Christmas in New Zealand Or Kiwi Just Don’t Get Christmas

A few years ago now I saw the movie Fred Claus. Toward the end of the movie, as Fred is saving Christmas flying around the world at break neck speeds, I had to wonder, what good is a sleigh in Sydney Australia? The more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed to me, not just the sleigh in the southern hemisphere, but the lack of cold Christmas in the majority of the world. Yes, a good bit of the northern hemisphere gets much cooler in winter but a good deal of the northern hemisphere doesn’t get all that much cooler, and none of the southern hemisphere gets cooler.

I'm dreaming of a green Christmas?

These thoughts were recently brought back to me as I sat on a shaded deck on Christmas morning in my shorts a tee-shirt and jandels (flip flops) just outside of Auckland. Having been raised in Colorado, I’ve seen quite a few cold Christmases, and even a few white Christmases. I was a little sad I missed one this year, but my sadness was dissipated with the possibility to go to the beach on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas).

While Christmas is on the 25 December, theologians will tell you, we don’t really know when Jesus was actually born, really 25 December was chosen because it put it in direct competition with the solstice holidays of pagan religions when Christianity was becoming main stream. Since no one really knows when the date was, it stuck. Because it stuck, the northern European nations that later became Christian happened to celebrate Christmas during the coldest time of year, and thus were born traditions such as Santa with is sleigh and reindeer, Christmas trees, and so many Christmas songs.

Unfortunately, these don’t always translate so well for those who are south of 30 degrees on the globe. It seems to me there are two acceptable solutions to this problem. First is to change the date of Christmas. This isn’t the perfect solution, the people of Ecuador wouldn’t be helped by it and it isn’t likely Christians in Egypt will be seeing a white Christmas anytime soon, but it would help those in the southern part of the Southern hemisphere… Not many grant you, the north island of New Zealand doesn’t see much snow, and New Zealand gets much cooler that most of Australia, but if we were to change it to be 25 July, they’d at least be celebrating it in the proper time of year. Really we don’t know when Jesus was born anyway do we?

The other possibility, and it may be even more irrational and silly, but perfectly acceptable to me, is those south of 30 degrees on the globe (this would include Bethlehem ironically enough) could just change their traditions. Forget about the evergreen Christmas trees. You want to keep Santa? That is fine; he can wear his togs (swim shorts) and jandels, perhaps he could come by jet skis or if you must be traditional a wagon pulled by kangaroos. He’d be far more comfortable anyway, trust me, that winter coat would be very uncomfortable down here.

While I felt these solutions seemed perfectly rational, when I floated them to the people around me they felt on deaf ears. Apparently I’m being pedantic, there is nothing wrong with going to the beach on the day after Christmas (lord knows everyone and their dog does it here) and it is a magic sleigh anyway, why would it need snow. Of course I’ll still push my ideas, and perhaps they will someday be heard. Until then, Santa and I are going to the beach.

An island off an island

The beach of Motuihe

Before humanity reached New Zealand, there were only two species of mammals living on the islands, both small bats. So this left the rest of the island for the birds… literally. Due to the unique lack of mammals, and predators for that matter, the birds that developed on the island were largely flightless birds that lived, nested and foraged on the ground. To be sure there were predators, the moa, the largest bird ever, ate other ground dwelling birds, and many birds that flew, such as the Tui and Fan Tails. There were even a few indigenous birds that flew and preyed on the land dwelling birds, such as the largest eagle in the world, the Haast’s eagle.

Unfortunately for all of the birds of New Zealand, humanity did discover the islands, and as we tend to do, we wreaked havoc. When the Polynesians landed on the two islands, they found a large population of ground dwelling birds that had no fear of the new strangers. Many of the birds might as well have jumped into the pots of the Maori, for as easy as they were to hunt. This led to the extinction of the moa, and the moa being the primary food source for the Haast’s eagle, it soon joined the ranks of extinction.

There were many birds the Maori revered, such as the kiwi, but this did not stop them from hunting them and eating them. While these birds were equally as fearless as the moa, they and many other birds must have had a few other tricks to survive because they managed to survive the introduction of humanity to the islands.

Motuihe coast line

They did not fare so well when the next wave of immigration came along. When the Europeans showed up on the island, they did what they have a great reputation for doing, they brought stuff with them. I imagine the Europeans were pretty good at hunting the birds, but this isn’t what wreaked havoc this time around, what was so destructive about the Europeans is they intentionally brought with them their cats, dogs, rabbits, horses, pigs, cow and deer, the dogs and cats being especially destructive. They also unintentionally brought with them mice and rats which competed with the native birds for food as well as eat the native bird’s eggs.

When it was realized a problem had developed with the rats, rabbits and mice, the Europeans decided they need to reduce the rodent population, and they decided the best way to do this was to introduce predators in the forms of weasels, martins, possums and stoats. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the weasels, martins, possums and stoats found the birds of New Zealand far easier prey than the rats, rabbits and mice.

