Travel series

The Road Trip I Will Never Forget.

960 miles, a few hundred dollars, and the most deeply profound experience in my life.

Here is my response to the prompt by Sharing Randomly about a travel memory I can never forget.

I spent a total of one year living in New Zealand. I have many treasured memories of adventures from that beautiful place. Still, one week stands out more clearly and distinctly than the entire stay combined.

The end of my journey was looming. At this point, I had already left my job and was about to reach the end of my visa. I was due to fly home in one week. My friends had either left already or were still busy working, and I spent my days wasting time. Just waiting for my experience to be over.

I already missed the job, my friends, and the camaraderie. The beautiful scenery of the restaurant, even the customers.

Sat on my hostel bed, I pulled out an old list. It was my bullet list of places I wanted to see before leaving the country. About a quarter of the sites, I’d managed to cross off already. The rest of the spots on the list, 10 places from mainly the North Island, still lay undiscovered by me.

Maybe I spent too long here. If you have visited Queenstown before, you probably get it. It’s a beautiful place with a great vibe. It’s very easy to get absorbed into the bubble.

I had one major obstacle to taking another trip. I’d be drastically short on cash after buying my plane ticket. I’d have maybe a few hundred dollars left.

Hardly enough to finance a last-minute escapade. Or so I thought.

Solutions were waiting to be discovered. New Zealand (and Australia) has this cool thing with car rentals. I forgot the company’s name, but you can essentially rent a car for free. The only catch is that you basically freight the car for them where they want it to go. There is a limited time span; you pay the fuel cost and your toast if anything happens to the vehicle.

I spotted an arrangement starting from where I sat in the south of the South Island in Queenstown that ended in 1 week in Auckland, the northernmost spot of the north island. It would be an intense drive covering hundreds of Kilometers and boarding the ferry to cross to the North Island. (Which was included in the deal)

The places on my list were tantalizingly plotted along the path.

Road trip it is. I purchased my flight to leave in Auckland and rented the car. I made the decision probably quicker than I should have done. I figuratively burned my fleet and removed any possibility of retreat.

I set out knowing I didn’t have enough cash. It was pretty stupid, but I felt compelled to do it. The thought of sitting in a hostel by myself while the undiscovered beauty and unseen places in this country eluded me was beyond comprehension.

I’d rather be hungry than bored.

The first day or two were incredibly liberating. Leaving the stifled hostel, I was on the road again. Music blaring on the stereo, tearing down the highway and soaking in the scenery. I drove for hours at a time but often stopped to take photos and enjoy the locations.

The days had a solid routine. I would wake up and explore the local scenery, hike, walk or visit a landmark. I saw all the places I had dreamed of visiting. Even managed to finish a 7-hour hike across Tongariro, where Mount Doom was located. (Or at least where they filmed it)

Once the daily adventure was over, I would drive for several hours, usually late at night, and use an app to find a place I would sleep.

In New Zealand, there are designated free camping spots where you can park and sleep without any threat of being fined.

As the days passed, my funds dwindled. My main priority became fuel. If I ran out of petrol, I would be stranded and in a whole heap of trouble. I started to eat less and less regularly. There were days where I ate nothing at all. My phone data was rationed very carefully. If I ran out, I’d lose contact with the outside world, so my phone data was off most of the time. Thankfully I had a couple of albums on my phone.

A few days in, and life started to feel extremely simple. There were immediate practical problems, and they absorbed my focus. I had to stop and consider my next move frequently. Unexpected issues the associated short-lived panic became a familiar sensation.

There were Times my damaged phone wouldn’t charge, times I was sure I had gotten lost and wouldn’t be able to figure out the path, Times a bump in the road made me certain the car had been damaged, or times I couldn’t find a place to sleep, or maybe there was a place that was hours away, but I was already exhausted.

One time I drove off with the hostel key of a super kind old couple by mistake, then spent the following day figuring out how to use the local courier service to get it back to them.

With the limited time and petrol going back was impossible.

Fuel was a constant worry. I would do the math every day, calculating how much had been used to travel the distance so far. I always wondered if I would really make it to Auckland. What detours could I still afford to make?

The daily adventure was the daily escape. The fantastic beauty of the locations and the self-awareness that I was in this place right now at this moment overwhelmed the sense of anxiety that would come later. Sometimes hours spent driving were the escape, it would totally absorb my mind. For example, the South island coast is one of the most beautiful drives I have ever enjoyed. Miles and miles of beautiful cliff formations and clear blue sea. A blissful image.

About 5 days in, I realized that I hadn’t heard my own voice for several days. I was truly alone for the first time in my life, Hundreds of miles away from anyone I had ever known.

The lack of social interaction started to make me deeply thoughtful. It was like years’ worth of thoughts had finally caught up with me. I held myself at court, reevaluated many things, and ultimately found the most profound knowledge of my own identity that I had ever known. The noise of everyday life no longer blocked me from analyzing my thoughts deeply.

In some ways, it felt like I had just met myself.

It was a deeply profound experience. I think an enforced period of isolation in this manner is a form of detox. During some of the hikes or long night drives, I did some soul searching that would have set me back a few grand with a therapist.

I realized the things I really needed to change. (Yes, one of them was impulsive decisions to embark on adventures without clear financial security.)

I also determined the type of life I wanted to lead, the sort of people I wanted to be around, and the kind of things I wanted to strive for in the future.

I reflected on the beauty of nature, the comfort of a safe place to rest, and the deep satisfaction earned by solving my own problems.

I spent the sunrise of the morning of my departure at the beach, where you can dig your own hot spring.

By then, my mind had settled. I watched the sunrise, sat in an almost scolding pool, with a deep sense of peace.

In the end, I did reach Auckland. Exhausted, filthy, and with a renewed vigor for life and rebalanced priorities. It may have been stupid, but I don’t regret this impulsive act for a moment.

It’s a week I will never forget.

I want to give a shout to Christina for her article How Some of the Simplest Life Moments Provide Great Life Lessons

Here is an extract

“No matter what the circumstance, each day is a gift to challenge ourselves to learn and grow. As Oprah Winfrey says, “We can’t become what we need to be by remaining what we are.”