The New Zealand Herald
Date: May 27, 2015
By: Eli Orzessek is an NZME. News Service reporter.

Taiwan’s thick bush and rugged mountains are comfortingly familiar. Photo / 123RF

Said to be the home of the first Maori, Taiwan’s bush-clad valleys and tribal villages feel like home to Eli Orzessek.

I’m deliriously dog paddling in a chilly rooftop pool on a cold morning, surrounded by mountains with a background soundtrack of white noise from the white water rushing down below.

It reminds me of a line in a song by one of my favourite bands, The Magnetic Fields: “Sounds like a mountain range in love”. And I’m in love with this pool, this mountain range, this hotel, this town, this country.

Soaking in a thermal spring spa with hot jets of water shooting at my back is so heavenly that before I know it, I’m meditating without even trying. The manic energy I usually carry around drifts off down the river. There’s a small temple up in the hills and my mind has floated away from my body and is up there, just chilling. I don’t know if it will be back anytime soon.     [FULL  STORY]