Persons

"If you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans."
                                                                      Woody Allen

"I am who I am and that's who I am."
                                 Nikolai Gogol

A sense of humor is the only divine quality of man."
                                               Arthur Schopenhauer

Afternoon walk along the harbor

MC at Art Deco Festival

Dress someone up…   Laughter.

Deposit someone in a new place with people who understand the value of connection… Laughter.

Change perspectives… Laughter.

Placing bets on the horses

Negotiating terms

Hamilton Cardiologists (true)

A dissection of Kiwi dogma must reveal a grin at the center.  The NZ mass media is more satirical.  News commentators are less filtered.  Daily conversation contains more irony.  Social acceptabilities are less restrictive.  Vacation time is more generous.  Behavioral expectations are less controlled.  Outdoor leisure sports and games are more creative.  Litigation is less burdensome.

The travelers shared many moments and, at times, seemed to start blending into the wool fabric of the community.  Their photos began to focus on similar points of comedy.

The comedy may take the form of a game of bowls dressed in the Thames Hospital team shirt, or a totally immersed junior bird man posing on a lonely stump, or a Hobbit jacket and pair of red shoes.

Ollie

Unknown, but worth a picture

Spidy's mom

Ollie Howlett added to the community humor of new friends.  Trying to play a tune for Waitangi Day Celebration, he put the effort forth.  The unknown Art Deco friend dressed the occasion and earned the chuckles.  Spiderman's mom showed up to show off her baby.  The father was no where to be seen.  The blending-in process is certainly easy in Kiwi-land and the people catalyze it.  Tom and Cheryl were certified Kiwi's after 7-8 hrs of cricket observation and a tied game 231-231.

Kiwi crowd at cricket game

Group of  Zelda's

Humor can be disguised as politics, religion, history, science, or "just persons".  Where humor begins and drama ends seems a bit dodgy to define.  The Kiwi's do enjoy testing both sides of the spectrum.

Humor or Drama?

                                                                                   

Places

New Zealand makes Tom laugh.

The demarcation of the species

Humor.  It verifies mankind's commonality.  By presenting comedy, the goal is a humorous response.  Humans laugh when they understand each other.  The laughter may be directed toward themselves or toward other persons, places, or things.   Chasing the sensation of humor offers some of us the existential directive.

New Zealand supplies easy access to laughter.  Over the first seven months of Tom and Cheryl's touring, working, and observing, the opportunities to laugh have been plentiful.  A connection to the place grows.  An attempt to understand the Kiwi humor is offered through a photographic compilation since arrival.  The subject involves flushing out a basic human function.  Going.  You know…going 1 or 2.  'The public places Kiwi's pee and poo' pictures.

Due to New Zealand's magnetism to foreign visitors, a user-friendly public toilet system awaits full-capacity travelers.  Tom and Cheryl have yet failed to find identical facilities from top to bottoms of the country.  All are unique.  Frequently no potty gender designations occur, which differ from American cans.  Only single thrones may exist in lavatories.  An array of locking devices require some practice .  Occasionally noice pollution becomes an issue in establishments with flimsy doors.

Forest crappers

The public toilet system of NZ are works of art.  Cheryl and Tom realized they had entered a land wanting to impress users  and ensure yearnings would be fulfilled cathartically.  Shortly after arrival, a trip to Rotorua and the nearby Whakarewarewa Forest Park led to a cluster of contemporary conifer-colored crappers.  It was another "ahhh" moment realizing that man and nature so intimately co-exist.

Matakana heads

Purging themselves of responsibilities and schedules in the Northern Hemisphere, Tom and Cheryl felt relief with the multiple comfort stations under the equator.  By far the most captivating are the Exeloo toilets.  Scattered throughout the land, locating an Exeloo represents discovery of a brown nugget gem.  The Exeloo talks and sings to its gassy guests.  Documentation of the Exeloo in action may be viewed on You Tube, but transpires as follows...



Guest approaches.  Pushes button to open door or waits until light turns green and previous guest leaves.
Door automatically opens.
Exeloo, "Welcome."
Exeloo, "Please push button to close and lock the door."
Guest pushes 'Lock' button.
Exeloo, "Your maximum time is ten minutes."
The Exeloo stereophonic system then serenades with Burt Bacharach's rendition of "What the World Needs Now is Love".
Guest does their business, leaves a loaf, drops a bomb, drops some friends off at the pool, takes the Browns to the Superbowl, etc, etc.  Another button is pushed and the perfect 6 segment paper sheet rolls out of the dispenser.
The tunes continue.
The soap, water, and dryer all operate by motion detection.
The 'Exit' button is pushed.
Exeloo, "Thank you."
The toilet flushes.
The experience ends.  Tom was initially nervous that his deposit would be gift-wrapped.

Decorative dunny

Gum digger's long drop

The humor of toiletry simplifies from the other end of the spectrum.  The outhouse, the dunny, and the long drop have the same feature.  No plumbing.  Not even in NZ.  The most rustic of Kiwi powder rooms often have a wink of satirical gas.

Hundertwasser Kawakawa Public toilets

All countries have national treasures.  Austrian artist Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser moved to Kawakawa, NZ near the Bay of Islands in 1973 and lived the simple life.  After beautifying many areas of the world, something happened in Kawakawa to stimulate him to create the nation's most famous toilet.

