Auckland, New Zealand: January 10, 2024

Well, we have started a new year and here we are in Auckland, New Zealand. We will be living here for a full month, having arrived on New Year’s Day. After 10 days, we can honestly say that we are loving it here.

It’s a wonderful city and we have really begun to feel like “locals” in that we have been sauntering through town daily to find the local groceries and dry cleaners and other shops, while still occasionally checking out the sites around town that we want to see before we move on.

Today, for example, we rose early and through on our running clothes before making our way to the closest place to begin the Green Trail (The Grafton Gulch) that leads from our “upper town” area to the waterfront and from there, to the Pink Trail (for the pink lights that bedeck it by night). It’s almost exactly a four-mile path (our usual daily distance), but with a lot more inclines and downslopes than we are used to in Chicago.

Yesterday, we rose early and made our way to the Harbor to take a ferry to Tiritiri Matangi Island, which has been brilliantly restored to all native species as part of an ongoing effort that began in the 1970s. It’s a treasure, filled with trails that take you through the forests from the waterline up to the top of the island, which is all natural, except for one small area that houses a few Forest Rangers and the still-functioning lighthouse (now totally automated) and a small souvenir shop, where the proceeds fund the ongoing upkeep of the island and its wildlife.

The day was glorious – blue skies and mid-70 temperatures (F), but cool and comfortable under the forest canopy while listening to the sounds of nature all around us. We saw bell birds, kokakos, whiteheads, tuis, magpies, takahes, red-crowned parakeets, and kororas, the world’s smallest penguins (called Little Blue Penguins) that all live on the island. We found it so restorative to just sit on a bench near a water source and wait for thirsty birds to show up to drink and bathe. The sounds of their calls rang out under the canopy as we just sat and absorbed it all.

This is what it’s all about for us. The world’s troubles fall away and we feel at one with nature for a moment. Here on this tiny island no one disturbs anything. Even the bugs are welcomed because they are an essential part of the eco-system. You can’t have the birds without them, or the trees. Everything depends on everything else to survive.

We depart with only the memories and pictures, but the moment is imprinted on us forever.

— Scot