And not a drop to drink

The ride up the west coast of New Zealand with my parents was definitely the best drive of my life in terms of sheer spectacular beauty.  I don’t know if anyone else has declared it so, but I’m pretty sure that New Zealand is the water capital of the world.  Here’s a video to prove my point:

that’s just some of the waterfalls we saw in 2 minutes, on a more dry than wet day, within one small mountain range.

On one day, we saw glaciers, rainforest, rivers, and the ocean.  My sense of space, of normalcy, of climate, was turned completely upside down.  How could a rainforest be nestled next to a deep blue glacier?  How could it feel like we were thousands of feet above sea level, up in the mountains near the clouds, and then turn a corner and see the ocean 20 metres away?  I do believe I left my heart there, lodged somewhere between the Franz Joseph glacier and Hokitika.  Given the redness of the water we kayaked in near Okarito, I think I’m not the first, as it was a rich and bloody hue the likes of which I have only seen previously attempted in Glacéau bottles.  New Zealand water ranges from diamond pure to pigeon grey to azure to garnet, with all the medley in between.  It was exquisite.  If I had any foresight, I would have brought tiny glass jars and captured bits of water for memory’s sake, but as I did nothing of the sort, I have only photos and words to remind me, which will have to be sufficient until I revisit the country.  I do plan on going back, and doing so soon… It was far too quick a trip for me to absorb anything fully.  Someday I will travel there for a year, exploring all that the woods have to offer, but for now, the brief trip will have to suffice.

Bruce Bay was a wonderful surprise…  While driving, we noticed a lot of rubble up ahead, but as we got closer, it sorted itself into a place where hundreds (if not thousands) of people had come and left cairns and sculptures and words for the sea to someday recapture.  The beach was a perfect fossiking location, having an extraordinary variety of sea smoothed rocks, from the purest white quartz to basalt grays with intricate lines drawn through, as well as driftwood and various shells. I scoured the ground for the right combination of rocks to describe & bind me to the land, and once I found them, stacked a cairn of my own.  I left my motto scribbled on a piece of milky white stone, written in green sharpie, permanent only in theory:  “Live Simply.  Love Generously.  Care Deeply.  Speak Kindly”.   It seemed appropriate.

The cleverness and curse of New Zealand is that it is a tourist country.  It relies wholeheartedly on tourism to exist in the level of affluence that it does.  This means that every time you would love to see what’s on the side of the road, there is a handy shoulder for you to pull off on, with a plaque telling you what you’re looking at, but it also means that everything is expensive and someone is always trying to sell you something.  It’s a hard thing to wrap your head around.

I may have to keep on traveling at some point… Rumor has it that New Zealanders vacation in Peru, as it is an even more stunning country… I shall have to go and settle that argument one day.

After coming back, I briefly introduced my parents to the Central Coast and the Rhythm Hut.   Interestingly enough, I didn’t get nearly as much slack about my commune-hippie-musician lifestyle as I thought I would (although my mother did mention “career path”, “Harvard Business School”, and “financial security” multiple times within the days we spent together), and I enjoyed getting to show them around my neck of the woods.  We even did all the touristy things in Sydney that I would never do on my own!  It was a real pleasure being able to share some time with them (they hadn’t seen me for 17 months), and I didn’t realize how much I missed them until they were gone again.

The last thing I will post about, because it was just such an incredible experience, is a festival I attended called Confest.  Located next to a muddy river 11 hours away in the middle of nowhere, it was the most amazing 5 days I have had since I left the USA.  Confest (which is an amalgamation of “conference” and “festival”) is an alternate living gathering, where people come to talk with each other and learn from one another.  If you have something you want to share, you put it up on the workshop board, and teach whoever shows up.  If you want to learn, you keep your eyes and ears open (or read the same board), and you’re bound to find something interesting.  I learned how to make pasta from scratch, and started learning some moves with a staff for Firespinning.  There was a gypsy kitchen which we camped near: a communal place where you’d donate some food and walk in and cook whatever you could with whatever was there for as many people as you could.  there was an art tent, with a bed in the middle, and you’d sit around and someone would come over and pose, and sit for you as you drew them.  there was a massage tent with people willing to massage you for hours, and a sauna, and a mud bath, and unlimited firewater at night for spinners, and a drum circle at any hour of the day, and so much love and acceptance and joy in the air.  Clothing was completely optional, along with the rest of societal expectations.  Unlike most of my friends, I was completely sober for the whole thing, but still had the most brilliant time.  If you ever go to Australia, I’d highly recommend it, and it happens twice a year, over New Years and Easter.

I met up with a friend of mine from Oberlin a few weeks ago, and she told me that I look younger and happier than I did when I started college in 2004.  I believe her.  I feel better than I ever remember feeling in my life.  So cliché, but when you follow your dreams, and just go with what feels right, it’s amazing what paths it can open and where your life can lead.  I just feel so FREE all the time, so happy, so wonderfully me.

your moment of Zen this month comes from a group I cannot stop listening to:

Love: it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you,
It will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be.
There is a design,
An alignment to cry,
At my heart you see,
The beauty of love as it was made to be

Much love,
me

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