The Importance of Living

Well, I’ve gone from COVID craziness to March madness. Being in COVID home detention and not being able to travel overseas has turned out to be a truly enriching experience. Those of you who have been reading my column have hopefully gleaned from my stories that we really don’t have to be flying thousands of miles on planes to really experience life at its best. We have all we need and more right here in this beautiful country.

After having such a crazy Christmas and New Year, I decided that I was going to put the brakes on in March, cool down and clear my mind. So, I am reading more books, making meditation a part of my daily routine and connecting with my Chinese community friends while still exploring the great New Zealand outdoors.

I just finished a book written by a Chinese author named Lin Yutang. It was first published in 1937 in America and later translated into Chinese. The English title is “The Importance of Living”.

Reading this book which Lin describes his personal experiences in life encouraged me to understand that life is made from the convergence of numerous small seemingly ordinary events. All these small events taken from a distant view creates the importance of living for each of us. It made me think about every person’s life like a living ecosystem of universal experiences. We depend on each other, the best way to achieve happiness in life is keep it simple, natural and respectful.

My daily mediation

Practicing meditation daily helps me clear out the dust from my mind, creating a clam environment allowing me to plan and create in peace. The other benefit of meditation it’s free and you can do it anywhere, anytime. Try it, even just for 10 minutes, see how refreshed you feel.

Connecting with my Chinese community

I’ve written before about the group of retired Chinese Artists who are based here in Christchurch that I have been helping to experience life outside the Chinese community. When I heard the world famous Van Gogh Alive experience was coming to Christchurch, I jumped at the chance as I knew this was something the Art group would not want to miss. I mean, who isn’t a fan of Van Gogh, right?

I organised 3 small groups on different days to visit the Air Museum and enjoy the experience. We were all amazed how the organisers have used technology to make the works of this legendary artist come to life. It really did as the name suggests brings Vincent “Alive” with music, lighting, stories, imagination all combining into one beautiful and emotional experience.

After each group finished their experience, I took them to different Cafés in Christchurch for a chat to discuss how they felt about the exhibition. I encouraged them to order food and drinks in English and to talk with the locals sitting at nearby tables. There were plenty of laughs as they practiced their English on the very accommodating and good willed locals. Some of the art group told me the day reminded them of school field trips when they were young. I felt so happy we were breaking down barriers and building bridges, with communication and laughter.

The Great Outdoors

In late March our walking group ventured to the Hinewai Reserve on Banks Peninsula. To those of you, like me, that hadn’t heard of this beautiful place before it is located between Little River and Akaroa. It takes about 90 minutes driving from Christchurch to there. Our group had organised a tour guide to give us that up close and personal experience of the real outdoor experience. We got up very early and departure Christchurch at 6 am meeting our friends in Little River at 7am.

It’s about a 45-minute drive from Little River to the Hinewai Reserve and some of the road is a gravel road, but don’t worry it’s only about the last 10 minutes of the journey.

You don’t need to have a guide, you can do your own free walking tour without any trouble as there are lots of information boards and pamphlets available. But if you can afford it, I highly recommend a guide, especially one like Steve Attwood. What this guy doesn’t know about birds, plants and other animals is not worth knowing. He really made the walk for us a memorable experience, and revealed life in the bush that we would never have seen or understood.

We were lucky enough for Steve to be able to organise morning tea for us with the caretaker and artist in residence at Hinewai Reserve Tricia Hewlett. She is an artist of some renown in New Zealand for her beautiful depictions of the Hinewai birdlife. Tricia put on an amazingly delicious homemade morning tea with everything coming from her backyard and kitchen and we got to see her art studio nestled in the bush filled with her amazing works.

Tricia gave me a newsletter named “Pipipi”, written by Dr. Hugh Wilson. Hugh is the manager of the Hinewai Reserve and has been since the original purchase of the Reserve in September 1987. He is a well-regarded New Zealand botanist born in Timaru and grew up in Christchurch, and has written a number of books about New Zealand flora.

When you walk around the reserve you will come across some of the many signs created by Hugh Wilson delivering his message in a tongue in cheek manner.

Hugh is responsible for passively managing gorse out of the reserve and returning it to its natural state before western civilization. The reserve started with only 109ha and today has expanded to over 1250 hectares, with help from the Maurice White Native Forest Trust buying neighbouring land. Our guided walk wasn’t too strenuous, and the weather was brilliant. We reached the top of Hinewai Reserve at about 2pm.

When we arrived, we saw an old man pulling out weeds by hand. I thought what crazy person was pulling out weeds by hand in this vast open plain. Then all of a sudden Steve called out and waved. To all of our surprise Steve said “Come on, I would like you to meet Hugh Wilson.”

That’s him with his blue t-shirt, red baseball cap on top of his fuzzy white beard, and big knee protectors to limit the damage to his knees while weeding 1,000 hectares. He was so pleased to see us, and quickly worked out I was Chinese and said in perfect Mandarin, “Ni Hao”. We struck up a conversation, he told me he loved cultures and was capable in about 6 different languages.

Hugh told us he is a minimalist. He does not use a computer or a mobile phone, and has not driven a vehicle for 45 years! He uses a bicycle to get around. If he had to go to Christchurch, He rides his bike to town, then puts his bike on a bus to Christchurch.

I highly recommend anyone who is interested to do some research on Dr Wilson, he is one amazing person.