Wellie

The Beehive: home of NZ Parliament

 Sunday 6 February, Waitangi Day.

Sunday finds me once again sitting and enjoying the birds in the Puhutekawa tree outside as I write.  I enjoy thinking of  concurrent events.  Today, Saturday in Washington, finds many of my friends wending their way around Mount Constitution on Orcas Island for the Orcas 25k or 50k trail run.  In Utah, my son, Morgan, now able to bear weight on his recently fractured femur, is walking without crutches and spinning on stationary bikes.  He is preparing for a Superbowl Sunday celebration with his dad, Bill, and will return to Washington for a 10 day visit.  Here in New Zealand, it is Waitangi Day, a holiday that is both celebration and a reminder of controversy between Europeans and Maori. The day honors the signing of the Waitangi Treaty in 1840.

Kiwi sculpture abound

This treaty between the Maori chiefs and the British crown marks the founding of New Zealand.   The treaty, written in English and  translated to Maori, contains subtle differences in language that underlies the controversy.  (see http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/treaty/the-treaty-in-brief for a good summary). In short, the Maori agreed to maintain authority over "taonga" which means "treasures" while ceding "kawanatanga" (governance).  The English version was expressed to allow the Maori to maintain possesion over property and cede sovereignty.  To the Maori, there are many treasures beyond the land. Sovereignty and governance are not interchangeable.  As is true of many native-European colonialist interactions, the European contingent took more than the native population had intended.  To its credit, New Zealand  founded  a government of both Europeans ("Paheka") and Native Maori long before many other countries, despite controversy.  Indeed, where there is politics, controversy seems destined to follow.  NZ continues to have quite an open immigration policy for its Pacific Islander brothers and sisters, while moving to NZ for a European or American can be more difficult.  My trip to Wellington at the end of January helped to educate me about both political and environmental history of New Zealand.

I loved all the sculpture of Wellington.  Here, a silver ball suspended by guidewires in Civic Square

Last weekend, a three day weekend due to Monday's celebration of Auckland Anniversary day, I traveled to Wellington, as I had intended to do over Christmas.  It seemed a fitting time to travel there during the celebration of the foundation of the province of Auckland  as my aim was to visit Te Papa, the national museum and learn more about NZ.

Another look at Civic Square.  Almost miss the ball, eh?

Wellington has been described to me by many kiwi in a variety of ways:
       *a smaller version of San Francisco from the 1950s,
       *the seat of the new age movement in NZ,
       *a city of terrible wind and rain, but on the rare occasion of fine weather, it is lovely.
I could find truth in each of these depictions.  Wellington is a very livable city, if you don't count the weather.  Landing in Wellington can be rather exciting, with the crosswinds that are driven through the funnel known as Cook Strait, dividing  the North and South islands.

In "Wellie", I was met by Brandon Henry who had arrived in NZ a month earlier and circumnavigated the south island on his bike.  He met me at the backpackers and joined my tour of the city, through museums, botanical gardens, wildlife preserves and back street navigation.

Wellington Harbor

I had chosen to stay in a backpacker's (inexpensive accommodation with shared kitchen) in Plimmerton, outside of Wellington.   I later passed several backpackers while walking the neighborhoods of Wellie.  They all seemed like busy, friendly places that a quiet night's rest might not be possible until well into the night.  By contrast, our backpackers, the Moana Lodge, overlooked the beach at the quiet end of a small town accessible to the city by a 1/2 hour train ride.  The room was windowed on two sides, allowing for fresh ocean breezes to sweeten the room.

Sunset across from Moana Lodge

While in Wellie, I found frequent reminders of the relative brief history of humans in New Zealand.  I was particularly taken with "Zealandia," a wildlife preserve that sought to return the land to a biological diversity known only prior to the introduction of man.  Certainly, the moa and many other, now extinct, flora and fauna can not be recreated,but many of the endangered species native to NZ are protected here.  Tall fences protect from possum and stoat.   They have a small museum of their own where the natural history of NZ is recounted.

Moa shots of Brandon

Consider an island, uninhabited by man or mammalian predator for 80 million years.  This allowed flightless birds like the Moa, kiwi, takahe, kakapo, Auckland Island teal, penguin, Steven Island wren, Weka among others to not only survive, but thrive.  In a brief period of time, due to the introduction of man, cats, possum, stoats and rats  led to a dramatic change in the fauna of NZ.  The cutting of the kaori trees and introduction of new fauna had a similar impact on the land.  New Zealnd thus became an abbreviated history of natural selection, a microcosm for the impact of man on the earth.  An astounding 43% of the birds are extinct since the 1300s.  Walking through Zealandia, I was fortunate enough to see tuatara, kaka, and many now endangered species.  They do have kiwi and takahe, but I did not spy them on my daylight tour of the grounds.

Setting crab (?) traps in Plimmerton

I left Zealandia more cognizant of the impact of my presence.  I renewed my resolve to try to make as little negative impact on the environment of this earth.  It is interesting to me, that in a country which has seen such drastic changes, that the environmental movement is just taking hold.  Although Auckland has curbside recycling pick up, hospitals and city wide recycling does not exist.  It is difficult to look at product labels to know if an agent in biodegradable.  After biking in the Auckland and being immersed in a cloud of exhaust, I doubt the emission requirements on vehicles are as stringent as in the US.

Brandon and I walked the streets of Wellington, hiked up the hilly side streets to the streetcar museum and the Botanical gardens.  From there we could look at the Wellington harbor and witness, through the binoculars, the open water swim race I chickened out of when I heard that an 8m great white and  5m hammerhead had been seen trolling the waters of Wellington Harbor.  Thankfully, there have been no shark attacks in over 100 years in NZ... but I did not want to be the bait that changed that statistic!

See the white water?  Those are all the swimmers for the Wellington Classic

The second day in Wellie was devoted to Te Papa, the national museum of NZ.  Art and history married in one building. Maori and Paheka history of New Zealand on some wings, Kiwi,European and Pacific Islander art on others.  At the end of the day, while shopping for a gift for Alma's birthday, Ethan Pace found Brandon in the gift shop.  Though Ethan and I were a mere foot from each other, we did not recognize each other as we both had much longer hair!  I have known Ethan since he was in elementary school.  His quick smile and sparkling eyes were unchanged.  He seemed relaxed, happy, and very happily kiwi.  I was reminded of others have told me about New Zealand: it is a small country.  After a while, you run into people you know in all sorts of places.  Meeting him and Koha, his girlfriend, was a delightful surprise that added the final touch to a delightful weekend.

Velux 5 Oceans Race: solo around the world sailboat race was stopped in Wellie while I was there.  I thought of George...

Monday, Auckland Anniversary day, found me flying back home from Wellington.  As I flew home, I found myself reconsidering the concurrent events of people in my life: Ethan and Koha were likely surfing in Raglan, Brandon was setting up his tent at the central Wellington backpackers, Heidi (Ethan's Mother) might be sailing with Jonathan, Caleb in Japan had his usual Monday off and might be available to Skype, Morgan might be crocheting hats with some kiwi wool.  My thoughts expanded to the birds of the world, the endangered species of mammals, plants,  The inevitable destruction of habitat and pollution of waters and land.  I hope I can continue to learn to see what is around us, to preserve and honor what is there.  I felt at once useless in stopping the trend, yet committed to trying to make my impact less and reminding others to do the same.

Rubber ducky and his toy boat.  Auckland Harbor.