The Boat Shed Cafe & Bistro — Queenstown, New Zealand
Queenstown, New Zealand 🇳🇿
It was my honeymoon, and the decision has to be made. It should be a memorable one, and has to be in a place that can be warm as my wedding was in February, in the midst of the winter season in our country. My wife and I were hesitating between multiple destinations in the southern hemisphere where the season would be summer in February. Australia was one, but due to the complications of VISA requirements, and the fact that a smaller nearby country offers entry for us without a VISA, we decided to have our honeymoon in New Zealand. The choice was just perfect for us, and the experience was better than what we have expected.
It was a long flight to New Zealand, almost 19 hours excluding stopovers. I made the itinerary arranged to have our first stay in Queenstown, a lovely town in the southern island of the country. Then we would hop north three times to reach Auckland as our final stop before flying back home. It was a lot of fun, and a great choice to start with a lovely city like Queenstown.
What I remember about my travel plans to New Zealand is how rich and serious they are about tourism. You can find a rich website to help you plan your trip to the whole country. More than 16 years ago, I now faintly remember having a planner tool as part of the website, but cannot seem to find it at the moment. You would also find each city and town having their own mini tourism website, which helps you even focus your search and plans. Queenstown tourism website can be found here.
Queenstown is a resort town in Otago in the south-west of New Zealand's South Island. It has an urban population of 14,300, making it the 27th largest urban area in New Zealand. In 2016, Queenstown overtook Oamaru to become the second largest urban area in Otago, behind Dunedin.
— Wikipedia
The Boat Shed Cafe & Bistro — Pin 📍
While in Queenstown, I stayed in the Heritage Hotel. A very lovely and cozy hotel and resort that takes your breadth away. I wanted to write about the cafe and restaurant in that hotel, which I remember was comfy, warm and welcoming. However, I decided to pick another cafe for my tour here, rendering this cafe as a place I want to spend time in, if I happen to visit Queenstown for a second time.
The Boat Shed Cafe & Bistro, located on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. Cycle or walk along the Frankton Track or arrive by boat to the Frankton Marina.
— The Boat Shed
This is a dream-would-come-true for me. A cafe on the shores of a lake, with a breathtaking landscape of mountains and hills. The vintage house, which used to be a New Zealand Railways Shipping Office, is now hosting a small coffee house, with a beautiful shed that takes in the bright sunshine. Outside is a spacious porch with tables for those who want some fresh air with their coffee and meals.
What captured my attention from these photos is the seasons effect on one tree. Here is two shots from almost the same angle: one taken in summer, and the other taken in winter. The tree is withstanding and simply rolling with the bunches.
Resilience
The photos of the tree in different seasons remind me of an important personal trait. A trait that makes you withstand changes and hold on no matter how difficult life can be. Resilience is known to differentiate those who stand and those who quit. Those who have thick skin, and those who are sensitive to even the tiniest struggles of life. It is a trait that defines us as humans, and is well-known to be connected to emotional intelligence as well.
Resilience is the psychological quality that allows some people to be knocked down by the adversities of life and come back at least as strong as before. Rather than letting difficulties, traumatic events, or failure overcome them and drain their resolve, highly resilient people find a way to change course, emotionally heal, and continue moving toward their goals.
— Psychology Today
Resilience is not about avoiding struggles and setbacks. It is not about having a peaceful life without any difficulties. It is about how we respond to that, just like how that tree responds each year to the harshness of fall and winter. It is a capability that is about toughness that can be built over time. That is why, resilience is hard to develop if you are always looking for comfort in your life.
Man's Search for Meaning
One of the books I have read about dealing with adversities is a master work of the psychiatrist Viktor Frankl in his memoir “Man's Search for Meaning”. Viktor brilliantly depicted his experience in death camps of the World War II. He showed what resilience is, and what differentiates those who vanish from those who stick around.
Man's Search for Meaning
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.
Here is my short review of the book from Goodreads:
A really touching and a deep read. A story of suffering and of resilience. It's composed of two main parts. The first part is a memoir of the author in his experience of the World War II concentration camps. He writes authentically and adds anecdotes of wisdom and bits of psychological reflections. It's generally more entertaining to the sole and is lighter than the second part.
The second part is an elaboration of the author's coined "logotherapy" which denotes "meaning" therapy and is really deep and has a specialist tone. Nonetheless, it is full of great insights and wisdom for the ordinary reader like myself. I could say It's more entertaining to the mind compared to the first part.
I enjoyed every bit of it!
— Abdurrahman, Goodreads.
A few quotes from the book to end with...
"If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete."
— Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life. There is much wisdom in the words of Nietzsche: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
— Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
“Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy.”
— Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
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