BEAR INSTINCT

On my last day in LA, I headed to the Hollywood Farmer's Markets. At one of the stalls, I met a man called Andrew @nativeimagela - the first of many Andy's I was going to meet on my journey funnily enough. Andrew's stall, Native Image LA, is a bit of an icon at the Markets. While I was checking out some silver bear earrings, in amongst the sage. cedar and dreamcatchers, he walked over to me and said,

"I never normally make bear products," he told me, "but I did last night - I think it’s because it was meant for you. I must have known you were coming."

This sounded pretty awesome to me (he was also perhaps a brilliant salesman!). He then showed me a bear claw he had made (fibreglass, of course!). Telling me about his family, about healers and festivals happening up the coast, and how he normally 'dealt' in other animals but had felt he needed to make this the previous night. I told him how I was going on an adventure with the bears and he nodded and then told me how I should learn from the bear. 

Since bears continue fighting after being seriously injured, Native Americans often believed they were capable of healing their wounds, and so are associated with healing. As he was showing me the beading on necklaces, he turned to me and said:

 

“You're going to need to be strong.”

Then he turned and looked at me front-on, gently held my shoulders and said "I don’t mean physically, I mean in here,” and he gestured into his chest and core, "I mean emotionally. You know what I mean? You're going to be facing a lot of things inside... but remember the Bear and you will be okay. Be strong in here". 

"Learn from the bear. They are the masters of the season and for tapping into our natural instinct. They are the ultimate mothers and the great healers. The Bear lives for the seasons. It knows when the right time to rest is, the right to fight, the right time to hunt, the right time to play. They know when to nurture themselves".

The perfect send-off <3

Kathmandu

LOGGED APRIL 11 

In my heart, I have always wanted to chase this vocation that for a long time did not have a name. There was just a call inside me. To go adventuring. With my camera, paintbrushes & pen as my tools to explore it. To let all these practices collide and give myself the freedom and time to explore it, to grow + make a difference in the world. 

This has been my wildest dreams. In time, that dream has started appearing little by little. It started crystallising when I named it - as a Wild Life Creative. 

I think I am still in shock that that's me there on the Kathmandu page, one of Australia's leading brands. To have a company so reputable sponsoring me as an Adventurer and Wild Life Creative is both humbling and amazing. Like many travellers, Kathmandu is a brand I have a strong sentimental bond with from wearing the brand on many of the best days of my life, out there seeing the world.

Kathmandu has offered me way more than I requested in my application, given product advice and told me they don't want anything from me except for me to just be me & do what I do. And to share that journey. 

In today’s age where corporate greed is rife, I have been quite blown away at their generosity and support. And I love them even more now. I appreciate the opportunities they have opened for me so much. In supplying me with the gear I need, they will make this trip so much more comfortable and affordable (my toes were about to come out of my hiking boots and I was considering duct tape!). 

The best part though, has come from the people in their team. In their genuine belief and excitement for my dreams, they have made me look beyond and cemented in me the knowledge that I am on my path, that this is not really a dream now. This is happening. I am ‪#‎LivingTheDream‬ now. 

Thanks Kathmandu! 

xx Kate

‪#‎openyourworld‬ ‪#‎wildkate‬ ‪#‎yourockkathmandu‬

Diving in the Deep

LOGGED JULY 7, 2014 Despite us being in the water every day, the sea is so amazing here that we can’t help but get in on our ‘dry days’. My friend and colleague Zoey and I are hoping to become ace free divers by the end of our stay on Niue.

Newy to Niue

LOGGED JUNE 14, 2014: “You’re moving where?”

This is the general reaction I got when I told people I was moving to Niue (pronounced – New – AY). Of the hundreds of people I told that I was moving (I was perhaps a tad excited), only a handful have heard of it before – mainly sailors or whale enthusiasts or Kiwis. Most people thought I was talking about the city where I am from – Newcastle, Australia (otherwise known as Newy by locals).

Niue’s relative anonymity is probably why I like it so much.

The last paradise.