So New Zealand’s indigenous birds have suffered a heavy toll with the arrival of mammals on the islands, and the damage is likely irreversible. The possibility of eradicating all the animals that have been introduced would be extremely difficult, and most New Zealander’s would not be willing to give up their cats and dogs.

But the picture of New Zealand’s birds isn’t all bad. While New Zealand is generally thought of as a north and a south island, in truth there are a great many small islands surrounding the two large islands. One such island is Motuihe, in Auckland bay. Motuihe is a small island, it too was settled, first by Maori, and later by Europeans, and it too had its native bird populations devastated, and flora chopped to make way for farm land, but because of its size, Motuihe is being returned to what it was before the arrival of Europeans.

While the island cannot be completely returned to the condition it was in before people arrived, due to some species such as the Moa and Haast’s eagle being gone forever, there is an effort underway to remove non-native trees and plants, to replant native trees and plants, and to reintroduce native birds. The island has already been eradicated of its mammal population, and is now home to 14 kiwis.

The project is expected to take several years, but it is only one of many islands in the processes of being returned to its natural state. Some islands have been successfully returned to their natural state and some islands much larger than Motuihe will be returned to their natural state if the project on Motuihe is successful.

While it is a shame New Zealand has been as badly damaged as it has, there is hope much of New Zealand’s natural habitat can be preserved on its surrounding islands. It would be a shame for future generations of Kiwi to only be able to see kiwi in books. With the island restoration program that won’t be the case, they will be able to see many of New Zealand’s natives for years to come.

Motuihe's dock

Who is running this country anyway?

Aucklands Sky tower, from which mind control signals are beamed out to the populace of New Zealand... Or not...

Spring is in full swing here; we are getting cold blustery weather, and expecting rain. This puts me on my second spring break this year, this one being two weeks long. So far my days have been spent riding, writing and reading. I have managed to get a bit done around the house, but have tried not to get too much done.

But enough about me, on to New Zealand. New Zealand is a parliamentary system, with a prime minister. Like the U.S. last year saw a shift in party control for New Zealand. Labor, the liberal party has been in control of parliament under Helen Clark for the last 12 years, but was voted out in the last election to be replaced by the National Party, New Zealand’s conservative party. While these two parties are the main parties, New Zealand has several other parties, and unlike the U.S. these parties have some influence despite there not being one of the two controlling parties.

While Helen Clark was prime minister, New Zealand became the first country in the world to have every major office held by a woman. Queen Elizabeth II as queen, Governor General Dame Silvia Cartwright, Speaker of the House of Representatives Margret Wilson and Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias. But those days are gone, now the prime minister is John Key of National Party.

To say Labor is equivalent of the Democrats in the U.S. and National is equivalent to the Republicans would not be correct though. The center in New Zealand is much further to the left in New Zealand than it is in the states putting National more in line with the Democrats in the states, and Labor left of the Democrats. But again this isn’t completely accurate. Auckland is made up of Auckland central, and many suburbs. There is a plan to combine all these suburbs under a single governing body and call it the Auckland super city. This has been a project of National, a project that any self respecting Republican would scoff at… Governing from the local level is so much more efficient… Oddly enough, the argument made for the super city is “it would be more efficient.” Go figure.

When a law is passed that doesn’t meet the approval of the electorate, the people have the option to hold a referendum, sometimes to let the government know they are unhappy with the law, other times to have the law overturned. There have been two laws recently up for referendum, the anti-smacking referendum and a referendum to do away with Mixed Member Proportional representation (MMP).

Just before Labor left office, they put in place a law making it illegal to smack a child, and when they say smack, they mean any kind of physical punishment, generally spanking. Here they don’t call it spanking, spanking is something kinky people do to their lovers. Lovers are spanked, children are smacked on the bum.

The overwhelming majority of Kiwis find the no tolerance law well over the top. National has refused to overturn the law because it appears to be effective, there have been fewer incidences of child abuse, and the law is not being enforced for those parents disciplining their children. Why keep a law around that isn’t being enforced is anyone’s guess, but that is the official stance of National.
The referendum was nonbinding, so basically just letting the politicians know how the people felt, and the people voted overwhelmingly to have the law overturned. John Key has said he will not overturn the law, and that is his final word on the subject.

The other referendum at the moment is the push by Labor to overturn the MMP system. My understand is, and it could very well be wrong, with MMP control of parliament is distributed by the breakdown of the parties so no one party controls the entire agenda as opposed to a two party system like the one in the U.S. where the party that has the majority in congress has absolute control of legislation that goes through congress.

It was only recently the MMP system was established in New Zealand, and National fought it tooth and nail at the time. Now they are fighting tooth and nail to get it overturned. Regardless of the system in place, be it a parliamentary or Monarchy, politicians will be politicians… That isn’t a bad thing… Is it?

The zoo gets zooy

I have written about the zoo I’m living at, and I’ve written about riding on the beach, I have a feeling there are going to be plenty more stories involving the animals around here because the play such an important part in our lives.

