There and Back Again-- A Final 2023 World Cup Dispatch
This post was originally published in Nate’s newsletter on August 6
Our view of the tournament opener in Auckland, where the host Football Ferns upset Norway
I really hate when I am right when I wish I was wrong. I ended last week’s newsletter by saying the US needed a win in their final group stage match in order to avoid Sweden in the round of 16. The US didn’t get that result, squeaking out a scoreless draw against Portugal. That dropped them into second place in Group E, behind the Netherlands, setting up today’s match against Sweden that the US lost in PKs. This is the earliest World Cup exit from the US in recent memory and likely brings an inauspicious end to the tenure of Coach Vlatko Andonovski and this generation of USWNT players. I don’t want to dwell too much on the loss. I’ll leave that to others. I had a great time in New Zealand, so instead I want to leave with some final takeaways from our visit.
Aotearoa (Land of the King White Cloud), is a country the size of the US state of Colorado with the population of South Carolina, more often referred to as New Zealand. The entire country is a series of volcanoes. This plays cool tricks with the topography, creating soaring peaks, numerous active volcanoes, and thermal & hot springs that litter the landscape. New Zealand is made up of two main islands and is packed with more beauty than I can begin to describe. The North Island, where we spent our time, is roughly the size of the Western half of Washington State and shares a similar climate and mild winter. But the landscape is more varied. For folks back home, imagine if our "wet side" of Washington had ten mountains the size of Mount Baker, a Glacier National Park, and a Yellowstone all jammed inside.
The landscape in New Zealand is gorgeous and goes on like this for hours between Auckland and Wellington
Because we’re city folk and came for football, we spent most of our time in Auckland and Wellington, the commercial and political capitals respectively. But we also ventured into the rural areas in the middle of the island and witnessed some of the natural beauty. We toured thermal springs turned every shade of the rainbow by sulfur and other gasses. We also did two tours of caverns. Our second tour was by boat—yeah, you read that right: river rafting in a massive cave in the dark. We got a fair amount of windshield time covering over 1000 miles in just under two weeks. I was most struck by the rolling hills that looked like they were drawn by the video game engine in Red Dead Redemption 2.
The Maori and surviving conquest - My biggest area of learning this trip was about the history of the Maori people. For those unaware, the Maori are the original occupants of New Zealand and make up about 15% of the population. Most Maori can trace their genealogy back to a series of seven canoes, called Waka, that arrived in the 1300s. Those seven canoes are the basis for the Iwi (or tribal identity). Maoris are Polynesian people, sharing an ancestry with the people of Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, and native Hawaiians.
Our raft in the Waitomo Caves, near Te Kuiti
Arguably, they are one of the most successful survivors of conquest in the post-colonial world. They weren’t decimated by disease like the indigenous people in the US; they weren’t ruled under an Apartheid state well into the 1990s like in South Africa; they don’t live under a state of permanent occupation like Uyghurs and Tibetans in China. Don’t mishear me—I haven't been propagandized by the Kiwi state. But Maoris are largely integrated into New Zealand society, while retaining key elements of their cultural heritage and traditions and unlike many conquered people, they’ve largely managed to retain their language*, called te reo.
There are Maori language newscasts, radio stations, reality TV shows (bad ones tho), and official Maori dubs of Disney animated films. Each match at the World Cup opened with a Maori song, as a form of land acknowledgement and welcome to Maori lands. I noted the typical Kiwi is far more conversant in Marori culture, history, and placenames than people where I’m from are about the history and culture of the S’Puyalupubsh (generous and welcoming people) and Squalli-Absch (people of the grass). The US’ commitment to the eradication of native culture was a core value at the country's founding that largely endures to today. However in New Zealand, there are initiatives underway to make Maori language instruction compulsory in schools. This one really gets me: can you imagine the meltdown the culture warriors of the American right would have over their kids being taught the languages of the native people in the US? It would make the Common Core Wars look like Chutes & Ladders.
The sulfur infused Devil's Bath in Wai-O-Tapu Park.It looks like Gatorade and smells like hell
Yo, why are all the bartenders from Ireland? Something else I learned about in New Zealand is the Working Holiday Visa Program. If you’re between 18-30 years old and from a select number of countries, including the US, you are able to secure an up to 18 month visa to travel to New Zealand and engage in temporary employment. Most tourist visas are for 30 or 90 days and forbid you from taking on any form of employment but with this program, people get to experience New Zealand's culture and lifestyle while supplementing their travel expenses.
Consequently, most of the bartenders and servers we encountered were from Ireland, the UK, and rural parts of the US. One person we talked to, from Southern Arkansas, was on their third of these visas, previously working at restaurants in Australia and Brazil. It seems like the perfect thing for a kid on a gap year or someone who is burned out working in the service industry in the States.
*Maori appears easier to learn than most languages: there are only 13 letters in the alphabet and phonetic patterns are predictable. An “A” makes one sound, unless it is marked as “Ā” then it makes another sound. No guesswork like with the “A” sound like there is in English “gas” vs “was” vs “swap.”