Newy to Niue. Image: Google Maps

Located halfway between Tonga and Samoa in the South Pacific, Niue has held the titles of Rock of Polynesia and (as locals claim unfairly!) Savage Island. It’s known for being the first Wi-fi nation, one of three places in the world that you can swim with humpback whales, and home to some of the friendliest people on earth.

After the Vatican, it has the smallest population of any country in the world with 1,300 residents living on the island. For this reason, it is not uncommon to be greeted by a local at the airport (for the one of two planes that come to the island per week), then rent a vehicle from them, see them running a show at the Matavai Resort and the next day fishing from a vaka (a traditional canoe). Oh and they are probably also a Minister of Parliament or head of an important committee.

Niue could be classed by some as third world, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. There is no poverty here. Crime is an absolute rarity. Everyone has access to free clean fresh water, free education and free medical. In many ways, this exceeds current western world standards.

There are many things I love about Niue, but mainly it is the friendly and unpretentious feel of the island and its people. The terrain is unexplored and wild, there is an adventurous spirit, lack of nightlife and McDonalds, and strong sense of community and respect. For me, it’s my sacred place.

In - Flight

LOGGED June 7, 2014: A florist who loves space. Who doesn’t love chatting to the person next to you on the plane?! On my flight to New Zealand, the florist I was sitting next to was heading to Spacefest in California to have dinner with a few astronauts, no less than Michael Collins (the man who flew with Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11).

Turns out the florist is a sponsor and supporter of the Hunter Medical Research Institute – where I worked with many of their researchers to tell their story, through my job at the University of Newcastle as a Features Writer. A job I had just chucked in to be a whale whisperer. Small world (Newcastle represent).

We marvelled at how truly extraordinary human ingenuity is. How truly inspiring the human spirit is and where research will take us next. What our world will look like in five years time. Oh, and aliens and conspiracy theories. Anyway, it was funny how as the florist and I both curled up in our respective seats, our movie choices reflected our personal adventures ahead. He put Gravity on and I turned on The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Source: Pinterest (Unknown - please feel free to contact me so I can give the rightful owner credit). 

 

The secret life

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was the perfect movie for me to watch (except the part where he is attacked by a shark or a pooorpooiiseee in freezing cold waters – my Mum has this great fear that dolphins are going to sexually assault me).

Like Walter, the last few years have been a second coming-of-age for me. A grand adventure reconnecting with those parts of me that had felt misplaced and in exploring this big, beautiful world, I was exploring the life I have always wanted.

My favourite Walter moment is when action-man photographer, Sean O’Connell (played to perfection by Sean Penn) is gifted with a magic opportunity to take a picture of a snow leopard (something he was seeking to do for a long time) and chooses not to take the picture. Walter asks why he doesn’t.

Sean replies with: “Sometimes I don’t. If I like a moment, for me, personally, I don’t like the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay in it….. Right there. Right here.”

A moment just for me

And I realised that as for so many of my experiences in Niue, there are different pieces and layers to the experience that I can’t possibly explain or fit it in one conversation over the phone or in a blog post. My experience with the whales was very much like that for me. I am an open person (some could say over-sharer!) and normally express or capture everything in my life – it is the curse and beautiful blessing of being a ‘creative’.

I have told many people about the whale experience but never fully what that day did for me. There’s some things that are just for you. The peace it bought it to my life can never be quantified. Funnily enough, I met the local whale whisperer (who also happens to be my landlord) and he said the same thing to me – that there are many things he has experienced on the water that were moments just for him, that he can’t share with anyone because it felt like a moment made just for him.

Many of my Niue moments have felt like moments just for me. It’s a deeply spiritual place (perhaps that is why it is not as well known as its other Pacific island counterparts – it feels like everyone’s secret place).

I watched the last 20 minutes of the movie as the water rushed beneath me on my way to my new island home. This massive leap I was taking to leave the world I had re-built in Australia felt a little more real and little less scary with every kilometre – nerves turning to excitement, childhood dreams to reality. Cheers Walter!