Samantha has been eventing since her early teens. Eventing is a horsing event in three parts, dressage, show jumping and cross country. Dressage came about from military maneuvers, and traditional dressage still uses the same movements developed by the military, but modern dressage is a bit more like a dance, the horse and rider show off their control and ability for fancy foot work. Show jumping is jumping in an arena over poll jumps, the polls are easily knocked down should you bump them. And last but not least is cross country, again, a jumping event, though this time it isn’t in an arena, the jumps are large solid obstacles and the landings are frequently in water or at an angle and what not.

The reason I bring up eventing is I’d like to take it up myself, and have been doing a lot of riding and a little jumping. At the moment Samantha has three horses still competing, or that can be competed, Luna is her main guy, her champ, Cullen was the first horse she broke, a fantastic jumper, but has the personality of a dog, and Scooter, her new guy. We are still bouncing the idea of selling Scooter on; it will depend on how well he performs for us this year. For me, I’ll likely be doing show jumping on Cullen. He isn’t such a big fan of dressage, and while he loves cross country, you can’t just do cross country, you have to do all three if you want to do cross country.


Cullen and I jumping.

I may try eventing on Cullen just for the experience, but I’m quite sure he’ll show his dog nature during the dressage portion of the event. I may also event on Luna, at this point the more practice I can get the better. Samantha will compete Scooter; since he is new to the game having a couple of beginners jumping could be disastrous.


Luna jumping and Cullen... Not...

As for the dogs, Buster has yet to be fixed, and is currently testing his position in the pack. Being the new guy he is at the bottom, and feels it really unfair. He has tried to prove himself against Sophie, and I’m sure would have won had the humans around not intervened, now he is testing himself with George. This is more problematic than him testing himself against Sophie because George is a much bigger dog.

We can’t be sure of either of their breeds, they are both mutts. George’s mother we know was a full bred Mastiff, his father was a fly by night donor. While we don’t know what his breed was, we do know it was big, perhaps Burmese Mountain dog, maybe even St. Bernard. He has the size for it. Buster we were told was a Weimaraner (think grey blood hound) and a black lab. While his color would suggest as much, he has some other features that suggest American Staffordshire terrier (Pit Bull).

Last night after getting home from school the two got into it. It is generally a bad idea to jump in and try and break up a dog fight. Especially a dog fight in which one of the dogs is bigger than you and the other was bred to kill adult bulls. George is luck to have his Mastiff skin, Buster can’t get a good hold on him, so George is in no real danger from Buster, but I might be in some real danger from George. As soon as we got Buster off of George, George lunged for Buster and bit my back instead of Buster… An easy mistake I’m sure.

As I sat writing this blog I got to opportunity to break up another fight between the two, and this time, while whacking Buster with a night stick (think steal rod) my knuckle got between Buster and the night stick. At the moment it does feel a bit like they fight, I get hurt… Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend breaking up a dog fight between two large dogs, but don’t expect me to take my own advice. I’m sure things will improve once Buster gets a visit to the vet… I hope so, to many more of these fights and it’ll be me in need of a doctor…

Getting there

How do you get to New Zealand? It isn’t hard; go to any number of online travel companies, book a flight for around $1300 and you can be in New Zealand in a few days. You don’t need a visa, yes, you do still need a passport, but they aren’t hard to come by. That is how I did it the first time around. Actually that is how I’ve done it with every trip except the third (I was coming from Iraq) and the most recent trip. Because the most recent trip I intended to stay a while and I intended to study here, the processes was a bit more taxing than on the previous trips.

Getting the visa

I wasn’t sure how long the process was going to take to get everything in line so I started shopping around and getting everything in line around November. Auckland has several universities that are internationally accredited, and it was my intent to go to the University of Auckland. But University of Auckland doesn’t have a journalism program. As I shopped around I learned the only school in Auckland that does have a journalism program is Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and that is how I decided which school I’d be going to, which decided for me what organization I’d be going through to do my study abroad, Australearn.

There are other organizations to go through to study in New Zealand, or the south pacific for that matter, but the only one providing service to AUT is Australearn. This wasn’t an issue; the people I worked with at Australearn were very professional and did an excellent job. They are based out of Denver so I even got to go meet the people who were working so hard for me. I did make their lives more difficult in the random ways I tend to, such as leaving two weeks before the rest of the students studying abroad, arranging my own living space and a pick-up at the airport… Not really a lot more work, I just can’t seem to do things in an orthodox way.

While Australearn was great, I did have some trouble from AUT. Australearn takes care of the student visa; it’s a simple matter of getting them the proper paper work and documentation to them. Not that the proper paper work is easy, it does require a physical to prove I’m not diseased, ill or a potential burden or danger to New Zealand population or health care system to include a chest x-ray to show I don’t have Tuberculoses. While the paper work was a pain, I wasn’t surprised, New Zealand being the isolated island it is, it doesn’t have to deal with a lot of the diseases the rest of the world puts up with, and they want to keep it that way. But I digress, with plenty of paperwork to do and not being sure how long the process would take, I was sure to get everything taken care of several months in advance so I could leave the states by June 15. AUT wasn’t quite as concerned about when I got here so they held on to their end of the paperwork until a few days before I was supposed to leave. Australearn got the paper work late, the embassy got the paperwork late, and I was not going to get to New Zealand on time. Leading to further complicate the matter, some of the paperwork I sent in was the wrong paper work. It was easily remedied, but it could have been easily remedied in April rather than the week after I was to be in New Zealand. But such is life, and if you aren’t prepared for such problems, perhaps it is best if you don’t become a world traveler.

