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HIKE BLOG

TA Day 76, zero day, Nelson

Toasting "la heim" with Maggie on the porch of her lovely home in Nelson.
Toasting “la heim” with Maggie on the porch of her lovely home in Nelson.

“It’s hard to be more perfect than right now,” says Steve as we sit on his beautiful deck overlooking a garden that flows right down the bank to the river.

With Steve and Maggie in Nelson's Japanese garden. Nelson has some of the best weather in the country.
With Steve and Maggie in Nelson’s Japanese garden. Nelson has some of the best weather in the country.
Protesters supporting green energy carrying the earth as pall bearers in the Nelson outdoor market.
Protesters supporting green energy carrying the earth as pall bearers in the Nelson outdoor market.

He’s right. A beautiful summer’s day spent with new friends, eating homemade bagels with cream cheese and lox – because you can’t get good ones in town – shopping at the Saturday market and finding real sun gloves at the fishing store and a $7 dress at the hospice shop, discussing everything under the sun from politics to religion to family and travel, resupplying for the next week in the mountains, and having a nutrient rich dinner of lamb and coleslaw topped off with cow-to-cone ice cream, a local favorite along with a Nelson ginger scrumpy.

Steve giving my therm-a-rest a try on his porch.
Steve giving my therm-a-rest a try on his porch.

Maggie tells me I’m a wizened woman, though I feel vulnerable meeting acquaintances at the jazz club who ask twenty questions about who I am and why I’m here. I show a steely resolve but inside, I want them to be the ones to tell me why I’m here.

Steve and Maggie get me back on track and we make plans for a side trip to Abel Tasman tomorrow.

Again, I feel an overflowing abundance in the good fortune to come across such awesome people who I have the privilege to call friends. I’ll return soon to the trail, but in this moment I’m pausing in a lovely place with lovely people to reset and recalibrate.

And it’s just right.

9 Responses

  1. Alison
    In caring for yourself you ARE caring for all of us as we travel with you and cheer you on

    I think of your adventure as we (Mindy and I) train for the Birkie ski race knowing that 10 days after the race we will be headed for Auckland and 6 weeks in NZ

    Inspiration comes in many ways, like your photos and the many shots of your marvelous walking feet

    Onward together on a winter’s night in Cable WI

    Paul

  2. Alison
    In caring for yourself you ARE caring for all of us as we travel with you and cheer you on

    I think of your adventure as we (Mindy and I) train for the Birkie ski race knowing that 10 days after the race we will be headed for Sucklund and 6 paltry weeks in NZ

    Inspiration comes in many ways, like your photos and the many shots of your marvelous walking feet

    Onward together on a winter’s night in Cable WI

    Paul

  3. Hi Alison! Perhaps a Zero Day is a good day to hum Entr’acte by Jacques Ibert…spirited, brief, and it clears the air!

  4. Beautiful. Just beautiful. You are really discovering…living, really…the “we” of “me.” I am thinking so much about that, and about how connected we are to others, even when we go off on our own. When we hike alone, camp high above a lake and watch the stars alone. Even then we bring along our communities, our people…maybe all people in a (somewhat) abstract sense. And as you are energized and tended and loved by others, you energize, tend, and love them. Wrong phrase: should be US, not them.
    Here I am sitting here at 7:30 am in Minneapolis thinking about you and what you are doing/living…how many miles away? How many hours away? A calendar day ahead of me? Me in Minnesota winter, you in New Zealand summer. Loving your observations; believing the communion.

    1. thanks dear friend ♥️♥️♥️ I am so deeply supported on this journey. Even the rocks, clouds and trees resonate! soooo blessed!

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