ONE
The black three cylinder turbo Mini Cooper, with a pink wind surf board mounted on the roof, made its way up and down the Piha Road like a mouse following a trail back to its nest.
Inside, the Lioness was listening to “I am a Warrior.” Her voice was stronger than the track. Karoke’ had been good to her over the years. So had its patrons. There are only so many pina coladas a woman can pay for.
The Mini came to a place where the driver swerved right choosing the jeep trail to the beach head below. The road was used so little, a patch of wild grass had grown down the middle covering what nature had endowed it with. The Cooper had a low clearance and the car became a large cordless razor shaving the bush as it went.
After picking along the path, through what appeared to feel like an old cart trail, the speaker system started pounding out “Barracuda.”
Auckland was 40 km ago, but it didn’t matter. The driver was on a mission. No one wears a watch in New Zealand and today she was on Maori time. She had gotten a new assignment to drive the Waitakere Ranges’ bush tracks.
When the Mini popped out of the sub-tropical forest, it was forced to brake to avoid a thousand foot drop. The rugged cliffs were not for the faint hearted.
The Lioness got out of the Mini and walked toward the lip of the dirt trail where it turned and snaked back to the east. This jeep trail was going to be just as it was described in the tour map, “challenging.” She got back in the Mini, released the emergency brake, which resembled an aircraft throttle lever pilots push forward for takeoff, and turned the front wheels in the dark, loose soil for the slow descent down to the beach floor. This called for the Lioness to hold on tightly to the large knob so she could shift up or down at a moment’s notice. She didn’t mind.
The trail was narrow and there was only an occasional place where another vehicle could pull off to the side to let a car coming from the other direction pass. While watching the beach down below and the path in front of her, she came upon a little meadow with red flowers surrounding a crystal clear pond. She pulled over and backed the Mini out of sight behind a hedge.
She had never been here before but the source of her travel directions was reliable. She couldn’t help but stop and explore her inner sensuous yearnings. She hit the ignition button ending the Mini-concert, climbed out and stretched.
The Lioness was six feet, depending on who was asking and all legs. She had coarse blond hair resembling the tail of a horse of the same color. Her big, dark brown eyes appeared black after midnight with eyebrows bold enough to support all of her hair. She was a blessed woman with flawless skin along with a one inch cross tattooed on
