Canvas editorial: Sarah Daniell on the seductive pull of a cabin in the wild

Unyoked; the start-up that creates overnight nature stays in secluded locations. Photo / Alex Gillespie

I read the other day that sensitive people (i.e. me) need to be in water: the ocean, rivers, immersed under a raging waterfall because ... I don’t know. It’s hardly a scientific proposition. But I feel it. I have been known to strip off and run into rivers in the middle of winter, and swim in the ocean in my undies on an impulse because ... I don’t know. It feels right.

I like being in the wild, but preferably the wild featuring water. Not too peopley. But with whiskey and a fire.

Once I said to my colleague Greg Bruce, when he was going on a trip to Sweden, “You’ll see the Northern Lights!” He replied he would be staying in Stockholm to enjoy the buildings and people and that he, vehemently, did not like nature. I did not know what to say. I felt like saying, “I don’t like you anymore.” Which is not actually true. But I felt something — a raging river? — come between us that I could not — and did not — want to cross.

I love a good city. But I need nature. The pull of the wild is not just some phony romantic notion with accessory binoculars. It’s necessary. I have made plans to immerse myself in the ocean on an island sometime in July and the anticipation is killing me.

I don’t need a bougie resort (though if you are offering, my email is below). I once stayed at a luxury resort and one morning I watched as a man at the table next to us scrape his toast right on to the floor while the waiter patiently stood and nodded to endless menu-adjustment requests from the man’s entitled, whiny children. Hell is other people at fancy resorts.

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All I need is a cabin or a bure on the beach. And duty-free, to make a Bloody Mary. A good bed, a mosquito net, and ocean. Gainzzz.

But could I go to a cabin in the woods for days on my own? If I am freaked out by it, which I am, then I should probably do it, because ... I don’t know. Alone in the wilderness with only my thoughts, crashing around in my head like saucepan lids? I don’t know.

In our Canvas cover story this week, Greg Bruce takes his anxiety on a hike into the wilderness and he confronts his fears and deeply entrenched city-boy sensibilities. It’s a deep philosophical dive but also hilarious, mainly because ... him, of all people.

Someone once said, if you can’t be alone in your own company, you aren’t interesting company. Bit harsh. I can vouch for Greg — even though I can’t handle that he can’t handle camping. Or the wild. At least he went. Which is where we all should go, at least once in our lives. Because ... I don’t know. But I feel it.

sarah.daniell@nzme.co.nz