where i wanted to go

Really, it's true. I had always believed a place existed like this one. I had dreamed of it and driven in search of it for years.

I'd like to imagine that my ancestors left Europe with the same kind of idea, but their boat sailed in the wrong direction and when they landed they were too tired to trek across the continent to get on another boat to end up where they belonged. I wonder if they thought of me sometimes, maybe at night when they were so tired and wondering why they had left all they knew for an idea. Maybe they thought generations ahead and hoped all their work would be appreciated by their children's children's children's children. And I imagine now that down through time that driving spark lit me up and I decided to leave all I knew for an idea. In search of home.

From the first view of this sea and the first soak in a hot spring and the first southern hemisphere starry night and the first Maori tattoo and the first rugby game I have known over and over, deeper and deeper that I am home.

Aotearoa, I may leave you for a spell, but you will never leave me. Sweet land, thank you for showing me home. You were worth every thing I had to lose, and everything I had to endure.

I love you like only home can be loved.