Seventeen days and sixteen nights on the road. Eight of them spent sleeping in the back of our dearly dilapidated car, Craig, one of them in our wonderfully fit-for-two tent, and seven of them (a few more than expected) in indoor shelters with roofs not prefaced by sun or moon nor referred to as a fly cover. Eleven days spent in the north island, six on the south, and all spent waking up at sunrise, falling asleep shortly after dusk, and breathing air that cleans lungs rather than sullies them. This was the beginning of our stay in New Zealand as we made our way south from Auckland to Dunedin, where we will change hats from wayward nomads to temporarily settled and begin to observe living in another country for the next six months or so.
Pushing aside the slight anxiety caused by accommodation unknowns and vehicle uncertainties, the feeling of freedom that comes with a pair of car keys in your hand, all you need to survive in your trunk, and a series of roads that take you through Middle Earth makes you walk with levity and feel with might. It has been a true joy to wake up and discover the next set of explorations as they unfold throughout the day. The only complaint is wishing there was more time to do them all.
There is more to say and much more to be taken away from our time than anything that can be conjured up in a sweeping generality said in passing here. And so more will be said, in detail and in time. But for now it is merely a moment of cheer. Cheers to the close of one and the opening of another, and cheers to New Zealand's preface. It has done its job and we are intrigued. Now we wait for the following chapters to begin.