Inner workings of the Hundertwasser

Hundertwasser believed that the curved lines of nature should dominate the art and architecture of the world over the straight ordered lines of squares, rectangles, and high geometry.  He employed grass roofs, gold balls, ceramic tiles, bottle glass peep holes, and wavy floors in the design.

Men's view point of the Hundertwasser

A relieved Hundertwasser guest

Friedensreich himself said something like "a toilet is very special because you mediate in a toilet.  Like a church."

The Hundertwasser toilets are a destination place.  Bus loads of constipated Chinese arrive daily and snap pictures of who knows what.  Unfortunately Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundeertwasser died in 2000 and cannot greet the Chinese to his can.

Whether faced with Reason 1 or Reason 2, one can expect a combination of slapstick, satirical, droll, and fartical humor when dealing with the basics down under... the equator.

Big Trees

Cape Reinga Lighthouse watching the Tasman and Pacific 

New Zealand's history unfolds along the Northland's coastline and mountain ranges.  Extending from Auckland to Cape Reinga, the Northland encompasses bays, beaches, farms, small communities, and fishing villages.  And, like the rest of the country, it is beautiful.

Bay of Islands

The Polynesians arrived on large catamaran sailing vessels maybe 1000 years ago.  They found it to their liking and stayed.  Many of them opted for the Northlands and began their cultural traditions becoming the Maori people.  European immigration began in the 1700's and peaked in the later half of the 1800's.  Fishing and whaling, timber, and mining attracted those seeking new opportunities.

Hokianga Harbour

The country supplied fortune seekers with many bays and harbors to utilize the natural gifts.  The land even today remains formidable to transfer goods and products.  Water and shipping remain a major tool.  The bays remain isolated despite the use.  Adventure seekers and pleasure seekers now explore the waterways.







Upon discovering New Zealand the Polynesians were introduced to big trees.  Very big trees.  Monster trees.  Kauri trees.  These trees had existed untouched for over 100,000 years.  Until the European settler arrived, the tree dominated the landscape.  Within a century, the giant trees disappeared leaving only small pockets scattered in the Northland and Coromandel.  Some trees have documentation of 2000 years of growth.  During the time of trees, a resin oozed out of the trees into the surrounding ground.  Both the reddish wood and the resin (gum) became valuable commodities on the world markets in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  A lumbar industry and a resin/gum industry flourished.  Asian, American, and European ships, furniture, and buildings were built with the wood  and protected by the resin.  Today the pathetically few trees still standing are protected, but suffer from a disease destined to eradicate them.

Tane Mahuta

Tane Mahuta is the largest Kauri tree yet living.  Considered the father of the forest in the Maori creation mythology stories,  Tane Mahute rules on the west coast of the Northlands Peninsula in Waipoua Forest.  Tane, one of the children of Mother Earth (Papatuanuku) and Father Sky (Ranginui), acted by separating his parents' embrace with his arms and shoulders allowing the light to enter the world and a space created between his parents.  The tree is estimated to be 2000 years old.

Cheryl and Tane in perspective

The kauri industry folded by the 1930's.  The price today of a 6"X 6" X 2" piece of kauri is $50.  So, what do you know?  Swamp Kauri has rested beneath the soil of areas in the Northlands and is currently being hunted by 21st century fortune seekers.  Some swamp kauri logs are preserved for over 50,000 years.  Not for long.  Mankind has found them.









The wood began as an expression of art and support for the primal Maori cultures.  The art of wood carving told the stories.  Using the ornate woods, the paua shells, and hand tools, the artist brought forth the cultural myths and legends locked in the wood.

While exploring the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, the whare runanga (meeting house) and house of the giant war canoe demonstrated the extensive wood carvings.  Great symbolic meaning is rendered in the designs.  The one on the left means "please scratch my back" and the one the right, "no worries, keep your panties on".

Bus ride up the "Ninety Mile Beach"

The trip up the Northlands coast culminated in the pilgrimage to Cape Reinga.  As the Maori souls return to their mystical land of Hawakii, the souls must first travel along the coastline to the end of the Cape.  The Cape views the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean crash into each other.

Cape Reinga and the tree where the Maori souls leave
From the Cape lighthouse

Tom and Cheryl took the bus.  Up the beach, literally.  90 Mile Beach (actually 60 miles).  Starting at 7:00 AM from Paihia on the Bay of Islands, the animated bus driver, Paulie, kept the Kiwi humor flowing as they picked up riders and
investigated points of interest.  At an isolated country rode, Paulie took a sharp left and guided the bus onto the beach.  Throttle down.  The surf sprayed and the sand dunes splayed along the path.  Prior to arrival at Cape Reinga, a quick boogie board ride down a huge sand dune scraped the toenail polish off the blonde woman.

The Cape Reinga experience completed the Northlands trip.  A place of origins.  A place of history.  A place of characters.

Ninety Mile Beach

Tasmen and Pacific converge

Sand dunes along beach

Sand boarding

Hokianga Harbour and Partners

After Tom and Cheryl bummed around the Bay of Islands searching for good eateries, awesome views,  dolphins and other wildlife, and the ever-present new experience, they returned home to Thames via the Kauri forests and back through Auckland.

The land of the North remains beautiful, but has suffered the ignorance of misuse and has lost or is losing some of nature's grandest possessions.  An appeal in the Maori poetic genres seems directed at the North and potentially all we touch:

The land is slipping away;
Where shall man find an abiding-place?
O Ruaimoko!
Hold fast our lands!
Bind, tightly bind!
Be firm, be firm,
Nor let them from our grasp be torn.