Aotearoa

15 months - 8, New Zealand

They say New Zealand was one of the last places to be settled by humans, probably about 1250-1300 A.D. when the Maoris arrived. Maoris have been called the Vikings of the Pacific because of their legendary ocean-exploring skills. New Zealand is comprised of two main islands with a number of smaller ones. The Maoris call it Aotearoa - the land of the long white cloud. 

A Dutch explorer was the first European to discover New Zealand in 1642. They named it Nova Zeelandia after a Dutch province. Then Captain Cook came exploring in 1769 and anglicized the name to New Zealand. In 1840 the British declared sovereignty and signed The Treaty of Waitangi with the Maoris and in 1907 New Zealand effectively became independent when it was declared a dominion. 3

When people ask me where I’m from I usually say, “Originally from New Zealand…a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”. Like the Cook Islands, New Zealand has also become a very popular tourist destination, especially after The Lord of the Rings was filmed there. But back then, it also seemed rather provincial.

My family settled in a suburb of Auckland called Mangere. While Wellington is the capitol, Auckland is New Zealand’s largest city. Mangere’s claim to fame is that it contains the Auckland International Airport where my father got a job. He bought a white, three-bedroom, government-subsidized house on Viscount Street. Samuel and I shared a room with a bunk bed and Joy had her own room. That house is where I have my first memories. 

The earliest thing I remember is staring out of the kitchen window at the primary school across the street from our house where Joy and Samuel went. My toys were very simple. My parents bought me a bag of Lego bricks which was one of my favorite pastimes. Much to my mom’s dismay, I also used to collect popsicle sticks I found on the ground. She let me keep them only after a thorough boiling. I would then glue them together to make buildings. 

It didn’t take much to amuse me. At the back of the house we had some stairs that led up to a landing that was enclosed on three sides with the edges sloping up. I used to spend hours sitting on the top step rolling marbles over the landing, up the slopes and back. My mother says I was always a very placid child, especially after my hyper brother, though she began to fear I was going to be rather slow. But when I started coming out with complex observations, she realized that I was just a deep thinker.

My mom was an avid gardener and we all had to help weed the flowerbeds. My brother and sister used to complain that I didn’t do as much because I took so long. But when the weeds came back a lot quicker in their sections, my mom realized that I took longer because I was getting the roots. I began to show some interest in growing things myself as well, so my mom gave me a bit of earth where I grew my own flowers. 

Other members of my father’s family were also immigrating to New Zealand but, as of yet, none of them had any children. So we got a bit spoiled. But people without children can also tend to get bothered by children and their noise (come to think of it, so do people with children). One of my uncles used to have us play a game to see who could be quiet the longest. He would sit us down against a wall and say all we could do is blink and breathe. Whoever lasted the longest won five cents - good money for us in those days. I seem to remember that I usually won.

We didn’t watch much TV growing up. New Zealand had two channels and they didn’t even go all night. My dad would get the TV guide and mark which shows we were allowed to watch within a two-hour time limit each week. So each of us kids could pick from the approved shows we wanted to watch, subject to the restraints. From time to time, when we tried to push the limits and the TV started to become too central, my dad would simply just get rid of it.

Our family would go on holidays. One time we went north to a popular beach location called the Bay of Islands. I had a green blow-up canoe to which I was rather attached. One day as I was out paddling around, I fell out. It was a very windy day and the wind caught the canoe and kept blowing it out into the large bay. I was crying as it just kept blowing further and further away. By this time it was pretty far out but my dad decided to swim for it. He couldn't catch up to it but that was one tangible expression of love that really endeared me to him as a child. 

Christmas trees were banned from our house. My parents believed it was a pagan tradition that we should have no part in. We did do gift-giving. As Christians, the gifts weren’t supposed to be the main focus of Christmas but you know how it is. My father used to drive us crazy, however. We would all be up early and raring to go while my dad would purposely take his time taking a shower and drinking his morning tea. Then it was all very organized, one person opening at a time and expressing appropriate gratitude to each gift-giver.

3. “New Zealand.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc.. last modified 4 September 2016, at 15:51. Web. September 4, 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand>.