Travelling is like flirting with life. It's like saying, "I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station." Lisa St. Aubin de Terán.

This is where it all started, many, many years ago. I was born and raised in Hamilton, went to university there, and eventually got a job, all in my home town. Things have changed a bit since then. I blame it all on my brother Simon who used the enticement of the Munich beer festival to persuade me to visit him in London and then travel on through Europe. The beer was great and despite a few rough patches I have never looked back. Well actually I have looked back several times, but I have no regrets.

I worked in London for a while. It was during that time that I met Jeff, who is responsible for convincing me to come to America and thereby inflicting me on thousands of innocent Minnesotans.

People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence and they think they have seen something. Sřren Kierkegaard.

After a while working long hours in London lost its appeal, or maybe my visa was beginning to run out. Either way I packed up my bags and headed for Africa. I took a truck trip with Dragoman. The drivers were good and the trip excellent. For what it is worth they have my recommendation. We started in Kenya then headed down through Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and finished in Zimbabwe. Zanzibar, an island off the coast Tanzania was interesting, snorkelling in lake Malawi and watching the fish eagles swoop over our boat was awesome. As you would expect the game viewing was excellent, we saw our share of rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human etc., but by far the most impressive thing I saw were the Victoria Falls.

We arrived on the Zambian side of the falls. The roar could be heard from miles away and with the high water the spray billowed high in the air. I remember rushing down the path to catch my first glimpse of the falls, rainbows of sunlight glinting through the spray. If anything could convince me of a divine hand in our world's creation it would be this. Some hours later I returned to the truck, drenched, shirtless, but exulted. We then drove across the border to look from the Zimbabwe size. I even flew over the falls in a plane and a microlight. All too soon we had to drive back to Harare. The trip was over.

Well, over for some. Not for me. I spent another five weeks touring through Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. We took mokorros through the Okavango delta then took a walking safari among the elephants. I climbed down canyons and up the huge sussusvlei sand dunes in Namibia. No trip through Zimbabwe would be complete without another visit to the Victoria falls. This time the water was lower so the falls were not quite so spectacular, but we did get to go white water rafting down the Zambezi. This time it really was over. I returned to London briefly before flying home to New Zealand.

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land. G. K. Chesterton.

I did not read this quote until well after the event so I can not say this is an effect that I sought knowingly, but I find that I agree. After being away from home for two years, when I finally did return I found New Zealand to be the strangest place that I had visited. Nothing is so disconcerting as that which is familiar, but not quite right. Something that is wholly new can be viewed as such, while something familiar that has changed a little when out of sight, at first appears faintly wrong. It took several months before my homeland began to feel like home again.

I had a holiday at home to recover from travelling before heading off on my next trip. After my previous travels with Dragoman in Africa I decided to see if their South American trips were as good. They are, but perhaps not quite as much to my liking. While I especially liked hiking the Inca trail through the Andes to Machu Pichu and the week I spent on a boat in the Galapagos I think, on the whole, I preferred Africa. Or perhaps I am just becoming a jaded traveller. After travelling South America I again visited with friends in Minneapolis. It was at this time that I began to investigate getting a job in the US.

I returned home and actually worked for a while to pay for all my travels. It was only about eighteen months later that I had my work visa arranged. Now I live in Minneapolis. My travels are on hold, for the moment, but America is a big country and I plan to explore at least part of it.

A small side note for those of you who have not been to New Zealand, the funny looking brown thing is a Kiwi. It is a flightless bird native to New Zealand which we have adopted as one of out national symbols. New Zealanders often refer to themselves as Kiwis. Not to be confused with kiwifruit which are a different thing entirely

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