Letter of the New-Zealand

Dear New Zealand,

Three weeks with you has been quite an adventure. I dreamt of you so much, imagined you so much, and left without knowing whether you would live up to my expectations.

Three weeks is nothing. And at the same time, it's a lot. A friend told me "you'll feel like you've been away for 5 minutes or 6 months". On this return flight to Dubai, I can confirm... 6 months.

You were just as I imagined. Those islands, rising out of the sea as if from nowhere, with those white clouds still in the sky. Aotearoa .... Land of the long white cloud, it's logical that that's your first name. I sometimes thought that the photos on the net were photoshopped. But when I saw Huka falls I realised that they weren't. The incredible colours of these sky-blue waters are real. You're the only country where Instagram filters are useless.

I came looking for whales. I didn't see them. But I did get to sit in the wild in front of fur seals in Kaikoura, just sitting and watching them. Respecting them. In their natural environment. The Hector Dolphins of Akaroa came to say hello to us as they wanted to, at home, in their environment. They didn't come to play with us when we were in the water, but .... who wants to play with humanoids moving around? lol

The falls are the most beautiful things I've seen. The Cascades. Okere Falls, my first outing in the wilderness near Rotorua, was a marvel. The one in the Aben Tasman park, Wainui falls was also splendid.

I discovered your birds. The Kiwi I saw for real with round eyes, I thought it was tiny, but it's a huge bird! I laughed out loud! Then the Tui, the Weka, the Pukeko, the Fantail... I'm used to sparrows, pigeons and seagulls... it's quite a change!

The first thing that struck me was your trees. Especially those Pohutukawa trees by the sea, which make you want to climb them... I like the idea that these trees are sacred to the Maoris. At least the men didn't cut down all these trees, even in the middle of a big city like Auckland, we can still admire them today.

I love your benches. Yes, these benches, all erected in memory of someone. In memory of a couple, a sister, a wife. It's as if everything on your land had a reason to exist. And I like the idea that material things can be combined with the spiritual.

I thought I'd arrived in Mordor from The Lord of the Rings when I saw those steaming pools of water in Rotorua and Waiotapu, the pools of mud bubbling to the surface and the smell of sulphur filling our nostrils.

When you see the Pohutu geyser in the Maori village of Te Puia rising 30 metres into the sky... and you sit on the ground, on a stone... hot, of course, because it's happening underneath.... I've said this to myself more than once: "You're nothing at all Céline on this earth, just a little twig compared to the forces of nature that surround you".

It's funny to be writing these lines in the middle of a global pandemic. A virus called Covid19 that is stopping humans all over the planet. The earth saying "stop moving! STOP! And look at.... "

But these people are important! Some of them know how to respect this planet. I've seen many of your forests cut down for wood, giant holes in the landscape that worried me and I thought "ah...here too...". But no, with a smile on my face, I saw these other stretches of hills, where man has replanted thousands of trees that will make your wood of tomorrow, while saving the ecosystem.

I discovered your inhabitants, those who call themselves "kiwis". What kindness. No one's sulky, everyone's always smiling, benevolent, polite, zen .... It's a change from ....France. (I love my country, but after 1 year of yellow waistcoats, I still find that we're never happy and that we're still pretty angry).

Here's what I can write, New Zealand, and that's a tenth of what I could tell you. There's so much to say! So many memories that my brain isn't big enough...

I adore you New Zealand, you are magnificent between volcanoes and lakes. I'll be back to do all the things I haven't done, all the things I haven't seen yet. I'll go for a swim in the blue lake (not the green one, I promise.... It's Tapu). I'll taste the Feijoa. Visit the War Museum in Auckland. I'll see Cathedral Cove. Visit Waitomo Cave and its glow worms. I'll walk on the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers and see Mount Cook. I want to come back and visit Dunedin and its architecture. I'll put my feet back in the water at Okere Falls, I'll bathe again in your thermal waters where time stands still. I'd eat McDonald's Kiwiburger again, St Pierre's Sushi and get used to strong coffee! And above all....I'd come back to see the whales. I'd come back to Kaikoura as many times as it takes to see them. I'd come back to sit on the rocks of Kaikoura to watch the fur seals. I'll sit there for hours... without moving. I promise you that.

But to do all that, another 3 weeks won't be enough ... what do you think ... of a lifetime?