13.25 Te Awamutu: Parting Views

25.A Fonterra Milk Semi on Sloane Street Headed for the Te Awamutu Milk Plant

Tomorrow, Friday, July 5, Jean and I will be leaving Te Awamutu, where we’ve lived for almost five months. After a few days in Auckland, we're scheduled to head back to the States. Having stayed in New Zealand six months, we will have learned many things about Kiwis and their culture. We will have seen far more of the land than had we been here, say, for three weeks. However verbose these posts have been, I could have said more. And however long our stay, we could have seen more. We could have stayed longer. The absence of family and friends aside, we certainly would have been happy enough to see more and do more and learn more about New Zealand and her people.

It’s perhaps characteristic of a paradise that you can never have enough of it. Yet it's characteristic of this world that no land—not even New Zealand—is entirely paradisical. Early in our stay here I had envisioned publishing a post or two dealing with the cost of living in New Zealand. One of the things that strikes visitors are the high prices of so many things. These initial impressions aren't misleading. The April 2013 edition of North & South, a premier monthly publication in New Zealand, came out with a cover article entitled 'The Great Kiwi Rip-off: Why we pay such a high price to live in New Zealand'.

I’m not sure the article answered the question that it promised to answer. But unless the author and editors were grievously misleading, North & South managed to accumulate a good deal of hard data to stir Kiwi souls. The strong Kiwi dollar has had a favorable effect on the cost of some imports (e.g., flat-screen TVs) but many items imported from elsewhere continue to be quite expensive. For example, Timberland boots costing NZ$106.79 on Amazon.com cost NZ$229.99 in New Zealand. An iTunes download costing NZ$1.44 in the States would cost NZ$2.39 in New Zealand. Even worse, products produced in plenty in New Zealand are often more costly here than abroad. A 2-liter bottle of milk on average sells for NZ$3.99 in New Zealand but only NZ$1.80 in Great Britain. The total construction cost for a ‘typical mid-range house’ in New Zealand is NZ$85,878 but in Australia NZ$65,139.

What to make of all this and much more? I don’t know. And I confess I haven’t had the patience or the tenacity to find out. The cost of living is an issue for anyone anywhere. A number of enterprises—even the New Zealand Post—have enabled Kiwi consumers to take advantage of favorable prices abroad. Here as elsewhere people cope and thrive as best they can. And the framework of their hopes may be well-placed, misplaced, or somewhere in between the well-founded and the illusory. 

I suspect most of us most of the time are in the ‘somewhere in between’, in the realm of mystery. For some mysteries—like economics or disease—we resort to those who make a profession of resolving them. Yet even so there is mystery and dissension. For other mysteries there often is no satisfactory answer (e.g., How many galaxies are there and how would we know?). And for some mysteries still, we wouldn't want them to disappear because they are essential to life's greatest satisfactions and, indeed, to life itself. I would argue that God is the greatest of these and all mysteries.

Here in the realm where we live day to day, New Zealand has proven to be a great satisfaction. However much I acknowledge that or say that (about New Zealand), I have undoubtedly failed to make my case. I won't attempt to make good in this post whatever I've failed to do in the preceding twenty-four posts. But a round-up of sorts is called for and perhaps it would be helpful to start and finish by saying that Kiwis are blessed.

Not least they are blessed with a beautiful land set amongst beautiful seas and a mild, temperate climate. They’ve inherited much good from their Māori, European, and Asian forebearers. But as in other hyper-secularizing societies, they risk losing the gifts coming from a recognition that we humans are but creatures of a Creator and a loving Creator at that. As I leave this great country, I'm gratified to see a growing, concerted effort across the land to recognize in 2014 the bicentennial of the Gospel's proclamation in what we now call 'New Zealand' and what the Māori know as 'Aoteoroa' (= Land of the Long White Cloud). Kiwis are yet living within the legacy of that proclamation. And so by and large Kiwis are a warm-hearted people of earnest disposition. Jean and I will miss their company.

Many more words than I’d allow myself here would be needed to convey the milieu of New Zealand. And photos are like notes in a symphony, together they make music but alone they are mere tones seeking definition. I can’t create a symphony from the accompanying photos, but I'll share them by way of a parting, penultimate adieu to one very enchanting country and her people.

Firstly, I’ve got some pictures, not particularly enchanting I suppose, of Te Awamutu (TA), our home town for these past months. Foremost and at the forefront (above) is a picture of a Fonterra semi-truck pulling tanks along Sloane Street, heading to TA's Fonterra milk plant. These semis, which we’ve seen all over the North Island, could well serve among the emblems of New Zealand. The semis aren't the kind of Kiwiana you can buy in a store and take away.  Below I’ve included some 'take-aways' of Fonterra’s plant in Te Awamutu. The photos aren’t artsy. But they serve to remind us that Kiwis are humans. They need to make a living. Plants like Te Awamutu's play a vital role in New Zealand's participation in the global economy.

25.B Te Awamutu Fonterra Plant Straddling the North Island Main Trunk Railway

25.C Back of the Fonterra Plant on Factory Road

25.D Fuel-Conveyor Arm Straddling Factory Road
 & Framing Mt Pirongia 20 km Distant

Next below is a picture of Old St John’s Church, originally a mission church to the Māori, around which Te Awamutu grew to become a town. Mortal adversaries from New Zealand's 'Land Wars' in the 1860s, both Māori and Pakeha (European) warriors and soldiers, are buried in this church's graveyard.

