A Loss for Words - New Zealand
In 2017, my Dad was given the opportunity to work at the Whanganui Hospital in New Zealand. We all discussed it and decided it would be a fabulous adventure, and my brother and I would only be missing 5th and 8th grades. Primetime for an adventure, eh?
So, it all fell into place. In late November of 2018, we piled in my Dad's truck to drive to DFW. It was a sight: four people, with four 50 pound suitcases, and a carry-on apiece. That's all we got to bring. We saved just a few pieces of furniture and sentimental items in a storage container and sold everything else. Our house that we'd lived in for near my entire life, sold, along with everything inside. There's very little more unsettling than knowing perfect strangers are pawing through your home, through your stuffed animals and books and life. (More irony: when we got in the truck, guess what was playing? "...there's no place like home for the holidays!" Yeah. Tell me about it.)
We flew from DFW to LAX, where we stayed overnight. That evening, we got on the plane that would take us over 7,000 miles from home. The 15-hour plane flight was terribly uncomfy, as you can imagine, but my brother and I entertained ourselves with the onboard movies- especially Wall-E. And then, all a sudden, land! I see the island! Wayyyyy down there.
We stayed in Auckland for two days, but surprisingly enough, none of us experienced jet lag. The seamless transition led us to believe from here, we'd have smooth sailing. We were wrong, as you'll see.
We took an hour flight on a small plane to Whanganui: the drive is dangerous (as my mom and I would figure out in December) and just around 6 hours. The Whanganui Hospital is constantly bringing in foreign doctors to work there so they have 5 or 6 (trailer park vibes) houses on the grounds. If you're my age, you've probably never seen a mattress from the 60s. I had not up to that point, but oh, what I had missed. Our hospital housing had three bedrooms: two full-size mattresses, and two twins. My brother and I very quickly figured out that we wanted very little to do with staying inside the hot and cramped house. So, we explored. A short walk from the house was a huge grass area with lemon trees where we could play barefoot with the other doctors' kids. Walking a little farther, but still on the grounds, there was this hill that we'd roll down and run back up.
Eventually, we got to move to a new house outside of hospital property, in Kai Iwi, about a 10-minute drive outside of town. If you're curious, Google Map 166 Kai Iwi Valley Road. You can't see the house, but you can see the area. Green grass, many, many cows, and tropical trees along with typical ones. I got my own room in Kai Iwi house, with blue walls, black carpet, and spiders aplenty.
However, the most stunning thing, and still my favorite thing: the stars. I'd lived in the suburbs of Fort Worth my whole life and had never really seen the stars: even Colorado couldn't compare. The night sky lights up. It is magical. Until then, I had never seen the Milky Way. I wanted to sleep outside every night.
contact me at [email protected] or view the full site at https://sites.google.com/view/a-loss-for-words/a-loss-for-words?authuser=0