South Pacific Worlds

Before this trip, I had always thought Australia and New Zealand were pretty much interchangeable in terms of culture, language, accent, and the general social world. When I was booking the flight from Christchurch to Melbourne at home, I kept searching for "domestic" flights between the two cities. I also had the mistaken conception that Australia and New Zealand weren't very far away from each other.

In reality, the flight from Christchurch to Melbourne is four-and-a-half hours long (and these two cities are among the most proximate in the two countries). Traveling between the two is like international travel between the States and any other distant land: strict immigration control (for Australians and Kiwis as well as foreigners), quarantine inspections (complete with "detector dogs"), check-in two hours before flight time, and proof that you have a ticket out of either country. There is nothing "domestic" about flying between New Zealand and Australia.

The two countries have separate currencies (the Australian dollar [$0.84] and the New Zealand dollar [$0.75]), and very separate senses of national identity. Any New Zealander I met in Australia was quick to point out that he or she was a Kiwi. The accents were surprisingly different, and after a week in New Zealand, this was quickly obvious. The Australian accent sounds more like a British accent, but slightly coarser. The Kiwi accent, on the other hand, is lighter and lilts upward more often at the end of sentences. To my ear, it sounds overall friendlier than the Australian diction.

While there is an awareness of the native New Zealand population (the Maori people), here on the South Island, at least, there is little sense of tension between the Maori and the European New Zealanders. By contrast, in Australia there seemed to be a greater acknowledgment of the indigenous people and the wrongs done to them by settler Australians. A number of cultural factors contribute to this difference: the abuses of the Maori were not as bad as the Australian treatment of aboriginal peoples, the New Zealand government has issued a formal apology to the Maori, and the government continues to funnel large amounts of money into the Maori community. If there was tension, it seems to be in the past. There is a Maori-language television station, and many government signs appear in both English and Maori (at the airport, for example). In Australia, reconciliation efforts are ongoing, there is a push for a "National Sorry Day," and many shops feature aboriginal artwork and products, but the tension remains palpable. Perhaps because the country is so much bigger, the problem and its resolution are so much bigger in Australia than in New Zealand. These impressions are based solely on my few days of observation, and little research into the issues.

The contrast was made especially sharp because I was traveling between the mostly rural south island of New Zealand to one of the largest cities in Australia. Melbourne is home to 4.5 million people, and the area was extremely urban and developed. The highways were huge, along with streets of tall buildings that seemed endless. Maybe it's not fair to compare Australia and New Zealand because of this, but even so, I think I got a good impression of the people. It's my sense that people in New Zealand are somehow more connected to the land and dedicated to a simpler life. The general attitude here is much more easy-going than either Australia or especially the United States. Don't get me wrong; things like malls and McDonald's and "Dancing with the Stars" are as ubiquitous here as anywhere. It's just a sense that people are different. Christchurch is not a huge city like Melbourne, but it's not tiny, either. With 400,000 people, it's about the size of Nashville. And yet the main south highway is two lanes, and you might have to stop for sheep or cows. When dogs killed penguins on Camerons Beach, the story made headlines on the six-o'clock news.

I won't be traveling to the north island, where the bigger city of Auckland (population 1.3 million) likely creates a more urban feel. In addition, there is a much larger Maori population on the north island, and it's possible that racial tensions run higher up there. I had such a great time in Melbourne, but I find that I much prefer the smaller and simpler environment here. I was so happy to land finally at Christchurch's tiny little airport. I was proud to be able to direct the taxi driver through the North Shore streets and up to my house by the beach, where the lights had been left on and the door left open just for me.