New Zealand-ed

Just flew into Sydney from Christchurch after five days I won't soon forget. I have to turn around and fly out of Sydney to Melbourne early tomorrow morning, though, so I'll be brief. Just wanted to say howdy, and that I'm still processing all that happened in New Zealand. I think what I'll have to do is wait until I get settled in Melbourne, and then begin giving double-dose posts: current stuff as well as NZ, recounted a day at a time (or less). I took notes during my adventures (well, not during--after. Sometimes WAY after) and I'll try to post the stories behind them, with pictures, as if it were happening that day. Then we'll all experience that nice "it's-happening-now-oooh-isn't-this-exciting-I-wonder-if-she'll-live!-oh-the-suspense" feeling. (P.S. I live)

Plus, like I said, I'm still sorting out what happened there. It was extreme in all these orthogonal directions, and that takes time to simmer a bit. And I did get some nice pictures, though not as many as I thought I'd take. Many times I couldn't bring myself to snap a photo at all. I mean, we all know that no picture ever manages to capture everything (namely, all 4 dimensions (or more, if you're a string-theorists or a crazy person--these two being mutually inclusive states of being in my opinion (take THAT Brian Greene, in your suave black sports-jacket and jeans, with your George Clooney slicked back gray hair and your...string theory-ness (how many parenthetical statements is this by now, anyway?))))... and no photo quite conveys the scope, and the fullness of all the senses...and especially continuity. You can't capture the continuity of a place or a landscape with pictures, which are, necessarily, discontinuous. So no picture gets it right...but in many cases on this trip I felt it got things so far off that I didn't even take the picture in the first place. I just tried to *be* there, completely present, realizing as fully as possible a moment of life that won't be repeated, and (it breaks my heart, really and truly) that can't adequately be shared with those I love most.

I've got to repack some stuff, and try to get that rain forest smell out of my backpack and shoes and hair. I miss you all (well, I don't actually know who's reading this blog. Let me qualify that and say that I definitely miss you if I know you and like you, and in some cases I might miss you if I know you and *don't* like you, because hey--you add spice to my life).

There was a brief moment upon boarding my flight from Christchurch to Sydeny this afternoon in which I wished the plane was headed back to Chicago instead.