Auckland

So, we're back now, in windy Welly, after an awesome time spent in Auckland. We managed to cram quite a bit into the three days we were here. We went to a yoga festival held at the community we're thinking of moving to. We went to Bethells Beach, close to the Waitakere ranges south-west of Auckland. I was in a really good mood on the beach and did a cartwheel, which resulted, I found out quite soon after, in me dropping the keys to our rental car (dubbed 'Dingleberry'). In a panic I rushed back over the dunes, envisioning phoning the rental people to tell them I'd lost the car keys and could they please come out to the boonies to give us the spare set. I ran down a dune and saw a man with a husky and his daughter on his shoulders walking towards me. I asked him if he had seen a key chain and he smiled and held up the car keys. We laughed about it for a bit and he then invited us back to his place for a coffee. We followed him back to his house, which is surrounded by native bush and is pretty much the only house on the road. He's an Englishman who has recently immigrated with his family and two dogs. He had an awesome set-up; raised beds with veggies and about ten chickens in an enclosure with plenty of land to expand. He told us about his dream to have some livestock and we thought 'mmm, this sounds familiar.' Anyhoo, he gave us his contact details and said to contact him whenever. It was a really cool experience.

This morning we went to Browns Bay - which was really nice actually. We had a few hours to kill so we took a drive into the city; again, really great. We went for a walk in the park and saw that there was an art exhibition on. 'Degas to Dali' is an exhibition of a series of impressionist and surrealist artists from the national gallery in Scotland. It was pretty awesome, but we also got to see a bit of New Zealand art, by both Maori and Pakeha; very interesting stuff, but I reckon we need to go back and have a proper look. After that we took a walk along along the main drag of the central city. It reminded me a lot of Sydney, except prettier. There's an interesting balance between old colonial buildings and big, shiny concrete and steel jobs.

All in all it was a very positive experience. This post is a bit insight-light, but that's cos I'm knackered. Here are some pretty pictures instead:

 

 

Mount Taranaki (or Mt Egmont), a dormant volcano, on the west coast of the north island - as seen from our plane window on the way to Auckland.

Bethells Beach on the west coast of the Auckland region

Playing with iMovie. I really like the music though!

Elsje enjoying a hearty cup of Jyoti's magic chai at the yoga festival

Sky Tower as seen from the park

Exploded Raphaelesque Head by Dali - One of the pieces we saw at the exhibition

One of the fancy high rise apartment buildings in Auckland central - I think...

Of scenic routes and things unseen

Seems like this blog, in one way or another, is doomed to always be a travel blog. Elsje and I are in Auckland tonight. We heard much negative about this place from many different sources, Kiwi and immigrant alike. First impressions? Awesome!! Ok it's grimy (or at least grimier than Wellington), like any city is, but I like that, it's real. We came up here because we are seriously considering moving here at the end of the year. Our initial excuse for making the trip was to check out the college of natural medicine where Elsje wants to study next year. The campus is in a beautiful and larny area called Grey Lynn, where everything's organic it seems. It's also crazy expensive apparently. But all that aside, both Elsje and I, after only spending a few hours here, feel as if this is the place we want to be, at least for the foreseeable future. For me personally THIS is what I expected to feel from New Zealand, what I've been waiting to feel. There is energy here, stuff is happening, things are moving! Cape Town has a potent and relentlessly restless energy that creeps into your bones - the only place I've ever felt anything comparable was in New Orleans - and Auckland has something of that trembling sense of anticipation, of possibility, but in a more manageable dose. I feel as if there is real potential for something to grow here, for us to make the kind of life we've been dreaming about. New Zealand is a weird place. Even after six months I still can't shake that feeling. It's so provincial in so many ways, somehow strangely backward and almost isolationist and yet there is so much potential here. It seems that many New Zealanders worry about their country, constantly comparing the economy to that of Australia and lamenting that 'we' aren't as affluent or obnoxious as Australians. I think I've mentioned this before, the fact that traveling gives you huge gifts of perspective and lessons in relativity. There is so much that is awesome here, so much that is weird and offbeat and relentlessly down-to-earth. I feel that there's so much possibility here, but so few have really grabbed it, like it's not in the culture, as if it's an unwritten rule not to. I realise that most of what I'm saying here is gibberish, but that's the effect New Zealand is having on me. I'm constantly bewildered by this place and its people, but in no way that I can pinpoint. I like that so much; it's difficult to get hold of. As soon as I do I'll let you know.

That's a point actually. We are staying in a place called Albany, which is on the North Shore of Auckland. Over the hill to east is Brown's Bay where you'll find upwards of 40 000 South Africans, which I find both disturbing and intriguing. It seems that Kiwis have mixed feelings about the 'Saffers,' who have in many ways made certain parts of the North Shore into a South African suburb. I don't really like that and I have no interest in living in a mini SA, but my point is that the South Africans have got hold of this place somehow, but in a typically South African way, that is, they've stamped their particular presence on a somewhat neutral cultural landscape and made it home, but, it seems to me, in the most functional and utilitarian way. I don't want to do that, I want to see what else is possible in terms of 'lifestyle.' We didn't leave South Africa just to escape the crime - though I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a factor - and to live the middle-class suburban 'dream.' It's too LCD. We didn't so much leave South Africa as come to New Zealand, it was more pull than push. And yes many expectations of this place were dashed, but thank god, because I think perhaps for the first time we are seeing this country and it's potential clearly. It feels like we are slowly - very slowly -  learning New Zealand, exploring its smallness one tiny bit at a time and for the first time in a long time I'm excited again.    :-)


- pics surely to follow...

