Open Writing

Welcome to Aotearoa, the 'Land of the Long White Cloud,' 'Godzone,' or simply New Zealand, the place where I have lived for the past thirty years.

Usually you would see it as two tiny islands, close to Australia, in the bottom left hand corner of the map, just about to slip off the world, and at times we wish we could.

A place to be dismissed, full of sheep, with that funny looking bird which can't fly, some good rugby players, one opera singer and a few passable white wines. A place of no importance at all.

We are not two islands, we are three; more if you count the Chathams, Kermadecs and Auckland islands, but we will settle for North Island, South Island and Stewart Island, and our land mass is greater than that of Britain.

There is no daily ferry service to Australia, as my mother thought on her first visit. Australia is three and a half hours away in a fast jumbo jet. The ferry crossing from North Island to South Island takes three hours and you can't leave Wellington, our capital city and ferry terminal at 9.am and be in my home, just south of Dunedin, in time for lunch, as a visiting cousin thought.

You will set sail from Wellington and, after crossing the rough Cook Strait, where the Tasman meets the Pacific, and cruising up the idyllic Marlborough Sounds, you will reach Picton, the South Island terminal, in time for lunch.

Then you have a two day drive down the east coast, but what scenery you will have passed through and what sights you will have seen, but these belong to another story.

Or you could fly and see nothing. Get out the map and take a look.

Climate wise we are a country of extremes, from the winterless North, humid and tropical, to the deep South, with nothing between us and the Antarctic, where tourists have been known to look for icebergs floating by!

We have penguins but not the ice.

Within New Zealand you will see every kind of landscape, snow capped mountains rising to over 12,000ft, straight from the sea, glaciers flowing into the sea, deserts, rain forests, alpine meadows, vineyards, orchards, rolling pastures, sun drenched beaches, warm seas, active volcanoes, steaming geysers, hot springs, bubbling mud pools. A land of immeasurable contrasts, an undiscovered paradise.

Of it's people much can be said. The Maoris are the indigenous people but, due to intermarriage, few, if any, pure bred Maoris exist today and most Maoris live in the warmer north of the North Island.

The early settlers were mainly from Britain but people from many other countries now live here, including a strong Chinese community, established during the time of the Gold Rush in the late 1800's.

You only have to go back four generations to the early settlers, folk seeking a better life style, setting sail from the other side of the world and landing with few supplies to clear and cultivate the dense bush-clad land and build some sort of shelter in order to survive. A resilient breed and this resilience persists today, people are judged by what they are rather than who they are. A lot of the down to earth North of Englander and the hardy Scot survives in 'Godzone.'

What do you think of when you think of New Zealand? The Maori Haka, 'Now is the Hour,' Rugby, racing and beer,' the ANZAC's and Gallipolli, frozen lamb and plastic cheese. There is much more to us than this.

The first woman bishop, a woman prime minister, a woman leader of the opposition, a woman Chief justice, a woman Governor General. We are not ,however, a race of raving, rabid feminists This is the land of the 'All Blacks,' the winners of the Americas' Cup and, even in our defeat, the winning boat was New Zealand designed and New Zealand crewed, but we won't say anymore about that.

A land of shearers, farmers, forestry workers and fishermen. A land of mountaineers, trampers, bungy jumpers, jet boaters and white water rafters. The home of Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Ernest Rutherford. A place for writers, composers, an artists paradise, of symphony orchestras, ballets, choirs, theatres and the set of the 'Lord of th Rings' trilogy.

A cross section of every facet of life and only four million of us. We are a diverse and different people.

We have no large army, navy or airforce, but we were the first to enter the 2nd World War alongside Britain.

The day starts here and we were the first to greet the millenium. We are not a great power in the world, but we do stand by our principles. We stood against apartheid, we stood against nuclear ships entering our ports, we have no nuclear power stations, we preserve our 'Clean, Green,' image, we refused to invade Iraq. We are too small to matter but big enough to say what we think.

We are a funny little country on the edge of the world but, as I said, the day starts here and, hopefully, you will come with me and look at some of it's special corners, meet some of it's people and find out how it ticks.

So here endeth the geography and history lessons and hopefully the fun can begin.

Welcome to New Zealand.