While this wasn’t a huge issue, I did plan on arriving several weeks before class started so wasn’t made to miss any class, it did become slightly problematic with my girlfriend who has had a hard time believing I was really coming down anyway, and understandably, how many people will really move half way around the world to be with someone? Explaining I really was still coming and this wasn’t my stalling until I could find a way out -- In retrospect – is quite funny.

Paying for it

Every other time I’ve been down to New Zealand I’ve had a steady job, one I didn’t always want, but it was a steady job. Thanks to that steady job I did have quite a bit saved up and even better I had the G.I. Bill paying for my schooling… That was until I decided to go on a study abroad… I was told while I was getting out of the army that the study abroad might be problematic, and in true army fashion I was also told it wouldn’t be a problem and I didn’t have to worry about it. Funny enough, at the moment it seems both were right.

The reason I should have been worried is because the army was never going to make it easy for me; the reason I need not worry is the money is mine and using it for a study abroad is a qualified use for it… Perhaps I should still be worried since I have yet to see any of the money since I’ve been abroad, and I could at the moment use it.

Again, since I wasn’t sure how the processes worked or how long it would take, I got an early start, going into the veteran affairs office as early as January when I was told, the money could be used for a study abroad, and to come back when I had all the details. I came back in April when I had been accepted to the program and my paper work was well under way. And now I was told who ever I’d spoken to in January (always get a name) was wrong, and I needed to know if the university I wanted to go to was an approved university. I stated the university was indeed internationally accredited, and I’d already cleared my course of study with the study abroad office and my department, and been assured the credits would transfer; I was told this did not matter, the university had to be approved by the V.A.

The V.A. office told me they would get back to me once they’d found out if the university was approved, and all I could do was wait… While I couldn’t do much, I could go in to the V.A. office once a week to see what progress had been made, I figured sooner or later they’d do what they could to help me so I’d leave them alone. After a few weeks the V.A. came through with good news and bad news. Yes, AUT is accepted, how would I feel about changing my degree to nursing?

I was told while it is an accepted university, my course of study wasn’t accepted and we could likely get it accepted, I just needed to contact some department somewhere in New York and get them to approve my course of study… No guarantee it would be approved, but we could give it a try. When I’d made a few phone calls, as is so often the case with the military I received a very different answer, yes, it could be easily done, but I couldn’t do it, I needed my V.A. office to make the calls, so back into the V.A. office I went, and back to work went my V.A. office in trying to get my program approved.

I can’t fault Metro’s V.A. for not knowing what to do with me, as they pointed out to me regularly, I’m a trail blazer, no other student has used G.I. Bill money to do a study abroad so they were having to learn the whole process as we went. In the end (the week I should have been leaving for New Zealand) we found the right person, got the right paperwork, and all looked good to go. This was after several visits to the V.A. office sometimes twice a week to get everything lined up, but apparently it shouldn’t be an issue, the V.A. will pay for a study abroad, my school is approved, and there now exists in Metro’s V.A. a note allowing for any veteran with G.I. Bill benefits to use those benefits for a study abroad.

More than once this past year Samantha has said to me “maybe the universe is trying to tell us something.” And I have to admit, it has been very trying this getting everything in order to spend a year here. Several times I’ve thought “I’d like for just one thing to fall into place without having to go through a huge hassle.” None the less, my response to her has remained the same, “Yes, the universe is telling us: sometimes you have to work very hard for the things you want.” Now that I’m here, and things have fallen into place, I have to say, all the hassle was worth it.

Oops... It's been a busy week...

Okay, I didn't get around to posting a new post this week... I had a paper due, that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it... Since I don't have anything new I'll post something old, I'm frequently told it is a favorite:

Spence is a horse… Spence was a race horse… Spence was a race horse who trained on the beach… Spence can really run.

Me, Spence and Luna's ears

Being someone who wanted horses since I was knee high to a grasshopper the opportunity to spend much of my vacation on horseback was more than I could hope for, and to be spending my vacation on a horse like Spence was a dream come true. Sam has three horses, Luna, Seth, and Cullen and due to the nature of her work she gets plenty of opportunity with other horses. Spence is one of the horses is currently getting to work with. This worked out nicely for me because Luna is Sam’s horse, Seth is retired, and Cullen is an absolute dog, he just happens to have the body of a horse. So it works best if there is another horse around if Sam and I are going to be able to ride together.

