Tuesday, February 17, 2009

New Zealand is the most far-off country in the world, for the good reason that if you try to go any further than New Zealand you start coming back again.
Wallace Reyburn, Flushed with Pride (Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 1971), p. 74

One of my favourite colleagues made me smile with this quote.
Thanks Gidon.

4 comments:

Catherine said...

Have you read Jenny Diski? I think it was in "On Being Still" or a title something like that, where she visited New Zealand and everyone kept telling her that it was "so far away"
Her reaction was as far as she could tell, everyone in New Zealand was "right here"
I think most New Zealanders feel as if we are a long way from anywhere else.

Di Mackey said...

I haven't yet, Catherine. You know, I'm not sure I felt a long way from anywhere until I came out here. I might have thought New Zealand was a continent too ;)

Kapka Kassobova's 'All Roads Lead to the Sea' was a huge surprise for me.

Catherine said...

I haven't read any of Kapka's, you've inspired me to check out the library again.

Di Mackey said...

I hope you enjoy her, Catherine. I found her work while I was at university and just loved it.