A Calendar Year Away

The end of 2015 marked my first calendar year not having set foot on English soil.

Now back in Wellington I spent my time with Liz, Luca and Adam, all of whom I previously met either in Wanaka or working at Mt Ruapehu. Something I haven’t really experienced within my sixteen months of travel is the feeling of returning to a place and people I already knew, it felt apt that this should now occur for Christmas. On top of that, the whole of the festive week offered blue skies and gentle breezes as though the weather had been saving the best for the holidays.

On Christmas Day Luca, Liz and I spent the afternoon basking in wonderful summer weather at one of Wellington’s many beaches. The drive there took us along a scenic coastal road, all of us feeling truly blessed as we enjoyed one of those perfect moments, music playing, warm wind whisking through the car as the sun burst intently through the windows. The view to our right, turquoise waves dancing between the bays.

The evening was spent at Adam’s house, being treated to a carefully thought out vegan BBQ dinner (with some meat thrown in for the carnivores). It was a wonderful, effortless day.

Boxing Day continued our perfect run, starting with an afternoon showing of the new Star Wars movie. Then, collecting some final supplies from the grocery store we drove along the coast until we found a suitably isolated location, where we set about building a campfire. We ate our fire cooked dinner that night under the light of the full moon, the water lapping gently at the shore projecting the image of a large lake, rather than that of the sea.

The following day became the first of a two day adventure as Liz, Luca and I made our way to Cape Palliser, the southernmost point of the North Island. Luca’s short attention span meant he continually overlooked road signs for our destination, placing responsibility for navigation firmly in my hands as front seat passenger. Nearing the coast, our vistas changed from wine country to a sea of varied blues, with cliffs a mixture of sand and grey becoming visible along the coastal road.

We eventually arrived and were fully unprepared for the circumstances which now surrounded us. The final and only hamlet within 40 slow, winding kilometres, was characterised by wooden houses, tractors whose sole occupation was to manoeuvre fishing boats to and from the water and a couple of food stands. There was no shop, no cash machine and nowhere to attain drinking water, which we had nearly brought, but continually put to the back of our minds until it was too late…

Before setting our minds to this problem drive a little further to the lighthouse, an ascent of 253 stairs rewarding a silhouette of the South Island in one direction, Wellington in another. The area is populated by a number of seals, many of which we viewed bathing in rocks along the black sand beach or bobbing in the waves. What we did not expect to see was the rare elephant seal brought to our attention by another tourist as we made our way back along the dusty road. There was no need to ask the reasoning behind its name, it being probably 10 times the size of the others.

Beginning our search for water, we were lucky to happen upon a small bed and breakfast five minutes inland kind enough to fill our bottle. With this one worry solved we found a spot along a grassy bank running parallel to the beach below. Dinner that night would have been amazing no matter what we ate as the three of us sat on a blanket, admiring birds dancing throughout the golden sky as waves crashed below.

Liz and I ended the day side by side in her tent and not having bothered with the waterproof layer, closed our eyes to the sky that seemed to never fully darken.

New Year was as low key as Christmas. With Liz working both the eve and following morning she had little time for wild celebrations. We made our way to Wellington waterfront in time to hear the last of the entertainment, to partake in the countdown and to admire the fireworks. Both of us noted how different the atmosphere was in relation to either of our home country capitals (London and New York). The crowd here was relaxed, spacious and orderly, few seemed to be inebriated and the whole area was mostly cleared by 12:15. We were not far behind the flow, returning to the hostel to spend the first hour of this new year relaxing in the tv room with wine and a take away curry.

So here we are, 2016. Another year of adventures, countries, cultures and surprises awaits.