We are currently in Vanuatu and haven’t had internet. I started writing this post in New Zealand, but wasn’t able to finish and post it because I got a stomach bug right before we left! I’d nearly gone two months without any illness, but it caught me again. We are now in the capital of Vanuatu and have internet, so there will be several posts coming your way soon to catch everyone up on the past few weeks!
On February 20th we crossed the International Date Line and journeyed forth onto New Zealand. This is the farthest from home I’ve ever been – 19 hours ahead of our families and most of our friends. So, on whatever day you find yourself reading this, we are likely already a full day ahead of you, which is a crazy thought!
It’s been a bit of a shock coming back into a more developed country. While Chile and Argentina have heavy European roots that influence the culture (especially the food culture), the price tags, stores, and language here in New Zealand are much closer to home. We just returned from a trip to the supermarket that was a little overwhelming! In most of South America, shopping is separate. Drug stores are separate from grocery stores, many grocery stores are separate from fresh food stands, and even clothing and shoes are often sold separately. If you need sunscreen, milk, and apples, you go to three places. We are now back in the land of everything being in one place – which seems like it would be convenient, but it ends up just being a little overwhelming when you aren’t used to a particular set up of a store or any of the brands they have.
As with South America, we arrived in New Zealand during their summertime, so there have been plenty of festivities going on during our time here. We started out in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. We’d heard there is a big music scene in Wellington, and as we flew in from Auckland we met a Kiwi (what you call a person from New Zealand) excited to tell us about everything going on. As it turns out, both the New Zealand Festival and Performance Arcade concert series were going on during our time there, and both were free! We saw some interesting acts, including a musical art performance by the Gold Instrument (Body), which really stood out. I think some of you will appreciate this more than others, but this artist in particular is a classically trained pianist who walked out completely naked, covered in gold paint, with a “mask” ( a bush) covering her face. She put on a performance, first playing a piano with hammers on top of the building, then slowly coming down, walking through the audience, interacting with people silently, as she made her way to the stage where she played a different piano with her hands. It was like watching a statue interact with people and play fantastic classical music. At first I was shocked because we didn’t know she was going to be naked, but the longer she played the more the act made me think. When Kirk and I later reflected on it, we decided we really enjoyed it.
It was such a stark difference to most of our culture. Kids ran around, playing with the “statue”. Adults interacted without freaking out. It made me think about how sexualized bodies are in the US by both by secular and conservative cultures. One side flaunts sexuality while the other side hides it – both ultimately making people out to be more like objects than humans. It was refreshing to see someone treat a body differently – as art – reflecting the beauty of our bodies as instruments in and of themselves. Our bodies are pretty amazing things.
Anyway, below is a short clip of the show that I hope you can hear- it isn’t loading the sound when I try to play it from the site. And no worries, you can’t see any real nakedness in it.
As for the rest of the festival, we watched lots of musical acts with electronic music, which isn’t my favorite, but it’s surprisingly entertaining to watch it be put together right in front of you. We were also in the capital for the opening night of the New Zealand Festival. They had a huge event celebrating their heritage that thousands upon thousands of people came out for. We were nearly suffocated by the crowds. The event was posted live on Facebook, so I’m sure you could look it up if you want to see how many people came or get a taste of what the event was. It was held in the harbor where they sailed in ships while what I believe were descendants of the original Maori people (the first people group on the island) narrated and sang. It was cool to see how much the country as a whole seemed to value this original heritage of theirs – especially since I don’t recall seeing many events honoring indigenous peoples in the States, at least not on such a national level.
I guess in the States, many of us see our roots as European, African, Asian, or Central or South American, but ultimately, that makes ours the immigrant culture. America’s roots lie further back, and the more I think about it, it’s kind of strange how little the majority of Americans seem to identify with those roots. Sure, I’d guess that the majority of Americans have little indigenous blood in them, but the land that we live on has a deeper history than merely 200 years ago, and I think we all miss out (and are hurtful to those who were here originally) when we remain ignorant to that. I don’t have an answer on the best way to go about working though or fixing that now, but it was really beautiful to see an indigenous culture celebrated in a way I hadn’t seen before.
These are some of the boats that were sailed around later in the evening for the festival.
The harbor. On opening night of the festival, there were crowds of people lining every edge.
Statue/view of the harbor from the other side.
On another day Kirk and I hiked up a small mountain in the nearby neighborhood, Mount Kaukau. There were some beautiful views.
