New Zealand Life

Lucinda	Todd

Todd: So, Lucinda, in New Zealand, are you from Aukland?

Lucinda: No, I'm actually from about four-hours drive north of Aukland.

Todd: Oh, you're north of Aukland.

Lucinda: Yeah, yeah.

Todd: OK, and where are you from?

Lucinda: I'm from the Bay of Islands. That's actually a region in the North Island, actually northland, North Island.

Todd: OK, so did you grow up in a city or in the country?

Lucinda: In very, very, very country. (Oh really) Yeah the population of my town or region is about 100 people, between 100 and 200 people. I haven't been back, been there for awhile but yeah, about 100, 200 people.

Todd: Wow, what's it like growing up in the country?

Lucinda: It's very different. It's very different from living in the city and I can remember when I was a kid, I never had TV because we couldn't get reception for television or candy, anyhing that you really couldn't buy in bulk, cause my mother would go shopping I think once every two weeks and my mother is health fanatic so she basically chose all of the things myself and my brother ate and we really had no choice so we never really knew about, you know, junk food until we were quite older.

Todd: Whoa, so did your mother grow her own food and her own vegetables and raise her own animals?

Lucinda: Yeah, we didn't have animals because we were living on an estate which allowed for no animals, pet animals but we, my mother grows her own lettuce, herbs, things like that, yeah. Oh, we did have chickens. We had our own eggs, so yeah.

Todd: OK, so but you said that you grew up in the country. This wasn't a farm?

Lucinda: No, no not a farm. My mother was raised on a farm but I was raised in, I guess we call it New Zealand, "the bush", it's like a forest.

Todd: Oh, really.

Lucinda: But it's right by the ocean so it's very hard to explain. It's on a big mountain top and it's covered with bush with like, not really big trees, but

Todd: Small trees?

Lucinda: Yeah, and then some big trees but mainly small trees, and then there is a cliff face around the whole area. It's on like a point, and the cliff faces around the whole area and then water below, because it's islands, and a bunch of islands, so the islands are covered not with farmland but with bush.

Todd: So when you have children, or if you have children some day, would you want them to grow up in a similar environment or in the suburbs or in the city?

Lucinda: Oh, that's very hard. When they are young I would like them to grow up in that environment perhaps to the end of primary school but because of schooling problems, the best school's always in the cities and so unfortunately I had to travel by bus one hour each way and I was going to high school.

Todd: Oh, that's a long way.

Lucinda: Yeah, and that's over a ferry, on a ferry as well, that's a boat that carries cars, and you have to travel, the bus had to go over on a boat

Todd: Man, you had to take a bus and a boat to get to school.

Lucinda: Yeah

Todd: That's a commute.