The Final Cartwheel is the story of a young doctor’s return home, after a five-year hitchhiking odyssey around the world. Through East Asia, Indonesia, and around the Antipodes, the circle becomes unbroken.

1. The Final Cartwheel
The Final Cartwheel is
the story of a young
doctor’s return home,
after a five-year
hitchhiking odyssey
around the world.
Through East Asia,
Indonesia, and around
the Antipodes, the
circle becomes
unbroken.

2. Slow Boat to China
But there was one crazy
son of a bitch on the
waves that night,
rocking and rolling in
bunk #44, who not only
didn’t seem to care, but
was as high as a hard-
winged kite, on a slow
boat to China.

3. Songs of the South
There were Bai women
carrying loads of straw so
large you couldn’t see them.
A dust storm swirled around
the South Gate, as I tried to
draw its essence. Edges
blunted, peaks eroded, stars
fell, and dream mists
cleared, like a pocket watch
melting over a branch of the
old Banyan tree. In the need
for my own salvation, I
found a Salvador in Dali.

4. The Route of Seeing
Then they sang, and
taught me their songs,
gifted me with film and
a delicious fish caught
by one of the regulars,
and made toasts to me,
and my odyssey.
Pausing between clouds
the moon rests in the
eyes of its beholders.

5. Eating the Wind and Moon
“The stars of the snake look
familiar.” Said Julia.
“It’s Orion.” I said. “The Batak
seasons are regulated by the
conjunctions of Scorpio with
the moon, chasing Orion
across the sky.”
“That Doctor Winkler was a
man before his time.” She
laughed.
“And this Dr. Winkler may have
arrived too late.” I said, folding
the bark accordion book back
into its carved receptacle, and
sliding its lid back on.

6. Coromandel Gold
We took the dogs for long
walks over the sand dunes,
played chess with the many
Christmas visitors, and went
fishing with Ron off the
rocks and surf, smoking the
kohawai we caught by the
carload, with the tea tree
we had cut by the cord.
Robyn related stories of
waking in the night to go
floundering by lamplight.
We strolled the sunsets on
the dunes, and ate well.

7. Sulfur and Molasses
He took us to what would
become our new home
for the next month, a
modest rancher with a
central patio overlooking
the lake. 9 Aquarius Drive.
“They call this Pill Hill.” He
said. And he introduced
us to Ringo, the cat, and
how to feed the goldfish
and the video player.

8. The Waters of Greenstone
At an altitude approaching
cobalt, our horizons
stretched far into the ether
of the surrounding
Humboldt ridges and
ranges. We climbed the
5000 foot peak of Conical
Hill and I was back in the
Nepal, above the clouds,
reaching out to touch the
stone cairns and
snowcapped timeless
backbone of the universe,
eye to eye with my soul yet
one more time.

9. The Waters of Greenstone
We descended the western
aspect sadly, as all descents
are, stopped for some trail
mix and an orange, and
turned onto the track
southwards, traversing the
Hollyford face, with
expansive views out to
Martins Bay and the Tasman
Sea. They flanked us on our
right for the next two hours,
until we climbed a ridge for
a vertiginous panorama of
jade and emerald Lake
McKenzie...

10. The Waters of Greenstone
We made the one o’clock
sailing of the SS Milford
Haven, along the steep
4000 foot cliff faces, the
fifteen-kilometer length of
the fiord, past the peaks of
Mitre and the Elephant and
the Lion, Stirling and Lady
Bowen Falls, and hundreds
of temporary cascades, fed
by rainwater-drenched
moss, some never reaching
the bottom, drifting away in
the wind, some falling
skywards in the updrafts.

11. Glowing Skies
...eventually arriving at the
mast of the Enterprise. We got
Digby Taylor at the helm, no
life jackets, and two hours of
hanging on for dear life - out
through the rip beyond the
Foveaux Strait oyster fleet,
and eight-foot swells around
Dog Island. My head position,
in the navigation room picture,
was at a serious angle. The
return leg was sixteen knots,
smooth as silk and blinded
with sunlight off the port side.

12. The Wizard of Was
It was a long way from
anywhere else in the world
but for us, it was only nine
kilometers from the turnoff.
For the time we waited to
hook a ride, it may have as
well been Mars. It was just
before noon before Leon,
an agricultural student from
Wanaka, stopped for just a
nanosecond, and
transported us all the way...

13. The Wizard of Was
Steve and I checked into motel
flat number 34, at the
Glencoe, with spectacular
sunny views of Mount
Wakefield and Sebastopol. We
walked out to Kea Point, to
find Mt. Cook and Sefton.
The sun fell behind Aorangi,
and my dreams became more
vivid. I had been experiencing
flashbacks. A healthy
apprehension about finally
returning home, had become a
phobia. For the first time, in
almost five years of traveling, I
was apprehensive.

14. Tiki Tour
Knowing Steve’s love for
sailing, Robyn had booked
us on a two-masted brig
for the day. The water
was aquamarine
perfection, but the old
salt skipper tore a gash in
his mainsail, taking us out
to one of the islands,
where we climbed a hill,
and trekked to gather
mushrooms, for dinner.

15. Tiki Tour
After a snapper lunch at
the pub in Russell, we
piled back into Nikki’s oil
leak and drove to the
sand dunes in overcast
Opononi, on the south
shore of the Hokianga
harbor. We checked into
the ‘accommodation for
hitchhikers,’ run by the
Māori woman on the
lawnmower.

16. Voyage of the Taporo
Miriam had reserved us a
room, but it wasn't yet
ready, so we stowed our
packs, took our croissants
and jus d’orange across to
the Mo’orea dock, and
walked to our patisserie for
an early morning coffee.
The day degenerated into
shopping. I bought a couple
of Galerie Winker posters
and some coconut oil soap.