Separation & belonging

Had a reasonable night's sleep though there were some very heavy downpours which beat down hard on the van roof a couple of times during the night. It was amazing then to wake to beautiful sunshine and a very sparkly lake - children running around and playing, even a couple of them swimming!

I set off down the road and within about 20kms I saw a sign pointing to a walk to the beach. The DoC sign suggested a 90 minute return trip but I have a theory that DoC times are for 1 legged octogenarians so I figured a brisk walk there and back would serve well as my day's exercise and I'd be on my way again after about an hour.

The walk was beautiful, as are all bush walks in this part of the world - lush, green, canopied and with a musty but fresh and good-to-be-alive smell.

The approach to the beach was stunning. The bush suddenly gave way to a wide open, white sand beach and with the sun shining the sea was the appeared as the most amazing blue, putting me in mind of a real South Seas paradise. Being a west coast beach of course, it was pretty wild too with waves and surf pounding down on the rocks and beach. As I made my way onto the beach I spied a gentleman sitting on his own. It felt odd to see someone else there and as I passed within just metres of him I nodded, waved and said 'Hi'. He replied in a beautiful English acccent that prompted me to ask if he'd been here before or if he was visiting?

"I'm from England" he said.

"Ah. Wherabouts in England?"

"Leicestershire"

"Really? Whereabouts in Leicestershire?

"Melton Mowbray"

Now for those who know me, you'll know Melton Mowbray is my home town - the town I grew up in and the town that I still, even after 28 years of living in New Zealand, refer to as 'home'. With a population of (I'm guessing) under 30,000 it is not big! And here was someone, 12,000 miles away from Melton on the other side of the world sitting right infront of me.

I walked over and sat alongside him and we chatted about a few things local. He actually lives in a village just outside Melton - Holwell - and had decided to visit NZ as an extension of a visit to see his son and family in Thailand. As we chatted a woman came into view and walked towards us. He called to her and told her about the connection we'd made and she too was amazed by the coincidence. We laughed about how the world is said to operate on 6 degrees of separation but New Zealand seems to work on just 1 or 2. Coincidences like this though are difficult to explain. They said they wouldn't have picked me as being English - they thought I sounded like a kiwi. I laughed again, thinking how odd it was that now, wherever I am in the world, the moment I speak I'm out of place - I don't 'belong'!

These 2 lovely people, Richard and karen ("Remember the Carpenters"!) just had to be my blip today. I'm pretty sure that someone in my family will probably now of them or at least, will know someone who knows them.

Six degrees huh? I'm sure this will make a great story when they get back home!