25.E Old St John's, Te Awamutu

I’ve also enclosed some shots along Alexandra Street, TA’s main shopping street in the CBD (or downtown).

25.G At the Convergence of Three Streets—
Alexandra, Arawata, & Sloane—in Te Awamutu's CBD

25.H The Regent Theatre (a Multiplex of 5 Cinema Theatres)
along Alexandra Street, Te Awamutu

And how leave New Zealand without some shots of guys playing (or waiting to play) in rugby matches? These were taken on a recent Saturday morning at Te Awamutu's Albert Park.

25.I Rugby Players from Tokoroa Awaiting
Their Chance to Play in Te Awamutu

25.J In Play at Albert Park

25.K Goal Posts Framing the 

Youngest Rugby Players at Albert Park

Of course the highest sporting aspiration for a rugby player in New Zealand is to play for the All Blacks, the national team. The All Blacks are in a way New Zealand’s state church. I've not attended the All Blacks 'church'. But more than once I listened on YouTube to New Zealand's hauntingly beautiful national anthem sung at one of the highest days in the Kiwi calendar, when the All Blacks are about to play against a Rugby World Cup opponent. 

Hayley Westenra is a Kiwi native with a superb voice, who contributed to what must have been a thrilling Rugby Cup World match in 2011. In the match against France the All Blacks won the cup. Ms Westenra helped launch the match with a soaring rendition of the New Zealand national anthem. Here (on YouTube) she sings the official anthem, singing the first verse in Te Reo Māori and the second in English.

Te Awamutu touts itself as the 'Rosetown of New Zealand'. TA has an extensive public rose garden and emblazons roses in pavement inlays, on lamp posts, and so forth. Kiwi towns tend to tout themselves as one thing or another. Just picking on nearby towns… Cambridge touts itself as the 'Town of Trees & Champions'. Under large shade trees the Cambridge CBD, walkways have mosaic inlays honoring champion horses from the area. Otorohanga is New Zealand’s 'Kiwiana Town' (I've seen at least one other such town). Te Kuiti bills itself as the 'Shearing Capital of the World'.  And so forth. The village of Tirau might well tout itself as New Zealand’s 'Capital of Corrugated Art & Architecture', as the accompanying photos from Tirau might suggest. New Zealand's self-touting community practice contrasts with the anti-braggadocio that typifies individual Kiwis. All in all, Kiwi community touting seems to be a healthy avenue for community building.

25.L A Wool Shop, Tirau

25. M Tirau i-Site (Tourist Info Centre)

25.O Corrugated Street Art, Tirau

25.N Corrugated Storefront Art, Tirau

Before closing out this blogpost I'll advert to one more photo. This one, below, is provided courtesy of the Te Awamutu Courier, the free twice-weekly newspaper delivered to homes in TA and surrounding territory. I have always appreciated its arrival on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Jean and I have learned much from this newspaper.

The 14 May 2013 edition contained an article entitled  'Hi-vis bag covers boost safety'. District road police were reported to be working with Pirongia School in Pirongia (a village to the west of TA) to enhance the visibility of kids walking or cycling between their homes and the school. An accompanying photo, the one below, reflects some of the Kiwiness of Kiwis.

Firstly, let's get to the hi-vis business. Anyone who has spent any time in New Zealand can't help but encounter people adorned with reflective wear—NZ Post delivery folk (whether delivering by bicycle or truck), highway, railway, and airport workers (of course), construction workers, bicyclists, runners, mere pedestrians, and even truck drivers (like those guys driving the Fonterra semis). So to some extent hi-vis is part and parcel of much Kiwi work and leisure costume. To say this is not to suggest fluorescent fashion is frivolous. Rather, it's to say that a measure of safety earnestness is widespread, partly by law (perhaps) but also by custom (as a contrast in some cases to the cultural preference, especially among men, to wear black shirts, but let's not get diverted into speculation  about the influence of the All Blacks on Kiwi clothing culture).

Secondly, though less noticeable, you'll see the kids are generally wearing a uniform shirt. This isn't entirely demonstrable from the photo, in part because some kids are wearing jackets. And perhaps some kids are wearing non-uniform shirts (perhaps over their uniform shirts). Whatever the case here, the general practice in New Zealand at private schools and (in recent years) at public schools is for the students to wear uniforms. This is a practice—and a good one, I'd say—brought to New Zealand by immigrants from the British Isles.

Thirdly, most of the kids are barefoot. This isn't a sign of poverty. Rather it's a custom stemming from the Māori side of Kiwi culture. New Zealand isn't merely the southernmost reach of the Anglosphere. It's the southernmost point of Polynesia. One sees both children and adults walking around barefoot in all places and at any season. Among Kiwi young men, as elsewhere in the Western world, hoodies are fashionable. The Kiwi difference is that whilst wearing hoodies, hood over head and hands in pockets, the Kiwi hoodie afficionados may very well have bare feet.

Finally, most of the kids in the Pirongia picture are wearing either shorts or Capris. It isn't at all unusual to encounter highway workers or farm folk wearing shorts, even now in winter. Kiwis either strive for ruggedness... or they fit into the role from early on.

More could be said about the photo below, but the above will have to do for now. These notes have come to an end, except to say this. It's easy to like New Zealand and her Kiwis. It's hard to say goodbye.

Warm regards,
Tim (& Jean)

25.P Pirongia School Walkers with Hi-Vis Bookbag Covers,
as Appearing in the 14 May 2013 Te Awamutu Courier (Photo courtesy of the Courier)