The last place on earth

The Last place on earth New Zealanders are proud to be the last inhabited place in the world. Nobody was here prior to 1200, and no settlements occurred until the 1600’s…Maoris didn’t migrate here until those dates, and Europeans didn’t show up until 1634. It may be the last place on earth, but it is truly a glorious one. As we start to wind down the trip, I’ve been reflecting on what we’ve seen and I can’t think of a single thing I saw or place that I went that was blah…it’s just a continuation of beautiful scenery…everything you could want, you want coastline?…you’ve got it in spades; big city?.... done; rural country tranquility?....all over the place, and the list just goes on. And it’s all positive. Added to those physical attributes, there is a spirit to New Zealanders…they know they’ve got a great place to live, and they don’t get all gnarly just because others don’t know it….they kind of think they’re getting over in life. They’re a friendly lot, as I’ve mentioned before, just go about their business. We pass through small towns of a few thousand inhabitants, but the place is spotlessly clean, has flower baskets lining the one street on which all the city businesses are located, and it just sort of invites you to stop by the image they project. We did this often in our time here. The coast is never far away it is a never ending random pattern of rocky shorelines where water spouts and waves crash, to just around the corner where you can see the calmest white sand beach you could imagine. Our latest little surprise was Napier…it’s sort of “New Zealand meets Miami beach art deco via San Francisco earthquake.” A devastating earthquake in Napier in 1931 resulted in a San Francisco type meltdown when what the earthquake didn’t destroy, fire did. What happened next is an example of why I like this country so much. They didn’t look back, they looked forward…they widened streets, made promenades in town and along the waterfront, they laid all cables underground, and they decided that they wanted to go with the popular Art Deco style. The result is a charming place that seems so natural because it all feels like it fits together. It’s full of artsy stores and fine fashion, there is a really big vegetarian grocery store right in the middle of downtown, and the local hamburger place sells alpaca burgers…The owner told me they were the best possible…she wouldn’t lie, I’m sure. All around town there are photos which show what the spot you are standing at looked like following the quake. It’s sort of like their saying: “Look at where we were in 1931, and now at what we’ve made of our city. This is who we are.” They have grown to a city and huge port of major importance in commerce and it still remains true to its identity. It’s a really cool place Just prior to reaching Napier we pulled into a fiber store…what a surprise, and as we entered the store, the lady with eyes bulging asked: “Did you feel it?” It didn’t take a whole lot of insight to know she had just experienced another earthquake….It had happened just moments before we got out of the car. The building had shaken and she looked at the website readily available on her computer to see that it was a 5.3 quiver…not a huge one, but from our California days, my daughter and I always figured that anything above 5.0 is worth noting while below that is kind of a shrug of the shoulders moment. Our host family in Christchurch has a set of plastic, magnetic acrobats that she arranges in various forms and which she bought in Seattle. She says if it’s above 5.0 they stay on the shelf, above that they fall to the floor. They are her own personal Richter Scale. In the following days several people asked us if we had felt it and related their experience…a lady who owns a shop where necklaces are suspended noted that they moved back and forth, another mentioned that she felt the floor move beneath her feet…no great alarm or fear, but an awareness of where they live and the potential of what might be. Things seem to be moving quickly to the end of the trip now…We’re heading back to Auckland in a slow, leisurely manner and have just one more thing on our list of “to do’s,” and that would be Rotorua, the large Yellowstonesque boiling pots of mud and sulpher which dot the area. Other than that, we’ve seen/done/experienced the country as we had hoped and as I have noted before, not a single day or experience was a throwaway…it’s been great. The warmth and friendliness of the people continue to be a highlight and the trip has met and exceeded our preplanning thoughts. Laundry has been done for the last time, just two more days of driving and in a week my world will once again be as it was. And ready for the next adventure that awaits my extraordinary life….life is good.