Today was my last day at work. After a very pleasant farewell, of which more later, I met up with Dad for a quick dinner at Higher Taste and we went along to the Film Archive on Ghuznee Street. Wellington was warming up after the icy blast on Tuesday and Wednesday, and there were crowds of happy people hanging out at the Left Bank night market. Wellington's feeling really buzzy these days.
At the Film Archive this week, they are screening the Conquest of Everest documentary, filmed on the actual expedition to the summit, with gorgeous colour footage. A hidden gem. I had no idea it even existed, let alone that it was possible to follow the expedition is such complete detail. The camera went as far as the South Col, and possibly would have gone to the top if the extra weight hadn't been a life-or-death consideration.
So the footage stops when Hillary and Tenzing set off for the final two-day push for the summit, and it cuts to the team further back at one of the camps below, pacing and fretting. The summit was still shrouded in mystery, it felt like that experience was for them alone. But the agony of the months of slogging up hills and through snow, as well as the jubilation at their success was shared with the camera, and the whole thing makes for compelling viewing. It should be compulsory in primary schools, this great feat of exploration within living memory.
On the way home from the train station tonight, Dad described to me the Hillary Step, that sheer twelve-metre-high rock face which Hillary wedged his long bony frame into, grip by grip, without knowing what was beyond it. In one way I can't possibly imagine what sheer guts it must take to set out on an expedition like that, attempting something which has ever been done before.
But at the same time, I feel like I'm on the brink of something momentous in my own little world. Ten months ago I met someone wonderful, quite an exceptional human being. He lives in London, so in nine days time I am heading over there to get the chance to spend more than three weeks at a time with him. I'll be away nearly six months, back in New Zealand in early December.
I'm also taking the opportunity to do something I've always thought about, and work for myself. I'm available for freelance writing and editing for New Zealand clients, and I will be building up my very own website at www.eatyourwords.co.nz.
After five and a half years in France, and coming home last year, the last thing I thought I would be doing is heading back to Europe. In many ways it's a step into the unknown, the realms of the heart, as well as the adventure of setting up on my own account. People keep asking me if I'm excited. I think if I was less certain, then I would have the jitters that you might mistake for excitement. But I'm just so deeply happy to get this chance to do something that matters a great deal to me.
I'll miss you all in Wellington, of course, but it's been a long time now since the people I care about were all in one city, or even one country. I'm setting out, to see what's next, just over the Jeffcoat Step.
