Memories

Twenty years ago we were saying our goodbyes to New Zealand, tramping (that's hiking to the non-kiwis) most of the great walks, visiting obscure beaches and generally having a last look around before leaving after three fantastic years in a fabulous country. I still find it staggering that we even went. Oh I know that these days every man and his dog has spent two weeks there but in those days I'd never met anyone who had ever been. The 46 year old me looks back at the 23 year old me that got on the plane to Auckland with wonder. Anyway, those three years were fantastic and there's hardly a week goes by that I don't miss the place.

But leaving wasn't so hard because we had planned to spend the rest of the year travelling through Asia. And so to mark the twentieth anniversary of that trip I've decided to get the best slides scanned in. In many ways I envy people travelling now - cameras are smaller and generally excellent, digital photography is so much more immediate, and there's no need to carry rolls and rolls of film, or risk buying out of date stock from some dingy shop in a flyblown backwater. But on the other hand id probably have spent even more time taking photos and less time actually enjoying the experience.

Anyway, this photo is me starting to look through the boxes and boxes of slides to find those from the big trip. These are not from it. Could take a while!