Last week we spent a few days in New Zealand. Neither of us had ever really thought we´d go there: even though it proved only 2.5 hours away from Brisbane by plane, it still felt like The End of the Earth. We stayed with a friend of Niki´s, David, in Auckland.
Day 1 we spent largely in the fascinating
Auckland Museum of Natural History, ´reading up´ on Maori history and New Zealand Natural history (which we will no doubt be able to use in our writing), enjoying a live Maori music show in which the performers also gave us a lot of information on their culture (see sample video below). You might think that spending a day inside in a land which abounds with natural beauty was perhaps an odd thing to do, but we came so unprepared that we felt we needed to tank up first on the background to culture and people - the museum is absolutely wonderful and we can recommend that anybody visiting Auckland go there.
Auckland is a peaceful city (Niki: ´Nobody lives here!´, which is what she has also claimed about Australia when she first arrived here...) - rush hour doesn´t really differ much from any other hour on the day. Architecture feels very Australian - lots of low-rise, a large variety if building styles, copious green - very peaceful and calming to the eye. Of course, the CBD itself is nothing but high rise, as any modern city these days but has still retained some of the Feeling of Yore.
What neither of us had realized is that the city, and basically the whole of New Zealand, is situated and built on a range of 40 or 50 volcanoes - none of which seem to be active, but then recent earthquake activity under Christchurch on the South Island showed that the inside of the Earth is constantly on the move and boil.
On day 2, which turned out to be quite a hot and sunny day, we ferried to one of the many islands that form Auckland and trekked up
Rangitoto island which turned out to be a gorgeous two-hour walk up and down the side of this ´recent´ 600-700 year-old volcanic rock with wondrous vistas.
Maori culture within New Zealand is a different thing altogether from Aboriginal culture within Australia. Maori, despite the fact that the Maori, too, suffered at the hands of outsiders who, basically, came in and ´took´ their country (with whatever good intentions). But Maori were already an established , farming tribal but unified culture with one language by the time the British came in. They defended their rights and property in a series of conflicts until an agreement was reached with the occupiers and they have since completely integrated into and become part of what we now know as New Zealand culture.
There was energy, humour, cultural pride, fun, positivism and a constructive effort to share knowledge and emotion with the international audience in the performance - something I haven´t (yet) observed in any aboriginal dance and music performance I´ve seen in Australia. We´re aware of course that Aboriginal culture(s) under the settlers has suffered to a great extent and that we (both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people) in Australia have a long way to go still.
Christmas Day we spent with Tess, Yarrow, Ton, Ellen, Mieke and John - we had a lovely, restful and scrumptious extended 8-course brunner (brunch, lunch, dinner all thrown into one) in excellent and relaxed company.
It was the taste of the fruitcake that really brought home the ´old country´ Christmas feel to Niki. As you will appreciate, Niki, like most people who ´transplant´ from Europe to Australia´s had a challenge accepting that, in fact, this is Christmas in Australia... palm trees dressed with Christmas tinsel, Santas in sleighs drawn by moo cows, shops that close at 5 o´clock, humidity and tropical warmth (despite the incessant rain).
Unfortunately, but not dissuadingly, it was A Very Wet Day - which started off with a swim in rain that was bucketing down. Very refreshing, and very good for my back, which has been playing up a bit; after that, food preparation mode was switched on, and didn´t get switched off till late afternoon.
