Kia Ora – Welcome to New Zealand!

Rainer Jenss and his family are currently on an around-the-world journey, and they’re blogging about their experiences for us at Intelligent Travel. Keep up with the Jensses by bookmarking their posts, and follow the boys’ Global Bros blog at National Geographic Kids.

While researching our around-the-world trip, I read through more than a fair share of material on cultural shock.  Being a pretty seasoned traveler, I doubted that I could possibly be susceptible to the psychological or even physical effects, which include anxiety, fear, and insomnia. But I wondered about the kids, whose lives for the most part have revolved around a single point of reference: Nyack, New York.

The thought of culture shock left my mind as we said good-bye to Asia after having been there for more than two months. So much to my surprise, the first three days we spent in Auckland actually felt like a case of reverse culture shock. We all found it awkward being in a more familiar Westernized environment again. Our first case of jet lag didn’t help matters either.

After we regained our bearings, Carol and I started to really savor the fact that we could actually settle down a bit, versus feeling like we were on an extended whirlwind tour. The boys picked up on this too, and appreciated that New Zealand was the ideal place to fall into a bit more of a normal routine. They didn’t even protest getting haircuts, which would normally be accompanied by a lot of complaining. We also bought our own groceries, used a washer and dryer, and I turned on the TV again. In fairness, I watched quite a bit of CNN and BBC during the presidential election, but this time, it was New Zealand’s turn to talk politics. After nine years of Labour Party rule, John Key of the National Party was elected prime minister just four days after Obama’s huge victory. It might not have been as newsworthy around the world, but the Kiwis are abuzz at the prospect of some change of their own.   So even though we are as far away from home as we’ll get this year, we somehow started feeling more connected to the lives we left behind.

As welcoming as this feeling of normalcy was, I couldn’t let it overcome me. After all, we are in New Zealand, the country I arguably looked most forward to visiting on this whole trip. I have not talked to a single person who has been here who didn’t absolutely rave about it, so I wasn’t about to let ourselves miss out on anything because we wanted a break from being tourists. So we immediately hit the bookstore upon arrival to supply ourselves with  guidebooks to ensure that we got to know the place. Although we did a ton of research before taking this trip, guidebooks weigh too much for us to carry them all, so picking one up has become a mandatory first stop when we get to a new country.

Besides the trusty Lonely Planet guides, Carol and I have used other books on this trip to provide us with a deeper sense of place (for more books along this line, visit Traveler’s Ultimate Travel Library). I read Barack Obama’s Dreams of My Father while crossing the U.S.; the historical fiction Genghis Kahn during our three weeks in China (Carol’s choices were The Last Empress and Peony in Love); Lost Japan, by Alex Kerr to provide some perspective while in that country; Buddha, a novel by Deepak Chopra, was only fitting for Bhutan and Thailand; while The Bone People, written by a Maori author, Keri Hulme, is widely considered one of the top literary works by a New Zealander. We’ve left Tolkien’s classic, The Hobbit, for Tyler to devour. Carol, meanwhile, has gotten a head start on our next destination, Australia, with Bill Bryson’s Down Under.

Family movie night has also been a source of cultural exploration throughout our journey. Our personal favorite so far has to be Kundun, which we watched during our visit to Bhutan, but watching The Last Samurai when we were in Japan was also a perfect complement to visiting the old samurai town of Hirado. The Lord of the Rings, which has actually been a boon for tourism to New Zealand, was an obvious choice here. I also insisted on The Whale Rider, which Carol and I saw when it was first released several years ago.

Because we made it a priority to expose the kids to some Maori culture via a visit to the Auckland Museum, this film was more than appropriate, and took on a much deeper meaning the second time around.

We borrowed the video at the first of several B&Bs we would stay in during our month here. Sandi’s B&B, just outside of Rotorua on the North Island was our first taste of Aotearoan hospitality.  ‘Outside’ being the operative word because Rotorua is in New Zealand’s most active thermal area, with sulfur-rich air that really stinks up the place. Despite the omnipresent rotten egg odor, it’s worth touring the smoking thermals, bubbling mud pools, and exploding geysers. Although we saw it all in Yellowstone, this activity was planted squarely within the confines of a small city, created mainly by tourism centered around hot spring resorts. We partook in the public bathhouse and the Polynesian Spa, which offered picturesque mineral bathing for the whole family.

After we crossed Cook Strait by ferry to the South Island, we headed straight to Christchurch to check out the New Zealand Cup and Show, which we thought would give us a good taste of some more contemporary New Zealand culture. This annual event kicks off with the NZ Cup horse race, but our main interest was the Agricultural and Pastoral (A&P) Show. Widely considered the centerpiece of the 5-day festival, which includes a regional public holiday, this county-fair-like event showcased the best in class for everything from sheep, llamas and alpacas, to cattle and livestock. It also featured equestrian competitions and a lumberjack tournament – attended by Princess Anne no less!

So our first week in New Zealand seemed to include a little bit of everything. But mainly, we had the chance to step off the touring carousel for a while. The next two weeks, meanwhile, would really allow us to pursue things at our own pace, as we prepared to take our year-long family road trip to the next level in the ultimate way to experience New Zealand – by campervan!

Photos: Rainer Jenss