Kiwi On The Loose

Kiwi on the loose was watching Kiwi Kitchen on TV just now and there they were in tonights programme looking at scones, picklets, corn beef and self saucing chocolate pudding. Very kiwi indeed! These NZ kiwiana iconz that most kiwis have grown up with and we will revisit sometime soon.. What all these recipes however had in common (excepting the corn beef ) was the good old EDMONDS COOK BOOK. We all grew up with it. Its just part of being a kiwi. When I bought my house a year ago I had a nostalgic period of purchasing NZ pottery and things that reminded me of my childhood like Lone Ranger, Bonanza and I Love Lucy dvds from the Warehouse. On Trademe I found a genuine old Edmonds Cookbook. I bought it and instantly placed it in the cupboard over the stove with a great feeling of coming home . Now it felt like home. I’d like to come back to this….its really Kiwi and in fact where ever I travel, I will take the Cookbook.

Well here I am in whats sometimes typical NZ kinda weather. Summer rain. Its warm today and its an excuse not to have to work outside and do all those things you have to, like mow the lawn. So I am gona go down town, have an iced chocolate and frequent my favourite second hand bookshop. The Piggery. Why the name? well it started its life aat Whangarei heads on a farm in an old pigsty. Now its moved in to town and the names stuck, as it should because stuck is kinda what they do to pigs here in NZ. get the dogs to bail em up then go in with the knife. If you are a real man that is. Me I am the kinda kiwi that will just stick to the piggery. I will see if they have a site. Give me 5mins.
Alas they haven’t. Hmmmm……wonder if I could help.

I would really like people to upload New Zealand images and share their work. It doesn’t have to be professional, its about images of the place or anything that relates to the theme of this blog.. With some basic editing software which most users and owners of digital cameras will have,  it is simple to post images. The size that seems to work best for the site is in landscape 425 x 304 pixels. If I can learn some more about code I may be able to edit the template so it does that automatically.

Till then….share your images of New Zealand in any way shape of form, the land, the people, the inhabitants……all images welcome. choose wisely and please write something simple with your image , about what it is and how it speaks about New Zealand. I know pictures speak them selves, but words are welcome. Thanks.

You may be interested in seeing my gallery of images on pbase. I have come to see through the lense. Its neat to go back and look again. I saw a small as part of USA in this way to, thru a lense. Those images are in a gallery called The American Dream. All other images are of Aoatearoa/ New Zealand.

Photo Gallery Here

Please leave a comment if you find your way there.

Here is a gallery of the person that has helped me to see New Zealand in a new way. she’d love you to visit and comment on her work. I personally love how she captured this country.

Susan’s New Zealand gallery on Pbase.
She loved the cleaness and light of New Zealand.

I didn’t know that I lived in paradise until January this year.Just before I turned 51.
The realisation happened while I was having a brief holiday staying with a photographer friend in America. Back in NZ from Denver, I had reflected lots on New Zealand in comparison to the USA, and what the strengths of each were and most importantly what made ‘kiwi’ kiwi.

I am no sleaze when it comes to collecting useless information, but in my brief stay in the USA I was disgusted at how little I knew about NZ. Like people would ask how long it was, or whats the highest mountain etc…durrrr! I dunno!

I found America to be totally HUGE, totally awe inspiring, and I saw beauty at every turn as I was taken in and out of The Rockies. Just traveling the freeways of Denver with the mountains in the distance as a backdrop was wonderful. It produced in me a sense of respect and wonder. Flying from LA to Denver and later on from Denver to Dallas, I can remember being the guy with his nose stuck to the window hypnotised by the view beneath me just sprawling out forever and ever and then some.  Land stretching out so far and wide……………where was the sea. Flying in New Zealand you can see both coasts on a fine day, or even a not so fine day.

I remembered lots of songs in America as I traveled. I felt like Woody Guthrie or who ever wrote ‘This land is your land….this land is my land.’ I felt the love and respect for the land, the hugeness of it. I loved even the roads, I was happy as a pig in mud taking photos thru the windscreen as we travelled. I could see why this nation was carved into to the hearts of its inhabitants. The sheer living with it commanded some kind of reverent, respect and awe as well as the resulting arrogance evident is some Americans, its politics and attitudes consequent to the exhilaration of having tamed the land and covered it with railway lines, freeways and things. The ‘I did it my way mentality’, that everything can be subdued in the end.

Still I found myself captivated by America, home of the free. I met some very lovely people and made some wonderful friends. It deeply effected my spirit. I had been a while coming to the realisation that all people are basically the same. You have to go outside and over the road to do that. 6500miles over the road. When I got home and processed it all and scrutinised the America portrayed on TV …I wasn’t so sure. Reality television doesn’t help America’s image, and the sad thing is Americans seem to feel the more right the more they are disliked on the world stage it seems.. Was it as wonderful as I thought? I wanted it to be and still do, but I am not so sure. I think the way to find out is to really spend a lot of time in several places in down home America, and I ‘d like to return to do that sometime. To be part of actually existing in a space and become part of it for a while.

So till next time.
cheers
I will get to paradise bit in the end.. Please feel free to comment. I so know these are my own opinions and I like a robust debate!