Aotearoa: My Point of View

So many people travel abroad looking for something, something that they can’t find where they live. They look for comfort, adventures, freedom, opportunities, a new beginning, etc.

This was exactly what happened to me. In 2006 I got on a plane to go to New Zealand because my school had an exchange program with a school located in Christchurch. There were two types of exchange, the first one for a month and the second one for a year. The last one was a scholarship and it was really hard to get it.

I was really excited about the trip because, even though I had travelled before (to Argentina), this was the first time that I was travelling out of the continent. Plus, what did I really know about New Zealand? Isolated island, Australasia, sheep, English, what else? I didn’t know anything about it, to be honest.

When I got there I was shocked! Christchurch was so different from Chile. It was clean, pretty, green, quiet and peaceful. It was so different from everything I knew.

I stayed one month there, I travelled around, and I met amazing people… I absolutely fell in love with New Zealand.

When I got back to Chile I so wanted to go back that I didn’t mind about missing one year of high school because the only thing that I knew for sure is that I wanted to spend more time in New Zealand. I was determined to apply for the one year scholarship and leave everything behind.

I applied twice and I didn’t have any luck, but the third time in 2008, finally worked out and I got the scholarship.

In January, the 19th of 2009 I got on a plane and I started my adventure in Christchurch. I travelled around, I went to the north island and I also had the opportunity to go to Australia. I went to school and met heaps of people from all over the world, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Japan, Spain, etc. I also met the kindest and coolest ‘kiwis’ ever! In summary, I had the best year of my life and I realized that I wanted to live in that country. I’ve never felt as comfortable as i did in New Zealand, I never felt so safe and I never had that feeling of being able to do so many things in a really short time.

The thing is that I’m always asking myself why? Why would I rather live in New Zealand than in my own country where I have everything I need? This is not an easy question to answer. I mean, I’ve been wondering the same thing for about 5 years and I haven’t really come to the conclusion yet.

The good thing is that I am not alone in this. There are a lot of people out there asking themselves the same thing. Why? Because lots of people go to New Zealand and never leave. And if you don’t believe me, ask Joe Bennett.

I found a book the other day and it was called ‘A land of two halves’. When I read the title I immediately thought about New Zealand. I ordered it online and I’ve been reading it since then. The book it is perfect, it actually shows me that I’m not the only one who thinks that New Zealand has something about its people, its culture, its land - I don’t really know – that makes you fall in love with it.

Joe Bennett writes: ‘This was the last country in the world to be settled. Maori came from Polynesia less than a thousand years ago. Europeans began to arrive in the eighteenth century. […] It was a New Zealander who split the atom. It was a New Zealander who conquered the Everest. New Zealanders sing at Covent Garden, make movies in Hollywood, write software for British dentists, farm more efficiently than anyone in the world, build boats for billionaires and do better at games than they have any right to. But still the country looks at itself and wonders, like a younger brother hovering on the edge of the big boys’ games. And now I’m going to join in the wondering. […] But my main purpose is selfish. I’ve lived a third of my life here now. One of my dogs is buried on the hill behind my house. Within a few years my other dog will die. And then there will be nothing to keep me here but habit. The question I want this trip to answer is whether, when the day comes, I should stay or go’. - A land of two halves, Joe Bennett. May, 2005 –

This is exactly what I mean. We don’t really know what it is but we will eventually find out some day. For now we can just analyze Kiwi culture and see if we find some answers!