First Impressions of New Zealand

New Zealand is green, lush and varied. There is as much greenery as we see at our home on Whidbey Island, but with some fascinating variations. Some of the forest plants look familiar—pines, cypress, juniper, ocean spray, while others would be entirely out of place on Whidbey—palm trees and huge fern trees. There are Norfolk pines but no Douglas fir or red cedar. Like Whidbey, New Zealand is surrounded by water. Vistas often include ocean views out to the horizon, many with sandy beaches or rocky shores. Auckland is generally flat and surrounded by immense tidal mud flats. Shore birds congregate by the hundreds on the mud flats at low tide.

The low topography of Auckland is punctuated with small volcanoes. The volcanoes are typically millions of years old but some have erupted as recently as 600 years ago. They are indicated by their roughly conical shape with a crater sculpted out of the peak and are now covered with grass and low shrubs.

Auckland is a small big-city. It has all the amenities and services of a metropolis, but without the sky scrapers. We didn’t see many buildings taller than 4-5 stories. The freeways carry traffic without strain. Even at rush hour, cars were moving at a good clip. The divided highways don’t seem to extend far beyond Auckland. It’s easy to get out of the city and into the countryside.

Walking near our motel in the Eden Park neighborhood, we were struck by the variety of ethnic restaurants in a single block: Mekong Neua (Thai and Laos cuisine), Le garde-manger, Canton Cafe, Tanoshimi Cafe, Gyros Kebab and Bangkok (Eat In & Takeaways) and Little India. We chose the Roasted Addiqtion where I had a latte and lox with cream cheese on a bagel for breakfast.

We caught a taxi from the airport and chatted with our driver, a Sikh man from Punjab. He has been living, studying and working in New Zealand for seven years. He told us he will be returning to Punjab next month for a wedding. In fact, the wedding will be his own; he will be marrying a young Punjabi woman. Probing a bit further, we learned that, while the date has been set and many of his family members have been invited, at this moment, he actually doesn’t know who the bride will be. But he is confident that his parents will find someone suitable in time for the ceremony.

While it was a bit difficult for us to wrap our minds around that situation, we appreciated that in the culture of India, a marriage is as much an arrangement between two families as it is a relationship between two people. We were impressed by his confidence and wished him well.

David