Blog – The Marvels of Fiordland in New Zealand

 

Yesterday was one of those days that one never forgets. When you see such a powerful force that nature has sculpted and is continuing to shape, we recognize how we are so very young in the evolution of all things on this planet.

When I die, I want to become one of those particles of water cascading down precipitous cliffs but then allowing the wind to carry me once again skyward. As I fly, I am free. Free as those winds, untethered and yet tranquil.

Some people see heaven as a sunny green garden.

I see heaven as a tropical rainforest, filled with life and magical things hiding inside a tree fern’s fronds and in small crevices on the cliffs.

I see heaven as the process of active life in all forms and shapes, jostling for positions in a lush paradise that soaks up the sun and the rain. I see heaven as a destructive yet dynamic process of creation dancing with life.

In that moment, I witnessed life giving more meaning and poetic depth to heaven.

Life is wet, muddy, messy, tempestuous, unexpected, and wildly addictive.

Yesterday, heaven looked out through my eyes and soul, and I felt a longing to become a part of something so beautiful and mysterious. I am sure the angels felt envy as they witnessed my soul being cleansed by the rain and as I had new life breathed into my being.

New Zealand has been a surprise for me. Everyone I know who has visited this lovely land said it was so beautiful. Stunning was a frequent word.

I honestly had not really researched this country before I came. I expected fiords similar to Norway. But these are radically different. The tempestuously southern oceans that are the fertile ground for so much life are not seas for the faint of heart. I thought the wild North Sea was something to behold, but these almost untouched places are so remote on the southern island of New Zealand that they are mostly inaccessible.

While the fiords have calmer waters … just outside those places of shelter is a powerful ocean that is as unforgiving as it is magnificent.

Yet, even in those fiords the scale of towering mountains and the shockingly sheer cliff faces with the hundreds of waterfalls was clearly the greatest show on earth. And those powerful winds could not help but twirl and swirl the waters of the fiords. This place is also so alive that one breathes in the passionate potential of the Goddess and is forever changed.

In those moments forever captured in my soul, I recognized that one cannot help but be forever altered by these wild and magical forces. That wind brought all of those witnessing that moment together in a joyful celebration of shared awe and wonder. Barriers broke down, and cultures merged into one being that we all shared something that we saw as miraculous and beautiful. At that moment, we were all completely one and all one species … human.

This land, so peaceful and clean, is operating from a place where all plastics are reused and converted into roads and walkways, the bases of buildings, and into things that can be useful. This small country prioritizes its reality around doing no harm to the planet. They pride themselves on everything being meticulously clean. Houses, yards, gardens, and farms are perfectly aligned with this larger purpose that they have taken on to show the rest of the world that it can be done.

And the people are not interested in the false beauty of Western and now Eastern cultures. I did not see one person in New Zealand who was a native who was wearing makeup or remotely concerned about their hairstyle. This place calls for the natural, the casual, and the comfortable. It was blissfully refreshing. No one is judging the appearance of another. Such things have no real intrinsic value here.

New Zealanders take their time. They want to do it right and with respect for the environment. They want to do it from a place where they see the future and how they want to create a world worth living in.

We could learn a lot from these peaceful warriors. They do not need to shout their achievements from this highest place for recognition. They could care less about that. They have chosen a lifestyle and a way of being with this world and in this world.

This is the only country that could produce all the food for its own people. They are self-reliant and a sturdy stock. They continue to work together to do what is right rather than what is easy. Theirs is a model that every country should want to emulate. But clearly, there are many countries such as ours that are incapable of separating ego from appropriate action.

Seeing this country that keeps the wildness wild and allows those magical places to remain inaccessible gives me hope for the whales, seals, ocean life, wildlife, birds, and fish that there will be sacred spaces left for them to thrive.

I give a toast to this country that merges diversity with peaceful contentment. I toast this country that sees that goodness does not have to be flashy and famous. I toast this country that recognizes what we leave behind will matter to our children and generations to come.

That is a legacy that I believe really matters. I believe that the New Zealanders are breaking new ground and have ways that we all could become better and happier.

With those lessons now ingrained in my being, I will shortly embark back to my home, and I hope to bring some of that energy and hope with me to infuse into my life in new ways. I wish everyone the type of peace that comes from all that wildness and finally finding a way to come back home.

~Suzanne Wagner~