When we rode together there was never really much problem at all, Spence is happy to go where ever Luna is going, and while Luna is a bit skittish, he is for the most part a very well behaved horse, and Sam is more than an experienced rider. That is not to say I don’t know what I’m doing with horses, but I don’t have the experience Sam has. Spence is a well behaved horse too so long as he is with Luna; this is where I ran it trouble with Spence.

Both Spence and Luna are big horses, and they are both event horses, that would be horses used for jumping. It does take a somewhat spirited horse to ride him at a large solid obstacle and expect him to jump over it, both Spence and Luna are such horses, they’ll both jump most anything you put in front of them. Most horses have a mind of their own anyway, but it does take a little more to be an eventer.

Over the course of the three weeks I was in New Zealand me and Sam made several trips down to the beach, while on the beach we ran Spence through the ocean, something he loves to do, we ran Luna through the ocean a bit to, but it isn’t something Luna cares for much, the ocean is a bit spooky to an already skittish horse. As long as the two are together, they do just fine, and are fairly well behaved. I wouldn’t exactly say they liked each other, but they really don’t like being apart.

I’d been down to the beach several times with Sam, and toward the end of my time there Sam wasn’t sure she was going to find the time to get another ride in, so she told me to feel free to take Spence down to the beach on my own. At this point she’d seen me on horse back enough to know I could handle Spence, and I wasn’t going to get myself killed. So one morning when she had some errands to run in Auckland, I went down, saddled up Spence and headed down to the beach with one of the dogs, Sophie by my side. Right from the start Spence gave me some trouble. Nothing serious, just when ever I gave him control of the reigns he’d turn back and start trotting for home, I’d stop him turn him around and keep going on our usual path.

As we came to the place we usually exit the road there is a fork, on path leading to the beach the other I’m not quite sure where it leads. Again I let lose on the reigns, and as soon as I did Spence went cantering up the wrong path. Again I stopped him, turned him around and headed down our normal path to the beach. While Spence has always had a mind of his own, he was exercising it far more now than he had so far. At moments I wasn’t sure if he didn’t know the proper path or was just taking the wrong paths to misbehave, but he did so time and time again.

Once I got him down to the beach I had second thoughts about running him in the ocean, but I wasn’t quite sure, and figured it was nerves being there without Sam for the first time, so I set aside my reservations and took Spence at a gallop through the ocean. As we made our way down the beach he would again try to turn around anytime I gave him too much control of the reigns, I’d then turn him around again and continue down the beach, this was a little more complicated now than on the road as waves were crashing into us. I found as he’d turn to go back I would be slightly out of balance, but nothing I couldn’t control… Until he managed to turn as a wave crashed into us. I was thrown completely off balance, and found myself plunged into the ocean, my foot still in the stirrup… Spence no free to turn back and run towards home. For a moment I pictured myself being drown unable to get my foot from the stirrup, and held underwater, but it was only a flash, I reached up, grabbed the stirrup and freed my foot, and felt myself fall from Spence. I stood up just in time to see Spence galloping down the beach…

As I walked out of the ocean, soaked completely through I decided sooner or later Spence would probably get tired and would stop running, so I started walking down the beach, Sophie by my side, watching Spence get further and further away. I wasn’t alone on the beach; there were plenty of people down enjoying the beach, some on motorcycles, some down surfing, and some just enjoying the beach. A few people ahead made an attempt to stop him, but he ran right past them. It would have been about five minutes later that I came to the same people with a little dog. As I walked up I asked ‘have you seen a horse run by about so tall without a rider?’ holding my hand a little above my head. They said they had tried to stop him but had no luck. As I was talking to them my attention was more with how far away Spence was than my immediate surroundings, and I was paying no attention to Sophie at all. That is until she started chasing there little dog… Sophie has always had a bad habit of picking fights with who ever is around. I quickly chased after Sophie, and grabbed her by the collier apologizing to the people for my dog having tried to kill theirs. I then excused myself and continued up the beach.

After about another ten minutes, now I can’t see Spence at all, and I’m wondering just how long this beach is one of the motorcyclists rode up to me and stopped next to me. Again I ask, ‘you haven’t by chance seen a horse running up the beach without a rider have you?’ ‘Yeah,’ he replied, ‘my friend has him up the beach, hop on I’ll take you up there.’ So I hopped on the back of his bike and rode up the beach. I rode up far enough to wonder just how long the beach was and if I ever would have caught up with Spence. But soon enough we came to his friend who was walking up the beach with Spence. I was hoping Spence would have calmed down enough that I could mount him with out too much trouble. I thanked the guy for the ride, and his friend for holding on to Spence and I took the reigns. They stood by and watched as I put my foot in the stirrup, they didn’t seem quite sure he wasn’t going to take off again. As I went to hoist myself on top of Spence he took off again before I was on his back. This time I had a strong grip on his reigns and was able to stop him before he got away from me.

I thought to myself I might be better off just walking him back to the path home and riding him home from there, but it had to be close to three miles up the beach, so I decided to walk him over to the sand bank where I would be on the up hill slope from Spence and could mount him much more easily. I still had the audience of the motorcyclist and his friend, and at it was appreciated as I wasn’t so sure I wasn’t going to need to chase Spence down again. Standing on the edge of the sand bank I was much higher, and it did put me in a much better position to mount Spence. I figured if I could get on his back and get my feet in the stirrups I would then be in a position to get him under control… If being the key word. I again put my foot into the stirrup, and hoisted myself on top of Spence. Again Spence took off at a gallop as soon as I was off the ground, but this time I made it on top of Spence… For a moment. At a solid gallop I couldn’t get my foot into the other stirrup, and there was not way I could get control with out my foot in the stirrup. My mounting of Spence was short lived as I went right over the top of him. I felt myself hit the sand of the beach this time, not nearly so soft a landing as the ocean had been, and this time there was no holding onto the reigns. Again I brought myself to my feet watching my horse running at a full gallop down the beach, this time in the opposite direction… At least now he was headed toward the path I told myself.

The two on the motorcycle started after him again, as they passed me I shrugged my shoulders in an expression of ‘what was I gonna do?’ And watched them ride away. It was at this moment I stopped to look around me and realized Sophie hadn’t been able to keep up with me while on the bike. I’d lost Sam’s horse, and I’d lost Emily’s dog… Again I started walking up the beach. Wondering just how long it was going to take to catch this horse.

As I walked up the beach the ideas flashed through my mind of Sam getting home to find me gone, and wondering how long I’d been gone. She wasn’t sure how long her errands were going to take so I had pictures of her arriving just minutes after I left and after a couple of hours beginning to worry, or arriving at seven in the evening, finding me not home and the sun setting soon, wondering where I was and what had I done with her horse. As I walked down the beach I found a cap belonging to the friend on the motorcycle. I picked it up and continued down the beach. There was one bright side, tracking Spence wouldn’t be difficult at all, he left prints very easy to follow in the sand.

After another ten minutes walking up the beach a guy pulled up in a little SUV. He looked like a Maori, though he very easily could have been an islander. He offered to give me a ride, and again I made my way up the beach at a decent speed. It didn’t take long to catch up to Sophie who did seem a little lost, but didn’t seem terribly upset about it. I called her from the window of the SUV, and when she looked she had the look on her face of ‘I don’t know that car.’ But was more than happy to come over and hop in. At least now I wouldn’t have to face Emily’s rage at having lost her dog, now if I could just catch that horse.

Not long after we caught up to the couple on the motorcycle, I handed her the cap, and they told me they had no luck catching up with Spencer, and he was still running down the beach in the same direction when they gave up pursuit. I thanked them and continued down the beach in the SUV.

We came to an area of the beach that had several fallen trees on it, it was looking something like a no-mans land, I was beginning to get worried that Spence’s intentions might be to run completely around the island when I saw Spence, now running towards us… I breathed a partial sigh of relief. The guy driving the SUV asked ‘how you intend to catch that horse?’ ‘I’m not quite sure,’ I answered. I opened to door and hoped out, I did my best to put myself in front of Spence, at this point cantering down the beach, but he easily ran right around me. I ran back over to the SUV, and jumped onto the back, standing on the bumper, holding onto the rack on top, and we again started to pursue Spencer.

This time we easily caught up to Spence, and with the SUV were able to pace Spence. When we got along side him he would try to match our speed, when we sped up he sped up, when we slowed down he slowed down. So we slowed down to a trot, and then got him to slow down to a walk. At this point I jumped off the back of the SUV and tried to grab Spence’s reigns, but he wouldn’t hear of it, again he took of at a canter, and again I jumped on the back of the SUV and pursued Spence down the beach. Again we pulled up beside him on the beach, set the pace, slowed him down to a trot, this time I jumped off a little ahead of Spence and jogged along side him hoping to get close enough to grab his reigns, but again he wouldn’t have it, and just waked up the side of the sand bank. At this point the SUV couldn’t follow so I thanked the guy for his help, he let Sophie out, and me and Sophie climbed the sand bank to find Spence.

As I reached the top I saw Spence at the bottom of the other side looking a little lost, no longer on the beach was better, but he wasn’t quite sure where he was… He wasn’t alone, I wasn’t quite sure where we were or where the path back was. Even when I did catch him I still had to find the way home and it was a big long beach. I started walking down the sand bank, but of course Spence had not intention of making this easy for me, he walked right past me, up the side of the sand bank and down to the beach again. I made my way down to the beach again just in time to see the SUV pulling away, and Spence walking up the beach. I knew I couldn’t run up behind Spence or he’d start running again, so I quickly walked behind him hoping I could catch up to him, but he had four legs and they were all longer than mine and before too long I saw him make his way up the sand bank again. I continued talking up the beach for a while looking for the place where he’d gone up, but decided it would be easier to find it from the top of the sand bank so I climbed it again and continued looking for his track.

