I love to travel.
I love travelling.
I love being away from home.
No matter how I phrase this, it doesn’t seem to come out right. I love being on holiday, away on business, or visiting friends and family. It not that I don’t like being at home; but there is something wonderful about spending time in new (or just different) places. Having said that, it has taken me a long time to actually enjoy travel itself.
As a kid, my brothers and I were piled into the back of the car and taken to our destination with as few stops as possible; the point was to “get there.” Later, when I began to travel as an adult it was often for work, and again the focus was on arriving. Even when I took leisure trips, I didn’t really understand that the journey itself can be savored. My first solo road trips were so ambitious, with such huge distances to cover each day, that I barely saw, let alone stopped to enjoy, the places I passed through.

A two-hour journey (each way) from Munich to Schloss Neuschwanstein gave our family plenty of time to enjoy the wonderful winter scenery and each others company — although my son isn’t looking to pleased to be in this shot. Photo: Su Leslie, 2015
If I’m honest, I’ve lived most of my life that way; always so focused on the destination that I ignored the journey — and I’m not thinking only of physical travel.
Recently, things have changed. I’m not sure when or how — it has been slow and subtle — but sometime in the last few years I have actually started to experience (not always enjoy — but at least be aware of) the hills and valleys of my wanderings and not simply the end-point.
Of course it is easier when I travel solo; I don’t have to negotiate companions’ timetables or boredom thresholds. I can double-back to photograph the amazing church seen fleetingly on my first pass through a town, pull into a tiny road-side cafe or gallery, and stop for an extended chat with people I meet. With family and friends, the pleasures are often simply to be in their company, with nowhere else to go and no internet to distract.

On the way home from my brother’s wedding. The Big T and our son waiting at the tube station. Photo: Su Leslie, 2006.

Snapped from the top of a London bus. The dome of St Paul’s lit up, with the reflections of fellow passengers in the background. Photo: Su Leslie, 2015
Sometimes the destination is only part of another journey. Cape Reinga is at very top of New Zealand; with only the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea (which meet off the coast there) beyond. There is only one road, and no other access. Yet for Maori, it is the place where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld (1) by leaping from the headland into an ancient pohutukawa tree below, climbing the roots to enter Te Ara Wairua, the ‘Spirits’ pathway’, and return to their traditional homeland of Hawaiki.

Lighthouse at Cape Reinga, Northland, New Zealand. This is the end of the road; beyond only ocean for thousands of miles. Yet it too is “on the way” for the spirits of the dead. Photo: Su Leslie, 2004
Travel is so frequently a metaphor for life that we barely think of it as one at all. I am aware that as my attitudes to physical travel have changed, so to has my appreciation of the rhythm of everyday life. Maybe it’s because I get so caught up in the mundane that I lose track of the bigger goals that seemed so all-consuming in my youth? Maybe I’m just slowing down. I will never be the first woman Governor General of NZ (an old ambition, dashed by the 1989 appointment of the wonderful Dame Cath Tizard), nor will I publish my first book by age 40 (where does the time go?). But maybe I will still achieve some of the big dreams.
In the meantime, I cherish each day with a loving partner and a wonderful child who is rapidly becoming a man.

Always on his way somewhere and usually at full speed; the boy-child aged 8. Photo: Su Leslie, 2006.

The mode of transport may have changed, but he is still focused on the road ahead. Photo: Su Leslie, 2015
This post was written for the Daily Post Weekly Photography Challenge. You can find out more here.
Really lovely joyful post Su, great photos too.
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Thank you Julie 🙂
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I thoroughly enjoyed this post too Su, and your thoughts are very well put. Love the look on your son’s face in the car. Great pics to go with it too.
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Thank you Debbie 🙂
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Great post. I have to agree – travel is great. I like journeys and sometimes the slower the better. Not all destinations are as great as the journey to reach them.
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I love that line “not all destinations are as great as the journey to reach them.” How very true!
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I too, used to be the just get there type of person. Now I like to savour the moment. Rather than just see something, actually allow myself time to experience it, and soak it in.. Great post 🙂
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Thanks Livonne. It’s interesting how many of us are experiencing this new “way of seeing”. Cheers, Su.
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Love the beautiful pics! And great writings😊
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Thank you so much 🙂
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A great post Su. I confess that I’m usually guilty of being intensely focused on the end result to the exclusion of enjoying the journey to get there. I often have to remind myself to ‘lift my head and enjoy the view’. Thanks for the reminder 🙂
I loved your pictures of your smiling son … and that lovely little lighthouse. What an interesting design 🙂
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Thank you Joanne. I guess it’s a bit of an indictment on our lives that so many of us feel we have to hurry from place to place (literally and metaphorically) and miss so much on the way. I hadn’t really thought about the lighthouse design, but I guess it is shorter than many, with a higher ratio of glass to wall. I guess where it is on the headland, there was no need to build up higher — and it is terrifically windy up there.
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With age I am becoming keener on the slow route. My husband was out of love with trains when he retired (his commute had reached two hours either way by this time), but a 60th Birthday trip on the Orient Express has reversed this. We now take the train whenever possible and you are right, it is a great delight.
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I can so understand that after commuting for a while, it would take something special to make him enjoy train travel again. A friend made a trip on the Orient Express for his 50th, and just loved it too. His description of the journey was quite magical. Thanks for coming by and commenting. Cheers, Su.
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There are gorgeous shots here, and I love the way you intertwined your changing notions on travelling and destinations, making it a journey in its own right.
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Thanks so much Tish 🙂
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Su, this is a fantastic post. Great photos and reflection. Thanks.
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Thanks so much Lucile; I really enjoyed writing this post. It was one of those times when I sat down with one idea in my head and ended up somewhere completely different. It’s quite ironic that the writing was itself “on the way” to me reaching new understanding.
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You’re welcome, Su. Indeed very interesting what you experienced. And the best is that it helped you. Writing can be healing, isn’t it? These conversations we have with ourselves bring us so many insights and if we listen to them carefully, as you did, we can find many answers.
Thanks again!
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Thanks Lucile. 🙂
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A lovely post Su. Your photo of the St Paul’s Cathedral is so amazing. My travelling days are over and I am just living from week to week. Then suddenly I find that half the year is over and you think, where has it gone? I hope you find some peace and reason for your pitstop.
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Thanks Raewyn. The St Paul’s shot was a real serendipity. The two women in the background provided such a neat frame for the lit tower. I know what you mean about the year going so quickly. Hope things are going ok with you and your kids. :–)
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Su – what a fantastic post – the flow was impeccable – from the starting lines blocked out like that to your son behind the wheel – each transition was smooth and also dense as you shared such healthy reflection on your life growth ❤ – and yeah, I have learned to embrace some of the mundane – which I think I called the hum drum back in 2006 – oh and one last comment – that photo "Snapped from the top of a London bus" is truly a gem – I still feel like I need to go and check it out again – so off I go – and wishing you a nice week my friend.
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*Blush*!!! Thank you Yvette. I still look at the St Paul’s photo with a little bit of wonder. It was really, really good luck and a nice lesson in accepting and enjoying serendipity when it comes into our lives. All the best to you too. Hope you have a great week. 🙂
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thanks – and love that serendipity ❤
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That full speed photo is priceless!
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Thanks; he hasn’t changed much!
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