The Road Goes Ever On and On

“Home is behind you, the world ahead.”  After visiting the Hobbiton set and touring through various hobbit holes, needless to say the song sung by Peregrin Took has been stuck in more than one Marylander’s head this afternoon.  However, the sentiment has reached me in a different way now that I am here, in the land of Middle-Earth, so far from home.  There is so much in this world to see (some things even from “different” worlds) that I undoubtedly will leave my home behind.  No matter if it is merely 20 minutes away or 20 hours, venturing on to new places can only lead to a more positive outlook on life.  Not to sound preachy or cliché, but I strongly believe that travel is the best way to spend money and the world is the greatest classroom.

Hobbit hole in Hobbiton.

In a way, I (and many others) am no different from the early Europeans who packed up their belongings and started anew in a foreign place.  While it is a stretch, because yes, I am talking about seeing more of the world and these settlers sought out new spaces to start lives, there is a similarity in the travel.  Where I see more of a parallel however, is the culture of young New Zealanders presently.  I have continually found through conversations with Kiwis, as well as the angelic Rangimoana, that there is a common feeling to “get away.”  New Zealand is so far from the rest of the world, and there is a sense among New Zealanders that they must get a feel for the “center of happenings,” which happens to be the Western world.  So many people leave, after university, before university, as young 20-somethings, to venture far from their homes and live in a new place.  Some people go to where their parents were taught was “home,” or the motherland: the United Kingdom.  Others spread through Europe or America, while some merely go to Australia.  Wherever they travel to, these young New Zealanders get acclimated to a part of the world far from Aotearoa, but a majority of them eventually return.  In doing so, should they return, New Zealanders come back with a new sense of belonging to their own country, as well as a newfound understanding that comes with a learned comparison of other countries.

Viaduct Harbor in Auckland.

And why not? We have seen plenty of reasons as to why this country is too hard to stay away from forever.  At the same time, as Vanessa told us, that there is a feeling of nostalgia about home when you aren’t there, how everything is perfect and the same as it was when you left, which is almost always not true.  Everywhere has problems, and New Zealand is not an exception.  Christchurch, Vanessa told us, is violently anti-Asian, with gangs routinely beating up Asians living in the area.  The feeling is not exclusive to Christchurch, and New Zealand, with its squeaky-clean Shire image, is not as perfect as it may seem.

Another interesting aspect of New Zealand I noticed today while in The Shire was the landscape, which may seem redundant, because of course I’d notice the landscape, I was in a real-life movie set, but aspetta, as they say in Italy, wait.  As I was looking at Bag End and hill upon hill with hobbit holes beneath them, I immediately thought of the Maori.  Not because of any influence they had on Tolkien or Jackson  (I am fairly confident they did not), but because both parties shaped the land for their needs.  The manipulation of the land, holes under the mounds for the movies and pas on top of them for the Maori, formed the identities of both cultures.  The Maoris’ persistence on nomadic behavior was formed on their ability to move from pa to pa, location to location, as Peter from the War Museum told us.

View of Hobbiton.

Returning to New Zealanders’ diligence to spend time abroad, whether they return or not is beside the point.  Even the ones that stay can transport themselves in their own country, as our tour guide Connie can attest to, living minutes from Hobbiton and bringing the town to life every day for hundreds of tourists.  Part of it may come from the country’s “lack” of a national culture, but I say just the opposite; New Zealand culture encompasses elements from all over the world and even very special elements from a setting brought to life from the literary world.