New Zealand has no place names beginning with X that I can find. (Kiwis in the loop might like to point me to one??), so I decided to focus on New Zealand’s X-factor as a place to live and as a place to visit for this  A to Z blogging challenge.

Google describes x-factor as:
1. a noteworthy special talent or quality.
“there are plenty of luxury cars around, but [this one] has that special X factor
2. a variable in a given situation that could have the most significant impact on the outcome.
“the young vote may turn out to be the X factor”

As a place to live, New Zealand was brimful of positives. The X-factor was freedom.

Yes, I’ll admit to the rose-coloured glasses of looking back at good times.

You’ll have noticed through this challenge that I’ve referred to my children from time to time, and it is their experiences in NZ that  I reflect on. They could play with freedom; there were no racial or gender barriers to their friendships; their schooling was innovative and individualised. Children may start school on the day that they turn five years old. It’s a rite of passage, if you like, where the child is received into the class and her classmates rally round – especially those with whom she was at Kindy. Travel was easy. Pay rates were not great but costs were commensurate and we could afford to buy our own home as a young family. And everyone watched or played rugby union, netball and cricket! (Still do.)

As a place to visit, New Zealand’s X-factor is its variety: from snow-covered ski resorts to boiling mud. It’s fresh and clean (even the boiling mud!). It offers excitement and it offers relaxation. I’ll say more about that in a couple of days for the final post of the challenge.

The New Zealand X-factor overall, for me, is its indomitable spirit. For a nation with a population of 4.6 million people, it punches above its weight in sport, commerce, industry,  innovation, education and social conscience.

And now for the haiku:

X-factor

NZ’s X-factor:
its tintinnabulation –
impacts like a roar.