Sheep

We arrived Saturday afternoon; David, Chris, and I, around 5:00pm. All three of us had been on the plane for varying amounts of time. Chris, just two hours from Wellington, me, 12 hours since boarding the plane amid a massive sneezing fit in KL, and David, since London, 2 nights before. He met me in KL, had a three hour layover, and then we picked up Chris on a layover in Christchurch. No delays and no probs, constant sneezing aside, the trip down to Dunedin went off without a hitch.

But, I had left KL, which was under a massive cloud of haze that day and ended a very stressful week of packing, working on the thesis and generally tying up loose ends. Thus, I wasn't entirely sure WHY I was sneezing, only that it sucked. SO, when we stepped off the plane in Dunedin and I breathed in the freshest, cleanest air I've encountered in many months AND stopped sneezing, I was more than slightly elated. We were to meet David's friends for dinner in a couple of hours, so it was a quick shower at his sisters place, and then off to meet a bunch more new people.

That night, snuggled under two duvets, a blanket and a sheet in a crisply cold room, I had the best nights sleep I can remember in months. I'm beginning to realize that almost constant use of the air conditioner has not been good for me over this last almost two years.Dunedin itself is all at once completely familiar and completely unfamiliar to me. I have been here once before, but remember almost nothing about the city itself. Mostly I remember going on a tour to the end of the pennisula where we snuck around peeking at penguins, sea lions, seals and albatross. It was one of my favorite parts of the time I spent in New Zealand eight years ago. Located on a penninsula, towards the bottom of the South Island, the air is crisp, but beginning to warm as spring begins to warm everyone after the long winter. People are out on the streets in everything fro winter coats to flip flops, shorts and tank tops. I am in the former, not finding 50 degrees to be particularly warm after two years in triple digit heat and humidity.

The town looks like Edinburgh a little ~ which makes sense, since the people who settled it basically brought the city plan with them and just transposed it onto this southern pennisula with familair looking green rolling hills. Also Dun-Edin means Edinburgh in gaelic. It also looks like a liberal college town that could be Ann Arbor, Madison, or Seattle. And it reminds me a little of some of the large towns of Cumbria, Northern England near where I used to live. But, it is all of those things and none of those things, since it is also uniquely New Zealand with a culture and a nationality all its own.

I find myself comfortable enough in a place where no one looks twice at me as I walk down the street, owing to the fact that I look completely ordinary among the mostly caucasian population, and yet, at the same time, I miss the cultural diversity of Malaysia. I feel smallish among much larger westerners, after being considered on the large side in Malaysia among mostly smaller Asians. I find myself surprised to realize some of the things I've missed, including the food. I find myself really surprised by how clean and tidy the streets look, and realize that crossing against a light here is actually more dangerous than in KL. I enjoy the independent cafes that I can't find in KL, but I miss the food stalls and hearing and speaking Malay.

David plays tour guide of a place he knows by heart. It must be wierd looking at a place that you know almost as well as you know yourself, but realizing that to the person next to you, it is completely new. We go see some very round boulders on a beach that is quintessentially New Zealand and we see some fantastic views out over the bays and oceans from atop one of those rolling hills. We look for seals and penguins, and spot one lone sea lion, asleep on a cliff far below us. We amble through the countryside stopping to take pictures of lambs and old bridges, and even climb a tree. Chris gets a little bored as he has already been here and done that, but he is patient. At night we eat fantastically healthy meals prepared by his sister and her husband, and sit around and play card games, usually getting beaten by Chris. In the late afternoons I sneak off to keep working at my thesis, as there are still many many revisions that need doing by Monday of next week.

Its not home, not America, but after living in Asia as I have, the differences between our cultures seem minimal by comparison. And yet, I feel as if I stick out, especially when I speak, and that this is not always percieved as a good thing. Interestingly, I sense that my nationality is of far less concern to people in the Muslim country where I have been living than it is to people here in New Zealand, where our cultures are very very similar. That said, I am still generally greeted with smiles and kindness and I genuinely enjoy the very friendly people I meet in stores and in the odd 'dairy' (small convenience store that conveiniently serves ice cream) on back country roads.

New Zealand is lovely. I can't get enough of the green hills, the fresh air, the friendly people, and sleeping so well at night. Our hosts are amazing, and great fun to chat with about all manners of things, over nice bottles of wine and great food. But its a very short trip and soon I will return to Malaysia, pack my bags and head for home.