When I was first launched onto the idea of blogging our move to New Zealand, I was encouraged to write regularly and not to do it in retrospect. Accustomed as I am to ignoring good advice, here I am one month later trying to write about our visit to the South Island at a time when my head is full of final preparations for our visit to the UK in two days time! Hmm..
We shall certainly visit South Island again and are thinking of exploring the north west corner around Nelson. This time we travelled a fair number of kilometres further south and feasted on beautiful mountain scenery, wild coastlnes, and the curious mix of sub-tropical vegetation together with glaciers. Highlights were Rupert flying us through, rather than over, the mountains from Queenstown to Milford Sound, and our walk in Mount Aspiring National Park, led by Jane's brother, Tim.
Since our return there has been a fair amount of nest-building in the new house; curtains, kitchens and garden plants being the main features. The very young have been down from Auckland checking out the granddparent's new pad, and Rupert has returned to the world of music to conduct two concerts with the local Symphony. I've been trying out a small group of singers and have even done some singing practice. Yoga classes are set up to resume in August, and I am much looking forward to teaching a couple of weekends in Winchester in June/July.
We are both curious to experience this return to the mother country and suspect that there will be a mixture of reactions and emotions. I wonder how many times we shall be asked what we think of New Zealand. It is not a question which I answer easily, probably because I am wary of sweeping generalisations, and because I sense how much I still don't know. The longer we stay here the more I recognise different manifestations of familiar human conditions and characteristics. And the more I sense this, the less estranged I feel. This is a country of immigrants, and it would be naive to say that all groups do now, or have ever, accepted each other with complete equanimity
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After just over a year here, we do not feel integrated into the society, but equally we do not feel excluded. There is lots of space, and I wonder if this impacts both physically and psychologically. If I had to look for a phrase to describe a differnece I feel it would be that here there is 'a greater sense of ease'. Perhaps I shall change my mind in the next couple of months. Who knows?