What I learnt from my 12 days in New Zealand

New Zealand is a country of a small population and thus things move slowly there. However, maybe that is not such a bad thing. It seems to be that people from New Zealand take their time to really appreciate what they have been given in this world. The earth to them is a place that needs to be respected, loved and cared for.

While on a boat cruise in a place called Doubtful Sound being surrounded by the earth’s greatest gifts, nature itself the people on board were asked to switch off from life. We had to go outside onto the deck of the boat and sit silently for five minutes. 

During this experience for one of the first times in my life I actually got to listen to the sounds of birds, waves, waterfalls and the boat we were on just gently moving in the water while taking in the fresh air and scenery around me.

People today are so plugged in to the technology we have to communicate with that sometimes I think we forget how to talk to one another face to face. Most of us are so caught up in getting the latest upgrade in a phone or computer or iwatch, the latest piece of fashion, the things in our lives that we think are important. If we took all of that away could we still exist?

I’m sitting here typing this in a room surrounded by all stuff. Stuff no one in this world needs but wants.

I’m Emma known to be sentimental and a keeper of trinkets, messages, cards and I have done my fair share of “retail therapy” a way of saying “I feel bad about my life I’m therefore going to buy some stuff in order to fill this void.”

It’s safe to say I will never be a minimalist.

However, I came into 2016 wanting to use less technology. Because I think that it can take you away from yourself, your life and what a person can really achieve in their life-time. I cannot escape technology it’s the 21^st century after all. All I’m saying is that this year I’m challenging myself to leave the house without always listening to music. To wake up and not check facebook or my email but to replace that with a drawing, a piece of writing or to read and to go bed and do the same.

If people only live once then I figure it’s time to actually live and not be plugged in to a wall all the time. 

Also I went in a Helicopter and climbed a Glacier!!!

"Always remember that you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think" - A.A Mline, the Author of Whinnie the Pooh.