From a Shipwreck in Tahiti to a Busch Light in Minnesota

It absolutely blows my mind that just twelve hours inside of a giant metal tube soaring through the sky, one can go from exploring a shipwreck off the coast of a tiny island in French Polynesia to drinking a Busch Light at a dive bar in Minnesota. 

I’m writing this post on a stormy afternoon, 5,600 miles from Tahiti. My hair is bleached from the sea and my skin still has its tan from the Polynesian sun. I'm back with fresh cut green grass, pine trees, mourning doves and smells of home. But I didn’t just come home from Tahiti, I came home from Tahiti, New Zealand, Indonesia, Zanzibar and Tanzania. In the past 10 months I’ve climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, slept in the Serengeti, wandered through fishing villages off the coast of Africa, backpacked through seven Indonesian islands,I surfed my biggest waves, became an advanced scuba diver, taught yoga in New Zealand, lived in a surf shack, solo traveled the South Island of New Zealand in a campervan and lived like a local on one of the smallest islands in French Polynesia. Now I’m almost 27, living in my moms basement. I feel like I’ve woken up from a really good dream and no matter how hard I shut my eyes and roll over on my pillow I can’t get back into it. 

But I chose to come back to “reality”, and I’m proud of my choice. There’s this attitude among backpackers and long term travelers… I hear a lot of, “I’m never going home”. Committing to travel means never going back to where you started. The longer and further you can stay away, the more invested you are in living an extraordinary life overseas. People travel for many reasons and I will never judge someone else’s “why”, but in my conversations it felt like we were afraid to admit to each other that sometimes we do, deep down, miss home. After many nights in that shack in New Zealand, laying on an old mattress, staring at the tin ceiling, trying to decide between this or that, and wondering if it's possible to live this life and the life I flew away from in September 2023 and again in August 2024, I came to the realization that I simply can go home. It’s easy. I have just enough money in my bank account to book a flight. If I need to, I can. Even if I want to, I can. I have a place to fall back on filled with people who love me. What a privilege that is and how sad would it be if I didn’t take advantage of it. I thought of my sister and my childhood best friend, my grandma and grandpa, my mom, my aunties, my neighbors and my friends… their lives that I so desperately still want to be a part of. The mix of want and need pulled out my phone and bought me a plane ticket to Minneapolis… out of Tahiti, of course. I needed one more stop. 

One of the first things I did when I got home was head to my hometown bar for a party my sister threw together to see everyone I’ve missed so much. It’s actually hilarious how seconds into seeing my friends again it feels like I never left and we go right back to where we left off. I love you guys. Someone told me there’s a rumor going around that I “have a boyfriend from New Zealand and his family owns multiple resorts in Tahiti” . This is gold and I wish it was true, but sadly I need to disprove it. 

Alison’s “surprise party” invite (She can’t keep a secret and sent it to me)

Asa is from Hawaii and is a good friend of mine from Raglan, we met while I was gardening at Solscape. We surfed, went to festivals together and shared a sweet little friend group. He plays in Raglan’s famous Wednesday night open mic boy band “Six Main Mustache”. He can play any song on the bass, piano, guitar, drums and even that kazoo piano thing. Basically a 6’5’’ one man band. He introduced me to missing-a-finger-crazy-paragliding-man, Dave. Asa goes to Dave’s house for a jam with other musicians from town every Friday night and brought me to a jam back in February. Dave is who I ended up renting a room from my last couple of months in Raglan. 

Asa invited me to make a stop in Tahiti on my way to the U.S. We were both leaving Raglan around the same time and this worked out perfectly. How could I not? I can’t imagine another opportunity to go to French Polynesia.  Asa has family in Tahiti. His auntie Sophie moved to Huahine, a small island in French Polynesia in the 80s. She met her husband, Peni, there. They have a son that’s the same age as Asa. We stayed with Auntie Sophie and Uncle Peni at their home that’s right on a crystal blue water beach that faces one of the best surf breaks I’ve ever seen. 

