The Joys of Travelling Around New Zealand

In the sixteen months since the seismic activity began in Christchurch, I’ve found myself on the road more and more. This is largely due to a loss of work in Christchurch as businesses I used to assess have closed down, or in some cases have been demolished.

Most of the time I love to travel but while there are many positives to my lifestyle, there are also drawbacks. Here are snippets of the best and worst of my travel experiences over the last year:

• I popped into the Salvation Army Bookshop in Queenstown and on hearing my accent, the sales assistant asked where I was from. When I replied Christchurch, she put my purchase down, leaned over the counter and asked how I was doing. She said that she had been deeply touched by the earthquakes as had many people in Queenstown and that they really did care. Her concern still warms my heart today.

• As I boarded a small aircraft bound for Palmerston North, the odour of garlic overwhelmed me. It was potently offensive and I imagined someone oozing garlic from their pores. My seat was at the back of the plane and the stink increased with every step I took. You’ve guessed it. I ended up next to the culprit!

• On a trip to Bluff, a rustic village at the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island, the staff member I was sent to assess gave me exceptional service and made the trip feel worthwhile.

• In the tiny town of Taihape in the North Island I found the perfect outfit for the launch of Magnitude 7.1 & 6.3 in October 2011.

• Wellington has a reputation for windy weather. I’ve had a number of rough landings into the city but one in particular stands out. The pilot warned us it was going to be uncomfortable with gales gusting at 120kmh and the sea a froth of white below us. We were travelling in a Boeing 737 and it bounced, rocked and plunged while people screamed and hung onto their seats. A young boy across the aisle from me threw up and it was the longest 15 minutes of my life. When we finally landed, the passengers broke into spontaneous applause.

• In Tauranga, I had the opportunity to spend the night with good friends from South Africa. I hadn’t seen them for about five years and we had a wonderful time catching up on where life had taken us and what God is doing in and through us.

I’m doing an average of one trip per week at the moment and love the variety it brings to my life. The actual amount of work I do when travelling is often small compared to the travel time. This means that most of the day I can be a tourist. I stop often, photograph the scenery, paddle in the sea, enjoy the beauty around me and if I’m on a plane, bus, train or ferry, I write.

My friends have mixed feelings about my lifestyle. Some envy me while others say they would hate the spontaneity and being given a day’s notice to jet off somewhere. I’m just thankful that with thousands of people struggling to find employment in Christchurch, I have more than enough work and the flexibility to work when and where I want to. As David wrote in Psalm 16:6 - The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.