Our Final Thoughts April 3, 2008
It’s easy for us to recognize the value of this blog now as we go back and re-read of our adventures of the last three months. There are already things that we have forgotten that now make us smile, laugh or cry once again. Our favorite travel writer, Rick Steves, defines travel as “accelerated living,” and that describes our experiences as well as possible. Our quiet days on the road would be busy days at home, and busy days on the road seem pretty exciting to us in retrospect.
When we travel we like to find differences. Things like two-thousand year old buildings, great works of art, people with unusual clothing, accents or languages, strange creatures, and interesting things to eat all qualify. It’s like eating chili. Everybody has their own tolerance level for how exciting or exotic you want it to be. Our fear on this trip was that we would spend a lot of time in a “warm Canada.” Simply not enough differences to justify the considerable time and expense involved. Governmentally (is that a word?) the Canadian comparison is not far off, but there it ends. The land, the people and their interests, the flora and fauna, and the indigenous cultures all were factors in our education and enjoyment on this trip.
New Zealand was everything we could have hoped. The famed friendliness of the Kiwis was not exaggerated and everyone we met, from gas station attendants to hotel concierges were more than “Minnesota nice.” Someone once defined a “city” as maximum opportunities in minimum space. New Zealand is maximum visual impact in minimum space. We commented that we have seen many similar sights to those in New Zealand but we have had to visit virtually all of our states to do it. The meeting of land and water takes place in so many different ways and each is more spectacular than the last.
We especially enjoyed the immersion into the Maori culture that is a very ingrained part of life in New Zealand. There was a period in the history of New Zealand when the relationship with the native people could have gone in a bad direction, but the “negotiations” took place with a mutual respect that, with the exception of a few ongoing issues, laid the groundwork for a very inclusive society.
The only disconcerting vibe in our visit to NZ was an institutional dislike of Americans. As mentioned, there was never a hint of a problem with individual Kiwis, but newspaper editorials, talk radio, and Members of Parliament all took turns at U.S. bashing whenever possible. Even a travel writer in an explosion of arrogance described her encounter with an American couple in Rome by saying, “It’s interesting that a nationality that is so awful in general can be bearable in particular.” We had a hard time imagining that sort of demeaning generalization appearing in print anywhere in the world, and it seems to stem from a sort of national inferiority complex that has the Kiwis lashing out at their bigger friends. By no means did any of this spoil our visit but it was a shading that was less than pleasant.
Australia, however, is one of the big kids and knows it. While relatively small in population and resources, the Aussies definitely consider themselves players on the world stage and valuable partners of the U.S., a stance that we found very refreshing. While not as gushingly hospitable as the Kiwis, the Aussies are warm, funny, smart and a pleasure to be around. They are also a very patient lot. Food service is agonizingly slow, waits in long lines are passed with smiles, and government posturing is met with what seems to us like a naïve level of tolerance. We really tried to be like that while there but it was hard. Economically, the Aussies are not an overly productive people and we assume that comes from that very laid back attitude which in turn may allow them to live longer. They can be petty business people at the lowest levels, but most perform well and wages, benefits and quality of living are all quite high.
Aussies are perhaps more sports crazed than we are. There are “major” leagues in cricket, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, basketball and of course Aussie Rules football (footy), as well as state teams and national teams. For each of these teams there are stadiums, minor league feeder teams, and full blown organizations, all in a country with a population similar to Los Angeles. Toss in the heavy participation in swimming, sailing, rowing, golf and tennis and everybody is into something.
We, of course, enjoyed the creatures of Australia. It is no coincidence that our two favorite stays on our entire trip were our visits to Kangaroo Island and Phillips Island that included wildlife adventures. That they were also spectacular lodging properties and our best hosts didn’t hurt either. For those who have not visited that part of the world it is difficult to describe the birds. The colors and dawn and dusk racket of these creatures were mesmerizing for us almost every day.
