I’m finally back after having one of the best adventures of my life thus far: visiting one of my very best friends in New Zealand. On our trip, we rented a car, planned a road trip 2 days before leaving for it, sand boarded (sand dune: 1, us: 0), Zorbed (see: hamster in a ball), soaked in a mineral hot springs, ate Tim Tams for dinner, met all different types of amazing people (special shout out to the English guy that looked like Dan from Bastille), hiked plenty (my butt and quads are thankful), almost got ran over multiple times while crossing the street (the one time looking to your left before you cross the street is a bad thing), and hung out with the coolest and friendliest Pacific Islanders. Before arriving, I wasn’t really sure what exactly New Zealand would look like — I just imagined a whole lot of green and grass and my brother claimed there would be sheep left and right. Turns out we were both right — grass and sheep and hills and mountains everywhere. As you can imagine, truly good radio stations were hard to come by in the deep heart of the country. Radio stations would go from playing R.E.M. (umm) to Backstreet Boys (#tbt) to Hozier (that’s more like it). While this playlist will sound eclectic and the opposite of cohesive to others, this playlist of songs is more sentimental than anything. It brings me back to a time of merry misadventures, simplicity, laughter, good vibes, friendship, and great memories. When people ask how our trip was, it’s hard to explain every single thing to them, but this playlist does a pretty good job at summing it up:
1. Someone New by Hozier. “Love with every stranger, the stranger the better” There’s never been truer lyrics than this. While we spent long hours on the road or walking in the most beautiful places, we realized how true this entire song is. Arguably one of the best parts about traveling is the people you meet. We also learned that it is, indeed, possible to “fall in love just a little bit with someone new” every day — from the guy we didn’t actually talk to but who gave us a 1000-mega watt smile when we let him cross the street to the couple/travel buddies we met who have been cycling the world for a little over 2 years.
2. Pompeii by Bastille. “But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?” This song has so much sentimental meaning for us. Bastille is one of Lauren’s favorite bands and hearing it on the radio as we just began our mini road trip seemed like a sign from God that this is exactly where we were meant to be. So, yeah, we freaked out, choked on nostalgia, and almost shed a few tears when this song blared from the radio.
3. Ruketekete Te Mamae by Beau Monga. So I actually have no idea what he’s saying for a majority of this song, but Beau Monga won the second season of X Factor New Zealand and is from the Cook Islands (where Lauren’s housemates were from aka “the coolest and friendliest Pacific Islanders”). And, honestly, how can you listen to this song and not smile?
4. The Nights by Avicii. “One day you’ll leave this world behind so live a life you will remember.” Okay, so I lied earlier — these lyrics are just as true as Hozier’s “Someone New.” We heard this on the radio and had so much fun screaming out the lyrics. And then we actually paid attention to the lyrics and that’s when the feels hit us. Here we were, two very best friends, in a foreign country together embarking on adventure after adventure without a worry in the world (besides whether or not we would get trench foot and/or athlete’s foot from having wet socks). While we were hiking back down Mount Maunganui, we blared “The Nights” and deliriously half-danced, half-trotted back down the mount.
5. Let It Go by James Bay. More like James BAE, am I right?! NZ radio stations would always play this sweet, sweet song and of course we would swoon every time. We also saw him about 2 days after we got back to the states in NYC and were definitely not disappointed!
6. The Wolf by Mumford & Sons. So this song didn’t technically play all the time in NZ, but Mumford and NZ were made for each other.
7. You & Me – Flume Remix by Flume, Eliza Doolittle. With Australia being so nearby, we had to play Flume at least once during our trip!
8. 7Eleven by Dexta Daps. The awesome Cook Islanders Lauren lived with would play the best music during their drink-ups (aka parties) — they played music you can actually dance to and not just pump your fist to and bob your head to. It’s safe to say we felt severely inadequate dancing in front of them though.
9. Buzzcut Season by Lorde. It’s a must to listen to Lorde while in NZ! When the radio was shitty and spotty, we played Lorde’s entire discography picking out our favorite lyrics from each of her songs.
10. Waiting For Love by Avicii. I guess NZ really digs Avicii! This was just another fun, catchy song for us to scream/sing along to (with all the open space and high elevation, how could you resist?)
*Not mentioned because she’s not on Spotify: Taylor Swift — we played all of Tay’s old albums and discussed her lyrics in depth. Things got surprisingly ~deep~.*
Stay tuned,
Roxanne
Rox and Roll 