Amazing New Zealand

This is the country of the New Amazons there is no doubt about that.

Yesterday along Evans Bay Parade, in the face of strong Northerly winds a lone cyclist was pedalling a not-so-new bicycle along the dramatic windswept road, hugging the coast as if it was about to be blown away. He was laden with the inevitable backpack, but an enormous one, stuffed with probably all his worldly possessions. It was slung at a precarious angle across his back, doubtless increasing the weight and discomfort. But no, this man was head-down, pedalling furiously, a string around his neck carrying ID of some sort, but the expression on his face was what marked him forever. He would let nothing beat him, nothing. Where he had come from, where he was going, I have no idea, but he was going to get there, with pedal power and grit. This is such a Kiwi trait, to do it against all odds.

To illustrate this yet again, that same day, in the evening in downtown Wellington I was waiting for a bus to take me home. I was well rugged up as it was a wet and windy day, typical of this city. A young man came lurching across the street having been shopping for provisions at the New World supermarket in Willis St. He was totally ordinary, in black as most young people, but he was in bare feet. Middle of winter, on ashfelt cement pavement, in bare feet. I jokingly asked if he'd lost his shoes, and he seriously looked at me and said. 'I prefer to walk in bare feet' and with a smile, he boarded his bus. Here was a Kiwi who was in touch with his country, albeit in this case with cold, wet pavement, just as the Australian Aborigines were for tens of thousands of years in bare feet, with little else to adorn their bodies. That is until the white man came and introduced him to the customs of their so-called civilisation, and also gave them unimaginable ills and habits which practically totally destroyed their ancient civilisation and culture. Thankfully they have survived, but only just, and still have a long way to go to be recognised for what they are, a great and enduring race of proud people, long persecuted and misunderstood. Such is Western civilisation...

A lovely hot ginger and honey drink before my Ti Whanawhana class.

The lovely Cafe Scopa...

Tomorrow I am off to Christchurch for the first time, just to privately celebrate the beginning of my  seventieth year.