NZ due for peace and goodwill

It’s been a tumultuous year for Aotearoa, and it’s good to be home.

Ithought New Zealand had a long commercial lead-in to Christmas, but it’s nothing compared to how it works overseas.

I’ve been in Hawaii for the last 51 days and they’ve been gearing up for the festive season pretty much since November.

Planning for this time of the year seems to have been front of mind for everybody I was around, rather than the fact their country was in the process of impeaching their president for just the third time in history.

It was quite extraordinary. The 24-hour news networks carried the hearings, breaking news and expert analysis of the impeachment proceedings ad nauseam, but the ordinary folk on the street never mentioned it.

As a news addict from Down Under, I have been enthralled by the daily drama of this unfolding history, and would ask locals about their take on what was going on.

But most – from Uber and taxi drivers to store workers to work colleagues – just shrugged and went about their day.

It just goes to show that the daily rantings and ravings on Twitter or media opinion pieces often bear little resemblance to the concerns of everyday people.

The recent result of the UK general election was another clear example of that.

Maybe Americans have just been worn down by the last three years of Trump’s presidency to a point where what once might have been shocking and newsworthy now seems as everyday as a weather report.

Either way, on Friday it was nice to finally to leave the land of dramatic political news and touch back down in Aotearoa, where our news is dominated by the everyday occurrences such as road accidents and meth busts.

Compared to the US, our politicians’ scandals are tame.

Like that time recently when MP Kris Faafoi had to apologise to the prime minister for suggesting to his mate Jason Kerrison that he could speed up the bro’s father-in-law’s visa application.

It was clearly out of line and not on, but still, I’d rather have those types of political shenanigans over what’s been happening in the US in recent times.

In New Zealand, it seems there is still enough of a sense of shame that compels our politicians to put their hands up and own it when they’ve been snapped making a d... move.

For now, like the rest of us, they’re winding down for the year and making holiday plans with their loved ones. And don’t we all need this cup of tea and a lie-down.

It’s been one heck of a tumultuous 2019 for this country. A year under the long shadow of the March 15 terror attack.

Despite it all, one of the cool things about leaving New Zealand is eventually coming back.

Especially in time for Christmas. All the best for the holidays, everyone.

‘Don’t we all need this cup of tea and a lie-down.