This blog is coming to you from the kitchen table of my parents home in the South Island of New Zealand. I have been in New Zealand since mid February, attending weddings, spending lots of time with family and generally reveling in how awesome this little country is.
It is almost two years since I left New Zealand on my O.E. (overseas experience: a rite of passage for many Kiwis in their 20s). Since I left in May 2011 I have been lucky enough to visit many amazing places: Central America (including Cuba), parts of Central/Eastern Europe (Prague, Krakow, Budapest, the Balkans), I've lived and worked in London, I've taken many trips to Europe (the Northern Lights in Norway, Scotland, France, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Belguim) and mostly recently Africa (see http://lucyunderafricanskies.blogspot.co.nz).
But my favourite country in the world is still New Zealand.
So what is it about this country of only 4.4 million people that I love*:
- The space and lack of people. My first trip to a European beach was in Italy at a beach near the town of Pisa. I could not believe how crammed in all the people were. I couldn't lie on my towel and stretch my arms out with touching the people sunbathing next to me on the beach. Beaches here in New Zealand don't ever get crowds like that. Even the most crowded beach here doesn't.
- The attitude of the people. Of course this is a generalisation, but on the whole the kiwi can-do attitude is pretty awesome. People are friendly too. When I first arrived back home in February I couldn't get over how friendly everyone was - hearing that kiwi accent at customs was pretty awesome.
- The coffee. I'm back in flat white heaven (although I have to say that Cape Town did a pretty good flat white too).
- The hills and mountains. It is always easy to forgot how amazing ones own backyard really is, but flying into Christchurch over the Southern Alps on a clear summer's day brought it home to me. I'm yet to see the mountains of Europe or Nepal so I won't proclaim them the best in the world, but they sure ain't bad.
- The smell. I can't explain it, but is somehow smells different. Maybe its the grass.
- I'm proud of how New Zealand tends to punch above its weight. This extends from our political system right through to our sporting exploits. In 2012, Denmark, Finland and New Zealand shared the first place as the least corrupt countries in the world in 2012, in an Corruption Index by Transparency International. In the 2012 Olympics New Zealand got the fourth highest number of gold medals on a per capita basis (http://www.medalspercapita.com/#golds-per-capita:2012).
Of course there are things that I dislike about New Zealand too, (the tall poppy syndrome really annoys me), but for me its home and like so many others I'm proud to be a New Zealander.
*Disclaimer: I'm a Kiwi, so this is inevitably 100% biased. No apology issued.
