Hippy Land, New Zealand

I just got back from Hippy Land.

My friend and I came off the ice and needed some time to regroup. She summered at McMurdo. I, at Pole, as always. When we were looking for a place to travel, a random coworker recommended we look at Takaka, to the north. He goes there frequently and loves it. Other good friends of mine travel there as well. My friend, having the better connection to the internet, did all the investigations and bookings. She found a house between Takaka and Pohara called Sweet Pea. In our email correspondence I could never seem to type it, so it came to be known between us as "Sweat Pea."

We traveled up with a friend who climbs there. He stays for months every year. He knew the way and seemed to appreciate the ride.

The town and the trip now seem pretty magical.

Takaka is in a long, green, peaceful valley, up and over an enormous hill, at the top most part of the South Island. It is rural and quiet and cow-filled. The clouds hover over the mountaintops like Bali Hai. There are pine trees and palm trees and bushes and flowers everywhere. The region is called Golden Bay, the top of which is ringed by Farewell Spit. The ocean is light green and turquoise. It laps up against the sand, and doesn't roar. Everything is covered in spider webs. The town is thick with spiders everywhere. The Sweat Pea was crawling with them.

Spiders encourage you to write and bring Grandmother energy.

I loved it.

The place was packed, no vacancy signs everywhere. But we never felt crowded or rushed. There were hippies. Lots of hippies. In vans and at the grocery and smiling at you as you came into their shops. Unlike in Hippievilles across America, though, these hippies coexisted nicely with the old people, normal looking people, tourists and children. Everyone seemed to be tolerant and kind and full of the natural enjoyment of life. Everyone was welcome.

And, I do believe, the place understood what my friend and I were there to do. We both have had big, hard seasons. For very different reasons.

My friend is going through a life change, reevaluating a relationship she's had for over 10 years. She needed a gentle, far away place to land, to think and just to be.

I was run ragged from my season. I needed a place to shake the badness off of me and a jumping point from which to look forward. I am starting to visualize The Woman I Want To Be.

Little magic offerings came to us while we were there. The house offered my friend a book, just sitting on the shelf one morning, called "Don't Look Back." It was written like a children's book, all about coming to the end of something that we thought would continue. It talked about the grief of it, but also how we must keep going forward. The book ends with "Don't look back. You aren't going that way." It chilled me when she read it out loud.

I had a little, drunken encounter with the climber who rode along. I don't know how it really ended. Not for him anyway. I may have put too much weirdness between us. But the gift of it to me was profound and remarkable. I had wanted it and one night at a dinner party at the Sweat Pea, it just rolled out effortless before me. It has been a long, long time since I kissed a man, or had one hold me while I slept. I actually was starting to think I would never have it again. But the Sweat Pea delivered. Broke the spell and gave me the great gifts of listening to a man breathe in his sleep, of touching his foot with mine, of being wrapped up in warm strong arms. Again. Finally.

Hippy Land didn't give anything flamboyantly. I think it just listens. And slowly blossoms before you. Small treats, left to be discovered. And it doesn't seem to need anything back. It's delighting in the community of happiness, of togetherness. Of life being lived in a very beautiful, quiet place.

I can see why it gets addictive . . . this Bali Hai, this Golden Bay.

Today I'm sitting in my hotel room, on the tenth floor of the Heritage. The day is cold and intermittently cloudy. My friend continued on to Tonga. The climber, of course, stayed behind. I am alone to reflect. To remember. To feel. And I am grateful for it. Grateful for all of it. I'm trying not to dread the weirdness I may have inflicted upon the climber. I'm trying not to dread the oncoming return home, back to the crazy makers who infected my season. I'm just trying to thank Takaka and the Sweat Pea.

Thank you for those few beautiful, restorative days.

Thank you for breaking the spell, and bringing us spiders, and letting us rest.

Thank you, Hippy Land, for all your Hippy Goodness.