoia. It was the dead of the night, totally dark, and she could go in the right direction only following the direction from which the sound of the flute played by her beloved Tütänekai came, a sound that floated on the waters and reached her.
She rested for some time on a large stump that was surfacing on the waters of the lake then, always guilded by the sound of the flute, she restarted swimming. She finally reached the island of Mokoia, but her body had frozen because of all the time she swam in the water, so she immediately walked to the hot sources of Waikimihia, not far from Tütänekai's house. Once she had warmed up and had some rest, Hinemoa became aware she was naked, and she was too ashamed to go to Tütänekai's house in that state, without any clothes to cover her young body.
But it happened in that moment that Tütänekai felt thirsty, so he asked his lover Tiki to go and take a bowl of water for him. Tiki had to pass quite close to where Hinemoa was sitting to warm herself.
While, going back, the boy was walking close to the hot water spring, a low voice asked him, "For who is that water?"
Tiki answered, "It is for Tütänekai."
"Give it to me." Hinemoa asked him, but as soon as Tiki handed her the bowl made of half of a gourd, she broke it on one of the spring's stones.
When Tiki went back to Tütänekai and told him what had happened, Tütänekai sent him again to take some water. Hinemoa challenged Tiki again and once again broke the gourd bowl. This time Tütänekai got angry and decided to go in person to the source to see who that so impolite person was. He wore his clothes, took his weapon made with the green stone, and went to the spring. Once he was there, he challenged whoever was hiding there in the spring to show himself. Nobody answered, nobody moved.
Hinemoa had moved under a hollow rock that granted a little protection to her naked body. The girl remained still like a little mouse. Then Tütänekai explored the rock, until he got to the point where Hinemoa was hiding. He seized her by her hair and tried to pull her out of her hiding place.
"Who are you?" he yelled, angered, "Who are you to dare to annoy me to this point?"
The girl answered, "It's me, Hinemoa, and I came here to see you."
Tütänekai didn't believe his ears. When she finally came out of the warm water of the spring, the boy was sure he never saw such a beautiful woman in all his life. Tütänekai took off him mantle and wrapped it around Hinemoa's body, then took her in his house to lie with her, and so make of her as a fact her spouse.
The following morning all the house people woke up to prepare the morning meal and they noticed that Tütänekai was still sleeping so late. It was odd, because usually the boy was the first one in the house to wake up. After some time his father started to think that possibly his son was ill, therefore sent Tiki, his son's boyfriend, to look for him. Tiki went to the hut of Tütänekai and when he looked inside, he saw coming out of the blanket four feet instead of two. Then Tiki ran to the his lover's father to tell him what he saw and the man sent him back to investigate.
Back to his lover's hut, Tiki recognised the pretty Hinemoa. He was at once so surprised and furious finding her lying with his lover, that he started to yell, "He is with Hinemoa! It is Hinemoa who lies in the bed of Tütänekai!"
Tütänekai's brothers didn't believe Tiki's words, and neither did any of the others. But in the general confusion Tütänekai came out of his hut hand in hand with Hinemoa. Just in that moment they saw several canoes rowing towards their island, and guessing that it was Hinemoa's family. They feared that a new war would start, so they said to Tütänekai that anyway Hinemoa would be taken away from him forever.
Instead, when Hinemoa's family got there, the girl's people accepted the accomplished fact so, gathering everybody, a great party was thrown and the wedding of the two youths was celebrated, than everlasting peace was sealed between the two tribes.
But Tiki was really angry because of the fact that Tütänekai, now married to her, would certainly abandon him. He therefore menaced to leave the island and go to live far away, because he loved Tütänekai too much to see him every day and feel excluded from his life. He preferred to live forever alone, with his love inside his heart. Tütänekai felt greatly pained, and prayed him to stay some longer. He went at once to see his step father and told him he was feeling a deep pity and love for his friend-lover Tiki and that he didn't intend and he could not lose him so.
Whakaue then thought about that for some time, until he found a solution so that the two boys could remain together - he gave Tiki as a wife his younger daughter Tupa; in this way the two couples lived together in the same hut. So Tütänekai didn't abandon Tiki and the two young men could go on loving each other.
When Graeme ended telling me this legend, I told him, "Yes, but I don't see how we two can sort things out... you have to stay in New Zealand, and I in Japan, and possibly even go back to Italy, that is at the antipodes, so far that further is not even possible... How could we live in the same hut? If our common hut is the entire world... it is too wide in order for us to meet and go on making love, you and I..."
Graeme smiled, "I didn't intend to make a parallel between Tütänekai and Tiki, and us two, Sergio... and unhappily neither of us has a step father who can solve our problem... But what I wanted to tell you, besides this interesting story about the two legendary Maori boys who were in love with each other, is that anyway, even if we should live far away, I am sure that the love I am feeling for you will never end..."
"Yes, it is so... but it is a really cold comfort..." I answered feeling even sadder.
On the other side it was true, what other comfort could we get besides the fact that the memory of those so beautiful days we were spending together would remain forever inside our hearts?
Anyway, one of those days I wanted to go and visit Rotorua Lake up in the north, that in New Zealand, being in the other hemisphere, is warmer than the south. We rented a boat and went on Mokoia Island. The place is suggestive, and also our pilgrimage was suggestive. I would have liked to sit on the rocks and play the flute with Graeme, to give voice to the sadness I was feeling inside my heart, but none of us knew how to play music...
