Sacrifices for a Lifestyle of Travel

Yes, I know I travel a great deal.

This kind of wanderlust gets many reactions from people. Young and old ask, "How do you do it?" "I want to travel!"

My thoughts to those that care to hear what I have to say is; (you are reading my blog out of your own free will)......Make travel a priority in your life. If you are a young person dreaming of traveling you need to keep the dream alive.

My earliest memories of dreaming of travel started with a water paint coloring book. You know the kind that has the paint dried on the page and you just add water with your brush? Well, this coloring book was about Tahiti. I know I had this coloring book somewhere under the age of 7. I remember the palm trees the hula girls, the ocean and the hibiscus flowers. Good thing they had the paint on the page because I would not have know what colors to paint the ocean of the south pacific nor would I have know what bronzy color Tahitian skin is or what color palm trees are, because I had never seen any with my own eyes. As I put my brush to the page the world of travel came alive for me. I wanted to see Tahiti for myself!

So this was the first seed of wanderlust and I cultivated it for the next 37 years and beyond. I made choices and sacrifices along the way. I chose to go to college and I chose a degree and career that would allow the time and money for travel. I chose to not have children because I felt I could not have this level of freedom, time or finances with children in tow. But that was definitely a personal choice and I have since met people that make travel happen with their kids and enjoy it. (Many from the European continent). I feel that these parents make travel a priority in teaching their children and enriching their lives.

Travel is not for the faint of heart. You have to endure some discomfort in order to experience the magic. One magical moment that I am very found of is when we were in a South African township. Townships are famous for being very dangerous and also of being the home of Nelson Mandela. These townships are poverty stricken often without clean water, sewage systems or electricity. The homes are made of found items like plywood, tarps, and the walls are papered with magazine covers. These homes are just barely larger than a double bed and house 5 people on a dirt floor. Without going into too much African history, politics and culture, I must say this visit really opened my eyes to others and made me reflect on my own history. We were the only "Americans" on this tour of the townships and as a result of our home country we were instant celebrities. The black Africans welcomed us with open arms, with an Ow and an Ahh and they held my hand for an extra long moment. It felt to me that they hoped and wished that American prosperity would rub off on them in that instant. As some of you know, I grew up very poor and I had never seen or realized that any people in the United States lived as poor as I did. I had to go to Africa to find poverty like mine. Experiencing the poverty of others first hand changed me profoundly, somehow my poverty was okay now and something to be proud of,......... after all..... I have achieved the African Dream.

Qoute's

Travel is fatal to bigotry, predudice and narrow mindness.

Mark Twain

Free Unique Natural Attraction in all of NZ Hot Water Beach

Dig your own hole in the sand where the hot water boils up, grab a bottle of wine and do some soaking with about 300 of your favorite travelers from around the world.....group hot pool carnival beach! 

30 days of December in the North Island

We are 30 days into this adventure and I finally feel like I can take a break on this rainy New Zealand day. In six days we take the ferry to the south island. We will load up our little campervan on to the big ferry and during the 3 1/2 hour tour we will take in the sights from our prebooked "no children" zoned area. :) First we will watch Wellington disappear and before you know it we will be moving through the Marlboro sounds. Well, that is how they describe it on a clear day.

But I am getting ahead of myself. I should reflect on our last 30 days before jumping in onto the future. Most people tend to spend more time in the south island then the North Island. This is what I have to say about the North. -Subtropical - not to hot and buggy like the tropics, but warm and fun. The ocean is warm/ not hot and is refreshing on a hot and sticky day. The beaches and views on a sunny day are amazing. The low population here makes everything better, "its small town"! Friendly helpful people and very few of them at that! I love the unique rainforests with all the ferns, all the clean water everywhere. All the beaches are pure and have sea shells everywhere because they have not all been pick over buy beach combers. Everyone has a boat, more per ca pita than anywhere in the world. With that said the lakes and ocean are not crowded it is easy to find a secluded spot.

When it rains you head to the hotsprings! We have come across some very nice ones, natural and commercial. My favorite is the Lost Spring that serves cocktails pool side and does not allow children. :) ahhh relaxing... Also, we found Hot water beach to be another awesome rainy day or anyday thing to do. Yes hot water bubbles up out of the sand, great fun and crowded! It was very interesting to meet people from all around the world at this event!

We went to one of the active volcano's and watched it puff some steam, cool. I guess there are about 3 volcano's puffing in the country right now. We also went to Rotorua and got a look at what Yellowstone could have been if it was allowed to be privately owned. $50 bucks to see a mud pool??? WTF. Poor souls. There are only 4 places in the world to see thermal activity like our beloved Yellowstone. 1.Yellowstone, 2. NZ, 3. Iceland, 4. Ethiopia. I feel so lucky to have spent so much time in Yellowstone, that I passed on the Kiwi experience.

 I love the agriculture, all the avocados, apples, oranges, lemons, lemoncello, lemon cake, apricots, plums, olive groves, kiwi fruit, peaches, grapefruit must I go on and on! Holly Holstein!! Do we have some dairy cows! I have never seen so many milk cows and it looks like they beat out Wisconsin on the shear volume of cows munching grass! Needless to say there are some amazing cheeses over here! The creamy blue especially! So why then is a gallon (3.78liters) $7.00!!! The locals say all the cows are producing powdered milk for china. Oh and that brings me to fuel, gasoline is $7.00 a gallon too! Thank god our little campervan gets 22 miles to the gallon.:) With all NZ oddities I still feel pretty lucky in this life to see these things and learn these lessons.

The Documentation

Here we go! I have decided to do a blog about my wanderlust...... I have been asked by friends to do this blog and I have thought long and hard about putting such personal thoughts and experiences out there on the public forum. I have pondered the blogs that have turned into books, movies and those that are just family followers. It is still a bit odd for me to decide how I am going to treat this blog, is it a personal journal shared with friends that have the address? Is it self promoting? Is it vain? Is it the beginning of my book? Is it in hopes of fame and fortune?  As you can see I am very undecided on the path this will take.... but isn't that the reason for the journey?