Explorer

Sunday, a few hours after returning from the weekend in Rotorua, a group of us played a game of Ultimate Frisbee with some locals. One of them, it turns out, is originally from Pennsylvania. He moved to NZ 6 years ago, tired of the US. I asked Kevin, his name, what prompted the move to NZ specifically- why not to Europe or any other place. His reply was that he and his wife had never really heard of NZ, and thought- why not?

Apparently, something attracted them to New Zealand. With a wide range of cultures represented in NZ, it is clear this country attracts many people to its land. We, even, have been drawn to this paradise, though for different reasons than those of Kevin and his wife. Regardless of these minor differences, all of us have come here in search of something.

Even more, I am sure that our study abroad group, though here primarily for coastal geology and biology, has discovered many new and unexpected things that don’t pertain to our classes- what we originally came for. Like so many people have repeatedly told us, New Zealand is a young yet extremely diverse country. For example, I found it striking that at the Hot Water Beach, there could be two rock forms in such close proximity that were different: andesite and ignimbrite. The fact that the fault line releases boiling hot water, 64C, is pretty amazing, too. Speaking in terms of biology and ecology, biodiversity represents stability, enabling the envrionment to better withstand disturbances than monocultures. From our (approximately) 2 weeks here in New Zealand, we’ve seen a wide array of geological formations and structures, and biology’s flora and fauna. There are estuaries and bays, rocky intertidal to mudflats, acorn barnacles and green-lipped mussels, tuis and hoihos and, of course, kiwis. In addition to this natural diversity, there is also cultural diversity.

Our marae stay Friday night was a clear indication that cultures and maintaining traditions of different peoples are important to New Zealanders. Preserving traditions and customs, like the song-singing and delicious hangi, is vital to social diversities and acceptance. While here, I’ve heard English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, and Cantonese, to name a few. Remember the sea of South Koreans at Agrodome?

People recognize the value of New Zealand. This can be seen in the number of visitors and tourists at national parks and on bushwalks, the plethora of different cultures and their continued growth and survival here, and even in the initiative that our guest speaker Terry Hume discussed for categorizing beaches. People are drawn by what New Zealand provides and promises.