A short walk beneath a long white cloud
I never got around to finishing this write-up, in truth I barely even started it. Maybe I’ll return to it one day.
Over four and a half months, Rose and I walked the length of Aotearoa New Zealand, the land of the long white cloud, along the Te Araroa trail, the long pathway. Here I will attempt to find the right words to convey the majesty and wonder of that journey, read on below and I welcome your feedback.
Prologue: A short walk
Chapter 1: Beauty and the beach
Chapter 2: The forests of Northland
Addendums: The man who walked too fast
Acknowledgments
I made this journey with Rose, it is by her inspiration that this journey ever began, and it is to her that this account is dedicated.
The style of hazily summarising the essence of each chapter at the outset is cribbed unabashedly from Eleanor Catton, author of The Luminaries.
The title draws on that of Eric Newby’s beautiful account of his adventures in Eastern Afghanistan in the late 1950’s, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, and the Māori legend of Kupe and his discovery of Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud known most commonly as New Zealand.
