Out with the old, in with the new!
I’ve seen plenty of posts on social media etc wishing away 2020, wanting to write off what for many was an insane, terrible year. Just one friend’s Facebook post stood out – being grateful for what the disruption of COVID gave to her. In her case it was spending quality time with her parents, having been forced home to Europe after several years of expat life in China.
I appreciate that not all of us have the total freedom to simply up sticks. For us, we had the choice of riding out COVID in one of three countries – India, since we happened to be there; my home country of NZ; or Helen’s home country UK. Though they were not each without considerations, we know that not everyone has this degree of choice and absence of career obligations. But, within some limitations, we’ve all got the capacity to look on the optimistic side of life. Like my friend mentioned above, I’ve been grateful to speak to my mum virtually every day since lockdowns started last March, as well as see beautiful NZ at a relaxed pace. I think we’ve spoken more in the past year than we have over the previous ten.
You can read about our Indian adventures here https://ripeningnicely.com/category/travel/india/
It’s easy to lose your sense of optimism. Over the years I’ve sometimes caught myself over-thinking things, being kept awake at night thinking of various disaster scenarios which may or may have a real chance of becoming reality. It’s been a bit of a hard slog, but I’m finally getting better at letting go of things that I can’t control and focusing on the positive of those I can. Some things are worth being kept awake over, but many are simply not.
It’s always fun visiting new places but the biggest joy I’ve found on this trip is revisiting places we’ve only briefly visited before. In the past we did a lot of long weekend breaks – Dubai is so well positioned as a transport hub, it was tempting to use every birthday, anniversary or public holiday as an excuse to jet off somewhere exotic. On these trips I’d often find myself fantasising about returning for a longer, slower visit – often choosing the perfect transport and activities for the fantasy trip. I’ve got a mental list of sailing, canal boating, landcruiser, mountain biking adventures to satisfy any sense of adventure for many years!
On this trip, when visiting some corners of New Zealand where we may have barely stopped for lunch in the past, now warrant a three or four day stay, allowing a much deeper enjoyment of the attractions that we may have just zoomed past in our previous high speed life. It seems to be so much more satisfying, finding those places or activities that tourists travelling at normal speed don’t get to appreciate. And most of them aren’t too hard to find, either. As a young country it has a short history, I’m now beginning to appreciate the richness of this history and how different parts of the country have experienced history differently.
The top of the South Island has been wonderful. Mum joined us for a week each in Collingwood and Nelson – we moved out of our beloved Cyril into an Air BnB and zipped around by rental car for a fortnight – what a luxury! One day we took the off road bus excursion on Farewell Spit – the sixty kilometre long sand spit extending off the north west corner of the South Island. It’s long been on my bucket list. Other days we played games, went on walks, visited farmers markets, and drank way too many flat whites!
We thought the sunny Marlborough, Nelson and Tasman districts were small and super friendly. That is, until we dropped mum at the airport for her flight back to Auckland and crossed the hills to the Nelson Lakes, and then the mountains to the West Coast. The population of the entire West Coast at only 32,000, spread over hundreds of kilometres of rugged coast, is less than that of my home town. It almost seems like everyone knows everyone – but the rural one-finger-wave when passing other vehicles isn’t reserved just for locals. Tourists are welcomed in too. We’ve met our fair share of friendly local characters at pretty much every stop and small local pubs never fail to entertain.
Some days you feel like you’re surrounded by calendar or biscuit tin lid pictures – lakes, coastlines, the bush. Finally I understand what tourists have been telling me about New Zealand for years – it really is beautiful! We’re both taking loads of pictures, I just hope that at least a few of them do it justice. A lot of the time we get to enjoy these places overnight too – pulling Cyril up a beach, a sound, a plateau with a view, or simply a campsite on the edge of the bush.
Much of the character in some areas still lives on from the history. We’ve passed through areas where gold and coal mining was king. The characters you meet often have deep biases based on their professions. It’s not uncommon to hear the “Department of Conservation” referred to as “Department of Constipation” on account of their tendency to block devastating activities such as mining and drilling. Indeed, we saw small scale gold mining in action and the best way of describing the process is of washing the topsoil (and gold) off, leaving a barren field of boulders.
We’ve been doing our fair share of hiking. One day we went a little over the top, walking to what is normally the first overnight hut on the well-known Heaphy Track, a nice 16km to our lunch stop, then turned round and headed back to Cyril parked 16km in the opposite direction. 32 kilometres is now set as our longest single day hike! Based on our exhaustion at the end of it, I think this may remain our daily record. Mum and I walked the whole track, 78km, when I was about 14. My sister was away for summer on an exchange programme and I have fond memories of crossing some of NZ’s most diverse and beautiful terrain in four or five days with mum. The swing bridges and the gorgeous coast peppered with Nikau palms – the world’s most southern growing palm – were even better than my memory.
Our next calendar date is meeting up with family in Wanaka for the Waitangi Day weekend in February. Google Maps tells me it’s a seven hour drive, but we’ll spread that out with with some side trips over the next four or so weeks. A couple of days back we were guessing what date it was – Helen guesses three days one side, and me two days the other side of the actual date, so I think it’s fair to say we’ve eased into the pace of this lifestyle.
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