I hope everyone had an enjoyable and restful holiday season. Mine was part fun, part tumultuous (for personal reasons), and not the least bit relaxing. But hopefully things will settle down once everyone goes back to work, which is imminent….
Catching the breeze on New Year’s Day from the Tahunanui fun fair
In other news, 2023 marks 10 years since I started freelancing! This time ten years ago I was actually on a post-PhD trip around the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, just because I could. I was preparing to return to Australia, where I lived at the time, to take up a casual teaching position at the Australian National University. I wasn’t that interested in a teaching career but, after completing a PhD, I didn’t really know what else to do. To be honest, I was semi-unconsciously looking for an out and had put the wheels in motion.
In January 2023, I attended the Jaipur Literature Festival (the second of three visits I’ve made to “the greatest literary show on earth”), where I picked up a copy of Scottish historian and travel writer William Dalrymple’s then-recent release, Return of a King, and saw him speak on the book and the process of its writing. I was still deeply mired in academia at the time, and I pitched a review essay of Dalrymple’s book to Himal Southasian, a Kathmandu-based magazine that I read and that I’d been trying to work for.
That essay was published in April 2023, making it not quite 10 years old yet. It was my first published freelance article and I was amazed that someone had paid me to write something! I think it was all of $100, but compared to what I was getting in academia, it felt like a lot. Then an editorial position opened at Himal Southasian in Kathmandu, I applied, I got it, and in August 2013 I relocated to Nepal!
The next, as they say, is history. For the next 10 months, I worked in-house at Himal, a truly formative experience, and the way out of academia that I’d been searching for. I freelanced on the side, writing a few articles on literature, arts, and culture in South Asia (including this one about Kathmandu street art, which I still love), and taking up some part-time academic editing in Australia to boost my local Nepali salary (NPR 30,000/US$250 per month!)
I didn’t go full-time freelance until mid-2014, when I left Himal, but the foundation had been laid for everything that has come after. And I’m still really proud of that first esoteric review essay on Dalrymple’s book, not least because I think I’ve forgotten how to write like that now! I’m definitely out of practice.
People sometimes ask me how I ended up being a freelance writer, and that’s the story I tell. I was looking for a way out of academia. I got an in-house job as an editor. One professional thing led to another. Because of my Nepal location, travel writing became a natural next step, and was something I’d always been interested in anyway.
Many freelancers follow a path of having a well-paying(ish) job that they need to work up the courage to leave in order to “go freelance”. That was never the case with me and I don’t feel that freelancing was a conscious choice I ever made: it was just a natural career progression. I was living a rather international life and freelancing was the only option for a while, so I made the best of it. And now I wouldn’t even consider going back.
What I’m working on
I’m putting the finishing touches on my guidebook! I have now officially “done” the West Coast of the South Island and I have truly fallen in love with it. Of course, I haven’t really done it all as there are so many hikes and other experiences to return to at another time. But I’ve travelled from top to bottom and almost everywhere in between, and I wouldn’t have done all that in the short timeframe if it wasn’t for the guidebook assignment, so it’s been a wonderful experience. Plus, my five-year-old daughter thinks I’m a big deal.
The south-western entrance to the Kahurangi National Park, at Kohaihai, near Karamea
Where I’ve travelled recently
Christmas this year was spent at my house in Nelson, so family from Northland and Auckland travelled down to me. We spent a few days at the beaches and rivers around Nelson, which are just phenomenal, as was the weather.
After New Year, I travelled to Karamea for a few days, for a last research push for my guidebook. It’s the northernmost end of the South Island’s West Coast and actually not geographically very far from where I live, but because of a national park and mountain range in between, it takes several hours to drive to.
Karamea, population 357, was a more happening place than I had anticipated, in that there are three different places to eat out (a cafe, a pub, and a resort). The highlight, though, was the entrance to the Kahurangi National Park at Kohaihai, where we did some walks. My ankles are still suffering from all the sandfly bites though! Dear god, the sandflies…
A sweet little bush walk in the Kahurangi National Park
Where I’m travelling next
My next planned trip is to Sydney and Newcastle (NSW) at Easter. Sydney I’ve been travelling to for over 30 years, and I’m looking forward to introducing my daughter to the beautiful big city. It’ll be my first time in Newcastle, though. PR folk or fellow writers, feel free to send me your suggestions!
My 2023 project
Writing a novel is one of those things that I’ve always thought I wanted to do, but hadn’t got around to. I put it in the “I’ll do it someday” basket. But upon turning 39 in November I realised that on my next birthday I’ll be turning 40, which means I need to stop thinking like I’m 20 and have my whole life ahead of me. I know, I’m not exactly old, yet. But my mum died at 57, and a good friend of my sister’s is battling cancer in her early 30s, so I know that life can be short. We shouldn’t put off the things that matter to us.
In 2023, I’m going to start my novel. I have an idea. With all this travel to the West Coast, I couldn’t find the novel I really wanted to read about the West Coast. New Zealand literature is a limited body of work, and not everything has been written about yet. I’m going to add my two cents’ worth, and 2023 will be the year I do it. Or make a good start, anyway. I won’t be making any “Best 40 under 40” lists, but never mind.
What are you up to this year? Any resolutions? Let me know and perhaps we can hold each other accountable!