Intro: Beyond NZ - A to Z

NEW BLOG - WITH A TRAVEL FOCUS!

Intro message from Sally (in New Zealand) ...

This is a new Blog for 2021 - with a Travel focus. Travel is a big challenge right now for everyone, no matter where you are or where you wish or need to go. I have no choice but to stay put right here in New Zealand - but travel is, and always has been, in my veins. Immersion in other lands, cultures, ethnicities, ways of life - it's what I love. Visiting friends in far flung places - it's what I love. Drinking in the essence of new places I discover - it's what I love. But it's no-go at the mo. And it's gutting. 

However, I hope this Blog can take us places that we can't go right now. Tell some stories that amuse. 

Check in regularly to travel to lovely places via words and pics!

I hope that we can fly through blue skies and sunsets again soon. (These photos taken at Omaha Beach, 3rd Jan 2021). Note how the cloud bank behind the island emulates it's shape - weird, never seen that before. 

Throughout 2020, travel as we knew it disappeared, thanks to Covid-19. A distressing situation for all those in the travel game, including me - I was about to start up a new travel service just before lockdown came! And my son is far away in my beloved London.

When travel becomes possible again, I believe it is likely to be exotic again, rather than chaotic, which is how it had become pre-Covid. Meanwhile ... patience. We need to ride through the time in between.

For New Zealanders, travel has always been about long distance. To get anywhere we have to go far, that's just the way it is from our little island nation in the South Pacific. Early days, getting to the other side of the world meant weeks on a ship. The travel experience back then was as much about the journey as it was about the destination. 

As travel became easier, more accessible, more affordable over the years, especially through the 1980s and beyond, we became a nation of avid travellers. Off on our "OE" - Overseas Experience. It was exciting and exotic and envied. Jumbo Jets took many of us to far flung places that we'd only read about or dreamt of. It took me to my beloved London and Europe. And way beyond.

Admittedly, over recent years, travel had been getting out of hand - cattle-truck syndrome, jostle-for-position chaos, bucket-list ticking, expensive mediocre experiences that had to be booked well in advance, pristine beaches becoming haggard, queues galore, selfie-taking "aargh" ... so many beautiful unique and iconic places on this planet had sadly become the victims of extreme over-tourism. 

And then, with Covid, everything came to a grinding halt. Travel to/from New Zealand was simply not simple. As NZ overcame the Covid challenges and got some semblance of normality back in the latter part of 2020, travel became a thing again - here in Aoteoroa at least. Which is a great thing as so many Kiwis had never seen the nooks and crannies of New Zealand. Every message now encourages Kiwis to go exploring. And people are doing this. Yay.

I am pleased to say I have seen most of our fabulous country through the years. Top to bottom. By road, rail, boat. There are still some pockets that I haven't visited yet (you have to keep something up your sleeve for later!) - but I've pretty much explored Aotearoa end to end.  Cities, large towns, small towns, villages, beaches, remote coastlines, quirky "blink and you'll miss it" pit stops, off-the-beaten track townships, state highways, main roads, back-country routes, iconic tourist spots, natural wonders, heritage buildings, historical monuments, parks, gardens, lakes, mountains, capes, bluffs, islands, lighthouses, bush, farmland, cliffs, caves, waterfalls, rivers, tunnels, bridges ... That's not to mention the vineyards, golf courses, museums, galleries etc. There is, indeed, so much to see. 

However, what concerns me is that the rest of the world is getting squeezed away from us. Far far away. It's become as though the rest of the world no longer exists except with a Covid or political slant. This pains me. 

Sure, other lands on this planet are grappling with Covid, in a state of shambles, no-go areas etc ... but their beauty, history, landscapes, cultures and people still live on, despite the disaster that is Covid-19. NZ media has all but closed the glories of the rest of the world down because we can't go and experience them. I think it's wrong. We still need to talk and remember and dream. 

My fear is that a generation of Kiwi kids will grow up with the world being a distant remote unknown place that seems foreign and inaccessible. That's how it was here in the 1960s and 1970s. Please, please, let's not go back there. 

Through this Blog I will write about and reflect upon places I've been, people I've encountered, moments that have been surprising, delightful, unique, hilarious and/or harrowing in far-off places. 

Each place I write about, wherever it may be, will be a story in itself. 

It will be a mix of overseas and NZ destinations.

It will be A to Z style. I won't post every single day, but I will post regularly, when the mood takes me, moving through the alphabet, recounting travel tales. 

I hope you come on the journey!

NB: I'm an occasional travel writer for NZ Herald Travel Section and have written for various other travel publications. This is my own A-Z travel blog. All posts are copyright Sally Blyth. 

If you're interested in my Beyond Covid-19 NZ blog, written every day since lockdown in March, here's the link: https://beyondcovidnz.blogspot.com/