Wow, this must be one of the most beautiful poems I've ever read!

TO A CHILD by Christopher Morley

The greatest poem ever known 
Is one all poets have outgrown;
The poetry, innate untold
Of being only four years old

Still young enough to be a part
Of Nature's great impulsive heart
Born comrade of bird, beast and tree
And unselfconscious as the bee-

And yet with lovely reason skilled
Each day new paradise to build
Elate explorer of each sense
Without dismay, without pretence!

In your unstained transparent eyes
There is no conscience, no surprise:
Life's queer conundrums you accept,
Your strange Divinity still kept...

And Life, that sets all things in rhyme,
May make you poet, too in time-
But there were days, O tender elf,
When you were poetry itself! 


 

This is one very relaxed and funky kitten!!

Here's to tears and turning corners

Hello. It's been a while - feels like an age - since I did a blog post. It's been a heavy few months indeed. I've had my head down, grafting away in survival mode I suppose, both of us have. It's been a difficult transition moving to New Zealand, much more so than I ever could have anticipated. It's deep-level stuff, psychological and emotional, unseen and thus unexpected; certainly caught me off guard. So much of what we expected has been dashed or severely reevaluated, and yet ultimately, what a positive experience.

I remember just before we left the states I wrote a post about negative spaces and the like, but it seems as if I had it wrong somehow. Silence, like shadow, is the true negative space, the no-thing that defines the some-thing, and my absence from this blog has been its expression. I used to be the kind of person who would never proclaim a positive experience or a fortunate turn of events for fear of jinxing it, but thankfully I'm not like that anymore. During the past week or so it has felt like Wellington, the land here, has begun to open up for us, slowly, but definitely surely. It's an awesome feeling, like taking a huge deep breath after climbing a particularly nasty mountain. I don't want to make a big deal out of this, I just wanted proclaim the turning of a corner, there on the deep, unseen level . And also to say hey and hi and wow and thank you.

'On the surface there, where eyes shine like midnight pines and smile saw-tooth grins.'

P.S. There's a song if you click the title.

Maori-Hongi. The traditional way of greeting.

 

I got the above two images off the internet...aren't they awesome? What is even more awesome is that Hongi is still the way to greet each other in the Maori culture here in New Zealand. I find it intimate, real, and beautiful. 

I started relief teaching on Friday (Yay!!) and was fortunate enough to be part of the crew preparing the kids from ages 8-11, of all different cultures, for their initiation ceremony happening next week. They are basically going to be adopted into the Maori family and it is a kind of "right of passage." The children are ridiculously excited. They have to learn the words, songs and steps of the ceremony. Wow. Two traditional Maori elders came to the school in the afternoon to perfect the ritual and make sure the kids know exactly what to next week. It is a sacred ceremony and it is fascinating to see how seriously the children take it and how solemnly they learn. 

If you would like to have an idea of the beginning of the ceremony, have a look at Whale rider, a stunning New Zealand movie that shows a part of the initiation of the village boys. The following URL is an excerpt from the movie. The welcoming ceremony part is about  quarter of the way in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rSYWz4Z3idc (I really recommend seeing the whole film though. It is magical)

The children are going to sleep over in a Hoturoa Marae. A traditional Maori meeting place where the ceremony will be performed. They will learn different traditional Maori arts such as weaving, basket-making and fishing.

Hoturoa Marae

It was an interesting experience as I can not speak Maori, but the kids helped me so much in the pronunciation of things! Funny to see little European kiddies rattling off in Maori. I was grateful for such a special day. :)

The strangest thing has started to happen this last week...my heart has slowly started to open in slithers and I can feel the warm flowing of love and appreciation for this place streaming out on odd occasions when I least expect it. Which is very surprising, as I had no idea that my chest was so tightly clamped shut. But in these moments, the lightness of spirit and happiness I feel would overwhelm me, as their sudden appearance make their scarcity these last few months just so much more pronounced.

It is something I never paid much attention to...How, when you are in your familiar and comfortable environment, your heart is open and receptive, ready to respond to whatever stimulus it receives with enthusiasm and confidence or reluctance and nonchalance; whatever the mood of the day may be. Even daunting tasks do not look so daunting when you are surrounded by the familiar and by loved ones who help you solidify and justify your decisions and actions.
But when in an unknown place with challenges unlike any I've experienced before, my body's natural reaction seems to be to shut my heart as tightly as it can in its cage of ribs, tucking those embracing and flowing sails that reach into the world firmly away.
No wonder I've been so sad!
But I think now enough time has passed to start trusting this new environment and myself in it and I am just exhausted from unconsciously keeping the world out and myself safe. So whoop whoop! you brave heart, lets do this thing together... :)

I am starting relief teaching this week which I'm sure would prove to be a very interesting experience! Wish me luck!

The photos below are from some of the walks Russell and I did around town last week.