Gold found in a distant land

An NAC plane in its 1970s livery flies over the Southern Alps. Perhaps destined for Dunedin....
An NAC plane in its 1970s livery flies over the Southern Alps. Perhaps destined for Dunedin. Photo by Air New Zealand.

Finding a place to belong is the best, writes Andy Barratt.

The first of May, 1977.

A 29-year-old Englishman steps on to the tarmac at Dunedin Airport and makes his way to the terminal building.

It was a moment richly anticipated ever since the previous August, when he had received a telegram offering him a lectureship at the University of Otago.

By an odd and seemingly propitious coincidence, the telegram had arrived on his birthday.

The decision to leave Britain for distant shores was not that difficult for me to make.

(If you have read this far you will surely have guessed that I was that young Englishman.)

At the time, the job prospects for me and my wife were less than encouraging and the general mood in the country was more than usually grim.

We were ready for an adventure.

What impressions remain of that day?

The first sight of the North Island, glimpsed in the early-morning half-light through the low cloud and rain on our descent into Auckland.

Watching in jet-lagged wonder as the patrons of the airport cafe covered their teacups with saucers - not, as I first imagined, a strange local custom, but simply a practical measure to protect their beverages from unwelcome deposits from the sparrows perching in the rafters.

The snow-capped Southern Alps and the increasing emptiness of the landscape viewed from the air.

And of Dunedin itself?

The colour of the iron roofs and weatherboards on the houses, so unlike the drab uniformity of houses in Britain and all magnified by the quality of the autumn light.

The astonishing number of Hillman Hunters on the road, many with trailers attached, towing everything from garden waste to upright pianos.

The greengrocer's sign advertising "Puke potatoes'': did this refer to the main constituent or the effect of consumption?

Arriving at the motel which was to be our home for the first month in the city and hearing for the first time the catchphrase of the day: "Good as gold''.

And good as gold is what it has been.

Much has changed since then, of course.

The unassuming functionality of the airport has made way for today's nondescript gaudiness.

Dunedin itself has become yet another outpost of non-stop consumerism.

My own life has had its ups and downs both personal and professional.

But one thing has remained constant: the certainty, from that very first day, that I had found the place where I belong.

• Andy Barratt is a Karitane organic farmer.

 


Your best day

Tell us about your best day. Send submissions to odt.features@odt.co.nz. We ask that you don't nominate the day you were married or when a child arrived. But any other day is fine.


 

 

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