New Zealand: Where My Inner Spirit Soared

New Zealand: Where My Inner Spirit Soared 

Is your adventurous spirit bogged down from the stresses of daily life, or does your true personality emerge when you travel abroad?

I’m sure most would agree that it’s easier to let loose and be yourself when you’re thousands of miles from home. These theories began to prove out on my first group trip to Spain & Portugal, when something began to stir inside me. Later, I continued to test these ideas in New Zealand.

Looking back over the years and trips, I recall what I had given up to travel, or better put, for a new lease on life, that included travel and allowed me to follow my passion to write.

Australia had always been my dream destination – to visit, or even relocate. Sadly, I heard about the one year working holiday visa a little late. I was in my late 20’s and the cut off was 30, so I ended up on a different path that would take me to many places near and far.

It took a while to organize my trip, and based on the tour schedules my first experiences in the southern hemisphere would turn out to be in New Zealand. It would be my first trip over the International dateline, and to where the water drained in the other direction.

Many refer to this region as ‘down under’. I hesitate to use that expression after happening upon a unique map of the world at a gift shop. It showed the world with New Zealand and Australia upside down and on the top of the poster. Would extraterrestrials concur?

The theme song for our two week group trip, from the south to north islands of New Zealand was ‘Vertigo’ by the band known the world over as U2. It appears souvenir maps are not the only place you can develop the symptoms of vertigo in New Zealand. Un, dos, tres – enter Queenstown – the southern island hub of world famous adventure sports where you could likely develop that v-word.

Three of the many activities on offer include; Bungy jumping (leaping off tall structures with elastic cords around your ankles), Zorbing (rolling downhill inside a giant transparent plastic sphere), or plainly Skydiving (out of perfectly good airplanes) could all induce vertigo, though I’m not qualified to diagnose anyone personally.

If I were to warn visitors, I may consider a label on one or more of the following activities;

The ride up to the ‘The Remarkables’ viewing platform – a mountain range skirting the lakeside city.

Take off and landing in a four seat light aircraft on 90 mile beach in the far north of the country – known as the Bay of Islands.

Sand boarding down giant sand dunes on a boogie board could also make one a little dizzy, or from the blood pumping trek up the sandy surface – there were no chairlifts to be found.

Finally, if it exists, you could get the reverse affliction from staring up at the monumental Mitre Peak (over 5000 feet), and other natural rock formations surrounding Milford Sound.

Perhaps, these are the risks of travel freedom…

Now let’s talk about iconic birds, or in this case flightless ones. Not the tasty green centered fruit with a fuzzy skin being called a kiwi. The local living kiwi (a symbol of New Zealand) is a cute brown ball of a bird. Though it can’t fly, I wonder if its spirit feels free to soar?

New Zealand’s air is clean, it’s water fresh, and it’s sky wide – a place that lowers your inhibitions, letting you discover your inner self. Here you’ll have the freedom to try all types of unique soul searching.

I used this freedom to test my bravery, and discover my personal passions. It cleaned my slate – to inscribe who I was meant to be.

The kiwi bird may be flightless, yet I felt free to fly in New Zealand.

About the Author: Jeff Shoer – Food & Travel Experientialist. Having traveled the earth in search of spiritual and food loving destinations, he hopes to walk off the calories en-route to more great places and finds. Check out my upcoming blog’s landing page – foodintravel.com

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