Time to say goodbye
A lot has been happening here in Auckland and in New Zealand in the last few days. We’ve had a lot of gale-force wind, so much so that 1,200 people were stranded overnight at the top of Mt Hutt in the South Island. The race between who will become Supercity Auckland’s first mayor is neck-and-neck. And the credit card scandals still keep popping up all across the country.
It’s rained, it’s poured, and it’s been sunny with fine stretches. It’s been below freezing and it’s been above freezing. And, in the meantime, Chris Hightower, his cousin Justin, and Bryan Anderson have come to visit me for respective weeks and departed.
In less than 48 hours, I will have also departed.
Let’s start from the beginning. Chris and Justin came two weeks ago and spent part of an NZ-Aussie holiday with me and my host family in Auckland. Neither of them had been to this part of the world before, and jet lag definitely had its way with both. I took them around Auckland and enjoyed playing tour guide, showing off this place that has become a part of me over the past two months. Then they went off on their own and took a quick tour of the North Island, down through Wellington and back up. It was a lot of fun to have the two of them here, to catch up with Chris who I don’t see nearly enough of now that he lives in Boston, and to wind-down my time in such a fashion.
On Sunday, I preached for my last service at St Luke’s, and Bryan flew in just before we started. He got to hear my sermon (in which he played a starring role) and he overlapped for one day with Chris and Justin. That night the neighbors came over for a mini-driveway party; it was a great end to my official time at St Luke’s.
Monday, Chris and Justin left, and I got to play tour guide once again to Bryan, taking him all over the city. It was low tide up off North Head, and so he was a clam in the ocean (literally) getting to go and explore all the marine life. On Tuesday, Bryan and I flew down to Christchurch for a relaxing three days. ChCh was a delightful city and a great time to relax, talk, explore, and catch up on our lives.
I drove Bryan back to the airport this morning, as he continues today up to Tokyo and Japan. As I dropped him off and said goodbye, I knew that another, harder goodbye was next. When the two of us spend a length of time abroad, whenever the other one shows up, it means it’s soon time to leave. (At least that’s how it’s worked so far.) This is my last weekend in Auckland, this was my last week in New Zealand. In about 64 hours, I will be back on Minnesota soil, the soil that contains my roots, the land that supported my upbringing and allowed me to come to a place like New Zealand. Yet that soil and those roots have mixed with others. It’s time to say goodbye to this land, to this place that I have been in for what feels like both a moment and an eternity.
How does one transport their experiences? Do they pack them as checked luggage, or in their carry-on?
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
Daniel Ross-Jones serves as Minister for Youth & Young Adults at First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, United Church of Christ. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area for a time still measured in months, he is frequently getting lost and discovering treasures of a landscape very different from his Upper Midwestern roots. Green Jello Hotdish is a blog exploring the intersections of his days. 