And, the cities of Australia, particularly Melbourne and Sydney, are everything they are cracked up to be. They are quite different from each other and yet each has its own unique qualities that make them both our favorites, depending on when you ask. In our little three-thousand mile drive around the coast we came within spitting distance of about three-fourths of Australia’s population so it didn’t seem as unpopulated to us as it really is.
The only Aussie trait we did not admire is a slavish reliance on government for solutions to every problem. For a strong independent citizenry in every aspect of their private lives, it is surprising to see that they have given away control of huge portions of society. Their health care system is a disaster, schools are failing a large segment of the population, their aboriginal people continue to occupy the lowest level of society, their carbon emissions have now exceeded the Americans and yet the ongoing answer is that more “public money” is required. The people of Australia are asking for solutions to problems from the people who have caused the problems in the first place, a losing proposition.
On this trip we chatted with folks from probably twenty different countries, were able to interact with hundreds of representatives of our host countries, and watch little kids, teenagers, new parents, workers, loafers, fat people, skinny people, and old codgers like us. Everywhere we have been in the world there has been prejudice of one form or another, political problems, infrastructure issues and never enough money to fix all the ills, and yet people are all the same. If we travel to encounter differences then why is it so satisfying to appreciate our sameness? Maybe because it is comforting to know that we are all the same in spite of those differences.
One of our mantras is that on these trips we miss more than we see and we forget more than we remember. The little that we remember of the little that we saw is plenty though, and we are still the luckiest people we know.
It’s easy for us to recognize the value of this blog now as we go back and re-read of our adventures of the last three months. There are already things that we have forgotten that now make us smile, laugh or cry once again. Our favorite travel writer, Rick Steves, defines travel as “accelerated living,” and that describes our experiences as well as possible. Our quiet days on the road would be busy days at home, and busy days on the road seem pretty exciting to us in retrospect.
When we travel we like to find differences. Things like two-thousand year old buildings, great works of art, people with unusual clothing, accents or languages, strange creatures, and interesting things to eat all qualify. It’s like eating chili. Everybody has their own tolerance level for how exciting or exotic you want it to be. Our fear on this trip was that we would spend a lot of time in a “warm Canada.” Simply not enough differences to justify the considerable time and expense involved. Governmentally (is that a word?) the Canadian comparison is not far off, but there it ends. The land, the people and their interests, the flora and fauna, and the indigenous cultures all were factors in our education and enjoyment on this trip.
New Zealand was everything we could have hoped. The famed friendliness of the Kiwis was not exaggerated and everyone we met, from gas station attendants to hotel concierges were more than “Minnesota nice.” Someone once defined a “city” as maximum opportunities in minimum space. New Zealand is maximum visual impact in minimum space. We commented that we have seen many similar sights to those in New Zealand but we have had to visit virtually all of our states to do it. The meeting of land and water takes place in so many different ways and each is more spectacular than the last.
We especially enjoyed the immersion into the Maori culture that is a very ingrained part of life in New Zealand. There was a period in the history of New Zealand when the relationship with the native people could have gone in a bad direction, but the “negotiations” took place with a mutual respect that, with the exception of a few ongoing issues, laid the groundwork for a very inclusive society.
The only disconcerting vibe in our visit to NZ was an institutional dislike of Americans. As mentioned, there was never a hint of a problem with individual Kiwis, but newspaper editorials, talk radio, and Members of Parliament all took turns at U.S. bashing whenever possible. Even a travel writer in an explosion of arrogance described her encounter with an American couple in Rome by saying, “It’s interesting that a nationality that is so awful in general can be bearable in particular.” We had a hard time imagining that sort of demeaning generalization appearing in print anywhere in the world, and it seems to stem from a sort of national inferiority complex that has the Kiwis lashing out at their bigger friends. By no means did any of this spoil our visit but it was a shading that was less than pleasant.
