Raglan and the Fantastic Mr. Ross

Four totems representing the Four Directions (NSEW) and Four Elements (Earth Air Fire Water)

 

It has been a few weeks since we have had the chance to post any stories for you all, so it is probably near about time to catch everyone up.

Last you heard (aside from my recent Thanksgiving post), we had just arrived in Raglan on the North island and met up with our CouchSurfing host, Ross.

Ross is a gregarious jokester with a bit of a filthy mind and a heart pure as gold. He has been in a wheelchair since the age of 16 (rugby accident—that’s why they now make opponents touch shoulders before a scrimmage), though definitely not bound by it—he has taken on more pee-your-pants extreme activities than I actually knew existed, and he is pretty self-sufficient for having limited use of his digits and the like. What a rare fellow. We liked each other right away, but it was all over when we discovered a passionate shared love for Austin Powers. I commend Neal for his powers of endurance during our long feverish competitions of rehashing one quote after the other followed by bouts of hysterical laughter. He also is a practitioner of BARS, a healing technique where the hands are placed on certain points of the scalp to release energy, promote healing, and bring forth positive energies. We learned much about his ideas of coming to a greater understanding of one’s own body and its silent messages, which he believes opens us up to the deeper truths of our daily existence and provides us more opportunities to be joyful. Ross’s favourite question is: “What do you require?” and his mantra is: “What else is possible?”

Immediately after our arrival Ross piled the three of us into his van and gave us the tour of Raglan. He showed us the city center, a collection of less than a hundred shops and restaurants jumbled together, small enough to walk its entirety in about ten minutes. We looked out upon the mountains and bays and he told us their Maori histories—discoveries, conquests, communities, living people. Then he drove to the top of a very tall hill overlooking the roiling ocean waves. The view looked quite familiar, as Raglan is fairly close to Port Waikato, but on the top of the hill was a circular walkway circumnavigating four large totems dedicated to the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. He explained the significance of these guardians in Maori culture and gave us the chance to take photographs before carting us off to the next point of interest. Over the next several days, we were invited to join him in many enlightening experiences, such as attending a gallery opening for a Maori women’s group, visiting a community house with a garden meditation circle, hiking to a dizzyingly tall waterfall, and having tea with a woman who had built her entire house sustainably using packed earth and composting toilets. These teaching and sharing experiences deepened our understanding of the people, cultures, and powerful energies of New Zealand, while showing us the true loving spirit of Ross himself.

Ross has several people deemed caretakers who come in and out to help him with various household tasks, as well as a whole host of friends and acquaintances, whose presence has created a very unique sort of community. Dierdre was one of my favourites: a sharp-eyed, expressive, slightly rotund kiwi woman with exuberant grey curly hair and a tongue to be reckoned with. I am convinced she was Irish in a past life. She had been a chef for many years and knew how to cook just about everything. She was the master of the kitchen and liked to have full control over any comings and goings while she was there. The first morning we met her she was doing dishes as Neal and I looked for cereal bowls, and she said loudly to nobody in particular: “I could get this kitchen cleaned up right quick if I just had a moment alone to do it!” so we scooted out and waited on the outskirts reading books until she finally looked at us and exclaimed, “Well, are you going to have breakfast this morning, or not?”

In order to have us stay longer than he usually allows guests, Ross gave us several projects in his garden. We helped him plant squash and tomatoes, dig a new section of garden for potatoes, prune the leeks and pick kale for dinner salads. He has a lovely backyard and it was fun work with so many other people around to chat with. On one rainy day, we tried doggedly to dig until the rain got so heavy that our forks turned into giant earth clods and we were forced to stop. The rain here is quite different from the typical cold needle pricks of Colorado: soft, fat, slightly cool water washing gently over us, a very pleasant experience until the water started soaking our underwear. Then we were just too wet to work any longer and we went inside to watch the falling rain from the supreme comfort of the sunroom loveseat.

During these rare moments of inactivity, I read The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck. The book is extremely well-written and accessible for everyone, with striking messages about money, food, community, and family. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her work, and in my opinion it is a prize well-earned. I am not going to go into details here because you could probably get a better synopsis from Wikipedia if you are interested, but I recommend it to anyone interested in social and environmental issues.

Our last outing with Ross was first to his parents’ dairy farm for an evening of bourbon and political discussion, then to the small town of Te Kuiti, where we celebrated 11/11/11 (twice) with a small host of enlightened and loving people on a sacred marae. We spent two powerful days there with him, attending meditations, singing crystal bowls, and a full-on two hour Native American sweat lodge before he dropped us at the end of the road, where we immediately hooked a ride straight to Taupo. It was good to keep moving and exploring, but definitely tough leaving him—we have a good friend in Ross and we are grateful for his gifts to us. In the words of Austin Powers, “You’re one groovy baby…baby!”