New Zealand – The Low Down Adventure
New Zealand has three kiwis – the bird, the fruit, and the people. I knew that headin’ into our sourcing trip, along with their national rugby team All Blacks, and of course, Lord of the Rings. But even so – I arrived in Auckland with no real idea of what to expect… except magic.
Ever since the 2nd grade when I first tasted it, kiwifruit has always been a living form of magic for me. And to this day, every time I eat a piece of kiwi it takes me back to a moment where life was one big luau. (Read more about this bit of magic!)
I expected to eat a ton of kiwifruit in New Zealand. Daily. With every meal. I envisioned eating so much kiwi that I’d be overwhelmed by all the magic. I envisioned walkin’ around in their winter weather being drowned by kiwi raining down on me. Delusional? Maybe. But I live life with high expectations. I go head first into taking on too much responsibility – not blind, just accepting that I’m walking into a shitstorm I created and I’m gonna M’THR F’IN survive. More than survive – I’m gonna kill it. I’m gonna walk out alive, breathing magic.
Kiwis didn’t rain down on me. Cold, wet, bone-chillin’ rain did. The Seattle in me isn’t afraid of rain but what I didn’t expect? Wind. Wind that slices through you. I walked around umbrella-less in pouring rain, iPhone in hand, frantically requesting an Uber to get my cold ass out of the all-too-frequent mess. One time a dude in a car yelled at me because I was walking around in the torrential rain without an umbrella. Dude – trust me, I wish I was sitting in a warm cafe sippin’ tasty coffee! No umbrella was gonna protect me from that windy rain storm.
But as fast as the rain appeared, it disappeared. The clouds would open and sunshine made everything all okay. I would get back on the road and walk from shop to shop, hunting down goods.
Life isn’t one endless stream of magic moments. It doesn’t have to be. It can be moments of magic – a little bit of magic here, a little bit of magic there. Pull them all together and you realize you got a heaping pile of awesome. That was our New Zealand sourcing trip. It was super special – and to date, our most expensive sourcing trip.
Eating super-tasty gluten-free food all over New Zealand? Magic.
Visiting Hobbiton? Magic. But the biggest HELLZ YES MAGIC MOMENT? Receiving a super-amazing pack of vintage notebooks from a vendor!
The vendor recently closed its production factory in New Zealand and is now producing goods abroad. They didn’t have enough of the vintage notebooks to include in STMT X New Zealand – but lucky for us we did score notebooks and more from the LAST BATCH produced in New Zealand! Like the kiwi bird and golden kiwi fruit, locally manufactured office supplies may be a disappearing act… but our hunt was still a major success. Like discovering a M’THR F’IN GOLDEN KIWI kind of magic!
oxxo, Hen
