Daily Photo – Summer’s Day at Lake Tekapo

When you grow up in New Zealand, you quickly develop the sense that the world is a pretty big place, and you’re a long way from it. As a child, I would gaze at world maps or spin a globe and marvel at how European cities like London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Geneva, Milan and Barcelona seemed clustered together like sprinkles on an ice cream. The countries of Central Europe looked positively cozy, as though you could hop between Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia on a leisurely afternoon stroll. Beyond that, if you were feeling particularly adventurous, you might venture to the exotic, far away lands of Egypt, Italy, Greece or to Scandinavia, which, on a map to a young boy, seemed tantalizingly close. 

Eventually, after spinning the globe several more times and surveying with astonishment the vast far-flung landmasses of Africa and South America, my eyes would eventually slide back to the Pacific Ocean and find little old New Zealand – a faint speak drifting on the edge of the world’s consciousness. 

Attempting to locate New Zealand on a world map was an adventure in itself. More often than not, I’d find it tucked away in the corner somewhere looking like an afterthought. I’ve seen maps where New Zealand has been reduced to something reminiscent of an ink blob or a cocktail stain on a t-shirt. Others position us precariously close to Australia, as if we’re one high tidal current away from merging. On the worst offenders, we vanish altogether, as if midway through the design process the Cartographer has gotten bored and thought, “well, they’ll figure it out!” 

Believe me, I can assure you that finding a world map that is printed accurately and shows New Zealand’s correct geographical location, with its precise size and shape at its correct proximity to the rest of the world is like finding a White Peacock in the wild, like seeing the Sea of Stars in the Maldives or catching a glimpse of a total solar eclipse. It’s like witnessing a shooting star streak across a perfectly still night sky, or Charlize Theron herself, a rare and beautiful thing. 

Anyone who has spent a decent amount of time in New Zealand will know that at some point, you eventually stop questioning the local logic, put on a pair of jandals and simply start going with the flow. We just accept that a mince pie and a cold can of Fresh Up is a perfectly balanced breakfast if eaten before 10:00 AM. We maintain a rock-solid, slightly irrational belief that the All Blacks will thump the Wallabies each year to keep the Bledisloe Cup where it belongs. And, despite the evidence of our own eyes, we insist that last summer was a golden, endless dream – even if the current one has been nothing but a string of southerly fronts from Christmas Eve through to mid-January, with the odd fine spell thrown in.