I fell in love today...

...with Sumner, New Zealand...

All I really wanted out of this whole trip was to see everything that I could, do everything that I could, and experience everything that I could...After all, my destination is Antarctica, and at this point in time in my life I cant imagine many things I could do that would be much "crazier" than this... that being said, I must admit that I threw caution to the wind today, as did everyone I was with...and it also needs to be said that it was worth it... and at the risk of being completely cheesy, it changed my life - I feel like I am a far different person now than when I woke up this morning. If I turn around now, this trip will still have been worth EVERY minute...



Even though the better half of my morning was spent trying on all of the clothes that were issued to me, to take to the ice, I still had more than enough time to see more of New Zealand, and I wasn't gonna miss out. So 3 of us "first timers" commissioned a fellow DA (Chris) who had been to Christchurch before to take us out to Sumner - a little beach town that was no more than a 15 minute bus ride from the center of Christchurch...

(P.S. Amazing metro system!! The Kiwis have it down! You apply for a bus pass, which takes all of 5 minutes, then you put $10 towards activating it...it costs $2.30 to take the bus just about anywhere, and they wont charge you more than twice in a 24 hr. period...so for $4.60 you can ride the bus all day. But the icing on the cake? The card NEVER expires!! I can come back in 10 years and my card will still be honored. Now that's what I call fancy)

On the bus to Sumner, a Maori gentleman, who none of us had ever met, let alone seen, before walks up to us and politely interrupts our conversation. After making small talk about whether or not we were students, and why we were in the country, he invited us to his house for tea (people still drink tea?), and told us along the way that he would show us around. Never thought twice about who we were or any intentions that we might have...he just invited 5 total strangers into his home... In this day and age I would have to say that he was the epitome of generosity and courage.

On a more depressing note, I am sad to say that at first, we were not as welcoming to the invitation as we should have been, but after considering that the numbers were in our favor we obliged. Even more embarrassing for myself, was that the entire way to this man's house my brain was occupied with scenes from the movie Taken ...

I remembered watching that movie and rolling my eyes the entire time, thinking, "HA...that would NEVER be me...I would never wander off with a stranger in a foreign country...are people really THAT stupid??!!"

hmmm...wait a second, what's wrong with this picture?.............WTF happened to my arrogant opinion on foreign generosity??!!...the entire time I'm following this guy, I'm rolling playbacks of this twisted movie in my head...But my feet kept following a man, I HAD NEVER MET, into his home, IN A COUNTRY THAT I HAD NEVER BEEN TO BEFORE!! Roll out the red carpets my friends... Taken 2: The girl who saw the first movie and was still stupid enough to wander into a stranger's house is gonna be a HUGE hit in Hollywood!

And to really ice my cake of doubt, I had to climb, what I'm pretty sure, was somewhere in the ballpark of 150 stairs, through bushes and grass and mud, wearing my gym shoes and carrying an unnecessarily heavy backpack to the top of this bluff that appeared to have no end...Great! the last thing I'm gonna do before I become a permanent fixture on the side of a milk carton is exercises??!! NO NO!! This is not the way I'm supposed to go...
Oh and my mother!! If my mother could see me now she would beat back into me, whatever "sense" I apparently forgot on that buss...

So here I am 1 of 5...and convinced that I am the only one with any kind of sense left in me as we press forward...I hung a little further back in case we had to start running, I was seeking out landmarks so I would know where I was if I got lost running for my life...I even waited for everyone else to drink their tea first just to ensure that it hadn't been drugged (unfortunately I was not the only one who had thought this through...no one wanted to take the first sip...so we all sat there in silence until he drank his first)

All my caution and mental preparation...all the worry...and all for nothing...

As it turns out Gashtra (was his name) was quite possibly the nicest, most kind hearted stranger, most kind hearted human, I had ever met...in my entire life.

He told us stories about his family and of Maori tribes, he gave us gifts (some rope that he made from a plant, native flowers that were sacred to the Maori tribes, and liquor for our trip [I realize that liquor isn't quite as "romantic" as the other 2 gifts, but he was dealing with 5 kids under 26, he clearly knew the way to our hearts]) he told us about his own personal journey and while, I don't believe he realized it, he very much helped to pave the way for the journey that we were about to take.

There were moments of awkward silence that turned into hours of amazing conversation...his laugh was painfully genuine, his insecurities obvious, and his honesty refreshing... There were so many different things that we all shared and talked about and all I can really seem to remember is that he came to Sumner, New Zealand with nothing more than the bag on his back...all he wanted was a wife and a family and to be happy (although he felt that was not where his path would lead him...his family was a tribe of warriors and a "warrior" was what he was expected to be), before we arrived he was packing to go spend 3 days with a Maori priestess in hopes of overcoming all of his fears and self doubt, and that he was from the "Universe Te"... but most importantly I remember that he was whole-heartedly welcoming and indisputably kind...

While this experiencing was, as I said before, life changing, it was also violently enlightening...the fact that this experience could make me so happy actually made me sad...

Why do we avoid eye contact with people on the bus and ignore the people we don't know when we pass them on the street?...Why do we tell our children to never take candy from strangers, or help them find their supposedly lost puppy?...Why do we spend so much time keeping ourselves safe from imaginary threats?...

BECAUSE WE SHOULD! Because somewhere along the way terrible things happened...horrible people did unspeakable things and that has led us to view everything as a threat...unfortunately, in this day and age you never know what that threat could be, so...yes, everything is a threat.

BOO...that sucks! I can only imagine the thousands of experiences that are missed because we politely decline invitations and turn down opportunities...and our reasoning, in some cases...even in my case, is based on media and movies...movies that aren't based on fact but on hearsay and speculation and prior cases of similar situations.

The thing that breaks my heart even more? As we began to tell our story to people about this amazing man who welcomed us into his house, they ALL recanted with their own story of strangers showing similar generosity, all of which, however, took place while they were traveling in different countries. Italians will invite you to dinner and Indians will invite you to tea. Nigerians will invite you in and cook for you any time of day in exchange for stories about the place you come from, and Peruvians are just so interested in the person that you are that they will feed you drinks til you see double, just to hear your history. Kiwis want nothing more than to hug you and then buy you a beer and and Australians still pick up hitch hikers...and Americans? Nope, no stories about us... and while I am NOT condoning picking up hitch hikers or inviting complete strangers into your home, I am suggesting some extension of generosity and maybe even a healthy level of curiosity...

All the ranting aside...I could never justify doing for another human being what he did for us...even after a successful visit in this instance, I still believe that I would be too scared to do the same thing he did, for a complete stranger, in the future. BUT HE DID IT...

And I am now better for it...

The rest of our day in Sumner was absolutely perfect...we drank coffee, we walked on the beach, etc., etc., etc. But it just wouldn't have been the same had we not started it the way we did...

I'm in love with this place and with the people and with the way of life. I love the landscape and the towns and the food.

I'm in love with Sumner, New Zealand


"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on deep and permanent in the ideas of living." - Miriam Beard-