The story of the two Maori lovers made me reflect on our situation - they lived in a world where a man could marry and keep his relationship with his male lover, at the light of the sun, without problems. He had to marry, be it for love or just to give continuity to the tribe, depending on the cases. I don't know, the legend doesn't explain it, at most it just lets us guess, if one of the two boys was bisexual and the other gay or what... at those times these labels didn't exist, it is only we westerners who need to label everything. What was important in those times was on one hand the respect for the sentiment of love, and on the other hand the respect for the tribe's traditions. Tiki accepted the social rules, as in fact they respected his feeling of love...
I talked about it with Graeme, sitting there on the rocks that witnessed the two lovers play their flutes... He agreed with me. What I liked in Graeme, when we talked, was that we were exchanging our ideas, concepts, and values, and that at times, quite often, he shared them with me, but at times he had a different point of view - then each of us tried to explain to the other the reasons for his point of view, without ever trying to "convert" the other to his idea... There was, I mean, a deep mutual respect.
In the following days Graeme toured again looking for a job, but unhappily he was always back empty handed. I was increasingly worrying for him, but Graeme seemed to never lose hope or serenity.
He said to me, "If I don't find something I like, I'll just go to clean the loos, or to wash the dishes in a restaurant, or to work as a garbage collector.... It doesn't matter. But in a way or another I'll find something. I'm not worried." Even if he got a bachelor's degree.
I admired and esteemed him also because of this. Respect, admiration and esteem are the indispensable bases for true love. But also the fact of being able to live together is essential to feed this love. And we, how could we do? This thought was tormenting me, and more I thought about it, less likely it seemed to find a solution, and this saddened me deeply.
With the passing of days, Graeme could feel how much this sadness was growing inside me, although I was trying to hide it. But those who are in loves have a special sensitiveness; he was able to see, or at least to feel, also what was carefully hidden. In the same way I too was able to feel his sadness grow. Therefore both of us tried to soothe it by making love with growing tenderness. At times, in my room, we were simply embraced, usually Graeme curled against me and I lightly caressed him, almost rocking him, while we were talking, or we were communicating in silence, or we watched the TV together.
I don't know where, but during his tours in search of a job, Graeme had found for me a carving in red wood, a bas-relief fret worked and with inclusions of ivory and shells, representing Tiki and Tütänekai, covered with the tattoos that in ancient times covered all the body of the Maoris, surrounded with an arch of totemic symbols. It was really beautiful, I asked him how much did he spend for it, telling him he should not spend his money for me, considering the economic conditions he was in.
He smiled and told me he could not avoid doing so, as I was way more important to him than all his savings... and he told me that even if we weren't in the situation of the two young Maori lovers, that sculpture for him represented exactly we two. The two lovers were represented sitting one in front of the other, embracing, and one of them looked outside but the other looked towards his lover with the corner of his eye. Even in its primitive style, it was a really refined sculpture.
A day, we were in a pub on the Bealey Avenue, a young Maori asked us if he could sit at our table. There were several free tables, therefore his request surprised me a little, but as he was the first Maori addressing to me, after a glance to Graeme who gave me his assent with his eyes, I nodded the young Maori my assent.
The young man put on the table his jug of beer and sat with us. He looked at us then asked me, "You're not from around here, are you?"
"No. In fact, I am Italian and am here just for tourism. But he is a New Zealander." I answered him.
"I see. And you are lovers, aren't you?" he asked in quiet tone.
Somewhat astounded, I looked at Graeme, who answered, "We would like to be lovers, but he soon has to leave."
"Why? What does he do for a living?"
"He teaches the Italian language in Japan, and he has to go back to his job." Graeme explained him.
"This's why I could see through your eyes that in your soul there are both love and sadness..." the young Maori commented.
"You have acute eyes..." I then said him.
"Yes... That's why I asked you to sit with you for a while..."
The barman said aloud, "Hemi-anaru, leave my customers in peace, or else I'd let you never set foot in here again!"
Graeme told the barman, "No worries. He's not bothering us at all. We're glad to have him sat here with us."
"He drinks a little too much and then he annoys people! But if you're happy..." the barman commented shrugging his shoulders.
"That man sees only at the length of his nose," Hemi-anaru said, "but he is not a bad man. He just amuses himself in scolding me... So he can feel as if he were important." he commented with a light smile.
That young Maori was not handsome, or at least he was not so according to my beauty canons, but he had a frank face and a likeable expression. His dark eyes were particularly beautiful, anyway, and his look was penetrating, but open and friendly.
"So, you are a teacher..." the young Maori said, addressing to me.
"Yes." I answered.
"Ah. And you came from Italy..."
"Yes. Do you know where Italy is? It is the farthest land from New Zealand in the world."
"Yes, I know. It is the land in the shape of a boot, a little like New Zealand. And there lives the Pope of Rome, the great chief of all the Catholic people. When I was a child I went to a school of Catholic priests, but then I soon stopped studying. I didn't like what they taught, and anyway I had to start working to help my family."
"What do you do for a living, now?" Graeme asked him.
"I'm the gardener at the Everglades Golf Club. Today is my day off. When I have my rest days I always come here. At times I can also meet interesting people. Like you two, today. But you shouldn't be sad, at times life answers what you look for."
"But at times it doesn't..." I retorted.
"No, it's not like that. At times it's rather that we don't listen to the answers. But no... you two really shouldn't have any reason to be sad. Don't be like the barman, who can't to see beyond the tip of his nose..." he said throwing to the barman a glance with a light smile.
He then stood up and, without a word, went to sit at another table, alone, and restarted to slowly sip his beer.