Gannets at Muriwai Beach, North Island, New Zealand
I don't know why I haven't looked at Kiwi news recently. It is always heartening to see a country up in arms about how their citizenry should expect to be treated with more decency than evidenced in the most recent national tragedy.
New Zealand has about as many inhabitants as Utah. Unlike Utah however, they have national health insurance, accident compensation insurance (think: no attorneys involved when you have a car accident) and a complex about keeping up with the Australians. It's a charming country, and if the dollar weren't in such bad shape, I might own a bach there already, alas. It peaked around .68 $NZ to 1 $US in our visit in 2004; my dashboard widget informs me that it is now hovering around .76 $NZ. Imagine if I had invested in $NZ dollars.... I'd own a condo on the Viaduct, that's what.
I fell in love with cricket and rugby, and the sailing already interested me. Today I happened to remember that I love these things, and discovered that the Kiwis are in the finals of the America's Cup, trying to regain the title from the Swiss defenders. Don't ask me to explain how the Swiss came to own the cup, or why they are HQ'd in Barcelona.
Instead, go read about the "last man standing" in Auckland, the poor accountant left behind who's job has devolved to shipping bottled NZ water to the team. Or about the port-envy of what's changed since Team NZ built the Viaduct. While Americans are gripped with Paris Hilton's personal crisis, I admire the earnestness of a country that can mourn the death of a 3-year-old. What could be more important than that, really?
Muriwai, gannets. This picture was taken on real film, in December, 2003. After R broke his leg, shortly after Christmas, if I remember right. I had learned to drive on the right, he had learned to operate his crutches; Michael, Effie and Kristen had gone to the Coromandel for a brief holiday. I love how the dynamic of the "v" of the wave echos in the image - the gannet's wings, the point of rock. Someday, I'll get a proper scan of the image, and learn to speak Kiwi. If I'm lucky. Good luck to the Team NZ in a fortnight's time (I loved typing the word "fortnight" just now. NZ is the only place I've traveled to for which I get homesick.)
