Memory scraps

I rediscovered several short journals I wrote in my phone’s Microsoft OneNote a few days ago, after thinking that I have lost them when I flashed a new firmware a while back and essentially decimated my phone’s entire contents. But lo and behold they were safe and sound within the backup sanctuary of Microsoft MyPhone, and after synching it to backup my phone’s contents to re-flash the phone with a better, updated firmware (having Facebook and Twitter tabs are awesome, if only I have an actual cheap data plan to go with it), I discovered all my lost travel notes and entries I wrote whilst travelling.

These entries are important to me—they signify the actual state of mind I was in at the time, without the decay and inaccuracies rife with the subject of retelling a tale months after the actual incident.

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15th November 2009 – the day before I left for New Zealand when I was in Melbourne

Ethan and I went to the Royal Botanical gardens for a walk – I didn’t want to head there at first as I was feeling tired and lethargic, but we did anyway.

It was a nice stroll though some of the plants/grass are dried up.

Ate at Sofia – the best Italian restaurant in the whole world. better than pizza uno, it has huge servings for a rather decent price.

Last day with walsh st boys.

Played cards.

Had Ethan, des, and ivan write on my scrapbook.

This is going to be an adventure. On my own in NZ. Sad that I’m leaving the clique I formed and got into here at such a short period, but as Desmond wrote in my scrapbook, it feels like forever.\

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20th November 2009 – In Queenstown, New Zealand. The entirety of the journal below was left out in my previous entry on Queenstown.

This traveller was beaten, soulless. But somewhere 800m above sea level by a cliff in Queenstown, he found his soul. The majestic view offered by standing on the narrow Ben Lumond Track, the snow-capped Cecil Peak towering on his right, and the serene Lake Wakatipu by the Queenstown Bay all renewed in him a sense of adventure and heightened euphoria.

The bus journeys throughout New Zealand are easily the best highlight of the trip. The lush green fields on either sides are interspersed by towering mountains of varying types and heights, and occasionally they seem to close in on us. Beech trees and other unique flora only found in New Zealand punctuate much of the scenery, along with thousands of grazing sheep, cows, horses, and the occasional deer. Sometimes the open and infinitely vast green fields, with hills and the alps as the backdrop, seem to bring to mind scenes right out of the Lord of the Rings. It almost seems as if Tolkien’s verbose description of Middle Earth in his books describe that of New Zealand.

Try as I might to scour my head for the right words to aptly describe this vividly breathtaking (literally) scenery, I can’t. I’m at a loss for words by much of the mysticism that shrouds New Zealand, and as I’ve mentioned quite a few times in much of my postings in some social networks, I can very well disappear here forever.