Adventures in Middle Earth

Some pics from Amy’s recent visit.

After 70km of dirt roads: I’m over it. The next place I find to camp I’m just going to fling up my tent and settle in for the night. This one’s a DOC site (Department of Conservation) and it’s free. Facilities are, shall we say, “limited” and consist of a longdrop toilet and a rainwater tap.

When I go to Murapura (edge of nowhere) to head out here (middle of nowhere) I stocked up on things I suspected might not be forthcoming for the rest of the trip – food, drinking water, petrol. Cash? I considered it but then thought: where will you find to spend it? So in the end I didn’t bother.

I know I said I was going to give the blog a rest for a while but I can’t resist a good roadtrip yarn. I head out from Rotorua, thinking I’ll go through Whakatane then take the road inland to Gisborne. Somehow I’ve got myself on the wrong road (SH 38 is not the same as SH30 apparently) and by the time I realise there doesn’t seem much point in going all the way back. The next sign informs me that there are 95km of unsealed roads ahead. Great. Glad I checked Zasha’s tyre pressure before I left Cambridge.

It actually turns out to be a lot longer than 95km. But Te Urewera National Park is beautiful so I just sit back and enjoy the long, slow drive. A section of the road is littered with car fenders and hubcaps (Zasha and I don’t worry about lost hubcaps – we never had any to begin with).  

All the cars look like Zasha, or else they’re pickup trucks. One truckbed is full of Maori kids (and I do mean FULL, I think there’s about 20 of them in there.) Another pickup has a horse attached, trotting along behind it. The horse looks a bit surprised.   

This really is the middle of nowhere. I’m driving down this dirt road because it is the only road. It’s a little scary. I realise there’s no one in the world who knows where I am right now. Nothing like a bit of adrenaline to keep your reactions sharp.

Ryan and Mat, doing what Ryan and Mat do best which is playing paper rock scissors.

And so concludes my first year of Adventures in Middle Earth. It feels like an achievement to have managed to keep this blog going so long, especially as I often didn’t have internet access and even more especially as I was often too busy adventuring to write about it. So there are a lot of things that didn’t make it on to the blog but I have my memories.

Sometimes I wish I could have done more things in my year but I don’t really see how it would have been humanly possible!

However, I won’t be trying to document everything from now on. It’s taking up too much of my time that I want to spend on other things, like staying in touch better with people back home. This has been a big challenge and one I freely admit I have not always been equal to. Some friendships have endured, even flourished. Some have fallen away. So be it. Some I know we’ll pick up where we left off when I visit the UK in June next year. Some I won’t waste the energy. New links have been forged. I have a new life here now.

So to all of you who sent emails, stories, pictures and tales of life ‘back home’ or even just read this blog: THANK YOU.  I appreciate your efforts, even when I was rubbish at staying in touch. I am sorry and I will make more of an effort to be better at this in future.

Snorkelling with the fishies at the Great Barrier Reef.

  My orchard pouch, complete with super-sharp secateurs, Chlorox spray for tools, Greenseal and copper for pruning cuts.