I’m back in Sydney once again for a few last days. What was an insurmountable task of finding my way to my hostel from the airport via sub way has now become something of second nature. I feel oddly bold about making my way around the city. It isn’t completely new. But is there more to this feeling? There seems to be a hint of “I’m going to miss this country” in my brain at the moment. How could this be? How could I go through a country for 2 months (many times enduring the same arrogance that the locals claimed that my people embodied) in a country that was not what I had hoped it would be and get a feeling that I was going to miss the place? Maybe it was fact that I had never been anywhere abroad for this long. Maybe it was the fact that this was the last primarily English speaking country that I was going to be in for the next 4 months. Maybe it was just my brain being excited for circling back for once in the last 3 months.

Maybe it was my brain screaming in delight for some sort of familiarity just as it screams this way when I come upon variety at home. Maybe this was my brain craving something a little more middle path than I have been traveling for the past 3 months. I am by no means home sick though. I’d like to do this at the end of every country, but when the speed of countries visited increases I won’t have time for:

Australia is; New Zealand Was

There is nothing more fun than being able to look at old experiences again based on the new experiences you’ve had. It’s the “man if I had this brain/confidence/body/self esteem in high school” scenario, only with traveling.

Come to think of it, maybe the title should be “Australia was; New Zealand Is” because I have greater insight on New Zealand now that I have seen it’s beautiful big sister. And yes, I do promise there will be an “I was; I am” and the end of this great journey.

Onto the good stuff: Australia is a great way to appreciate New Zealand more. Boom.

I’ll open with a story about me going to the Airport in Cairns. I jumped into a shuttle van that an old tanned man was driving. I was the only passenger that he had that day so he began to talk to me about who I was and where I was from. I was a little surprised in the sincerity in his voice. He had the standard accent, but when the poignant question of where are you from came to the table, there was no arrogant twang under his breath. I told him and his response didn’t feel loaded either. I felt like maybe I had been dealt a bunch of jokers in a row (in my two months of Australia) and maybe there was a need for a re-evaluation. I said to him “Have you always lived in Cairns” and he put his foot on the break at the red light, swung back to stare me in the eye for the first time (not via the rear view mirror) and said “ Naw, Mate; I’m a Kiwi!”

A hah! I knew there was something off. We spent the rest of the ride talking about the sincerity of people in New Zealand (Kiwis) Vs the People in Australia.

I didn’t realize how wonderful New Zealand was until I had Australia to set as a back drop. I didn’t quite appreciate the people’s genuine nature until I encountered Australia’s people. I didn’t appreciate the long lasting connections that I made in New Zealand until I encountered the Backpackers Dilemma in Australia.

Australia was a series of beaches (many of them with much cleaner and purer sands and water than anything you can find in California, but none the less, for the most part, and just a string of beaches.) It’s fair to say that I didn’t see all of Australia, so It’s not fair to rate it as so one dimensional, but to be fair, a country shouldn’t be a riddle. Its strengths and bravado should slap you in the face upon walking off of the plane. You should be struck with a blow to your soul that makes you sit and wonder how you ever went this long without visiting.

I loved the Great Barrier Reef so much that it completely saved my endorsement of Australia. I would say that everyone needs to go to Australia in their life time, but you don’t need to go for two or even one month here. Just go to the reef, get under the water and see something so marvelous that it made can make an atheist wonder.

Go to New Zealand. Walk on a Glacier one day, a rain forest the next, and a volcano the following. Enjoy a country who doesn’t know how beautiful it is yet. Enjoy a people who are as sincere as they are happy to see you. Bring your coat and your rain coat J

Australia was a snobby gal while New Zealand is that intern who you hired on a whim and ended up being your successor in the company. But New Zealand won’t be like this forever. Eventually it will gain more lime light than its overgrown sister and more people will flood into its lands than she can handle and she will get the same attitude as Hawaii (“please just give me a break from all these tourists that continuously crawl through my skin”).

So if you like natural wonders, breathtaking views and events, an easy travel path, and a genuine people: go now, to New Zealand.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.