Before discussing holidays, I feel duty bound to mention COVID-19, which has very little to do with holidays, although there were a considerable number of New Zealanders who enjoyed lockdown holidays with their families. I started this blog as a result of the looming COVID-19 lockdowns in March 2020 so I need to note the formal 'end' of COVID in New Zealand on 14 August 2023. Our government removed requirements to self-isolate if you test positive (yay, Chris and I escaped having to do that, ever) and requirements to use masks in healthcare and disability facilities. COVID is now officially relegated to the same status as the general run of infectious diseases in New Zealand.

The World Health Organisation downgraded COVID-19 on May 3^rd 2023, saying it was no longer a global health emergency, although it remains a pandemic. COVID will move from being considered a ‘pandemic’ to ‘endemic’ when numbers of people with the disease are largely predictable. COVID is not considered endemic yet and officials are still trying to figure out how they will know that point has been reached. However, in most people’s minds, COVID-19 no longer looms large, or looms at all. It’s quite amazing to think that for two years we couldn’t easily leave New Zealand, people couldn't enter and many conversations were around COVID infections, vaccines, vaccinations, mandates, lockdowns and isolation periods. Now it's interesting to visit crowded cities like Tbilisi, Istanbul and Tokyo at the end of this holiday, and imagine the empty streets and full apartment blocks during the pandemic, now thronging with life again.

Our holiday was Georgia Take 3: We were seriously considering Georgia as a holiday destination for March 2020. We then considered it again in 2022, when we lost our nerve because Putin had recently invaded Russia. In 2023 we finally made it to Georgia for our 8 weeks of cycling, hiking and working on hiking trails.

When I’m ‘on holiday’, I often think about what I consider a ‘holiday’ to be; I'd like to be sure that what I am experiencing is my idea of a holiday :) The traditional definition of ‘holiday’ (as in ‘holy day’) has largely been left behind in New Zealand, although half our public holidays are still related to Christian religious celebrations (Christmas and Easter and one could argue the new Matariki holiday too). Holy is nowhere in my definition of holiday. I looked up other definitions, which include:

- A time when someone does not go to work or school but is free to do what they want, such as travel and relax.

- An extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home, or travelling.

Considering these definitions from my perspective:

-      Being away from ‘school’ is not relevant. Unless, of course, I consider my songwriting and creative fiction writing classes to be ‘school’. In which case this definition is still not relevant because I don’t want to miss out on my classes and try to continue attending while I’m ‘on holiday’.

-      Being away from work is also not a critical component of a holiday for me. I have had many holidays during which I have worked – all I need to ‘work’ is a laptop and an internet connection. However, that leads me to think about the nature of ‘work’ alongside the nature of ‘holiday’. How do you define 'work'? Is it what I am paid to do? If I do the same activity unpaid (that I could be paid for) is it not work? If I write a novel is it work or not work? It's certainly quite hard but I don't make much money out of it! None of this conceptualising really matters, however, because for me (and I consider myself exceptionally lucky) ‘work’ is one of the multiple activities in which I engage and which must fit in with all the other activities that I do; 'work' is not my pre-eminent activity and has not been for a long time.

-      Then there’s ‘relaxing’…what exactly is ‘relaxing’? 'Relaxing' is a word is commonly used in relation to holidays. 'Relaxing' conjures up pictures of people lying by the pool in a seaside resort. Definitions of ‘relax’ including ‘achieve calmness and tranquility’, ‘not be worried or nervous’ and ‘rest while you are doing something you enjoy’. Hmm…I don’t generally achieve calmness and tranquillity by resting (and become irritable if immobile by the seaside for any length of time). I have an interior engine that needs to be used or it becomes agitated. For me to be ‘not worried or nervous’ means my body needs to be outputting a significant amount of energy – using my body leads to calmness. Both my body and my mind are tools that need to be used, not sit around doing nothing (in that sense of ‘relaxing’). I get maximum enjoyment out of stretching these tools as far as they can go. I get maximum enjoyment out of successfully overcoming adversity using these tools! And surely a holiday is about maximum enjoyment?

-      The ‘travel’ definition of holiday rings true for me. I love travelling to experience new and different places and people and ideas. There’s a poem that covers part of why I love travel. I read and memorised it in my early twenties and regularly return it to the front of my brain and share it with other people.

Stages

Herman Hesse

As every flower fades and as all youth
Departs, so life at every stage,
So every virtue, so our grasp of truth,
Blooms in its day and may not last forever.

Since life may summon us at every age
Be ready, heart, for parting, new endeavour,
Be ready bravely and without remorse
To find new light that old ties cannot give.
In all beginnings dwells a magic force
For guarding us and helping us to live.

Serenely let us move to distant places
And let no sentiments of home detain us.
The Cosmic Spirit seeks not to restrain us
But lifts us stage by stage to wider spaces.

If we accept a home of our own making,
Familiar habit makes for indolence.
We must prepare for parting and leave-taking
Or else remain the slaves of permanence.

Even the hour of our death may send
Us speeding on to fresh and newer spaces,
And life may summon us to newer races.
So be it, heart: bid farewell without end.

Another aspect of the types of ‘holiday’ I seek, not covered in the definitions above, are experiences that makes my ‘normal’ life feel more desirable when I return to it. I certainly don’t want holidays that make my normal life look less attractive when I return. So what I deliberately seek is less luxury, not more. I like sleeping in the outdoors so I enjoy shelter and showers when I come home. I like travelling with minimal possessions to remind me how much I actually have when I come home (the only problem I find is that returning to my normal quantity of possessions can be annoying because life's so pleasantly simple when you have fewer). I like being hungry sometimes because that's how you remember to enjoy food when it becomes available.

Our holiday to Georgia has been the epitome of a holiday for me. We learned a lot, laughed a lot, cried (only me and not a lot), worked hard, got hungry (and ate great Georgian food), felt fit and strong, made new friends. We cycled nearly 2500km and climbed 45,500m in the 30 days we spent on our bikes, as well as hiking 120km and 10,000 vertical metres in 7 days of hiking. I know people who are saying we must be in need of some rest after a ‘holiday’ like this mean well. However, I will get plenty of rest when I’m dead; for the meantime, this holiday is how holidays should be.