The journey to and through Aotearoa - Premature evacuation

July 2nd Sunday morning. I have now been away from home for 2 weeks and 2 days. If this trip was planned, ain't no way I would have planned it as well as it panned out. All i knew for certain was entry date, exit date and that i wanted to catch the second test. Armed with just that information, my bags, passport, bank cards, cellphone and laptop i was just too eager to accept whatever the days ahead had in store.

The journey started in Auckland, littered with a whole lot of fortuitous yet random encounters that would direct my journey. Drove through a lot of the North Island and seen some spectacular places, Tauranga, Mt. Maunganui, Rotorua, Lake Taupo, Hamilton, Raglan, Wellington. Flown down south and had a similar experience. Dunedin, Wanaka, Queenstown, Arrowtown, Mt Cook, Lake Pukaki, Lake Tekepo, Christchurch. I’d met some people I hadn’t seen in a while and some that I have seen more recently. I was propositioned in a bar. I met a few people I hadn’t met before. I got to hang out with some good humans I had met before, but hadn’t seen in a while. I got to experience the warmth of New Zealanders particularly the ‘usos’. With a smile on my face and glee in my heart I type this note. 

This random trip to New Zealand, that started off with may mate Tim Pongweni suggesting we should go and watch the Lions in New Zealand, and later dumping me for #cricket at #Lords with his wife, was truly epic!

I missioned through New Zealand with the intention of having this week free to do 2 days each in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, but alas the Ausies didn't want me. A month and a day after my application I was still to hear from them. When i enquired I got nothing other than our process takes a month... I looked at plan B...Fiji, it was not going to work cos once again the unscripted nature of my journey didn't lend itself to being cost effective. And to be honest, it was Australia I truly wanted to visit.

I am only supposed to leave on Sunday the 9th July, but I made a call that I would change my ticket and leave Wellington on Monday and head back to SA on Tuesday, my time was up. 


New Zealand is not a cheap place, but then again not too many places are if you are travelling with ZAR, but it won’t kill you. The most direct flight i could find was CPT-JHB-SYD-AKL which was roughly 24hrs, a fair way to fly, but in my mind well worth the time. 

One thing that struck me about New Zealand is that in as much as they may have their problems which they do, they have a different kind of 'problems' like when i first got here the main news was about some government dude who got fired because he recorded his boss tuning him off or something. Wow! Another thing that struck me was that there are no fences here, nor burglar bars.

One thing though is I thought they were also racially divided because i heard comments like 'down south those people aren't my people' or comments profiling Maori people in a certain light which wasn't always positive. I found the north island was a whole lot more mixed than the south island was. The biggest revelation for me though, like the MOST MASSIVE revelation...why so many South Africans come down here...there ain't many black folk in these here parts. Haaaa, yoh so few, but when we met each other more often than not the nod was exchanged.

New Zealanders are quite a warm bunch particularly up north. It is such an easy place to travel. People keep asking what was your highlight and to be honest the fact that it was a totally new experience, it was all a highlight. I quite enjoyed engaging with people new and old. Places like Tauranga, Lake Taupo and Wanaka were just peaceful places to recharge. Just seeing how when you let go and don't take yourself or situations too seriously they tend to find a way of working themselves out as they should. Driving around was great, the roads were empty so i had a lot of time with my thoughts and they ranged from where to from here in terms of my career Lots of thoughts around a significant other and children seeing as my next big birthday is my 50th...And how truly fortunate I am in my life to be able to just do this kind of stuff, because I don't take it for granted in the slightest that this, even being able to write this is an absolute privilege.

So New Zealand, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be still, even though it felt like I was taking part in my own version of the amazing race sometimes.

When I landed in Joburg, I decided not to carry on to Cape Town and spend 2 nights with the folks and siblings, good thing I did too cos my pops also made an impromptu decision to go to Ghana for 2 weeks so helped him out with some admin and my bro is now moving to Canada for a year or so and he was here on his way out so we gots to hang out and shoot the breeze.

So ends the UnscrYPted solo journey, thank you all for allowing me to share it with you. I am so looking forward to the next one because this shit right here, this shit is what makes me smile...

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