North to South

The weekend following my final day of work on Destination was spent packing up my one-metre-squared living area that hosted me for a pivotal five month journey. The life of a seaman does not lend itself to the comforts that we naturally gravitate to as humans, once again I find myself packing up my life to move on to the next venture. That being said, I find the sacrfice a small price to pay for the abundant reward of experiencing life’s natural beauty, not all who wander are lost. Destination has given me a little care package of skills, experience and know-how that is uniquely imparted by each boat when one spends enough time on them. Once my bags were packed I had a last dinner with Mike and his family up at their lovely home in Gulf Harbour, an impressive property that teeters on the edge of the picturesque North Island waterline, and made my way to the airport at the crack of dawn on Sunday 7th April.

The clouds on my flight from Aukland to Dunedin opened up while we careened over the recently affected Christchurch, a deceivingly peaceful sight from thirty thousand feet. The sun dissipated any sign of cloud cover while we ventured further South to my buddy Ish’s home city, revealing the most spectacular views in my starboard window seat. The famous alps of New Zealand’s picturesque South Island have a distinct look that conjures a perception of a topographical organ; an observation only acccessible from the sky, these golden brown summits plunge into vascular paths feeding the farmlands below them, I could be looking at a veiny hand, the roots of one of our pine trees or a leaf through the sunshine, one would be hard pressed to not reflect on the connected nature of our planet.

I landed at Dunedin airport and found Ish waiting in the short stay area, characteristically early in fulfilling his gesture. Ish and I have been scheming and planning for this trip for a number of years, but when we got close to New Zealand in Tahiti, the reality of it actually following through sunk in and I looked for a motorbike to buy online while we had WiFi in Papeete. His brother Jaryd obliged and went to view the motorbike as there was still a month of work ahead of our arrival in New Zealand. He confirmed my eye for finding an online deal was ever-accurate, paid the seller on the spot and I had wired the money to him from the middle of the Pacific Ocean. So, on my arrival to the South Island I had my Honda CB900F eagerly awaiting me, a shared sentiment from my end. Ish kindly offered up the second bedroom in his two bedroom house in Mornington, Dunedin for Sunday night. Once I dropped my bags off we rode up the highway that snaked along the resplendant coast of East Otago, drove to a piece of land that he owns near the famous Moeraki boulders, went to visit his parents’ unbelievable eco lodge perched on their estate of sixty acres and rode back to the Mornington haven, all in the same Sunday. On Monday the two wheeled adventure to the alps begins.

Fleet