Final reflections from an antipodean romantic hopeful
Water is the great leveller. It finds the balance, where it needs to be. Flying over Amsterdam I could see that the edge between land and water has been blurred. The distinction simply isn’t valid here. It makes a mockery of tides and of our fear of sea level rises, but I think the Dutch must be falling over themselves to avoid it. I flew over fields of colour while arriving in Holland, thinking about returning in some small way to my homeland (well - one of them, the most recent - my Irish, Scottish, English, Danish, French and German relatives arrived in New Zealand some 150-200 years ago). Here’s something I wrote a few months before departing on my travels: “Thinking about why I want to travel - it’s not about the beaches, we have them here. It’s culture. Ancient ruins, history, artefacts, art, and divinity. Why do I need that? Because in New Zealand we are still young, fresh, ignorant of our forebears, where we come from, and therefore, of what we are. I need to see, smell, t...