How do I love thee, New Zealand?

I love thy baristas, long-blacks, and consistently roasted coffee beans.
I love thy availability of fruit at most all convenience stores and cafes.
I love thy multitudinous free outdoor cultural events every week.
I love thy affordable bus transportation.
I love thy chirping birds and buzzing ciradas.
I love thy sky and milky way in the darkness of night.
I love thy ocean waves that dance over my toes.
I love thy absence of consumerism.
I love thy quiet, peaceful-natured citizens.
I love thy open doors to world visitors.



What do you love about your place?

My inaugural meeting of APC

What's APC, you ask? It's Auckland Photography Club, founded in 1883.

I decided since I was doing new things, may as well continue on the path. And if I am going on the path, I may as well try a new way. So I left my house and walked down the hill (instead of up, as I have always gone) and discovered that at the end of the block, there is ocean. I knew it was there, just didn't know it was that close. I meandered along the walking path, stopping a 60ish NZ couple to get directions. They were very kind and helpful and I was soon on my way through a cricket game and up a large hill whereby I arrived at my meeting about an hour early.

You who know me, know that I am NOT early. Especially not an hour. So I walked along and went up Mt Hobson (one of Auckland's volcanoes) and enjoyed some lovely city views.

I finally arrived at my meeting fifteen minutes early, which is acceptable to me. There were folks milling around and I chatted with several people. I was feeling a little nervous, but I kept talking anyway. One girl was new from Scotland. Others had been coming for years. In the end, there were about 40-50 people, with skill levels noted as: novice, advanced, and salon.

We all settled into a room and submitted our photos digitally or in print for a New Zealand professional photographer to evaluate, critisize and grade. I brought four picturess. It was really fun to hear what he had to say and see everyone else's pics. (I got highly commended on all four, which is pretty good; honors would be better.)

The assignment for the night was AV presentation. (I didn't know about it since I was new.) Eleven of the club members submitted presentations with music and their photos. It was just amazing to see what everyone created.

At the end of the night, one of the ladies, Sue, declared that they would take me home, knowing that I had walked and it was quite dark out. She also said I was on the way and they would give me a ride anytime I came if I still didn't have a car. So lovely. Sigh.

It was a fantastic experience. We meet every two weeks. Ya.

Auckland views

This morning I stumbled into the coffee shop, fighting off a stuffy head bug that’s going around and picked up Metro Magazine, Auckland’s monthly magazine, which includes happenings about town and news. One look at the cover headline, “Those dumb cycle lanes,” and my eyes popped opened even though I hadn't sipped my long black yet. Was it a spoof to get me to read the article?

I scanned the table of contents and found “The cycleways that ate Auckland,” written by Jan Corbett, Metro’s Associate Editor. Citing almost all negative bicycling stereotypes, she spent four large pages hell-bent against bikes while bemoaning the status of cars on roads in Auckland.

Some quotes from the article I found interesting:

• “Isn’t cycling just a trendy pursuit among a small group of middle-class men and women who want to own the road in their own particular way?” (Actually in many parts of the world, people use a bicycle when they cannot afford a car.)

• “Why does a whole lane of traffic have to slow town for one fitness-obsessed rider in terrible pants with a geeky helmet and scant regard for the road rules?” (The helmet is for safety and I guess the car could just “tap” the biker and that would probably speed them up or knock them off at least.)

• “’Cycling is for everyone’ Really? The aged? The disabled? Toddlers? Parents transporting 2.5 children? Tradespeople?” (Yep, it’s for all those people, Jan. I’ve seen them all on bikes.)

• One of the elected city reps, Wayne Mapp was quoted as saying, “There’s been too much focus paid to cyclists’ needs and not enough to motorists’ needs.”

All I could think after reading the article was “Get your head out of your a**.” There’s almost no cycling lanes here compared to any other city I’ve been. The cars DO own the road here. The traffic is horrible. I see it every day. Why don’t people try alternate modes of transport? Like biking. Or walking. Or carpooling. Or public transport. Most of the cars have only one person in them on a mad dash to work, hopefully taking out at least one person on foot or bike so the next day they will have to slow down even less. It’s a CAR town.

I’ve been on my leg-powered wheels to work, school, errands and for pleasure since I was first introduced to the tricycle at age 2. Regular biking was part of my lifestyle in North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington, Oregon and Pennsylvania. (Kentucky was a little sketchy for my tastes.)

I’ve carried 2 gallons of paint on my bike, my groceries, a food deyhydrator, and a birthday cake for my coworker (No, I did not have a special trailer.). I was not opposed to biking in a skirt or accidentally flashing folks. Am I an example of one of those fitness-obsessed persons who wants to own the road in my own particular way? I don’t think so. I think most cyclists are doing it for a multitude of reasons: the environment, their health, their pocketbook, NOT to hold up traffic or wear nasty spandex or piss off the drivers who think they OWN the road.

The second article of the day that cleared my head was an editorial in the New Zealand Herald (21 Feb 2008) by Garth George.

His line of thinking (also interspersed with discussion of abstinence, condom failure rates, etc):

Point 1: “98% of abortions in New Zealand were done on grounds of ‘preserving the mental health of the mother’ (Abortion Supervisory Committee of New Zealand).”

Point 2: “But a Canterbury University Study said nearly one half of women who had an abortion ‘had elevated rates of subsequent mental and health problems, including depression, anxiety, suicide and substance abuse.’”

Therefore: “How much longer are we to allow the Abortion Supervisory Committee to con us into believing that just on 99% of the women and girls given an induced abortion each year are in danger of going insane?”

I’m just dumbfounded. It’s upsetting to again read about how we should be abstaining from sex and using contraception and then there would not have to be abortions. This viewpoint was coming from an old white man with a scowl on his face, who certainly never made a bad judgment in his life. God knows he never needed an abortion.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
Current New Zealand law allows for abortions to be performed for the following reasons, providing the abortion is approved by two certifying consultants:
*to save the life of the woman
*to preserve the physical health of the woman
*to preserve the mental health of the woman
*foetal impairment
*in cases of incest
Other factors which may be considered, but are not in themselves grounds for abortion, are:
*cases of rape -- because rape is a term with unclear boundaries
*certain social factors (e.g., the girl's age in a teenage pregnancy)
Abortion is not allowed under any circumstances after 20 weeks of pregnancy except to save the mother's life.

Two Thoughts for you

It is by acts not ideas that people live.
-Anatole France

Joy is not in things; it is in us.
-Richard Wagner