The Written Word
for January 26, 2000

I have often thought how I would like to live in New Zealand. And I’m entitled to if I wish because I am a citizen through my father’s New Zealand birth. It happens this way – by New Zealand law, children of New Zealanders themselves born in New Zealand are citizens from birth. All that is needed is your parent’s birth certificate, his or her marriage certificate and your own birth certificate plus a filled out form plus I think it’s about $50. I have done this and have also obtained a New Zealand passport – after all, as the lottery man says, you never know.

My Dad left New Zealand – he was born in Auckland – in 1913 when his parents along with his maternal grandmother came to Vancouver. My great grandfather – whom I didn’t know though I do remember his wife, my great grandmother – was a doctor and with the typical business acumen generally associated with that profession thought the streets of the still pretty new Vancouver were paved with gold. They weren’t. My paternal great grandfather was also born in New Zealand and his father, Gilbert Mair was an early pioneer in the Bay of Islands and in Whangerei.

This is, I believe, my 20^th trip to New Zealand starting 1n 1981. I fell in love with the place and feel drawn back more each year.

It’s an unusual country, New Zealand – it’s not as some think a hot country. With the exception of Northland, which is north of Auckland, both the summers and winters are mild. There is snow in some of the South Island cities but Auckland has never known it.

Geographically it’s like many countries rolled into one. Indeed their tourist brochure of a few years ago showed a map of New Zealand with several countries super-imposed to demonstrate the variations from place to place.

The North Island, with which I’m more familiar, has a very different sort of geography. In a way it reminds one of the Cotswolds except the top of the hills in the North Island are often rock outcroppings. Amazingly you will suddenly come across a huge volcano like Ruahepu, Tongariro and Egmont. And some of these volcanoes are very alive and well indeed. Ruehepu has had numerous eruptions, in fact two in the last three years.

I know that everywhere one goes one is struck by the friendliness of people but in New Zealand it is truly extraordinary. On my first trip I drove into a motel in Rotorua (where the famous geysers are) and as I parked my car one of the tires went flat. I went in to register before fixing the flat and came out to find the husband had already jacked the car up and was well on his way to replacing the tire.

A listener of mine was in New Zealand a few years ago and rented a camper or caravan as they call them. He and his wife stopped in a small town for directions. Before he knew it he was staying with a farm couple he’d never met before and had the loan of the family car to tour in, the host insisting that one could not sightsee comfortably in a caravan!

The scenery in the South Island is on the west coast here – it’s like you’d never left home. Deep fjords and high mountains – the Southern Alps – spring right out of the ocean. I’ve only been to the South Island three times but it’s not for lack of beauty – it’s just that Wendy and I have found a place we love where we have a beautiful river, for the most part entirely to ourselves.

Then why don’t I retire and move to my second country?

I can’t afford to retire, for one thing, but after all is said and done, it is still only my second home. Our families including 7 grandchildren all live in Canada and blood is indeed thicker than water.

Still, you might want to check with your folks – if either of them were born in New Zealand you might just want to have a peek at your birthright. You could do a lot worse!