The Accidental Wanderer

To say that I have an innate thirst for traveling and an inborn spirit for adventure would be a lie. I am the youngest of two children in my family and being the only daughter made me the princess of the house. I led a relatively sheltered life and although I was given my freedom, I was scared of venturing into uncharted waters. Anything new and exciting scared me instead of making me want to jump at the opportunity to explore and enrich myself with priceless experiences.

My dad brought me to the cinemas to watch the first of the Lord of the Rings trilogies more than 13 years ago, and even at that ripe young age, I was immediately struck by the enticing beauty of not only Orlando Bloom as Legolas but the sceneries in which the movies were shot. I have lived my entire life in one of the busiest and most developed cities in the world and the closest I had gotten to nature were walks in public parks. To see such pristine and untouched beauty made me fall in love with the possibility of such a paradise still existing in this present day, and hence, New Zealand had been top on my list of countries I simply HAD to visit.

The grades I obtained in my high school leaving exam were good enough to earn me a full scholarship to the exact country in which I had paused various scenes from LoTR just to stare at for hours. The initial offer excited me beyond words, but then the fear struck. I had never been away from home longer than a week, I had never travelled anywhere alone before. What made me think I could do this? But it was an amazing opportunity I would've been insane to decline and so I found myself on a ten-hour straight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Auckland, bidding goodbye to the concrete jungle that was home and saying Kia Ora to the sheep and cows that I had till that point only seen in pictures.

I admit that I did a lot of homesickness-induced crying at the start but since then, I have come an unbelievably long way. I made friends who had a passion for the unknown. Last year, we hired a campervan and took a road trip to the South Island. This year, we did the same in the Northern territory. I have tried all sorts of extreme sports from zorbing to skydiving and over time, I realised that there was nothing scary about traveling. It was fun and exciting and I began to open up to it and thrive for more. I grew as a person and my courage grew with me.

The wonders I have seen have reduced me to tears and I count my blessings every day for how I ended up here.