______________________ SOUTHERN SOJOURN (1) ______________________

Three weeks ago we journeyed to the deep south of the South Island of New Zealand. This province of Southland is a rugged, gnarly, hunkering down kind of place. It has its own special time in the sun during high summer yet the winds from Antarctica are only briefly sleeping.

Hold a sharp, jagged, rainy, raw, primeval pounamu (greenstone) in your warm hand - that's the feeling of living close to this primordial land.

The titanic force unleashed at the bottom of a waterfall is an apt metaphor for the forces that created this majestic landscape of Fiordland.

Rich vegetation clings in impossible places on colossal walls of rock shrouded by mist and cascading waterfalls.

A road is like a scar in this pristine part of our land. I would love to ride through this area on a horse. It would give more time to commune with the stunning surroundings, to feel its rhythms, to hear the land breathe and to camp under the stars.

Sea, sky, mountains, rivers, clouds, mist, valleys of golden tussock waving in the wind. All of these primal elements are amplified in these southern lands. This creates a perspective, a space for contemplating ones place in the scheme of things. It's a place to return to again and again.