Permanence

Probably the weirdest bit about solo traveling, for me at least, is the impermanence of the people I meet.

I'd like to think that throughout my life I've done a fairly good job of cultivating a strong group of constant and wonderful friends, to the point where regardless of where I am or what I'm doing, I'm typically with someone close to me. It's not that I don't like new people, it's just I love the old ones, and I'm perfectly happy with that.

So it's weird for me that every time I move around on the road, I'm very much alone at least for the start. In Auckland, I spent a few days hardly talking to another soul until I met Tim and Blake and became friends. Four days later, I was back on my own in River Valley, until I got to know the crew there and considered them my good friends as well.

Three weeks there, and then off to Wellington, on a bus full of people I met the night before. Admittedly that made for a much nicer transition to a new city, but then the entire bus caught the ferry out of town at 7am the next day, leaving me again, alone, in a new place. Fortunately, a few friends I'd met at River Valley were traveling through Wellington this weekend as well, and I was able to briefly see some familiar, if recent, faces.

After that, though, it starts all over again. An entire city of people, Wellington, and not a single one knows my name or knows anything about me. I think I've gotten pretty good at introducing myself to new folks, running down the basics of what makes me tick, and quickly figuring out who I get along with and who I don't. Maybe if I get bored of it I'll make up stories about myself, just to break up the monotony of introducing the same me over and over.

Haven't started that yet though, and I still managed to have a great time in Wellington. I spent Friday exploring Te Papa with my friend Jen. Te Papa is the largest museum in New Zealand, and quite possibly the nicest museum I've ever found myself in. Calling the building massive doesn't even do it justice, I could easily have spent several days tracing my way through the exhibits. The Maori artwork they have on display is breathtaking. As is typical with New Zealand at this point, it started dumping down rain, and I managed to get properly soaked on the way home.

Te Papa

Saturday I slept in and then met up with two more friends from River Valley, Sam and Hana, for some coffee and a nice talk about life in New Zealand. After they left, it was time for my proper introduction to Wellington: Oktoberfest. This weekend was Wellington's first time doing the event, and I'd like to think it went quite well for me. Did put a bit of a dent in my travel budget though. I went to the event with one of two guys named Dave who I shared a hostel room with this week.

After another night "on the piss" as the Kiwis call it (which is just one of the many useful phrases I'll be bringing home), I was due for some quiet time. I'd just finished reading Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet, and one of my other roommates offered me her copy of The Graveyard Book, another Gaiman story. It's more of a children's book, sure, but I absolutely loved it and wound up going through it in a day and a half. There was definitely something fantastic about reading a book before bed, waking up, reading over breakfast, and spending a Monday reading in a coffee shop. Simple pleasures and all, but I've wanted to do that for a very very long time and I suppose I just needed to find the right book. Hoping to keep the momentum going, I spent the afternoon combing through three used bookstores, and tracked down a copy of Gaiman's American Gods, which I'll be working on for the rest of the week. Also, audience participation time, if you folks reading this have any suggestions for books I should/must read on my trip, let me know!

There's a giant umbrella on my favorite street there. So you know they know the weather sucks.

So that's Wellington for me, at least this time around. Very nice city, windy as hell. Yesterday the walls and the beds inside the hostel were shaking, and it wasn't an earthquake. Store windows shattered across the city, and at one point while I was book-hunting the wind even blew me a few feet out of my path. I woke up early this morning after far too few hours of sleep, and caught the ferry across the Cook Strait, to the South Island.

I'm writing this now from a bus that's taking me from Picton to Nelson, both on the north end of the South Island. From Nelson I'll be walking the Abel Tasman track over a few days starting Thursday. It's supposedly one of the most beautiful treks in New Zealand, and a sort of unofficial kickoff to the hiking part of my adventures. The scenery from the bus is already beautiful, and I'm sure I'll be amazed by what I see here.

But again, this means I've left my new friends behind in Wellington, and I'm back to the part where nobody knows me and I don't know anyone. I'll make new friends tonight, and probably leave them again tomorrow. After that, I'll likely never see them again. It's a weird feeling, not negative, but definitely not easy to get used to. Regardless, I've got plenty left do before I'm back to staying in one place for a while.

Cheers,

Jared