Kelsey's Travel Blog!
I travel not to escape life, but to be sure that life will not escape me! Come join me!
Auckland, New Zealand
As I am entering into my final hours in New Zealand, I find myself wishing that I had a photographic memory. A memory where I could remember exactly what I did, what it looked like, I could memorize the faces of those I have met, so I could remember the places the little things, like one particular mountain that took my breathe away or one moment within another conversation with a fellow backpacker where although we came from two very different worlds, we just understood each other.
As I think more abut traveling, backpacking, hosteling, etc, I realize more and more the cultural differences between foreign nations and my own. There are vast differences in values, in fundamental beliefs and expectations that, if gone unnoticed, keep us in a box of our own making. I have observed that in the American box, society has our futures already planned out: you go to high school, then to college, then you graduate, get a job, get a house with a mortgage, get married, have kids, and 40 years down the line, you retire. We live in this world where we live to work, not work to live; where your occupation or where you attended University is an indication as to what kind of person you are, not the places or people in your life. It’s all about sizing others up before you even hear their story. The United States is competition based society; where it is not uncommon to hear the words "competition" or "compeditor" in the business world.
There is some logic to going the conventional route: it’s safe and secure. For many, this is exactly the life they envision for themselves. But when you’re a person who may have values other that stability and security, like me, the idea of a cookie-cutter suburban home with 2 kids, a soccer mom minivan, a golden retriever, and a 9-5 job makes you cringe. I often find myself torn between what I want, and what I have been told to want.
This, from what I hear, is not a new struggle for world nomads like myself. Experiencing other culturels enable us to see the world through different lenses, yet even then, it is difficult to do away with what we have always known. If I were to express to a friend of mine how much I loved New Zealand and how I would love to stay, most Americans would have said, “yea, that really sucks, but you can always go back.” Yet when I mentioned it to some friends from New Zealand, they say, “Well, why don’t you?” We simply live in different boxes, and yet the idea to me is both tempting and outrageous. I could really learn a thing or two about spontaneity from these Kiwis.
This is what happens when you open your mind and heart to strangers: you find these incredible people like Grant, Peter and Dave in Auckland, or like Nienke, Friede, Julia, and Rob in Queenstown, who have somehow made their way into a small place in your heart, even when you have only known them for a week. The people I have met here in New Zealand are same of the best I have ever encountered, and I am so thankful that they also opened their hearts to my sister and I. We will be forever changed because of them.
I wrapped up my last few days in New Zealand spending time getting drinks with Peter or watch some good ol' American hockey and enjoying some incredible wine with Grant.
The last few days in Auckland have been some of the best of my entire 3 weeks abroad so far. I had to say goodbye to my sister and my partner in crime. It’s going to be an interesting experience traveling on my own since I wont have my sister and best friend to travel with. Regardless, we loved Auckland! We spent time exploring the small city and experiencing the post Rugby World Cup hype. We visited the Stardom Observatory and the Auckland Museum, where we got to see an authentic Maori (the indigenous peoples of New Zealand) performance, as well as see ancient artifacts and buildings from the times before Western Europe settled the land. Since our friends from Wellington, Grant and Dave, are from Auckland, we already had local connections in the city, and since Grant is a bartender at an Italian restaurant along the Northern Wharf, Katelyn and I found ourselves eating top-knotch pizza, drinking premire cocktails, and meeting additional travel friends. The Norther Wharf is a genderfied area of the city that had only just come aout because of the Rugby World Cup a few months previous. There are a number of new restaurants lining the Wharf ranging from Italian to French, to Wine and Bistro, so no matter your craving, it could be satisfied by one of the revamped and posh restaurants.
While at the Italian restaurant, we met our new friend Peter who had moved with his family a decade previous to Auckland from London and seems to have never looked back. Always keen for a laugh, I could spend hours with this guy and never get bored. He also works at a cigar shop in town, which just so happens to be the only distributer of cigars in all of New Zealand. When my sister and I stopped by to say a quick hello during our tour around town, we got to learn all about the art of making cigars and the unique personalities and characteristics to each brand of cigar. I even got to see Fidel Castro’s favorite cigars, I got to hold a box of Cubans, and even though I’m not a cigar smoker, but he even gave me a Cuban cigar as a souvenir. Just don’t tell the United States Customs.
As I sit in the International Departures terminal at the Auckland International Airport waiting for my flight to Sydney, I find myself getting choked up as I conclude this final blog posting from the great country of New Zealand. This country has given me people that I hope to keep in touch with for years to come, it has given me pictures upon pictures with which I will be able to reminisce and feel just a bit closer to New Zealand even from miles away, and it has given me memories that I will hold incredibly close to my heart.
So with that being said, as I told Grant when he dropped me off at the airport earlier this morning, this is not goodbye, this is a “see you later”, and I say that now to the whole country of New Zealand
So, thank you everyone and thank you New Zealand for your incredible experiences and people you have given me. I will be seeing you very very soon.
