Whorehouse

Texas has a whorehouse in it

Texas has a whorehouse in it

My next two hosts, one in Rotorua, the other at my next stop Napier, were two who had stories that were probably about as different from each other as possible. I think had I met them at the start of my trip I would have found spending time with them difficult and I would have been embarrassed asking them questions but after six months of travelling and being a lot more open to meeting new people than I was before I left I managed. I found them both very pleasant, gracious hosts and fascinating to talk to.

The first of the two was Allan. I was back in the centre of Rotorua and he was to be my third and final Rotorua host. He had said that he would collect me so after a spot of lunch I gave him a call to ask him where was best to meet. A while later I spotted his car and he pulled up at the side of me and popped the boot open. I put my case in and got in the passenger seat. I was a little taken aback by the two women and two dogs in the back of the car. I was introduced to Pip and Trace (the women) and we headed up to Allan’s. We congregated round the breakfast bar in the kitchen where there were nibbles, a bottle of wine being duly cracked open. Allan asked me to explain my trip, admitting that his secretary had actually dealt with the organisation of me staying and he had only got part of the story from her.

I filled the three of them in on my travels, the whole purpose of 80 Gays and where I had been to date. They all seemed very interested in my travels and I soon had questions coming from three directions. Having answered questions for a while I decided it was time to move the focus from me and asked them to tell me a bit about them. It was at this point when I found out that Pip and Trace weren’t a couple. I chatted for a while with Trace about her work (she grows orchids) and showed her some of the photos of the ones I had seen in the Botanical Gardens in Rio. She then showed me photos of her orchids, huge greenhouses filled with the delicate flowers. I didn’t admit to her that I had managed to kill every single houseplant that had ever crossed the threshold into my place.

Allan cooked dinner for us all and was quite the dab hand in the kitchen. I had lost count of the number of bottles of wine had been opened. The three of them kept me entertained with their stories and I felt so comfortable in their company. I knew once more that I had instantly made some new friends. Instead of adding hot water like you do to most instant things for instant friends you just need to add cold wine (and maybe a couple of hot stories?). We retired to the lounge for coffee and dessert, a fruit crumble that reminded me of childhood Sunday lunches when Mother would have done a crumble for “afters”, usually with rhubarb from the garden or with winberries that we had picked from the nearby countryside. The topic of conversation over dessert, however, was a new one even to me.

I asked Allan if he had another job apart from the bed and breakfast. He looked at Pip and Trace and said “What do you think?”. Pip answered by saying “I think it will be fine. Tell him”. My mind was racing with the possibilities about what I was about to be told. As long as it wasn’t that he harvested organs from unsuspecting British travellers I figured I would be fine. Allan proceeded to tell me that he owned and ran two brothels (it being legal in New Zealand) and that I should feel free to ask him any questions I had. I sat in silence for a while as I processed the information. Trace said that she had only found out recently too. I felt honoured that after only a few hours of knowing me he felt comfortable enough to share this information. When I finally managed to speak the first question I asked smacked of me being an ex-accountant. “So how does it all work from a tax perspective?” I asked. I’m sure that is not the normal first question he gets asked. Allan answered all of my questions, and a few that Trace asked too. Of the many questions I asked I remember I asked about how the “interview” process for new employees worked, what they did about safe sex, who did the laundry, whether he employed men as well as women (he did, but I didn’t use their services) and did they have to fill in timesheets. It was nice to be on the asking end of a long line of questions rather than on the answering end.

The following morning I woke up fairly early and I could hear Pip and Trace were up too so I pulled on some jeans and a t-shirt and made my way to the kitchen. Pip and Trace had the kettle on and they asked if I wanted a coffee. They asked me how I was doing after the revelations of the previous night. I told them that I was fine and had found it genuinely interesting. I said that I hoped I hadn’t been asking too many questions but apparently I hadn’t. It still seemed a little surreal to me and it made me realise that I’d not really given too much thought to the potential range of hosts I could end up meeting. Had someone said to me before I had set off that I would end up being hosted by someone who ran a couple of brothels I’m not sure how I would have reacted.

After coffee at the house and everyone showering (separately) and getting ready we headed into town for a proper coffee before Allan took us on a little tour out round Rotorua, taking in the Redwood forest, the Blue and Green lakes. I was dropped back in town so I could get myself some brunch before my bus to Napier. Robert collected me that evening from the bus stop in Napier and we headed up to his. Having never been to Napier before Robert told me about its history and how it came to have its Art Deco architecture. This was the result of a massive earthquake back in 1931 that destroyed the city. When the city was rebuilt the Art Deco was the fashion so the vast majority of the buildings were built in that style. Many of them had survived to the present day and there had been a conservation effort to stop them being pulled down and replaced with modern buildings. The sheer quantity of them made the place unique.

Over dinner we chatted about family. Robert had spent most of his life married, his wife having passed away some years ago. He had two grown up children, his son was a similar age to me and lived and worked in London. I didn’t want to pry into his personal life so I never found out if he was bisexual or if he was gay but had married because at the time that was the done thing. I felt fortunate to live in a society that was becoming more accepting of diversity, where I could be openly gay. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a very long way to go on that journey but progress is slowly being made. The conversation over dinner that night certainly gave me plenty to think about when I went to bed that night and gave perspective to my travels to date.

“Texas has a whorehouse in it” 
Lyrics from Texas has a whorehouse in it from the musical Best Little Whorehouse in Texas