Last stop NZ

We spent our last few days chilling in Raglan, a small surf town on the west coast of the North Island. It was nice not to drive anywhere for a while. The surf was too chaotic so we hiked, ran, explored town, did yoga, played backgammon, ping pong, charades … and … I must confess that we deeply enjoyed loads of space and great views … in a spontaneous Airbnb rental :) It felt so indulgent to spread out … and lounge … and have bedrooms … and do laundry at any time of day.

We hiked to a stunning waterfall. No words, photo does the work on this one:

The waterfall going into Justin’s head in this photo cracks me up. He is ten years sober. Ten. Incredible. Wickedly proud of him.

So much good light in Raglan. I mean bonkers bananas good light. Although I did go on a trail run that had painfully flat light … and I was longing for any kind of light!! But most of the time we had moments like these ones:

And of course … brought to you by the color green.

And many shades of grey too, and some grey-green combos:

We have eight sleeps left before we’re back in North America. It’s a bit startling. I started the countdown to acknowledge the reality of the so-soon transition and re-entry. Oh, and my Aussie surf hat is such a fantastic rain hat!!

The light on our last morning in New Zealand was lovely. I was up at 3:45am for a board meeting!!! Better than the 1am to 3am meeting in Australia, ha ha. It’s the one professional activity that has lingered through travel and I love it. Great people, interesting business. Small semiconductor test company in San Diego.

I am realizing I haven’t said a peep about the Māori, the indigenous New Zealanders. Their presence is so much more visible than most indigenous people in developed countries. They are everywhere. Their art is everywhere. Their distinct tattoos are everywhere too. There is a lot of pride in this country for their indigenous roots. There’s a lot of integration and mixed race families. It’s beautiful and it is complicated too. They have a lot to reckon with, for the evils inflicted on their indigenous, but they are doing the reckoning. Like so, so, so many places we’ve been, New Zealand was once a colony too.

NZ Fun Fact - The country has no native land mammals!!!! OG protein? Birds, fish and sea mammals.

Bye bye New Zealand!! Onwards.