November 24th 2019

Today was my fourth and final farewell to my friend Jim. He flies to New Zealand tomorrow for between 3 and 12 months and, like I said on Thursday, he’s milking his goodbye tour and having as many ‘leaving dos’ as possible. Today we just went for a walk around a lake, and got caked in mud because we both wore the wrong shoes.

He’s leaving tomorrow and still does not have much planned for his trip, and I respect that so much. It’s that kind of roaming, bohemian lifestyle that he’s striving, and so he’s got a flight booked and a bus pass for when he’s out there, but everything else will come with time. He has booked his first night’s accomodation, just to have somewhere guaranteed to sleep, but every night after that is at this point a lottery.

I’m joining him at the end of January, and that’s what I’m hoping our experience will be like too. With no plan, or schedule, or itinerary, we can roam at our pace, and see the islands as we please.

Of course, there are certain touch points that we’d have to hit: Hobbiton, Lake Taupo, Napier Bay, and whatever else is suggested to me before then, but by-and-large we’ll just go with the flow and see what happens. I’m even going so far as planning to only take a backpack with me, because I don’t like the idea of lugging a suitcase around the island for three weeks.

I feel like it’s going to be a very hippy trip, and I’ll end up walking around in flip flops and board shorts and will probably, most likely, come home with a tattoo.

It’ll be a long way from the Cerney lakes we went to today, but perhaps maybe not all that different.

Until tomorrow, hopefully the weather will be better.

Jacn