I became nervous that I’d some how missed it. It would have been quite impossible to miss it, he was a horse walking in the sand, they can’t exactly cover their tracks in the sand, but after a while I managed to find where he had made his way up the sand bank, and I don’t know if it was just luck, or maybe he knew what he was doing, but he had managed to find the path. With Sophie running circles around me we continued to track down Spence.

My concern that maybe he didn’t remember the trail from earlier was completely unfounded, he had followed the exact path home that we take to the beach. He had made his way through the forests in which he always makes false turns every time we ride through… It would be hard to call him a stupid horse, but not at all hard to call him an ass. As I walked the path back, probably between three and five miles it started to poor down rain. I thought what a mess I must look, soaked in sea water, my boots still squishing, carrying my helmet, and getting rained on. Again I imagined Sam getting home and finding Spence in her drive way me no where in sight… At least I brought him back… I later learned that this had been a topic the girls had discussed on there way into town, the possibility of getting home finding Spence and no me. Really at this point I was just hoping Spence had the sense to not walk down the center of the road, people fly down the road and it has several blind corners.

Once I got to the road it became much harder to follow Spencer’s tracks as they don’t quite make as obvious of a trail on a hard packed road, but I could still see the occasional shoe print, and of course every single one I did manage to find was right in the middle of the road.

As I came to the top of the hill in which I could see the opening of the drive way home I saw Spence had made it back just fine with out me, and I had managed to beat the girls back. I walked up the road and as I came closer to Spence he once again turned and walked the other way, insistent that he would not be caught. Have I called him an ass yet? That’s okay, while he is smart, he is still just a horse and now catching him would be little trouble to me. Rather than chasing him down, I opened the gate and made my way up the drive to where Luna was, took him by the lead and walked him down the drive. As soon as I walked him into the road Spence could no longer stay away and walked right up to me.

He had on his return trip completely snapped his reigns. It did occur to me to grab him by the halter and punch him in the head, but then he is a horse, taking out my frustration on him would have been completely lost on him, and would have probably just sent him running again. So instead I just took him into the barn, took of his saddle and bridle and let him loose, moments later the girls arrived home.

I told Sam of all that had happened, of my losing her horse, losing Em’s dog, chasing them up and down the beach, getting tossed off twice, and the long walk home. She asked ‘So has this cured your love of horses?’ ‘Naw,’ I replied, ‘Do you feel up for a ride?’

A little about Aotearoa (New Zealand)

Sunset on the Tasman Sea

New Zealand was discovered by the Polynesians who have come to be known as the Maori, was the last of the major islands in the world to be settled. It was settled sometime between 700 and 2000 years ago, both islands were settled around this time, the Maori word for the north island is Aotearoa, Maori for ‘the long white cloud’ but the word has been adopted for the whole of New Zealand. Another name for the north island is Te Ika-a-Maui, or ‘the fish of Maui’, the south island is known as Te waka-a-Maui or ‘the canoe of Maui’. There is a Maori story for the naming and the creation of New Zealand, but it will have to wait until another time.

The story goes, the first European to discover New Zealand was Abel Tasman in 1642. When from the safety of his boat, he saw a rough looking group of ‘natives’ with facial tattoos performing a Haka, a Maori war dance which involves a lot of stomping, chest slapping and ends with bulging eyes and tongues stuck-out, and he decided to keep on moving without setting foot on land… He did however name the islands Nova Zeelandia in honour of the Dutch province of Zeeland He was followed by Captain James Cook who was the first to step foot on land and still has its tallest mountain named after him as well as many other sites around the country.

Auckland is the largest city, Wellington is the capital and the southernmost capital in the world, and both are on the north island. The two islands together have close to the same area as Colorado with a population of about 4 million people. Most of the population lives on the north island in one of the two major cities, and is composed of Europeans, people from the Polynesian islands, Asians, Maori and a few others from here and there. Major cities on the south island are Christchurch and Queenstown. Queenstown is considered the extreme sports capital of the world, and gave the world the modern day bungee jump.

New Zealand was the first nation in the world to give the vote to women in 1893 and one of the last British colonies to receive independence from the crown, and when they did in 1948, they did so reluctantly… No bullets flying, no revolution. The government system is based on the British parliamentary system; they have no president, but do have a prime minister, Helen Clark of the Labor party held the position from 1999 until 2008, when she was replaced by John Key of the National party. She is now the administrator of the United Nations Development Program.

New Zealand was the home of the bee keeper Sir Edmund Hillary, the he is better known as the first man to scale Mt. Everest than for his honey. In preparation for his ascent of Mt. Everest he practiced on New Zealand’s highest peak, the previously mentioned Mt. Cook. After scaling Everest he claimed Mt. Cook was the more difficult of the two.

New Zealand is a volcanic island; Auckland itself is founded on four active though dormant volcanoes. I did have to look it up… An active dormant volcano is a volcano that has erupted in historic times but is now quiet. This has no scientific meaning, but does give an idea of what to expect if planning an afternoon picnic in the cone of One Tree Hill, one of Auckland’s four volcanoes. The north island has 22 volcanoes, and its major ski resort is on one of them, as is the now famous Mount Ngauruhoe, used in Peter Jacksons “The Lord of the Rings” as Mt. Doom.

