When everybody else is bending with the wind, very few people will lean against it. - Witi Ihimaera

I have always loved long journeys. The act of leaving accustomed surroundings is a release from real time, real life. You can place that familiar life on hold, freeze it, secure in the awareness that it will be there waiting for you when you come back. The journey itself becomes an opportunity to explore parallel lives, those other optional lives which have always been there.

Alas, being a New Zealander is such an exquisite dilemma.

When you're sorting yourself out, family are not often the ones you can turn to. They represent the place of departure and not the place of arrival.”