Where am I?

My dear old dad asked me the other day whether I had met any New Zealanders while in New Zealand after I had spent ten minutes telling him about all the amazing people I've met and had to list of their various nationalities. Yes, I've gotten to know two people who were actually born in New Zealand. And no, it's not because I only talk to Americans or other travelers. New Zealand is so freaking international at this particular moment in history. I talk to whoever comes across my path, and at first I thought I was meeting people from all over rather than right here because I'm a traveler and like attracts like, but even here at the blueberry farm I talk to the customers who generally don't seem to be travelers and half the time they aren't native kiwis (we could get into who's really native anyway, especially in a country like this, but for the moment I'm just going on who was born here).

Two nights ago we painted Wellington red. In the sports bar with the rugby we talked to a few men on a bachelor's party outing. The one who stuck around (not the bachelor) was originally from the states. On our post-rugby loss wander to find dancing, we stopped in the Cosmic headshop and had a good ol' chat with the cashier (a kiwi) then left with three people we'd bumped into in the shop. I thought great! New people, actual kiwis. Nope - one was from Fiji (Dan Katzman, this was you in a lanky islander's body), and the couple was from the UK. So with a crew of seven (three Americans, a German, a Fijian, and two form the UK) we set out to add a kiwi to our crew. We found Joe the kiwi, but I think he got the impression we were kidnapping him and he soon ran off with his "water" that looked an awful lot like rum and coke.

Here at the farm Mandi's friends are from all over, as are the customers. Nima Sherpa and his family are Sherpas from Nepal. Mallou and Peter are from France and Belgium respectively. Her sister, Ginny just moved here from Georgia. I guess Jenny, the woman with the boar farm across the street is a kiwi (so that makes 4 kiwis I know). Yesterday I sat a table and decorating heart cookies with kids who decided that was fun. A few of the families were kiwis. One was from the U.S. originally. Another was half from the U.S., half from New Zealand, and speaking Japanese. Another was speaking even more Japanese, although I didn't talk to them about their nationality. Another was speaking a language I didn't recognize (German?) and I also didn't talk to them about their nationality. A woman from Oregon came through. A week ago a family from Toronto was here.

So I'm not hiding from kiwis, there just don't seem to be any more kiwis than everyone else around here. New Zealand is such a 'young' country. Sometimes I wonder how much that has to do with it. Earlier in the U.S. few people identified themselves as Americans because they were so fresh from elsewhere. New Zealand probably wasn't even settled by any humans until about 800 AD. When Europeans came they did a far better job of settling in than anywhere else. Fucked up things happened and still do, but it was far more of a fair fight and series of sales. And many things are being compensated for now that weren't or haven't been fair (though apparently one small tribe is getting most of it due to legal prowess).

I guess New Zealand feels as though it's still developing. It's weird being in a country younger than the U.S. The other place I see it is in the buildings - all quite modern because that's the European history here. There seems to be a freshness to the country, but maybe that's just the season and MY freshness to the country. We'll see how she grows up in this era we pretend is post-colonial and post-imperialism. She seems to be holding her own. There's definitely alot of pride around Kiwi products and a big movement against things like genetic engineering that are being pushed on countries around the world. New Zealand has a good head on her shoulders. She sees what's working and not working. (we'll ignore the fact that I'm feminizing land and pretend it's not sexist).

Over 'n' Out