The Manaia is fine, but the cord, thanks to me wearing it all but a couple of days since we got back from New Zealand last August, finally gave up and snapped.
This was awful. I found myself going to fiddle with it and finding it wasn't there. It's oddly upsetting. I had to order some more cord but until it arrived I fell back on another old favourite - a little pewter tablet with the Ogham script for the letter M embossed on it. I bought it from Killarney National Park, I think - it came from somewhere around there at least. Back then I was still in my slightly hippie phase and was very much into magic and runes and all that. I bought it more for its slightly mystical feel than for the fact that Ogham is an interesting old script. Still, it's a nice little reminder of my university field trip to Ireland.
And that got me thinking. What are the best souvenirs? Little trinkets like my Manaia and Ogham necklaces? Or the beautiful scarf my mum brought me back from Morocco?
Or is it the memories? The sort of things my New Zealand posts are filled with? Silly things like my sister having to scrape ice from the rental car with a tiny piece of wood because we didn't have a proper scraper. And when I fell in the sea at the very end of our kayaking trip. Claire getting dive bombed by a seagull trying to steal her chips. My mum being used as a portable branch by the squirrel monkeys at IPR.
But wait, there's more - what about the postcards written home? My sister and I have developed this little tradition where we write one a day to our parents and, depending on where we are, either post them all in batches or hang onto them until we get back and then hand them over. They're great fun and they're a great way of jotting down the silly things that happen that sometimes we've forgotten by the time we get home.
There's the photos too. I took over 3000 photos just on our 3 week trip to New Zealand. Some of them I know I'll look at in future and go "what the hell was going on there?" And then I'll remember and it'll be brilliant. Like this one where we're all drenched and soggy from when we decided to take a walk in Tongariro National Park and got attacked by ice rain.
Or this one where we went to Hobbiton and I won a leaf from Bilbo's tree (and Amy and Claire pinched some).
I've only just realised that those pictures show us going from Mordor to the Shire. Oh yeah.
Anyway, I think I've come to the conclusion - the inevitable conclusion - that the memories are the best bit (obviously), closely followed by the photos and the journals/blogs/random scribblings. But those little trinkets... well, I'm still amazed how lost I initially felt without my Manaia. It's a tangible link with New Zealand. The only thing that really counts against such things is how much they weigh and where they come from. By which I mean I would never buy anything huge, because luggage allowance and where possible I'd want to buy something made in the country I was visiting. What's the point in buying something as a reminder of a trip if it's made in (for the sake of argument) China?
...at which point I realise that the little fluffy puffin I brought back from Iceland was made in China. It's cute though. I named him Sigi after our unhinged Northern Lights guide.
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