Final Thoughts

Bjorn and I would not have visited Gore had we not WWOOFed there. It isn't exactly the kind of place you want to have a lot of time to kill in. Not much to do really. About 7,000 people live in Gore proper, about 3,000 more on the outskirts. The town center consits of a main drag with stores, pharmacies, and a few cafes, and has a certain timelessness about it. Many of the buildings still have their original facades, displaying signs and names for shops long gone, replaced by more modern ventures. I looked through a history of Gore book at the house one day and noticed that the photo of Gore in 1900 looked almost exactly like Gore in 2009.

Gore is located in central Otago, which is part of an area called Southland, basically covering the southernmost parts of the South Island. It's farm country. Sheep farms, dairy farms, and a bit of horse breeding. That's about it. And the people live and breathe the stuff. They're attached to the land in a way I admire in some ways, but don't fully understand. Both Biddy and Russell grew up in the Gore area. Russell actually grew up just across the street from his present home, and his mother grew up just around the corner from that. They KNOW this land. This is THEIR land, their home.

Biddy had just celebrated her sixtieth birthday before we arrived, and they mentioned a few times in passing that they had been married for 43 years. Do a little quick math, and you realize that they married when Biddy was 17. I suppose that's not TOO crazy for that generation, but it still seems unbelievably young to me. In addition to this, their eldest daughter is in her forties and has a 17 year old of her own. The whole story was never divulged to us, of course, but I imagine that Russell and Biddy met at the local high school, got pregnant, and well, what else were they going to do? Russell did say at one point, that if they hadn't married, they couldn't have had everything they have now. I'm not sure what he was trying to say, but it wasn't said in Biddy's presence, and I sort of got the feeling that he was trying to say, "I didn't necessarily want to get stuck with her, but that's how it had to be."

During our first few days in Gore, Biddy and Russell's relationship really bothered me. I went to bed sad at night, feeling the strain of an unhappy and boring marriage. By the time we left, though, I could see how the marriage functioned. And perhaps they were happy, in their own way. It's impossible to know what goes on (or went on before) between two people and therefore unfair to judge.

Our time in Gore wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, I'll be honest. I guess I had hoped that we'd end up in the company of people that we could identify with, engage in enlightening conversations with, discuss current events with, something! But I think that we would've missed the point of the whole exchange had we lived with people with whom we had more in common. For two weeks, we lived with an average Kiwi couple. They were farmers, proud of their land and their family tree, proud of hard work and their lifetime's achievements.

Biddy and Russell prided themselves on the number of functioning household appliances they owned that had been wedding presents. They prided themselves on the amount of money they saved - eating all their meals at home, always finishing leftovers - and how little they wasted. I once remarked to Biddy that her kitchen was like a grocery store; everything you could possibly need for any recipe was there. "We're country people," she responded to me. "You need a stick of butter? I've got a pound in the freezer. You need an egg? Go out back and see if the chickens have laid any. Need vegetables for dinner? Go out to the garden and pick some. That's how I've always lived. You just don't go into town when you need a stick of butter."

Biddy and Russell weren't interested in "flash" things. "Why would a person buy a Mercedes?" Russell said after seeing a car commercial one day. "Just isn't practical." They didn't aspire to have flash things, to have gobs of money, to be anything superior to exactly what they were. They didn't go see movies at the local theater, weren't interested. They could only see the world as far as Southland, New Zealand. Things beyond were out of reach.

There was a time when I looked down on people like Russell and Biddy. Didn't understand why, generation after generation, they stayed in the same place, working the same farms, associating with the same families. I won't say I now understand it, but I can at least say I've seen their life from their shoes now. I admire a great deal about Biddy and Russell and their lifestyle. They have only as much as they need. In the world I grew up in, it's unthinkable that a couple in their sixties, approaching retirement, would have only ONE bathroom in their house. But Biddy and Russell just didn't see the need for more than one. They're not educated people, but they are smart in ways most people I know are not. They know how to survive off what they have.

It was a good experience. I learned a great deal about New Zealand, about sheep, about marriage, about people. And it might not have been two weeks of pure fun, but it was two weeks of mental stimulation, to be sure. Lots of new things to ponder. The homestays I've done over the last year or so have easily been the most memorable experiences of my time traveling. Getting to see how other people live out their daily lives is just fascinating to me. Getting to see all the options!

We saw Biddy a few days ago - she was selling her wool and knitted goods at the Sunday craft fair in Wanaka. It was awkward. We had nothing to say to each other in such a neutral zone, when she couldn't ramble on about her yard or her kitchen or her pets. So we small talked and said final goodbyes, and that was that.

We've been in Wanaka for a week now. We went out to do some tramping in Mount Aspiring National park for three days, celebrated our one year anniversary, and enjoyed some of the most glorious weather we've had lately. Fall is slowly creeping in here - the mornings and evenings are quite cold, though it still gets nice and warm by mid-day.

We are leaving Wanaka this afternoon and starting our journey up the West Coast. It feels like the home stretch of our trip, for some reason. We have just over six weeks left in NZ! So...off to enjoy it now. I'll be in touch in another few days. Here are some pictures of our tramping in Mount Aspiring National Park, as well as some wanderings around Wanaka - the Cardrona Valley and the Rippon Vineyards. I don't have time to edit them or comment on them today, but if you want to go ahead and check them out, you may! http://picasaweb.google.com/ellen.bucy

Love to you all!