Tag: new zealand

where I get to walk

Posted on by Rachael

Not even one and a half kilometres from my house I can be in the subtropical rainforest (or “the bush” as we call it here, to the confusion of my American friends), but years ago I used to like to walk somewhere different every day, so we would only go here once a week, and we would pile into the car to drive further afield at least once during the week to hike – and often at weekends too. Sometimes I would even get internally grumpy if Rob chose for us to do this ^^ walk after dinner if I had already done it that week. Silly me. Then I decided to enjoy it and be grateful….and I found myself hitting that track more and more frequently….until it became a daily practice that I didn’t want to miss. Possibly my acceptance was spurred on by the fact that most of the other tracks in the Waitakere Ranges were closed six years ago to hopefully stop the spread of kauri dieback….but mostly it was attitude.

And for the first time in my life – after more than fifty years of being alive – I started to feel a connection to a place. By the time I had moved out of home to get married at twenty, home had been five different houses, each of which was being renovated while we lived in them and when they were finished, we moved. In the first decade of married life we moved ten times. So perhaps it is not surprising that I never felt rooted. Besides, for many years I had an eye on – and actively pursued – moving to a cross-cultural living situation, so my heart was not really here in kiwi suburbia. In some ways it still isn’t. But I do have a sense of belonging – even whilst simultaneously feeling like a stranger here. I’m one complex creature living a paradoxical existence. Add to that the fact that my citizenship being in heaven is truly a reality for me. Maybe that’s why I don’t feel tethered, even if I feel comfortable.

Anyway, all that to say, I have gained much from walking these same paths over and over….and when I have been prevented from walking them because my Achilles rehab required flat non-stony surfaces, I have felt the loss keenly. I am delighted to be back there now.

blogging

Posted on by Rachael

i think i will try
to write a short poem
every day
i am away
*
i think i will try
to find Spanish words
even if they
aren’t quite right
*
i might also add
pictures and statistics
and anything else
you might ask for
~~~
creo que lo intentaré
escribir un poema corto
cada día
estoy en España
*
creo que lo intentaré
para encontrar palabras en español
incluso si ellas
no están del todo bien
*
también podría agregar
los fotos y los estatisticos (yo inventé esa palabra – I invented this word)
y algo mas
podrías pedir

NOTE:
I looked “statistics” up in the dictionary…should be las estadísticas, not los estatisticos.
Ah well, good try.

i’m off for a walk…

Posted on by Rachael

I have lots of plans, but this wasn’t one of them.
I was hoping to take the youngest girls to Honduras for a few months next year.
Really hoping.
Waiting for Rob to say YES.
Tessa already had.
Ella-Rose was less certain.
Then I had my own doubts.
And even though Rob ended up saying YES, I said no.
It’s not happening. Not in 2020 anyway.

At the beginning of 2019 Rob turned 50.
He had said we weren’t spending unnecessary money this year, so that made buying a present problematic. The one I wanted to give him cost more coins than our budget allowed. Some of the kids told me to just buy it, and he would be happy. I wasn’t so sure. And as it turned out, a significant part of the deal became an impossibility at the Very Last Minute.
You see, Rob and Dave have been mates for most of their lives (you can start saying that kind of thing when you get older, even if you didn’t meet until high school!) They have had all sorts of adventures over the years, and even when Dave and his family moved countries, the friendship stayed tight.
One thing they had talked about doing together was cycling a camino.
So – with Dave’s blessing and Rob’s employer’s permission – I planned it as a birthday present. I stopped shy of buying the air ticket (just in case Rob Really Was Serious about penny pinching) and a week before The Birthday, Dave called to say he couldn’t go.
At least, not next year.
I still gave the present and one day they are going to do it. There’s no expiry date on my wishes, although the longer they leave it, the more their bodies might suffer!

Then at the end of the year it was my 50th.
I got three airline tickets.
Well, fake ones.
And I had to choose which one to redeem.
One was for a weekend with Rob in Queenstown.
One was to take the girls to Honduras.
One was for a solo walk in Spain.

There only felt like there were two “right” answers!
How could you have a heart and not choose to share an adventure with another person?
(Unless you’re an introvert) <wink>
And my adventuring soul argued that a weekend versus a longer experience was a serious complication. Besides, my pragmatic mind suggested I could probably wrangle a weekend trip away out of the Haircuts Budget. Both/and.
As far as Honduras goes, I had claimed my question to the girls about whether they would like to go, was a genuine choice. So the persistent insistent objections needed due consideration. The Smallest Person now knows she has a voice.

Which left an unexpected gift figuratively laying on the table.
That’s when my previous dreamings about walks and routes and timings and possibilities became useful. Some might think it’s pointless to think about things which there is no certainty of achieving, but as a Certified Schemer, I know differently;-) That’s how I was quickly able to find the cheapest flights and fit a walk into the timeframe proffered.

So I’m off for a long walk.