As a child I used to sing Maori songs and dance the Maori dances at school. We all learnt them at that time. I remember swinigng the pois, learning the dances, singing beautiful Maori songs in Maori and feeling joy.
Now it’s not so often taught to all schools, so I feel grateful that I was lucky enough to have experienced that and been graced with the culture and integral part of our indigenous peoples.

I have vague memories of singing the Queens anthem at movie (picture) theaters.
As NZ became more independent from Britain, it was slowly dropped.

My mother was a nurse who used to help out in the neighborhood in times of emergencies... car accidents on our curvy street, sick and dying neighbors.
When we used to see Martin Luther King on TV, she would say... “That there is a great man!”

My father studied insects and went off several times with Americans to Antarctica to study their habitats and their migration. He would come home with stories to fire up the imagination and photos and slides to back it up.

Many families had big backyards,half acre, with usually lemon and grapefruit trees and often a fejoa bush.
We went to a few real hangis made by Maoris where food is cooked underground and it tasted sooo good!
We used to look up at the Southern Cross at night bright in the sky.
I left home at 16yrs old, but so did several young people then. I don’t know why it was more normal to do that at that time.

So this is how I was  brought up in NZ.

I became a nurse, then left NZ in 1979 to travel through and live in Australia, which was a wonderful time in a wonderful country. My mother’s birthplace.                                                                                                                                             I discovered my inner self and lived in meditation centers. 

And from there I went to the USA where I’m living today. And that’s a whole another story.
Now when I’m out of LA, I look at the Big Dipper in the sky!

There was a time when I didn’t get back to NZ for 10 years.  Yes, that was a long time, with all my family still in NZ. And when I got back,  of course I noticed more differences.
It was like any place really, that undergoes changes over a period of time. Everything changes.. as they say  “ The only thing constant in life is change”
We grow up as well...

I think one of the first things I noticed were the sushi restaurants! We never used to have those..
And I noticed less Maoris, I would try to look for them on the streets and in downtown etc.
People were starting to subdivde their property and build a second place. The big back yards were decreasing in number.
Harder to find little tearooms, and the little cafes that used to have little tea sandwiches and pastries are fewer and far between. A lot of them now serve more gourmet food and meals.
And couldn’t find a real hangi, although I’m sure maori families are still having them at certain times. and some of the tourist sites have something like them.
And now you have to pay  a liitle to have hospital care.. what a concept!

I did go back to Sumner, Christchurch, a quaint little seaside town in the south where I lived as a child for four years and some of it still had that same old  feeling. There were still some of the old houses on the Esplanade and the house where my grandparents lived as well as the 2 houses where we lived.

But NZ has always been known as a scenic country with friendly people and I think that’s stayed the same throughout all the changes. It’s still fresh and green, the air is good and the people are known to be friendly, helpful and inviting. Tourism thrives as it has done for years. It’s still a beautiful country with many wonderful places to see and things to do.
Our indigenous Maoris are pushing ahead on TV, in politics, remembering their culture and reminding us.
Many have gone to live in Australia, and some have gone back to live rurally or on their maraes.

Auckland has always been somewhat of a melting pot being the biggest city in the North,
and when I was growing up we had many Tongans, Cook islanders, Niue Island and Samoans coming here to build a new life. And as I was growing up, we always had populations of Chinese, Indian. Italian, Hungarian and others.
Now, we have a big and growing population of Japanese and Koreans which now make up a large part of Auckland city and beyond. So many Asian networks are growing here.

And of course there have been so many more changes than I've mentioned.  Whale Rider, and Lord of the Rings have come and gone yet live on, and politicians have come and gone. Actually Helen Clark stayed a long time and now we have John Key as prime minister.
I've barely touched the surface of some of the immense, diverse and deeper areas of NZ’s cultural and political change. But I’ll leave that to others right now

I suppose it’s taken me awhile to adjust to the new NZ because I’ve lived away so much and haven’t grown with the changes like my sisters and brother. Those changes have just hit me at times when I’ve come back.
It’s almost like being “behind the times” when I go back, except it’s me that’s behind! At least relating to NZ.

I’ll have to spend some time there and catch up...

 "You will have to be one and whole for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be and to do!"
 Frodo, Lord Of The Rings

Manaaki Whenua,  Manaaki Tangata, Haere Whakamua

 Care for the land, Care for the people, Go forward.

Maori proverb

Mitta Vicki Wise