Having Fun in Wellington, New Zealand

Silly Picture of Us Being Silly

In Wellington, New Zealand, the windy, capital city, I left feeling like I belonged, and that made me realize that I need to come back sooner than later. I used to live in Wellington for three and a half years. This was the first time I was back in six years.

Because people wanted to see me, I changed my flights. I cut my days short in Australia and extended my stay in New Zealand for five more nights. During that time, I stayed at three different households. I had dinner and lunch every day with different friends.

People kept asking me to stay longer, but there was not enough time. It's as Jim Croce sang in Time in a Bottle, "But there never seems to be enough time / To do the things you want to do, once you find them". (Incidentally, it's one of the main theme songs in X-Men's Days of the Future Past.)

A lot of this trip has had some exciting adventures: like when I walked through the clouds on the Kepler Trek or when I spotted Kiwis on Stewart Island. But, coming back to Wellington, made me appreciate the quieter but more valuable aspects in life - the ties I had and the strengthening of them.

For instance, my friend Kirill and his wife, took their entire weekend off to take me on a small hike, make me breakfast and dinner, and to go to a winery. My friend Andre invited me to his home, and he took an entire day off of work to spend time with me. His family and I walked through the city, bought ice cream, and watched the sunset together.

You can't really buy moments like that. Either you've invested enough in the relationship or you haven't, but there's not much in between.

My time in Wellington made me reflect on the busy and lonely lives that Angelinos live - where you're expected to earn more and work more and be someone. But to what end? It's almost like community doesn't exist in Los Angeles.

I've observed that people want to be happy and have friends and have community. But those things, take a sacrifice of time and resources. How many people are willing to take time off work, just to spend time with a friend that's visiting?

Well, it's as Oscar Wilde once said, "Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing."