Another day, another continent

After 47 days, 6,500km on the road, 300 dolphins, 21 hostels, climbing three 6,000ft+ peaks, Grade V rafting, a bungy jump, a helicopter ride and a skydive I am leaving NZ in two days. Naturally this puts me in a reflective mood....

Man first stepped foot on these islands only 700 or so years ago. The subsequent history of huge environmental change at the hands of man and hooves of stock and the oppression of earlier settlers by later waves is dramatic and fascinating. But while Britain wrings its hands trying to reinvent itself for the umpteenth time in the face of globalisation and dwindling resources, New Zealand feels like it is still creating itself as a nation for the first time around. It is can seem naive that a 1930's railway bridge is listed as a historic monument, but this place also feels unburdened and agile, able to learn quickly from the mistakes of older nations.

Settlers came here and marvelled at the fertile lands they had found, a reaction that is easy to imagine in, for example, Hawkes Bay, with its miles of healthy-looking orchards and vines. That delight in the locality and the relative recency of settlement feeds through to its current inhabitants: it is not somewhere any resident I have met apologises for.

My thoughts are now turning to South America, and in particular another land of promise for agriculturalists, bandits and fortune-seekers: Patagonia, courtesy of Bruce Chatwin. Having done all things extreme here in NZ, and risked a period of penury on my return to pay it off, I am wondering what kind of voyage Argentina will present me with. I doubt I will find my own Mylodon in a remote cave. A crash course in fiery Latin American politics maybe? We'll see.