Comfort

For two consecutive weeks, my last week in Australia and my first week in New Zealand, it did’t matter where I was. What really mattered was that I could finally spend some time with people worth spending time with; my family and friends. The last time I stayed with my aunt, uncle and cousin was 13 years ago when lived in Berlin. On that occasion not only did I get to see the city in a way unlike any other tourist, but I also got an insight in to how that part of my family lived. Again, this time in Sydney, I got to see how their lives had changed over those years, and how they had settled in to life in Australia. Although during the days there I made the most of my time by exploring the city, its suburbs, Bondi and Manly, and their respective charity, pie, fish & chip shops, the highlights for me were those little bits of family life. For the first time in years I got to sit down for a breakfast in which we talked about our days ahead, read the morning papers and listened to the radio before leaving the house together. In the evenings I was treated to dinners followed by conversations that mattered and interested me. I got to break away from life as a backpacker and started to feel welcome, more real and more human again.

I feared my contentment would be over when I got to New Zealand, but if anything life just got cosier. When people hear that I went to New Zealand, I’m sure some will ask how high I skydived from and which bungie-jump I took; and I admit that before I went there I thought I would come back with answers. Instead my friends, Jason and Els, showed me that the real way to see the country didn’t cost much, or come with a souvenir certificate and DVD. All we had to do was walk up the nearest hill, or get in to the camper-van and go. It didn’t really matter where we went as we drove to Dunedin, Lake Tekapo, and Wanaka. The best times I had were sat together in the front of the van talking about anything and everything, taking a walk in the torrential rain on the coast, or just feeling of togetherness I felt in everything we did. Finding some seals, going to the cinema, and playing in the snow; all of these things were so much more fun knowing that that beside me I had friends who knew exactly how good it was to appreciate and do these things together.

And so after two separate weeks staying at homes with dogs, washing machines, internet, being met at the airport with hugs and smiles (and not a placard reading “Daneil Slatterf”), but most of all being with people I cared about; I was ready to go solo again.

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