New Zealand

Lessons in Trekking

| sayloraway

“Listen Spider Legs, I know you want to take giant steps because you can, but you’re using much more energy than you need to and it’s going to wear you out.”

Adventure guide and master trekker C. demonstrated by three-stepping to the top of a tall rock that I would have overtaken in one stride.

“Sometimes you have to take a step back or sideways to find the best route forward.”

“Okay, got it.” I said as a silly ‘I’ve-got-a-crush-on-you-grin’ spread across my rain-spattered face.

It was the last trek on a two-week adventure trip across the South Island of New Zealand with a group of 10 accompanied by two guides.
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Follow Your Heart: Sigue a tu corazón

| sayloraway

Email excerpt from October 15, 2014 (two weeks before I left NYC to embark on an open-ended travel adventure.)

Mrs. O: “Follow your heart.”

Me: “My heart says ‘Go to Spain and communicate with the outer world only by posting photos on Instagram.’”

Mrs. O was being serious and I was being flippant… mostly. My heart was telling me to go to Spain. Or rather it was telling me to get the heck out of New York City, my home for the previous 15 years, and explore the world without commitments of any kind. Continue reading →

Tiny Blue Mushroom

| sayloraway

On the Road Journal Excerpt
Date: March 23, 2015
Location: South Island, New ZealandTiny Blue Mushroom WM2

Every day of this New Zealand trip has been unique and inspiring in some way—whether it was stunning scenery and the moments in which these sights clear all the clutter from the mind or the small intimate exchanges in conversations with new friends (near strangers) that turn new corners in your head and tell you something new about yourself and your path. It’s like eyeing a tiny vibrant blue mushroom in the moss on a log—whether you discover it or someone helps you see it. Or, it’s like knowing the name or a fern or a tree for the first time. The otherwise beautiful, but unknown and new landscape becomes nameable and suddenly more intriguing for receiving that small bit of knowledge.