When Captain Cook first stepped on New Zealand shores the only mammal was the bat, the most dangerous animal was the sand fly, there were no snakes and the majority of life on the island was ground dwelling birds. Of course the Europeans brought their own animals to include cats, dogs, deer, horses, cattle and perhaps what New Zealand is most know for, sheep, which outnumber its human inhabitants 20 to 1. Sadly the cats and dogs have been a bit of a problem with the native birds that have no natural defenses, and the rabbits which hand no natural predators quickly became a problem. The solution to which the Europeans decided would be to bring in weasels. As so frequently happens with introducing animals into other environments, things did not go according to plan and the weasels had a far easier time catching the birds than the rabbits which gave New Zealand a rabbit and a weasel problem. Another nuisance introduced by the Europeans was possums… How this happened is anyone’s guess.

This is only the tip of the iceberg of all that is ‘New Zealand’ but it seemed a good start for anyone who is interested in learning a little more about the little islands in the south Pacific.

Do you speak Kiwi?

Auckland from a distance.

I don’t know if I’ve ever suffered culture shock, though if I had it would have to have been about my third week in boot camp. The army is definitely a different culture, though I don’t know if getting discouraged that you keep getting shouted at and made to do push-ups can be considered culture shock… But I have known many people to get culture shock, and frequently it involves the little things; things like food or language, and while in both America and New Zealand the official language is English, there are times when this isn’t exactly clear.

I myself have never missed American food, though I think I’m unique in this regard. While in Iraq and Afghanistan I knew several people who spent long hours trying to decide what would be the first meal they would have when back in the States, and often times the meal they were craving consisted of their favorite fast food joint. I think perhaps I was too busy trying to get a hold of local food to realize I missed the food back home.

But the language aspect I can understand. It is Maori (pronounced like marry, but with a long ‘a’ like in Mars) language week here in New Zealand and a few phrases have been adopted in New Zealand English, for instance kia ora (yes, the title of my blog) is a Maori greeting, it quite literally means ‘good health’ but when translated by my bus driver in Rotorua into 55 different languages I learned it has far more meaning than just ‘good health.’ Unfortunately I’m not picking up a lot of Maori, the only people who speak a lot of Maori – are the Maori, and while there are plenty of them around, most speak English when not talking to other Maori. But to be sure it is a living language, and is having some influence in New Zealand.

As for the real differences in our two languages, most come from New Zealand having been British for so much longer than the States were. Not having been to Britain, I can’t say for sure how much of their jargon is Kiwi and how much is British, but it certainly isn’t American as I’m often reminded by Samantha and her girls… American can hardly be considered a language in polite company…

If you go into a produce shop in New Zealand and ask for a kiwi, they will look at you like you’ve lost your mind, here the only kiwi are the people and the bird, neither of which do they look kindly upon people eating… The bird is protected and the people… Well, it just isn’t polite to go around eating people. Some Kiwis are kind enough to point out the fruit are called ‘kiwi fruit’ and you’ll find them close to the capsicum, what we call peppers, but most Kiwi just look at you like you are speaking American.

Once you have your kiwi fruit, you can put them in the boot of your car, they don’t use trunks here, only boots, and should your car not start, you might have to lift the bonnet, no, not the hood, and see if you can’t figure out why your car won’t start. But maybe you don’t have a car, maybe you have a ute, short for utility, in the states we call these pick-up trucks, but here, you’d only call them that if you were looking to get blank stares from Kiwis.

If you live in a flat, what we would call an apartment, you can take your kiwi fruit to your flat using the lift, or elevator for those not verse in Kiwi. To get to your flat you might take a motorway, of course there are not interstates, you’d need states to have an interstate. You’d also take the motorway if you were going to the beach, but be sure to bring your jandals, what we call flip flops, and togs, what we call swimming trunks. You might bring along a lunch in your bum bag… Never – ever – ever fanny pack… You’ll be considered very rude talking about fanny packs, even in less than polite company.

Of course these are all different words for the same thing… The troubling moments come when we come to the same words or similar words and you still get blank stares. Auckland is pronounced ‘Oakland,’ when I try to explain Oakland is city not far from San Francisco and Auckland is the cities of sails in New Zealand, I always manage to get into arguments. They put an ‘I’ in their aluminum but they do pronounce the ‘I’ so it looks and sounds like aluminium. And of course there are Japanese cars, I’m not even sure how to go about explaining the differences in pronunciation… So I won’t, but rest assured, if you ask what they think of the latest Mitsubishi, you will get a blank stare.

Really I don’t imagine it will be long before people will need American-Kiwi dictionaries if they are going to travel between the two countries, but I suppose it may still be a while… As for me, I’ll keep my eyes out for kiwi while hanging out with my Kiwi friends all the while enjoying my kiwi fruit, and until next week, Kia Ora!

It's an old one, but should satisfy people requesting pics of me in New Zealand, me on Spence.