I was telling Kirk, I think New Zealand is one of my favorite places I’ve ever been. There are things about other places that I liked better, but New Zealand has so many great things all in one place, that it’s hard to beat. Good food, beautiful beaches, rolling green hills, volcanos, mountains, hot springs, friendly people – all right there on one island. We only visited the North Island during this trip, but I hope to visit the south in the future. Kirk says it’s even more beautiful – or at least beautiful in different ways!
If you are ever in Wellington, a must see is their national museum – Te Papa. It’s free and humongous (we went twice and didn’t make it through the whole thing)!
The museum is all about New Zealand – the history, the animals, the land – they have the only persevered giant squid on display in the world inside the building! They have a lot of interactive exhibits that are great for kids too. For example:
This is me next to a life size model of the heart of a blue whale – kids could climb inside 🙂
The exhibit that impressed me most told the story of New Zealand’s involvement in WW1. They had several larger than life statues that were incredibly realistic – hair, sweat, blush, veins, fingerprints – it felt like I was standing next to a giant. Part of me kept waiting for it to move 😂! Above you can see a woman standing next to the statue to show you the size. Below is the best picture I got of the details, but since it was dimly lit I don’t think the picture does how realistic they looked justice!
New Zealand has a big coffee scene going. One day we looked up some of the best shops in town and decided to try Hangar.
I am surprised I haven’t seen more coffee houses that do this, but at this one you can purchase a “flight” of coffee – a tasting. They give you approximately 4-5 ounces of each one and you can compare tasting notes or just pick your favorite. I loved it 🙂 They also had options of getting one coffee prepared 3 ways – fun stuff.
These are the three we tried. They were all my favorite at some point in the tasting – the flavor changes so much as coffee cools!
Another day we took a train over to Martinborough to try some of the famous New Zealand Pinor Noirs. Compared to South America, wine tasting in New Zealand is so easy and cheap! In Martinborough all of the vineyards are just a few blocks from the city center – and there are over 30 there. You can rent bikes or walk from one to the next and pretty much all tastings are $5 ($3.75 USD), which you can split. We ended up visiting 6 of them, but at one the tasting and tour was free! We liked most of the wines we tried, but my favorites are noted below (blogging is how I’m remembering which ones we liked for the future!) The six we visited were:
1) Palliser – this was my first experience in New Zealand wines. We liked everything we tried, but nothing stood out as much as some of the ones to come.
2) Martinborough Vineyards – Our favorite overall. Their 2017 Home Block Sauvignon Blanc was my favorite Sauv Blanc we had (which New Zealand is also known for).
3) Muirlea Rise – We stopped by this one on a whim and it was our most interesting tasting. The owner was a character and the tasting consisted of three Pinor Noirs made exactly the same way, but from three different years. It was shocking how different they all were and he told us about how the crops did better or worse due to rain. Their 2014 was our overall favorite Pinot Noir. He also let us try a liquor he makes from the grapes called Apres. It was sweeter than other liquor from grapes I’ve tried.
4) Schubert – Award winning wines. We tried a 2017 Tribianco and 2017 Dolce (dessert wine) that were especially delicious. They sold out of their most famous Pinot Noir as soon as it was named the best. The one we tried was good, but not our favorite.
5) Haythornthwaite Vineyard – We also stopped here on a whim while waiting for an appointment at the last vineyard and while the wines tasted fine, what we loved were the jams! We ended up buying an especially good chutney and a citrus jam (lemon, lime, grapefruit, mandarin). SO yummy!
6) Ata Rangi – The final vineyard we visited offered a free tasting and tour if you booked in advance (we emailed only a few hours before we wanted to go and they still had 2 spots available!) They were so friendly and the tasting consisted of 6 wines – we got to try 7 though because they had opened a bottle of their 2008 Pinot Noir earlier in the day for an employee who was going to give a presentation on it. This aged wine in particular doesn’t stay good very long after being opened. None of their wines were our favorite, but it was a really good experience!
The grapes here look so different than South America! The bunches are much smaller, there is more greenery around, and many of the vineyards protect the vines from birds with nets, so the whole look is different!
In all our time in Wellington was well spent and I would love to return someday. This was my first time encountering a culture so similar, yet very different than American culture. Something within that has lead to a lot of pondering on my part, which I like. That’s what I really believe traveling is for – to teach you – to expand your thinking. With any luck I’ll pass a few of those nuggets on along the way! I’ll get the next blog up soon!
I leave you with a picture of a fence we passed in Martinborough. I loved the colors!
The Yonderers 