The Heroes Journey!

Lugging my keyboard, fold-up chair, keyboard stand and amplifier out of the Pit and down the narrow staircase was a brutal test of endurance. The only way to my car was down a bony metal stairwell of 3 flights - I felt like a lumbering pack-mule as I began shuffling down, certainly as awkwardly as a pack-mule. Spilling out onto the street, I re-adjusted my luggage, and marched onward to the Emerald Wagon.  The time had come to do my first busking mission to Queenstown! Busking in Queenstown was to be my primary source of income throughout 2018. It was the centrepiece of my ‘master plan’, the heart of what would keep this lifestyle I was building alive. After loading my gear into the Emerald Wagon, I hopped in behind the wheel, and headed on my way. I can’t waste any more of this day, I thought, appreciating the weather’s warm splendour which had made the Emerald Wagon like an oven. The perfect day for busking. And so, out of Dunedin I went, speeding down the highway...

The sign jutting out onto the street did indeed state that ‘The Worlds Longest Grand Piano’ was there. I still didn’t believe it. The longest grand piano… on Earth?? Here in Dunedin? Ridiculous… That’s ridiculous. I headed up the narrow driveway, just to the side of a big old building that is surely haunted, and went to knock on the big garage door. After a few moments, a friendly fellow opened it and welcomed me in. He introduced himself as Adrian, and I would have responded if I wasn’t completely gobsmacked by what stretched out before me. The Worlds Longest Grand Piano, like something out of a fictional story, lay there in the centre of the room. A majestic sight, to the say the least. I glanced at Adrian, astonishment probably ripe on my face. “You built this?” Adrian chuckled. “Yep, I built it.” How the heck..? How does one even start building a piano, not to mention the world’s LONGEST!? “Can I .. play it?” I asked. “Yeah go for it!” He said. I sat before it - the Alexa...

I always wanted to feel like I was undertaking some kind of quest. Perhaps this was something I adopted from the video games I spent my childhood playing. In the virtual world, a good quest made things more adventurous and exciting, and gave me purpose. Why couldn’t real life be like that? Was there, perhaps, a grand Quest that we were here to undertake? Something we were always born to do?   I thought so.  I had found my Quest, somewhere in the Mountains of Queenstown, in late 2017. It took much journalling, contemplation, and meditation to reveal it - dredging through layers of myself, like panning for gold in a muddy river - but I had found it. I was heading down the career path of Hospitality Management at the time. But with my new gleaming insight, continuing the road of Hospitality Management would be blatantly wasting my time. I had a Quest to fulfil, and investing my time into anything that wasn’t the pursuit of that Quest seemed foolish.  Time wa...