Asa and I did some time traveling. Because we crossed the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Tahiti, we lived a Monday twice. Woke up in Raglan, said our very hard goodbyes to our friends, packed up our bags, drove to Auckland, got on an evening flight to Tahiti, arrived in Tahiti at 2am on Monday AGAIN, then lived that entire May 26th one more time, in Huahine. Completely missing a night of sleep made this even more mind boggling for me. 

Asa and I trying to sleep in the airport. We both crashed and woke up to the airline announcer saying our names into the loudspeaker

I spent 10 days in Tahiti with Asa’s family. We paddled, snorkeled, collected shells, ate delicious meals every night made by auntie Sophie, we explored other islands, met more of Uncle Peni’s family from the island, visited a pearl farm, picked GIANT fresh avocados, and surfed that reef break. I realized that my surfing abilities might not be Tahiti-ready but I gave it a shot and was happy I tried. I had just as much fun being the surf photographer. 

I learned some history of the island. A lot of people that have lived on Huahine for a long time talked about this “Bobby” character. The Hawaiian musician, Bobby Holcomb, came to Huahine  in the 70’s and made an effort to save the local music, stories and traditions after French colonization had already begun to erase the origins of Tahiti and the surrounding islands. Bobby is known as a hero; his artwork and music is EVERYWHERE. It was cool talking with Auntie Sophie and her friends because they actually knew Bobby. Bobby even wrote a song for Jimmy Buffet! One Particular Harbor is about Huahine. 

Painting of Bobby in Auntie Sophie’s house

At the pearl farm I found the most perfect homecoming gift in the world for my mom. We learned that only 1/15 oysters actually produce a pearl in Huahine. Pearl farmers can actually help an oyster produce a pearl if it cannot do it naturally. They put in a round “deposit” or “nucleus” that is made up from the mantle of clams that are shipped to Huahine from the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. My mom is the queen of the ‘sippi river rats so I had to get her a half Mississippi half French Polynesian pearl. 

Just a couple hours before my flight I had to do one more thing before I left Huahine: check out the shipwreck off the shore that we spotted while surfing. An empty sailboat lost its mooring a little over a year ago and it went adrift, crashing into the reef. The owner of the ship passed away quickly after the wreck and now it’s left for the sea to take care of.

Asa dropped me off at the tiny airport and I made my way to Minneapolis alone. Sometimes the only way I can say goodbye to someone that means a lot to me is to convince myself that I’ll see them again. I’ve done this many times and I’ve seen others do it too. The exciting thing about life is that it is entirely possible for us to see each other again and it would be so fun to run into big A once more. Thanks for the great times and music. 

I’ve been home for a week and I get a lot of “where to next?”. I give the same response every time, “I don’t know”. It feels good to admit it and roll with it. I’m not sure what’s around the corner for me. All I know is that I love where I come from, I love where I’ve been and the list of where I want to go is longer than it was when I started this mission around the world. Traveling has become who I am just as much as Minnesota is who I am. I’m living between two worlds and I don’t want to have to choose one. 

I have so much gratitude for the readers that have stuck with me from the start and the new readers I’ve gained along the way. You’re from all over the world, so many different walks of life and you’ve all given me the encouragement to keep going. I wouldn’t have made it this far without you. I hope to keep Solo Han going.

I’m on a mission this summer to spend time with the people that mean the most to me and come up with the means to continue this path I’ve made for myself. There's a quote I can’t get out of my head from Jim Doty, the author of Into the Magic Shop, “To keep what you have you must give it away”. I want to keep this life of travel, adventure and exploration. I also want to share it with as many people as possible. I want every girl and woman who has the same desire as I did to put that backpack on and explore hidden corners of the world and herself, to do it. And to be able to do it without fear standing in the way. I’ll leave you with that.

All my love! 

Han