Returning to the Mountains

July 22, 2020

In January 2020 I moved from Nelson back to Reefton, a small inland town in the mountains, on the West Coast of the South Island of Aotearoa/New Zealand. When I first visited the West Coast region in my early twenties, I felt a deep spiritual connection and that I was coming home. This was despite being born and bred in the city. I knew on that first visit that I would move here. I loved the wildness, the ruggedness, the untamed bush and mist. The West Coast region is wet and wild. A house that is not lived in soon reverts to the bush. The towns were established in the 1860s to service gold-mining, and later coal-mining,  and farming in the valleys. Reefton still looks somewhat like a frontier town, and I enjoy the sense of history here as I walk around.

I moved here in the 1980s, but left after nearly 20 years for the sun and beaches of Nelson. Returning to Reefton was not in any plan! But it feels like a return to a spiritual home, to my turangawaewae, my place I belong. As well as being in the mountains, I enjoy the sense of being part of a small community, and the slower pace of life here in a small town.