Hugging Trees

Hugging trees-

As I leave behind New Zealand I’ll have trekked (hoofed/tramped/hiked) somewhere around 150 miles wearing a pack, and spending a total of 18 days camping in my tent or in wilderness backcountry huts. It’s the simple, natural, pleasures in life giving me the most enjoyment.

I love visiting little towns as well as exploring larger cities, but nothing is trumping the quiet moments on top of a mountain summit or staring up from the base of a 400 foot waterfall. With the exception of some trail maintenance and additions of minimal amenities, the wilderness is the only thing that remains organic, unchanged, raw. The amazing views you are looking at are, for the most part, the same as they were 50 years ago, 300 years ago, 10,000 years ago… (After 10k-15k-ish you run into an ice age and who knows what shit looked like). Most “cultural” experiences are artificial to a certain degree. Productions of the way things once were before westernization, before globalization. Tourism dependent areas play dress up and put on plays, then charge admission and sell concession to cash in on a taste of the good ol’ days. “Exit through the gift shop” comes to mind. I enjoyed learning about the Australian Aboriginal people, I’m even more spellbound by the Maori in New Zealand (thanks to Hemi in my previous post), but an aboriginal wearing a loin cloth, covered with white body paint playing a didgeridoo, or a Maori warrior doing the haka and spinning fire, is no more common in the current real world as a group of Native Americans wearing headdresses and doing a rain dance. The generations past, while interesting and beautiful, will forever live in the past and pay homage in the present. The views we share and air we breathe is one thing that can’t be faked.

I’ve always respected and had a love for nature, but never considered myself an environmentalist and acted far from it. I’ve owned gas guzzling cars, a giant diesel truck with nothing to tow, buy plastic water bottles by the case, brush my teeth with the water running and many times have not considered the environment before printing emails. I have little room to preach and no soapbox to stand on, but with every day I spend on the trail, I’m growing a greater appreciation and am humbled by the fragility of the splendid world we share. Of the many quotes I’ve read or seen printed on bathroom walls in hostels recently, one of the few that stands out is- “We did not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”. I find myself living up to one of my old Boy Scout principles. (not “Be Prepared”, that’s the motto)… I mean principles, taught by my old Scout Master, Kerry Merback, years ago, and I can still hear him say it; “Don’t leave it how you found it, leave it BETTER than you found it.” I’m constantly picking up trash that isn’t mine, going out of my way to get that hard to reach rusted Pepsi can in the rocks that’s been there so long it still has the old logo. It’s the least I can do, as futile as it seems. Like jumping on the back of a tug of war rope against a giant steam engine. Hopefully two generations from now aren’t reduced to seeing pictures or hearing stories of the way things used to be.

Bob

*please consider the environment before printing this blog post