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I write today from Merriview Hut, where accommodation is $15 NZD inside the hut and $10 NZD if you choose to pitch your tent; an extra dollar earns you a fresh egg, which you can boil in water from the running tap. And this is my paradise, today, for last night when I shimmied into my sleeping bag and shut…

I woke up rather slowly this morning; it’s really something how good a sleep feels after you’ve earned it! Not that you have to earn sleep! But you know what I mean! I’m in that space between spaces, the purgatory-esque realm between my body’s old schedule and the new one to which it will so quickly adapt. And so, I…

I covered 40km today. Half of it quite quickly, thanks to Lilly and Haley, the mother/daughter duo who picked me up quite soon after I hit the main road this morning. It was windy and, as I learned from the backseat of her car, Haley takes pride in her capacity for helping others. When she dropped me at the Pak…

It was sunny today in Auckland, funnily enough, and I emerged from the bathroom at the Grand Harbour Chinese restaurant, after my first ever yum cha, wondering if there may ever come a day when I stop being scared right before I do scary things. I got in my Uber, leaving mom and brother behind, and I cried softly, wishing…

I recently saw a painting with scribbled words (my favorite manner of words): “tomorrow will be the same but not as this is” (Upon further research: Colin McMahon was a New Zealand artist whose work often featured overlayed text <3) And so I wanted to type up an ode to 2023, just so I maybe one day look at this…

This is about rugby. For those who don’t know rugby, me too, but also, the aim is to score more tries than the other team. So, here we are, just Trying to Try! My dad, in his day, played some rugby in some semi-serious way and I remember, as a kid, watching him get frustrated with patchy replays on youtube,…

I think I hate my birthday! More accurately, I hate fear the way my birthday makes me think about whether I have enough friends or enough fun or whether I am doing enough to celebrate, even if it’s not how I want to celebrate! Like drinking a lot when I don’t actually enjoy how it makes me feel and laughing…

Maybe it’s just “Trying to Fit In at Twenty-Two” Or is it  Trying to “Find Home at Twenty-Two”? Create home? Become home? When I first moved to Auckland, it was midwinter. At least I was hoping it was midwinter and not the beginning of winter because it was so damn cold;  I couldn’t tell you how cold because I’m still…