Graphic Design: Don't Forget to Turn Around

The past three months of my life have been almost entirely spent on planning trips, going places, and seeing things I have never seen before. Arriving in New Zealand was like landing on another planet; there are so many different things worth seeing and doing here that I could never have seen or done anywhere else. And with a seemingly endless list of places to go and things to see, one would need seemingly endless amounts of time to accomplish them all. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and I do have a finite amount of time here. This sad fact has led me to the conclusion that it is ultimately impossible to cram the experience of every exciting aspect of New Zealand into four and a half months and a limited budget. That is not to say that I, and nearly everyone else I have been traveling with, didn't do our best to try. At first the speeding from place to place barely slowing down long enough to rest our eyes on a single focal point for more than an instant seemed necessary. The less time we spent at each location that had been previously mapped out on our itinerary, the more chance we would have of making it to each town within that timeline. It made sense that the other two vans of our caravan would take off and leave for the next destination without even waiting for the third to fill up on gas. Time was of the essence. Constant stress was necessary to make it everywhere on time. This is the way it had to be. Or was it? It finally dawned on me that we were going about our time in New Zealand all wrong. Clearly, something had to be sacrificed, whether is was enjoying oneself or sticking strictly to an itinerary. So, while in the South Island, I came to accept that I would not see everything no matter how fast we drove or how little time we spend appreciating the scenery; I could not defy the laws of time and space to suit my own whims. This realization came to me as all twelve of our group embarked on a day-long hike though a coastal track in Abel Tasman National Park. I didn't even get a chance to see any of the breathtaking scenery around me during the first few hours, being too busy staring down at my own feet to make sure I didn't trip or slip on the muddy root-ridden steeply uphill trail we were following. And then it dawned on me. I couldn't recall listing 'to stare at own foot' as one of my reasons for wanting to come to New Zealand. In fact, I was almost positive that it was not. Thankfully, a few other of my friends shared this same sentiment. We weren't sure why we were rushing, yet again, through what was supposed to be an enjoyable, relaxing trek through some of the world's most beautiful landscape. Yes, it was easy to impress everyone back home with tales of how we made it to the northernmost point of the Southern Island, where one could look out across a great expanse of ocean and be able to see the southern tip of the North Island in the distance. But would we even remember what that place looked like? Every time we stopped at a lookout point that appeared to have come off of a high-resolution postcard, there was barely a pause long enough for a picture or two to be snapped before someone inevitably felt the weight of the itinerary on their shoulders and declared "all right, lets keep moving." There was absolutely no appreciation of nature, of the details, or of where we were lucky enough to be. Thoreau would have been appalled.

And so, finally, I had had enough. I ceased to be concerned about sacrificing my own enjoyment strictly to keep together as a group, although by that time I was one of very few who had been putting in any effort to do so at all. I spent the rest of the day, and the rest of the trip, taking time where time was due to be taken. You may think that the most beautiful sights are best seen by rushing ever onward to a planned destination. But it is a huge mistake to go, head forward, eyes straight ahead, without bothering to stop and look around. Some of the most beautiful depictions of nature are only seen when we stop, turn around, and look behind us.

Here are just a few backwards glances: