New Zealand retrospective Part I

I had not blogged my adventures in New Zealand at the time, and confined my last communications from Australia to sparse emails to a few close friends and family. The irony is, the more that happens the less one blogs about it. The best parts of this adventure may never be told, they are jewels I want to keep for myself. Now in the Cooks Islands there is no excuse not to catch up with the blog.

It was a sad time leaving friends old and new in Newcastle, New South Wales. To make the most of my last few days I traveled through the night to make my flight rather than spending the day before in my departure city. Sometimes its better to be busy rather than having time to brood.

The first few days in a new country I tend to walk about do not socialize much, some fruit in my rucksack, a map sometimes, and a book if I want to hide away, but mostly follow my nose. It is such a luxury of solo travel to do this, for me an essential stage in bedding down the experiences of the past, and leveling space for the next adventure.

Hostels can be such tiresome places, people often talk about where they have been, and where they are going, rarely where they are at. One can travel the well worn path through Asia and onto Australia and New Zealand in a safe but expensive bubble, polishing tales for better reception. I do not blame the people who do this, I am sure if I had started this adventure at twenty I would have done pretty much the same, recalling the strange, lost feelings of my first solo trip, when arriving in a new city without a reservation seemed daring. When seeing a group of Westerners I would want to be part of it, like a lonely island dog.

There may be no new frontier, but one can go always go deeper. If the sights tire, then one can always look to the infinite landscape inside – thats where the real journey begins. If one always seek the comfort of others one can only go so far. There are so much more to ask than “Where did you go?”, “Where did you drink?”, “Did you get sick?”

Something vital is lost when a journey becomes anecdotes. With new people only really wants to share the highlights – the parts that shock or make people laugh incredulous. But it is the darker times really transform, the losses or burning of naive illusions that allow the spirit to ascend. A lonesome walk though an industrial landscape may have an inner quality, one could never have in natural beauty.

If one moves rapidly between countries while connecting deeply with the people and landscape, there must be a time to reflect alone, knowing that even in a group the experiences are the product of one's own previous experiences and combinations of feelings you alone have felt, making travel the loneliest pursuit.