Day Dream

The days here have been filled with hard work and daydreams. I’ve worked a bit in the vineyard, and a bit in a wine bar. Plucking leaves and cleaning barns. I’ve washed dishes and helped cater a wedding. I’ve gotten sunburned and spent afternoons at the beach reading or inside, drinking wine and playing cards.

As I learned to expect from Spain, New Zealand has been nothing I expected. The first week was a bit rough, jet lagged and feeling out of touch and clueless, I felt very quickly disillusioned with this country. I’d found no hobbits, no elves, no movie directors.

But within a few days the new arrival blues wore off. I’d spent a day at the beach, spent a day adventuring in Auckland, gone on a hike, and made a few unlikely friendships. I’d learned a thing or two about wines, about dishwashing, about positive attitudes. I’d slept in and woken up early. Stayed up late, loafing with new friends. I’d admired rose buds and searched for new birds.

I have not done a good job at keeping up with my journal, I’d rather sit and talk with people than write on my own. One of the other WWOOFers here has just finished writing a first draft of his book, and I am jealous that he has found the focus needed for such a task—focus that I have lacked for many years. But while I’d planned on New Zealand being my reading and writing and learning moment, it has quickly changed.

Soon I will start a whirlwind of travel, hopping from one place to another, getting the chance to see this beautiful country, the places that people whisper about. Geysers, glowworms, Hobbiton. Big cities and small towns. Famous bird colonies and out of the way corners.

I am excited.

I spent an afternoon reading a Calvin and Hobbes book brought to NZ by one of my flatmates. I haven’t read as much Calvin and Hobbes as I would like, and I’m always struck by how wise it is. At the end of this particular volume, Calvin and Hobbes are admiring the new snow of New Years day. They say to each other, “It’s a magical world…Let’s go exploring!”

And that’s just what I plan to do.