Anonymity

26 April 2011

Te Anau is a beautiful town.  I think I’ve mentioned it before actually.  The main industry is tourism followed by farming and fishing.  The thing about most tourist towns is that there is usually a time of year when tourists stop coming.  Business gets slow.  That’s what we’re coming to now.  But this past weekend was an extra long one for Kiwis.  Good Friday and Easter Monday were holidays.  And this year it happened that their special day to commemorate the military, Anzac Day, also came on Easter Monday.  

So most people had a long weekend and many of them came to Te Anau to celebrate.  They went boating.  They sailed on the lake or powerboated.  Some rented the fancy bicycles that carry four to six people.  A lot of them went on walks and I’m sure many went to visit Milford and Doubtful sounds.  The town was buzzing.  And fo the first time in a long time I felt like most of the people I passed on the street and in my walks were people who spoke English with a New Zealand accent.  Because frankly most of the time I can tell that the people I pass speak English as a second language or with a different accent.  

Te Anau isn’t very large.  It seemed huge when I first came to it.  Compared to Fox Glacier it felt like a real town!  And it is a real town! But that’s it, it’s a town.  I love it here because it is beautiful.  More sunny days than I ever experienced in Fox and even more than I would experience if I was home in Everett.  But it’s still small.  It doesn’t bother me that it doesn’t have the amenities of a larger city.  I mean it has a grocery store, some clothing shops, a library, lovely parks, and movie theater.  There isn’t much more I feel I need.  But I do miss one thing.  And that is anonymity.

I never realized how important that was to me before.  At home, and even in the “small” town of Avon, Colorado, I felt somewhat anonymous.  People don’t usually recognize me or remember me.  If I’m walking down the street I rarely run into anyone I know.  If I go into a grocery store I usually have a different cashier every time.  Plus I have multiple grocery stores to go to.  Not just a pick of two like in Te Anau.  

I have run into multiple co-workers in town as well as people from church.  It’s not too bad, but almost every time it happens I wish it hadn’t.  I just don’t want people to know what I’m up to or what I’m doing.  It’s not that I’m doing anything bad per se, but I just don’t want them to know.  

Even people I don’t know recognize me and know me. For instance a lady who works for one of the local tour companies came to the hotel and spoke to us about her tours.  And she went, “Oh you’re the girl who walks by the office all the time.  So this is where you work!”  I didn’t know this woman, but because I have to walk past her office almost anytime I want to go anywhere she recognized me.  I didn’t even know her and she sees me walking all the time!  

I wonder if this isn’t what celebrities experience all the time.  Every time they go to buy a coffee everyone knows!  It’s not that bad of course.  The whole world isn’t looking at me, but I feel like this town knows what I eat for dinner every night!  It’s not exactly creepy.  I just want my anonymity back!  But I think it’s a good experience to have.  It’s good to know what it’s like to live in a town this size.  And no matter that I can’t buy a box of cookies without people knowing it, I will always cherish this time here in Te Anau.  But can you blame me if I’m looking forward to buying a pint of ice cream without anyone in my town knowing?