In Your Eyes

It seems incredible that we're approaching our third anniversary in Aotearora. Which is, incidentally, what we are now obliged to call our adopted home. Either that or we're being overly pretentious. I'll let you choose. 

Anyway, after three years on these islands it's not unreasonable to expect that some of the more dramatic aspects of this stunning country have faded into the background as the mundane seeps into everyday life.

I suppose it's inevitable. There are, after all, bills to be paid, insurance policies to be arranged, cars to be serviced and work to be ...well worked. Heads down and just getting on with it.

Of course every now and then something will drag you by the lapels back to fact that your are in the Southern Hemisphere and so very fortunate to be here. But it's easy to forget as you go through the weekly routine.

That is, however, until you host a visitor from another far flung place. Of course it's all relative, just as to some the thought of standing on top of an active volcano field whilst sipping Sauvignon Blanc sounds exotic, there are those who yearn to see a building that was built before 1860 and marvel at the sheer audacity of it all. 

So, speaking of relatives (see what I did there!), we've had the great fortune to welcome our nephew to this fascinating country. If there was any doubt that New...sorry Aotearora... was a long way from the UK you just had to witness the sheer look of bewilderment and confusion on his face as he stepped into the arrival lounge. "Where am I?", "What day is it?" and "What's that smell?" all rolled into one strange expression. Well, not to beat about the bush and for the record;

1/. Auckland, New Zealand

2/. Friday evening

3/. You

Ahem, so where was I? Oh yes, visitors.

Flashback to when we first arrived at our new employer and I was asked if anyone had promised to visit. "Sure," I said.

"Well, and I hope they do, but you'll be sick-to-death of seeing the same things over and over again by the time you've done it several times," came the rather jaded response. An opinion I hadn't asked for nor welcomed. Of course they were British.... or more accurately from Yorkshire.

Was it true? Would we really start to resent doing the same thing over and over? Would that be our destiny - to go through the motions for visitors who have bothered to travel 12,000 miles to see us and the most southern country of the Commonwealth? Surely not?

Well I can categorically state what a load of chuff, to use a phrase the miserable Yorkshireman would understand. It couldn't be further from the truth.

Firstly, living this far from family and friends is not easy, so it's really appreciated when they make the effort to travel this far. It's really great to have visitors, and not just for their smuggled tea bags and Galaxy chocolate, although that does help....

And secondly, we're only too happy to show visitors the things that caught our imagination. 

If I could bottle the reaction on visitors faces when they see for the first time Rangitoto, Auckland's very own volcanic guardian, steam and bubbling mud in the local park in Rotorua, the sheer vastness of Great Lake Taupo when they're told it's the the crater of an active volcano or the majestic beauty of the snow capped Southern Alps I'd be a very fortunate person. 

Seeing their reaction reminds us what it was that made us come to live here, momentarily lifting the veil of the daily routine. 

It's really a privilege to share what we've experienced with loved ones, and we get a real thrill when they see what we saw. Through their eyes if you like. It really is a win-win situation. They get the thrill of the adventure and we get satisfaction in the knowledge that we weren't truly bonkers to throw it all up in the air and travel to the other side of the world. Well not as bonkers as we feared anyway.

And if that sounds all too serious for a Friday evening then I apologise. Right, it looks like we're starting our descent into Queenstown so I'll say tara for a bit....somewhere down there there's a pint with my name on it and a nephew who is desperate for a race on the mountain luge. He just doesn't know it yet!