Sean Wheeler author Aotearoa

Sean Wheeler author Aotearoa I’m a New Zealand based author writing novels and poetry

21/06/2026

Week two back in Spain
I picked up a rental car at Jerez Airport just out of Cadiz.
A three-hour drive to Merida. Driving in Spain is pretty straightforward. I’m well used to this “wrong side of the road” lark. The motorways are easy in my rental Citroen C3 (brand new, right out of the box), it’s hard to stick to 120 kph and in practice I end up cruising at around 128. So different from Crete which was all tight windy mountain roads… or even Aotearoa. Only the cities are tricky to navigate and the sat nav is often wrong or too late…
Merida is amazing. Founded as the capital of the Roman province of Lusitania in 1 BCE. If you have any interest in Roman history, it really is a must see. The theatre is close to intact and the circus probably the most complete in the world.
I made a side trip to Trujillo the birthplace of Pizarro, many of the conquistadors came from Extremadura, it’s hard hot dry country somewhat the Wild West of Spain.
After four nights in Merida, I entrained again for Cordoba.
The mosque/cathedral is beyond belief. I think it even puts the Alhambra to shame. Though without the Alhambra’s wonderful gardens. The sheer beauty of an Al-Andalus Mosque with a Catholic cathedral nestled inside is hard to put into words. After three nights in Cordoba, it’s back on the rails to Alicante. There’s no direct line between Andalusia and Costa Blanca, so the journey was via Madrid with the added complication of having to change stations from Atocha to Chamartin.
Once again on this trip, I have found the Spanish people I’ve encountered unfailingly helpful. Railway officials, random travellers and all are happy to persevere with my mangling of their beautiful language and offer help.
So, finally I’m back in Marina Alta, staying in my niece’s house for about 6 weeks. Days of swimming (want to build up to 80 lengths a day in the superb local pool), playing Padel, drinking vino tinto, eating tapas and yes, if my muse turns up making progress on book number 7 which is set in Spain.

16/06/2026

Heat
The heat slows time
Only someone with something to prove
Moves at pace in the sultry air
Someone proving how fit
Someone proving youthfulness
All that heat
Rayed down by Ra
Radiates back till past midnight
Sweat beads patiently on my head
Waiting for a chance
To dribble down my back
And tonight I'll toss
Naked on my bed
Dreaming foreign dreams

13/06/2026

Lost

The sun filters through tall grasses
Making them shine with frosty gold
This moment takes me back
But I cannot say when or where

I see a Spanish girl in the street
Dark eyes, beautiful, like Anthea
Greek for flower
My first girlfriend, so long ago

The smell of jasmine flying on a breeze
A face that’s so familiar
The sound of church bells
Children filling the air with joy

These deep resonances
These frozen moments
Lost
They take me back
But I cannot say when or where

A big dump of pics from yesterday in Merida.The most important city in the empire outside of Rome.There are many remains...
13/06/2026

A big dump of pics from yesterday in Merida.
The most important city in the empire outside of Rome.
There are many remains of the city founded around 2BCE.
I was very impressed by the theater and amphitheater.
There is also a circus that I'll get to on Sunday.
Theater... for plays!
Amphitheater... for gladiators
Circus...for chariot racing.

Cadiz
09/06/2026

Cadiz

09/06/2026

Week one back in Spain

I arrived back in Spain (is this year 6? I’m losing track) on the same day as Pope Leo though to considerably less fanfare. The crowds around locations he was to visit were already swelling.

I love the richness of Spanish culture, even the religiosity of the more traditional Spain fascinates me.

This country is such a mix of light and dark. The incredible courage of the early explorers and conquistadors lead to the deaths of between 50 and 60 million people in the Americas in the first 100 years of colonialism. Multiple sophisticated civilisations fell before their guns, horses, and smallpox.
The gold and silver they pillaged resulted in the construction of some of the most incredible (and gold-laden) churches in Christendom. The blending of Roman, Visigoth and Moorish influences has resulted in some of the most beautiful old cities in the world.

“Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition” as Monty Python declared. The persecution of Jews, Roma, and Heretics went on in waves for decades.
In more modern history the Civil War tore the country apart and ended with one of Europe’s more repressive regimes.

Yet modern Spain to me is a wonder. The people are friendly and helpful. In the months I am here the sun shines every day, and I can bathe in new experiences.
One of my favourite things to do when I’m travelling is to have unplanned days.

It is easy to fall into the trap of making a list of things to do and see, then scheduling every day. If I have a few days in a city I like to head out in the morning one day with no plan and no idea of where I’m going. Luckily in this age of Sat Nav it is easy after a few hours to turn on my eSIM and begin to wend my way “home.” In Sevilla for instance, I bumbled into the most amazing religious parade in a suburb that no guidebooks mentioned.

I like the food, I like the red wine, I like the sunshine. I’ve got one more day in Cádiz before heading to the “Wild West” of Spain- Extremadura.

29/05/2026

Invisible Man

I love being the invisible man
Travel brings that out in me like a nettle's rash
I pass unseen through the milling crowd
Unnoticed because I am unknown
Yet at a moment's notice I can materialize
Briefly
To chat with a stranger or take someone's photo for them
Only to dematerialise and drift away
Like vapour rising from a hot road after rain
I see and am unseen the perfect observer

29/05/2026

If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company.
Jean-Paul Sartre

26/05/2026

I would also like to be wise.
In the old books it says what wisdom is:
To shun the strife of the world and to live out
Your brief time without fear
All this I cannot do

Bertolt Brecht “To those born later” 1939 (published)

26/05/2026

First impressions of Chania Crete

It’s always such a different experience arriving in a town after dark. My imagination fills in the dark places that show no lights. Is there water there? Or maybe even the decaying hulks of abandoned buildings? All to be revealed in the morning light.

First impressions are important. The immigration officer at Chania airport was the friendliest I’ve ever encountered.

Likewise Stellios the taxi driver. A young man born and bred locally. He’s single and has a girlfriend which he says stops him straying, there are “lots of opportunities” as a taxi driver he says. As a case in point he gets a call for his next job from “some beautiful Norwegian girls” that he’s driven before. But anyway “God is watching” he declares.

In the morning I’ll explore this layered city. Minoans, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans and Venetians, to name a few, have all left their imprint.

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