I'm Home! Finally! Relieved, Exhausted, Sore, Happy, Full of Memories, Enjoying the Company of my Family!
Six months is a long time to be away from home. I don't know how so many backpackers do it for longer. I was ready to be home after about 4 months. But the thought of winter back home quelled my desire to be there and I was able to continue enjoying myself while I bided my time until my plane ticket and the arrival of Spring.
I've been trying to think of how to summarize my insights and lessons learned or to provide you all with some food for thought as a result of my travels down under. I've mostly failied, but here are a few tidbits, totally unrelated to one another:
1. Wilderness is not Wilderness without bears, cougars, wolves, moose, or other largeish and/or intimidating animals potentially lurking in the bushes. The predator's role in the ecosystem, or an animal's ability to pose a threat to us humans, is part of what makes wilderness an awesome, alive place for me. Even thought Australia's poisonous animals don't fill the same role, they are just plain scary. The giant but endangered cassowary up north was the only one that made me feel as I do in bear country. And New Zealand is just plain TAME.
2. I find that riding escalators gives great insight into where a society falls on the laid-back-o-meter. Do people just stand on the thing or do they walk up or down it to go twice as fast (like we do here). This I found to vary as expected, according to how big of a city or small of a town I was riding the escalator in.
3. Those folks in new zealand just think they are environmentally conscious and are really good at attracting tourists with that angle. But guess what I found? Tiny farmers markets with very few organic farmers, tiny hard to find organic shops with very expensive food (a large majority of the packaged food was imported), enormous commercial farms (non organic), rampant clear-cutting, everywhere that wasn't in a reserve or a national park was pasture or at least cleared grassy field, cattle hogging up a large majority of the land (sheep down south), and enormous fish-processing plants as well. Mostly 5-10 years behind us, and seemingly on the exact same path to destruction that we took. Australia was much worse, although Tasmania showed some promise.
4. It's interesting to meet people from all over the country, but just as difficult to find like minded people as in my own backyard. However, travellers seem to be disproportionately liberal and didn't usually agree with the war-mongering, abusive governments. My theory is (and has been for awhile) that those who are interested in other cultures are more likely to be liberal minded and open hearted towards others. Not everyone travels for this reason, but many do.
5. I'm so happy to see my family again! And the brand new Co-op is open and I was in tears to go down its isle and see all the good foods again! And I have all of season four LOST to catch up on, haha! Good times. Thanks for reading, all. Hugs to you.
Krista
