Today's postcard is a clunky mix of veni, vidi, vici. Enjoy!
Why do I write these? Mainly it is just a way to stay in touch with my smallish family. Obviously it's something to do when bored, a way to pass the time on a bus or flight. Largely there is a compulsion to Formaldehyde moments in words or photos I think many people share. It is not really about preserving the moment since many journals and photo albums are stored away. It's an attempt to make trading cards of our lives, easy stored and referenced, and thereby give ourselves permission to move on. We can tell ourselves we managed to net the mist or catalogue the light and now can move on to something else. We a species that conquers and we are still trying to defeat the idea of finite time.
We all feel this way when hour 33 of no sleep and only airplane food rolls round, right?
Rainy night in Wellington.
You take the pictures or compose prose because you want to be able to tell yourself that yes, someday you will be able to look back on this moment so that you are free to experience it for what it is and then let the moment go. How's that working for everyone?
New Zealand was weather. Rain, wind, drizzle, cold, downpours, snow, and a lot of penetrating mist. One of my first purchases in New Zealand was a red MacPac water-resistant, fleece-lined jacket that was just large enough to go over a couple of shirts and a sweatshirt. Rachel and I combined our awesome forces in Auckland and had two goals in New Zealand: 1) See as much of Middle Earth as we could and 2) get Rachel tattooed. Both of these things were impeded by New Zealand's crazy ideas about proper closing times (since when does "open late" for a tattoo parlor mean pre-7???), inclement weather, and the impossibly high price of everything.
I flew into Auckland solo and, boom, LotR stuff at the airport. Now, I am not a huge Ringer, but I read the books and enjoyed the movies. Rachel is a bit more hardcore. She can do that thing where you ask a question based in some words you heard in an attempt to stump the other person and she's all, "which of the Valor are you referring to," and then prattles off stuff I've never retained. New Zealand inspires slack-jawed feelings of incredulous awe. No. No way. They aren't really charging $4.99 for a bottle of Coke. Nah. Toast and jam is $9??? No way! Traveling with someone with a firm discussion before seems to lead to a lot more money being spent. Instead of just walking around and packing lettuce sandwiches like I usually do, meals were consumed at restaurants. Instead of just walking aimlessly, we jumped on a dolphin safari boat. Good times but deal lord. It would be super easy to bleed two hundred bucks a day without too much effort.
There are two things I think we did "right" on the trip. We opted not to rent a car or buy one of the fancy backpacker bus passes and just got a 15-hour InterCity bus pass. Brilliant! Good for 15 hours of travel hours based on what InterCity guess the route will take, Rachel and I traveled from Auckland to Otoroganga to Rotorura to Wellington with 2.5 hours of travel time remaining for $115 NZD! Just the first two cities would have been close to that $100 NZD mark.
The other thing I think we did well was our route. Here's where that compulsion to quickly list where we went and what we did is tearing it's ugly head. If I don't make the effort to make everything accessible in the future, did I waste my time and money?
There isn't a LOT in Otoroganga aside from the caves, but our AirBnB was five minutes away from Kiwi House (a medium sized bird park where we saw three, THREE, kiwis). Just walking the town was pleasant. The whole community is Pokemon Go obsessed with town-wide events planned and two free wifi networks. Rotorura had a lot of cool geothermal activities (do you like the smell of sulphur EVERYWHERE?) and things to stare at. Also, Rotorura is where we did a day trip to Hobbiton.
Wellington and Auckland are failing interchangeable in my mind with Wellington almost being preferred because of the Green Belt of parks enclosing around the city with good walking trails. But. Wellington was really... Hipster. Organic. Crunchy. It felt like the kind of city with people who insist their cats enjoy a vegan lifestyle. Lots of yoga pants, free trade coffee, and people not wearing shoes. Like. It's winter. Why are you barefoot? Wellington reminded me a lot of Melbourne, but in Melbourne I went skydiving and saw a football match. In Wellington, we finally got Rachel's tattoo and I walked up Mt. Victoria. Not quite as epic but fun.
So, the question I kept asking myself was would I ever want to come back? I missed a lot of stuff I wanted to do on North Island and we didn't even touch South. That said, the prices for staples were painful and then all the interesting, touristy things like the Waitomo caves or Hobbiton were over $100 for the basic, large group tour (and you CAN'T go without a tour guide). It might be fun to just get a bike and ride long distance, and I'm glad I went, but I think I am okay with not making the journey again.
I guess the other question is, looking at my pictures and reading this single post encompassing two weeks of my life, did I do enough so I can pick up the memory of New Zealand again?
These postcards are a lot like trading cards. Some of them are worth a lot more than others.
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