Written while flying from Singapore to Aotearoa – Sun 25th Sept Aotearoa time…
Flying in amongst the stars right now, a clear night, not a cloud in the sky. I saw lights below, strong lights like someone lived down there and then I realized it was a star and then a whole lot of stars appeared like sparkling gems – cool!

I also notice a bright bright star – could this be Venus? Or perhaps Jupiter? But no teapot so no Puanga (Rigel) but maybe early in the morning I will see Rigel, this star that signals to us in the west, the beginning of our Māori new year.
The earth is definitely round, there would be no other explanation for having stars below us – it feels special flying in the realms of ngā ātua, floating, flying, space, the space outside and the space within, connection to those stars is an extension of me, perhaps the saying “it is written in the stars” perhaps this is what it means?
A little while later…
And there appeared Tautoru – Orion’s belt – the teapot! It was like I had willed it’s appearance into the sky and to the left of Tautoru – there sat Puanga. Now normally when this is seen from the earth, you look up to the sky and Puanga is below Orion’s belt, but we are flying beside it, it’s like it is flat on it’s back – that is SO cool!
It was always a childhood game to find the teapot or a shooting star where we grew up. I remember the night sky full of stars just like tonight’s sky… and aaaahhh Puanga, it feels so great to see you!

I’m guessing the time is about 3am NZ time – perfect time, the mind is awake and alert and creativity is high. And she (yes Puanga right now is a she according to me!) has been out the window for at least an hour although time has no relevance in these moments…
And then amazingly, in a few moments it was there like how you normally see it in the sky from the earth – tautoru – puanga – the teapot – back to the usual viewing point, not so high this time – but up there again – did we change direction? It seems so close like I can reach out and touch it…
6.55am NZ time – I have to write some more because so much has happened after the change in stars – just like that and then I looked below and saw all these lights – a few of them and I realized they were boats sitting off the Western coastline of Australia and then something spectacular – lightning lit up the sky – and wow – it was a sight to see and I tried to video it but my camera would not reach that far into space but that’s ok because I have imprinted this amazing night show in my mind as a memory… and this was just before Uluru (Ayers rock) and actually, this was another amazing thing that happened…
Such an amazing journey going on outside the plane window. And the pathway that our plane took was a direct route through the landscape… but not just any landscape. We travelled over Mt Merapi in Indonesia which I did not realize until later when I looked at the route we had taken… then Uluru in Australia – powerful, the blue mountains in Sydney, so beautiful and then touching down on Aotearoa soil to Rangitoto and I’m sure a few more maunga we flew by but when I looked on the screen and saw this I thought wow – how magical is that, that we fly by these maunga – these kaitiaki in the landscape that embrace both realms of Papatūānuku our earth mother and Ranginui our sky father… that is whats so special about maunga and this was just meant to be and we greet them one by one…
And you know what? This flight was one of the smoothest flights ever – very little turbulence – and as hard as I tried to sleep, I couldn’t – but I think the atua were telling me to be by the window, and I normally prefer the aisle on these long haul trips but ended up with a window seat and how special and wonderful that was!!!
And all the while this was happening I was looking at the map of the route that the plane was taking and thought hmmm so we are traveling around over the top of the earth and this is why the universe changed all of a sudden, the perspective changed and instead of being close to Puanga it then became distant – hmmm – fascinating stuff and smooth, smooth ride!
And then… this is an “and then” story that could go on forever – flying over Sydney at sunrise – the most beautiful sunrise with a bit of moon still in the sky, it was perfect, so so perfect. Only nature could be so perfect and could produce something to perfection like that…it all felt very surreal and spiritual and just plain magical… what a beautiful journey home…
And one last thing as I finish this post, grounded at Auckland airport waiting for my flight home, a couple of birds just appeared here beside me inside the terminal – I have no idea where they came from, I was fully inside, no doors nearby – my kaitiaki for the last leg home… beautiful, just beautiful!
Arohanui,
Jo x