The Pohutukawa tree is New Zealand's most beautiful Summer sight. These two are in full bloom and shelter a picnic site in Auckland's Cornwallis Park.
In the last post I mentioned a friend from New Zealand who visited Sissinghurst Castle during one of our Summers so I chose this picture as reminder of a summer down under and of her visit. The view is of the Cottage Garden at Sissinghurst with Pat preparing to take a picture. This was toward the end of July when the famous white garden was at its end.
When I first went to live in NZ I was told that the place is a "just like England" and I was told I would settle in fine. It was true, I did settle in fine but the land nothing like England. There were sheep and cattle, English cars, English language and English goods and English migrants. Apart from that NZ was a place with its own character and the longer I lived there the more I came to appreciate what it was. NZ is a multicultural land with two main languages, Maori and English; it has a Polynesian flavor and has been influenced by early Australian colonial styles. It has developed its own identity and in particular since the nineteen seventies has had to depend upon its own development and trading preferences. In 1984 NZ was declared a Nuclear Free nation that upset the rampant Australians and annoyed the Americans. It also cheesed off ( or should that be fromaged ) the French who sent a couple of spies to damage the Rainbow Warrior.
Although NZ still has ties to the Mother Country it has its own way of government and identifies more with Australasia and the Pacific Rim nations and trades with Japan, China, India and the USA as well as keeping up trade with Europe. The need was generated when the EU refused to allow Britain to keep Australia and NZ as preferred trading nations and thus giving them an unfair lead into the EU. The result is that although the ties are maintained NZ, and likewise Australia, have developed separately even to the point of requiring would be emigrants from the UK to prove their place and gain points. I went over as "Ten pound Pom" which was actually twenty-five pounds with a trade. Today you have to fill a requirement for your services and can qualify from most places.
However , getting back to my cultural exchange; my friend who is an elderly but sprightly globe trotter, enjoyed the trip and today after some six or seven years have passed, I remembered the Pohutukawa tree. I remember too the Pacific sky, clear and bright, the hot summers, queuing in the line at Uni to enroll with the sun baking us in February; the Cicadas chattering, the Tui piping loudly, the Fantail flitting in the Manuka; Maori spoken in the streets; bright Polynesian clothes and the brightly decorated stations wagons filled with a whole family. I have the body memory of a motorcycle under my butt as I ride through the twisties on the back roads, the dusty unsealed roads firt only for four-wheel drives, tractors and off road cycles; the sudden tropical rainstorms and steep tree clad hills.
And here in England?
I learned to appreciate our gentle hills and the organised landscape; the woodlands, the villages and the stately homes and gardens and understand that although I long for the freedom of NZ and Australia, there is a special joy in discovering the paths and bridle-ways of rural England. So this year, armed with a digital camera, I will blog my way around south east England.
Pat in Rye, Sussex.
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