Story time

In South Africa, when you see shoes hanging on the overhead lines, each pair tells a story, and usually, it's a big one.So when I saw those shoes hanging overhead in Dunedin, on the South Island of New Zealand, I wanted to know the story behind them.

My mom and my sister moved from South Africa to New Zealand in 2000.
I'm not sure if you can travel further from South Africa than that, but getting to Dunedin from there takes around 28 hours.I guess I'm just grateful I got to be there.

Hi, my name is splitpin.
I have this problem with taking panoramas.I can't help but take them.

I was on the South Island for three weeks.
My sister and mom planned those days really well.I got to see everything that was worth seeing.The big takeaway is that the South Island is quite similar to South Africa, but it's about a tenth of the size, which is really cool.It takes just 30 minutes to drive from the coast up to snow-covered mountains.

This isn't a concept — this is a real thing.
I've never seen so much water in such a vivid color.I sat there for a while and took pictures of this peaceful scene.It was unforgettable.

There are salmon farms there where you can pick your own salmon for Christmas lunch.
The reception desk has four small baskets — dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and regular chocolate.Each chocolate is filled with different kinds of salmon, like dry or smoked.It sounds crazy, but it's really good.Trust me.New Zealand has so much water that they built hydro dams at various places across the country.They create a lot of electricity, and they even supply Australia.

Dunedin has this lovely, clean, and well-organized harbor.
Only about 132,000 people live there, and around 25,000 of them are students at the University of Otago.A big focus there is on medicine.That's why my sister was there.She was also glad my mom was there too.You might be wondering why she was relieved.Well, it could have been a tough situation with half the family moving to another continent, but I've always been grateful that my mom was in a first-world country.She would be safe and cared for, and she has been.She's still going to be 90 this December.

Looking at these pictures often makes me wonder how such a happy little country managed to get so much right and keep it that way.
They're still farming salmon and supplying electricity to neighboring countries.

At the start of this century, South Africa's electricity company, Eskom, had billions of dollars in cash.
They were seen as a top-rate power company that exported electricity to neighboring countries and still had extra.South Africa has huge coal deposits.The profits were in the hundreds of billions.Today, Eskom is over 400 billion in debt, and the government keeps bailing them out — way too often.

I guess we're talking about infrastructure here.
History has shown us that when a country's infrastructure falls apart, it usually means something.I live here.I've lived through years of electricity shortages, water restrictions, and days where deliveries didn't happen.

So when I look back at these pictures, the story I remember is that I'm glad my mom, sister, and nephews are safe and well taken care of in a stable and secure country.
It was always the right decision.