... to Leave Ordinary Life Behind

There is something magical about stepping on board a plane or ship. There is the realisation that a whole wide world is out there, away from your normal life,  just waiting to be explored. 

If you can travel with that attitude you can deal with the queues, the delays,    the cramped airline seats, even (and I hope it doesn't happen) the lost luggage!

For me travel is the excitement of seeing new places, or even seeing familiar ones from a different viewpoint; hearing other languages; observing people; learning about different cultures and customs; interacting with others in ways that enrich my life.

And taking lots of photos and keeping a journal so that when I return to my ordinary life, I can see and read about my travels and relive them over and over.

It can take courage to leave the familiar behind, to cast off from your home, routines, family and friends. 

You need to travel with an open mind and generous heart; to not expect a life that mirrors your everyday existence; to leave behind the props and habits that have anchored you in your ordinary life; to be prepared to embrace the unfamiliar and learn from it. 

Then you can truly say that you 'crossed the ocean and lost sight of the shore.'

Bon voyage!

... to Think About Travel

Travel Inspires the Mind

Several years ago I compiled a book of travel quotations for Reed Publishing called 'Wish You Were Here'. It was a joyful task - reading widely to find comments that famous people had made about travelling. Some of the things they said made me laugh out loud; some made me roll my eyes in disbelief; some made me think, Oh, that's just what happened to me.'
  I've chosen a selection of my favourites to share with you. I hope you like them.

• When you go on a vacation to forget everything, you generally find when you open your bag at the hotel, you have. (Anon)
• Thanks to the big jets you can have your breakfast in London, lunch in New York, dinner in Los Angeles - and all of this while your luggage is on its way to Buenos Aires. (Derek Nimmo)
• Only fools want to travel all the time; sensible men want to arrive. (Prince Metternich)
• 'Sip and buzz on by,' as the flower said to the honeybee, which is not bad advice for the traveller either.' (Ivor Herbert)
• There's nothing wrong with guided tours if you regard them as a good way to get around and don't pay any attention to what the guide is saying. (Robert Allen)
• The summer tourist soon finds that the cheaper rooms in the beach hotel overlook the ocean - completely. (Herbert Prochnow)
• Standing among savage scenery, the hotel offers stupendous revelations. There is a French widow in every bedroom, affording delightful prospects. (Gerard Hoffnung, quoting a Tyrolean landlord)

I'll finish with some good travel advice from a camping ground proprietor in Switzerland: 
   Do not depose your litter. To abuse the showers is punishable. Between 23.00 -06.00 hours everyone should keep calme.
   I guess that means you can go hysterical the rest of the time! 

... to Trust

I seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time planning this trip to Europe, to the point that I think I have over-planned. A little voice in my head keeps thinking of situations - What if...? or What if...? so I have imagined scenarios for the good and the bad and how I would deal with them.
  Which means I have probably been worrying about things that may never happen and I have been living in the future rather than the 'now'.
  So today I decided to let all that 'What if?' thinking go and just trust that everything will work out and all the arrangements will go smoothly.
  Maybe I'll sleep better tonight!

... to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

Port Albert on the Kaipara Harbour

I often go down to Port Albert to sit and read or write. I like being beside the water and it's not far from home. And there are huge flocks of birds there - oyster catchers and pied stilts especially which I like to observe. 
   This photo looks lovely, doesn't it? But it's not always so picturesque. When the tide is out, it looks like this:

Low tide at the wharf

And that's when I step out of my comfort zone. You see, I hate heights and the long wharf stands high above the mud flats at low tide. And I have this silly irrational fear that I'm going to have an Alice in Wonderland "Shrink me" type moment & fall through the gaps between the boards! Which was not helped by an official hazard sign on the shore stating the obvious - that you could fall off the wharf and drown!
  But today there were kingfishers at the end of the jetty, landing then flying and diving for fish, going round and round from the handrails to the water and back again. And I wanted to photograph them so, clutching the rail tightly and stepping ever so slowly, I made the long walk from the shore to the end of the wharf.
   By which time the kingfishers had seen me coming and abandoned the area completely!

... to See Life Differently

"The Eyes Have It" Wall in New Plymouth

 Going somewhere new and seeing different things always excites and inspires me. We are just home from a few days away in New Plymouth and Taranaki. It's not an area of New Zealand that we know so we explored some different highways and byways, checking out the surf beaches and the gardens of national significance as well as the attractions of New Plymouth city itself.
  It's a beautiful time of year to go exploring - the fields are very green and the trees are bursting with spring blossoms - cherry trees, azaleas and rhododendrons all in bloom.
  Travelling around Taranaki though made me feel quite sad as we passed through little towns with derelict buildings and boarded-up shops and no one around. It seems that when the dairy factories (the main employers) closed, the heart was ripped out of the towns and they have not recovered.
  It certainly made me return home and see my familiar surroundings with different eyes. Our country town is still bustling, although times are tough economically. And I appreciated our home and garden more too. 
  Those few days away have made me thankful for what we have and where we live. Sometimes you need to leave somewhere to 'find' it again.

... to Walk a Different Path

I've been thinking about where I walk every day - always through the park and then up to the shops, or round the block, or down to the main road and back up the walkway, or along the ridge road, or down the new road and back up the hill. 
  I like going through the park. There are often children on the playground,  families having picnics, kids testing their skill on the skateboard ramp, or people walking dogs. Sometimes I meet others I know to exchange hellos as we step aside to let each other pass on the narrow footpath.
  I like to see the changes in the park as the months go by and watch the birds and butterflies that swoop among the bushes and trees.
  Today, I headed off in a new direction, out into the countryside. The sun was casting low shadows across the hills, the wind was cold, but I delighted in the different view as I walked a different path. 

... For a Picnic

Algies Bay

The golden weather is due to end tomorrow, according to the weather forecast. So we took the time today to pack a picnic lunch and head out to the beach while the sun still shone.
   Algies Bay was calm. We had the whole beach to ourselves, apart from the officious seagulls and the scurrying oystercatchers. The smallest sounds were so clear in the still air: the swish of the wavelets on the sand; the red-billed gulls stamping their feet in the shallows; the tuis singing high in the pohutukawa trees.

Nature's Treasure - a Clam Shell

  I picked up a treasure on my walk along the beach - a tiny white clam shell. I put it in my pocket, to add to my collection of beach finds when I got home.
  Despite the sun hot on our faces and silvering the sea, the islands looked dark and close, a sure sign of approaching rain, my father always says. And the clouds looked different too, heavier and greyer. 
  We'll see what tomorrow brings.