Australia, however, is one of the big kids and knows it. While relatively small in population and resources, the Aussies definitely consider themselves players on the world stage and valuable partners of the U.S., a stance that we found very refreshing. While not as gushingly hospitable as the Kiwis, the Aussies are warm, funny, smart and a pleasure to be around. They are also a very patient lot. Food service is agonizingly slow, waits in long lines are passed with smiles, and government posturing is met with what seems to us like a naïve level of tolerance. We really tried to be like that while there but it was hard. Economically, the Aussies are not an overly productive people and we assume that comes from that very laid back attitude which in turn may allow them to live longer. They can be petty business people at the lowest levels, but most perform well and wages, benefits and quality of living are all quite high.
Aussies are perhaps more sports crazed than we are. There are “major” leagues in cricket, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, basketball and of course Aussie Rules football (footy), as well as state teams and national teams. For each of these teams there are stadiums, minor league feeder teams, and full blown organizations, all in a country with a population similar to Los Angeles. Toss in the heavy participation in swimming, sailing, rowing, golf and tennis and everybody is into something.
We, of course, enjoyed the creatures of Australia. It is no coincidence that our two favorite stays on our entire trip were our visits to Kangaroo Island and Phillips Island that included wildlife adventures. That they were also spectacular lodging properties and our best hosts didn’t hurt either. For those who have not visited that part of the world it is difficult to describe the birds. The colors and dawn and dusk racket of these creatures were mesmerizing for us almost every day.
And, the cities of Australia, particularly Melbourne and Sydney, are everything they are cracked up to be. They are quite different from each other and yet each has its own unique qualities that make them both our favorites, depending on when you ask. In our little three-thousand mile drive around the coast we came within spitting distance of about three-fourths of Australia’s population so it didn’t seem as unpopulated to us as it really is.
The only Aussie trait we did not admire is a slavish reliance on government for solutions to every problem. For a strong independent citizenry in every aspect of their private lives, it is surprising to see that they have given away control of huge portions of society. Their health care system is a disaster, schools are failing a large segment of the population, their aboriginal people continue to occupy the lowest level of society, their carbon emissions have now exceeded the Americans and yet the ongoing answer is that more “public money” is required. The people of Australia are asking for solutions to problems from the people who have caused the problems in the first place, a losing proposition.
On this trip we chatted with folks from probably twenty different countries, were able to interact with hundreds of representatives of our host countries, and watch little kids, teenagers, new parents, workers, loafers, fat people, skinny people, and old codgers like us. Everywhere we have been in the world there has been prejudice of one form or another, political problems, infrastructure issues and never enough money to fix all the ills, and yet people are all the same. If we travel to encounter differences then why is it so satisfying to appreciate our sameness? Maybe because it is comforting to know that we are all the same in spite of those differences.
One of our mantras is that on these trips we miss more than we see and we forget more than we remember. The little that we remember of the little that we saw is plenty though, and we are still the luckiest people we know.
Very well said, and you captured the ethos of both countries well. As a Kiwi living in the US I do not wish to apologize for them in their attitudes. I believe that in fact they forget that their real prejudice relative to the US is its foreign policy over many decades, and the fact that they are bewildered how its possible for the current President to have ever been elected,(they are not alone) and why there is not a national uprising against him...these are people who think Carter was the best president ever (maybe the best person but not the best President...)..these are the same people who blindly think that because NZ needs no nuclear power that no one else does, and they are the same people who once they visit the US are generally the greatest advocates for its charms...we do live in a world where stereotypes abound and having our American daughter in law with us in NZ a few years ago we were very mindful of how personally each American gets hurt by these generalizations about the US...as the saying goes.. "I wish you would read a little, your ignorance is stifling our conversation" - so it is with travel- most Americans subscribe to the idea that it is the greatest country on earth...without having even been to Canada...so the recipe surely is, pass judgment after you have seen and experienced rather than what you have concluded...my favorite on that is visiting Newark airport and thinking, so this is New Jersey- dirty and unkempt.... and then I went to Princeton....Thanks for the weblog its been great, hope to see you soon, Bryce (in Thailand at the moment)
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