Remembering New Zealand

Paparaumu Beach on the Western coast of the North Island of New Zealand

Kia ora. I'm going to diverge a little bit in this page. Instead of featuring a city, I am featuring a country - Aotearoa, otherwise known as New Zealand. New Zealand is about the size of the Philippines, also an island nation, but unlike the Philippines, it has a population of only three million people dwarfed by a sheep population of about 60 million.

I'm featuring New Zealand because I lived in there 17 years ago for about two years and I continue to have fond memories of my sojourn there. I went there for postgraduate studies as a bilateral aid fellow - and finished with a Master of Philosophy degree in Veterinary Science from Massey University. But besides my academic pursuit, every time I had a chance, I travelled - practically everywhere - including Stewart Island near the South Pole. At the same time, I formed many friendships with fellow Filipinos, with Kiwis (Pakeha), Maoris, other Pacific islanders, and other international students. Many of these friendships endure up to now.

During that time, there were only about 400 Filipinos in New Zealand. They were mostly the better half of Kiwi-Filipino pairings, and two or three of them were in Palmerston North where Massey is located. I met Filipino women everywhere, many in small towns and a few in big cities. One poignant meeting was with a woman in a small town near Lake Pukake in the South Island - on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. She was working at the hotel where I was staying. The hotel manager told me that their kitchen help was Filipina, so I asked him to bring me to her. So he brought me to the kitchen - and introduced me to her. She was stunned meeting me (I was too). She cried. She said that she hasn't seen or spoke to a Filipino for more than two years and was very eager to speak in her own language. Fortunately I understand Cebuano (she was from Surigao), so I let her chatter away. It was so sad because a few miles south in Dunedin and in Invercargill were several Filipinas who were always looking for other Filipinos in the area.

I also met a neighbor from UP Campus in Quezon City - in Wellington of all places - she got married to a New Zealander and was working as an executive secretary for a multinational company. It was funny meeting her there because she borrowed one of my favorite tapes when she was still in the Philippines and then left the country, I didn't even know where to - so I didn't have any hope of recovering it. But I was able to get it back when I visited her in her home in Wellington. Could you believe it? I have to haul my ass down under to get my Nat King Cole tape back! I heard there's about 15,000 Filipinos living in New Zealand now and I am sure they have so many stories to tell. I hope to get back there someday and listen to their stories.

One of my Filipino friends was an officer at the Philippine embassy in Wellington (Cena Recio) and for some reason, the students from Massey and Victoria University in Wellington became close to her (probably because most of us were from UP and she was too). So we became the unofficial cultural troupe of the embassy. Every vacation, she would bring us to one part of New Zealand - we would perform Filipino folk dances and pangkat kawayan type of shows (the embassy had its own angklung instruments) at different venues and festivals.

With Christine Samaniego performing Jotabal at Massey University

Sometimes we got paid by the organizations who invited us, most of the time, the performances were for free. No matter - we had a grand vacation, visiting places that I would never have any chance to see in my lifetime - but I did. The summer of 1982, she brought four of us - Einstein Lavinia who is teaching in Korea now and who visited my web page and left a note, that's why I know, Helen who is probably connected with the Mindanao State University presently, Christine Samaniego who I believe is still in New Zealand and me - to the South Island to visit Filipinos and perform, mostly for church groups.

With Cena (back), Christine and Helen on the ferry going from the North Island to the South Island, December 1982

One memorable performance was singing Tagalog Christmas carols accompanied by bamboo instruments at the cathedral in Invercargill before the midnight mass began. People said they never seen and heard anything like it and really thanked and congratulated us for the performance.

Ten years after my New Zealand sojourn, Edge Javison, a buddy from my University of the Philippines days (1978-1979 - those were the days, huh, Edge), also did the same "en grande vacacion" as I did which he documented in a webpage entitled Touring New Zealand. It's funny, looking at his page, I had a sense of deja vu, although the sense isn't paranormal because our experiences were for real. He exactly did the same things as I did ten years earlier and even had several friends who also were my friends ten years before.

So reading his page gave me an idea to also make a webpage of my experiences in New Zealand. For some reason, most of my New Zealand photographs I brought with me from home the last time I went back. I thought that I would organize them into some kind of album. I realize now that the web is perfect for a project like this. My apologies for the blurred photographs. At that time, all I had was a cheapie Kodak 110 camera (remember those) and when I finally was able to upgrade to an Olympus OM when I was there, I shot all my pictures in slides - which means it will take a little bit longer to scan those slides in - but they will be scanned eventually.

Have a look and see the natural beauty of a country that Edge and I have so much fond memories of.

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