Thoughts beyond my life & my travel - Bel

The population of New Zealand is around 5 million in 2022, but this vast country recorded 3.4 million residents only in 1990. Its size is 240 times of Hong Kong where its population has already reached 7.8 million.  This island country covering 268,021 km is slightly bigger than Great Britain. With the abundance of land resources, farms are everywhere. The bungalows are so commonly seen on the South Island, rather than duplexes and houses with multiple stories. The island simply has a lot of space where people can enjoy single-story home living. One can easily access the living room, backyard garden or garage without the hassle of going up and down. Town houses, cottages or cabins may be more susceptible to potential earthquakes compared with taller buildings.  As far as I remember, there are far more duplexes and multi-story buildings in the UK and Canada even in rural areas. The bedrooms are usually located upstairs, and the dining room, living room and kitchen are located o...

The Botanic Garden in Christchurch is nothing like the gardens in Asia. The vast space, the debris on the ground, vivid colours of flowers, and giant cabbage trees are some of its distant features. It’s like a wild soul being open to imperfections. Peaceful. Calm. Nothing is in harmony, but a diversity of plants is mixed but not matched. Flowers of different colours are arranged so close to each other that they are trying so hard to stand out among their “competitors”.   Plants are sculptured and well-arranged with a perfect balance of leaves, petals, and trees in Asian gardens. New Zealand gardens are not manicured in this way at all. My friend told me he found the beauty of dead roses. This belief is definitely shared by many kiwis. New Zealand gardens are not meant to look perfect and can be full of dead leaves or withering flowers. Now I understand why my friend structured his garden not in a “perfect way” like the Japanese garden. It is wild, untamed, disorganised. A bit...