Pinch me

I’m having a PMM. Or actually a few. A whole week of PMM. In fact, I have been PMMing for a while now. Not to worry – I’m ok.

PMM – Pinch Me Moments. The moment you realize that your dream has become true. Or is just about to… and you – smack – right in the middle of it. Stuck in a dream. Your dream.

Pinch me. How can this be happening? This can’t be for real! Overcome by happiness and joy and immense gratitude, I get speechless. Not for long, but I do. That or I start swearing. They do that to me – those pinch me moments.

I am travelling in New Zealand for two weeks. On my own. Kind of like my own Eat Pray Love. If you’re gonna do midlife crisis, do it right. Julia Roberts would be proud of me.

Started at the top of this beautiful country and slowly making my way down. Or at the bottom going up? It all depends on your point of view.

New Zealand has been on my bucket list before that was even a thing. My teenage dream. You see, for a while I wanted to be a shepherd. In New Zealand. I had heard that they had quite a few sheep down here – 20 per person to be exact! Done.

I also wanted to be a priest by the way. Apparently I have a thing for herding things. And people. Anyway. For obvious reasons, neither one worked out. But my wish to travel to “the land of the long white cloud” (Aotearoa,Māori for NZ) remained on my list.

A little later in life, another wish was added to that list – travel to Middle Earth, which happens to be in … yep, New Zealand. Who knew?

I love everything Lord of the Rings. Read the books. Read them again. Watched each movie. Several times. I love the shire. And the hobbits. I love Gandalf and Aragorn ( who doesn’t love Aragorn?). My favourite, though, is Frodo. Love his sadness and his hairy feet. Love his hobbit ears and wisdom. I have learned a lot from this hobbit.

So when the travel agent inquired about what I wanted to see in New Zealand, I said…. No, I didn’t say ‘Frodo!’, because that would have been weird. Though I wanted to.

Instead I said: I want to see anything LOTR please.

And so this is what I’m doing right now – travelling through New Zealand, trying to find Frodo and his friends, encountering a few pinch me moments along the way.

PMM#1 Mount Eden, Auckland

Easy like Sunday morning, I decided to walk up to the Mount Eden Lookout to get a good view of Auckland, the first stop on my trip. Busy roads turned into suburban streets turned into wooded paths –  I was slowly making my way out of the city.

At the entrance of the park, was an old stony staircase, covered with moss and lichen. A weathered stone wall running along its edges, separating the steps from a beautiful lush field of green grass and small white flowers. Following the dark, shady way up the hill, the thick growth of trees and ferns suddenly gave way to a gigantic crate of a volcano that had been asleep for over 28.000 years. I must have said something like ‘What the heck!’, because a lone hiker in front of me turned and looked at me confused and a little concerned. Pinch me! I wanted to say. This was just too surreal – I had actually arrived in Middle Earth! But that probably would have sent him running.

PMM #2 Hobbiton, Matamata

Once the film set to both the Lord of the Rings as well as the Hobbit movie, this part of a sheep and cattle farm in Matamata near Rotorua is now a permanent tourist attraction on the Northern Island of NZ. In the summer, almost 4000 visitors daily. 40% of them have no clue about the story.

Well, I wasn’t going to be one of them. I knew what house Sam Gangee lives in ( the one with the yellow door), the name of the large tree overlooking the village ( the Party Tree), recognized the path that Bilbo Baggins runs down, shouting “I’m going on an adventure! “, the corner where Frodo waits for his longtime friend Gandalf…

And while I was looking over the green rolling hills, the little round colourful doors, the stone walls and wooden fences covered with (fake!) moss, I thought how unbelievable it was, to actually be in this peaceful, happy place called the Shire I only knew from the movies. If someone had played the Shire melody, I probably would have wept like Sam on Mount Doom. Only mine would have been happy tears.

PMM #3 Te Puia Geothermal Valley, Rotorua

If Hobbiton was the Shire, than this was Mordor.

I knew that there was hot springs and geysers around – the awful smell of rotten eggs hanging over the town as well as the mysterious misty clouds over the tree canopy kind of gave it away. But nothing prepared me for what was going to be a mix of Jurassic Park and Mount Doom.

Gigantic redwood trees and ferns, steaming rivers and bubbling mud puddles, yellow crusted crevices, and black lava rocks. The scenery was so surreal that it probably was more of a WTF moment than a PMM – which is pretty much the same, just much better.

So here it is, New Zealand, my dream come true. Thank you for giving me those pinch me moments that are so difficult to describe. I haven’t known you for long, but you have been on my mind (and list) for quite a while. And so far you are an absolute dream come true – despite the imperfections any place has.

I love how you start raining though the sun is shining. How, quite honestly, you stink ( though no one seems to notice but me). I love your people and your language and how you struggle with everyday problems like all countries do. I love that this small flightless bird called a kiwi is what represents you. I love how you make my dreams come true.

So what do you do when a wish comes true? You enjoy it (oh I do). You share it (doing that with you). And you are grateful (Thank you).

So somebody pinch me please! Cheers!