Tuesday, October 07, 2014

TRAVEL: Epic Adventures - Te Anau and Doubtful Sound


Shores of Lake Te Anau at the start of the 67km Kepler Track on New Zealand's South Island.

I'm one of those people who used to cry as a child when holidays were over because I didn't want the fun to end.

I still don't.

And sometimes I still cry at the end of holidays.

When undertaking an epic nine week adventure, as I currently am, one has to shift one's perspective on leaving places slightly, because you are doing it (a lot).

Of course, leavings are juxtaposed with arrivings, so things even out.

But still, I found myself on the deck of a boat, cruising one of the most remote and inaccessible locations of New Zealand's South Island on the weekend - Doubtful Sound.

Accessed only by a boat ride across lake Manapouri, a bus ride along a private road (owned and maintained by Meridian Energy) through a treacherous (snow covered!!!) pass, down to the water's edge of Doubtful Sound.

Doubtful Sound was, apparently, shrouded in doubt when Captain Cook was't sure if his ship's sails would fit through the Sound.

This place is remote. And magical.

It is not often in one's life when one feels one is truly in a wild place, with a hint of OMG freedom attached to the thought of being at such a remote and southern location that the inevitable thought arises:
Is this the most remote and isolated place I will ever be in my life? Is this it in terms of experiences like this?

I am OCD that way. Way too much forward thinking.

Enter a case of the feels.

Boo hoo. I am having this amazing life experience that has a time frame attached. Call the Waaaambulance.

Ag, anyway. That's the way I roll.

It was epic. The moment(s) were epic. 

This trip is epic.

And hopefully, I will get to see some more cool and remote and wild and free shit still as long as I am riding this merry-go-round.

After all, if you're here, you already won the genetic lottery ticket.

May as well ride that horsey till it wears out (or you do).