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Over the Edge: Reflections on Selfies, Hand Prints, and Solo Travel
About a year ago, an article popped up on my Instagram feed about the discovery of a new cave with early history cave paintings, one of which was a handprint. This is not unusual. Handprints are a common form of cave painting. What stuck with me was that the consulted archeologist, when asked about the single handprint, shrugged and said the hand-print maker was perhaps only trying to say, “I was here.” Because I'm traveling on my own, the only way I get to say “I was here” is to have a photo of me in that spot.
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Getting My Feet Wet in Whangarei
Whangārei is located about two hours north of Auckland in the Northland region of the North Island. This (as I consider it) is the true start of my backpacking experience. Auckland was simply "traveling." However, in Whangārei, I feel like a real person, rather than Traveler Maddie. I finally am beginning to feel like New Zealand Maddie.
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WWOOF: The Seaweed Queen of Great Barrier Island
Great Barrier Island was formed from ancient volcanoes, like most of New Zealand, and it rises dramatically from a wave-rumpled sea. With mountains swelling from the blue water and native forests draped like a blanket over every visible surface, it looks wild. Untouched. I can imagine Polynesians paddling up to it, and the same wild and untamed view greeting them as greets me today.
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Crash Course: All the History I Need to Know about New Zealand
The Auckland Volcano Field, which holds Auckland city at its center, is home to 53 ancient volcanos. Many have eroded or been built on. But, from high above, I could spot several green hills, the bones of old volcanoes, rising above rooftops. Only 600 years ago, Auckland's youngest volcano, Rangitoto, rose from the sea when an underwater volcano erupted with violent fury. Today, Rangitoto Island is only a 20 minute ferry ride from downtown.
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Yellowstone NP: The Current State of Bear Affairs
While visiting Yellowstone National Park at the end of May, my parents and I spent at least half of our time watching the wildlife. While many of these animals mostly reside in Yellowstone these days, at one point the entire stretch of the Rocky Mountains sported all these animals. Some still do, such as elk, deer, and big horn sheep, but grizzly bears, wolves, and bison were once in danger of disappearing from the lower 48, so Yellowstone is one of the few places to observe them. However, park boundaries are arbitrary to wildlife and these animals' territory has expanded.
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Where the Buffalo Roam–Some Thoughts on Yellowstone NP
National Parks remind me that once the whole west was as starkly beautiful and untouched by exploitation. But no longer. Yellowstone reminds me how, then and now, control is everything. Not harmony. Control. In 1872, the land of Yellowstone NP didn't have to be protected from Native American tribes who had called it home for centuries. It only needed to be protected from us.
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Yellowstone NP: Cruising the Crater of a Super Volcano
Much of Yellowstone National Park is a super volcano worthy of end of the world sci-fi movies, but my favorite part was the previously-not-known-to-me Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the wildlife watching. The snow is two feet deep in places and nonexistent in others. Rivers bulge at the seams, and some valleys flood entirely, calm waters mirroring the trees they swamp. Oh, yeah. And we're doing it all in the camper van.
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Seek and Ye Shall Find (Antlers)
So, I went antler hunting. Yes, that's a thing. Male elk, deer, and moose lose their antlers every spring, and people go looking for them. Like a giant Easter Egg hunt, except a lot more uncertain and a lot heavier load if you find some.
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Awestruck in the Arctic: an Aurora Borealis Gallery
From the first human who tipped their head back to watch the fierce and brilliant otherworldly lights, there have been myths to explain the phenomenon of the aurora borealis. The stories of the aurora are wide and varied, but each suggests something greater than ourselves, greater than humanity. And I felt that, head tipped back, breath misting the air. I felt like I could almost touch them, like I was so close to something more.
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The Last Nine People (and One Dog) on Earth
On Wednesday the 5th of April, I woke up at Yellow Dog Lodge in the Northwest Territories as one of the last people on earth. Only a few miles away from the quaint, off-the-grid lodge and cabin complex where we resided, the world as I knew it cut off, dropped away. Frankly, it just ended, like the edge of a flat-worlder's map. I don't know what happened to the people beyond the end point, but I came to terms with it pretty quickly. There was there, and here was here. And I was here. One of the last people on earth.
