Waning Motivation

Cradling my second cup of coffee, and staring out the gloomy sky that has put a gray haze across the ocean and mountains, blurring their edges and fading the horizon line, I'm trying to “get my rear in gear” as my grandma would say.

I don't have any appointments or external motivators to move me, but laying around and wasting my final few day in New Zealand would be a sad ending to an exciting chapter in my travels.

The last couple weeks have found me lacking my usual go- go energy and exploratory vigor. I've seen all the places around Whangarei that I wanted to see, and I don't really have the time to hit the road again since I need to be at the Auckland airport by 3 a.m. Wednesday, which is 6 days away.

Part of my “slow-down” is due to the fact that New Zealand is familiar territory and the quest to conquer a new land has concluded. I've learned the lingo, weather patterns and roads. The adrenaline of survival and discovery isn't necessary anymore. As one guy who picked me up on my way to town yesterday put it “When you first arrive somewhere you know nothing when you need to know it all and by the time you leave you know every trick and none of it's useful anymore.”

After nearly four months I feel less like a foreigner here. So I've become slow about getting out of the house in the mornings, lingering over one, two, maybe three coffees before heading into town or finding a hike or beach to spend the day. All the wonderful possibilities have lost their initial novelty. Plus John and Robyn have provided the comforts of home and I'm no longer fending on my own resourcefulness.

It's nice that I can acclimate quickly to my surroundings, but I don't ever want to take a day for granted. So even though it's started to drizzle outside I will put on my jandles (the Kiwi word for flip-flops) and go for a walk because there are always things to see and do and I don't want to miss out on any possibilities.


After all yesterday when I'd rolled my bum out of bed I found a hike to a beach where I was swimming 20 ft from a school of dolphins who were jumping and frolicking about in the waves.

New Zealand still has a few tricks up her sleeve to discover, and there is always beauty in the familiar to rediscover.