Being home

Returning home to a beautiful place

In my last few weeks in New Zealand, I was on the move to get from Queenstown to Auckland. My return flight to the US would fly from AUK at the very end of October. On my way to Auckland, I’d scheduled stops to see key locations along the way. I crossed the South Island to Christchurch, then took advantage of the Coastal Pacific train from Christchurch to Picton (with a multi-day stop in Kaikoura) to catch the ferry to North Island. I took five days in Wellington to acquaint myself with the capitol; then, took the Northern Explorer train to National Park to get in some days of hiking in a striking landscape, hopefully to include the Tongariro Crossing. Finally, I bounced up to the Bay of Islands for some days of relaxation. A worthy culmination of my travels, with a single con: those weeks, between an increased pressure and pace to pack it all in as time dwindled and limited connectivity, I fell behind in my posts.

Once I left New Zealand, I flew into Minnesota to visit my mom for a week, and naturally did not post from there. The jet lag and sleep disruption were long-lasting this time, and I became aware that I had some underlying exhaustion going on. Then, I returned to Boston, spent a day and then travelled the two hours to the Cape. Since then, it's taken roughly 10 days to settle in, unpack all that I'd had in storage ("where are my sheets and towels?") and pick up the broken threads of everyday existence: prescriptions, vaccinations, staple groceries, track down missing bills, etc.

As much as my travels were one of the best things I’ve ever done, and I miss being Down Under, I'm also overjoyed to be here. I'm reconnecting with friends, I don't have to pack, I'm not tracking tickets or schedules to the same extent, my sleep is greatly improving, and I'm surrounded by the comforts and conveniences of home. Things are so much easier here for me, in the systems and cultural mores I've lived with all my life. I'm looking forward to resuming old missions and creating some new ones.

But, I feel compelled to complete the travel blog mission before moving on, and I feel a bit blocked in doing so. It seems awkward to write about travels after the fact, but I feel its important to complete the account. I recall, when I worked, returning to my office after a two-week vacation and finding all of the same assignments and issues were exactly where I left them; imagine a similar situation with a return to "normal" life after five months. The abrupt change in context has been a bit overwhelming, and even discouraging. I'm no longer immersed in the constant, constant adventure of foreign travel and endless new sights and surroundings. The overwhelming familiarity of being home is confusing after an extended period of travelling, exploration and novelty. The logistics of moving around are over, and the habits I'd developed as a tourist are now in the way of getting back to the life I departed from. I'm struggling to re-establish or recreate the routines of daily life that were automatic before my trip.

Now that our phones can read our minds and offer up interesting bits in our social media feeds, my phone put before me a TED Talk by Bruce Feiler on life transitions. Oh, wise phone! I am in a transition phase! Of course!

And it is a multi-level transition. I am transitioning back to home life after a big trip, and also I'm returning to the transition I began nearly two years ago when I left my job to find a new path. And now, having had my fun trip, I feel the pressure is on to produce from the new path.

Luckily, Bruce has studied transitions and says, emphatically, that they are not a linear process. Phew! I feel relieved. He goes on to say, if I may paraphrase, that a person in transition just needs to work the process, feel the emotions, keep moving forward, actively seek out new experiences, and make sure to find company. (See Bruce's TED Talk here.)

Check, will do.

Step one is to finish the travelogue. Please stay tuned just long enough for this blog to get back to Auckland, and for me to consider the lasting impact of this voyage; then, I will let go of this chapter while holding fast to the amazing memories, and resume my work on other chapters.