What is absent is soon forgotten.
A disastrously accurate proverb when you consider all the moments that we misplace: schools attended but lessons long erased; fleeting friends with names you can't quite place; languages learnt and more often lost; every other country on the planet other than New Zealand.
Okay, the latter is melodramatic, but with months merging into years since most of us boarded an international flight (remember those cramped legs and powdered eggs?), our recollections of the world are not getting refreshed with new, updated experiences.
The antidote is to counteract out of sight, out of mind with a jaunt into cyberspace. Because, while you can't be there physically, you can travel there through fibre optic cables.
Thanks to Stories of the South, a docuseries launched on South Australia's YouTube channel, it's easy to stay in tune with lands other than Aotearoa. Each five-minute episode takes a compelling dive into the wide-open spaces of South Australia, its most fascinating residents, their way of life and all those other things you'd ordinarily drink up as an in-person visitor.
So far there are four episodes to tap into, with the fifth launching October 24 and detailing the 600km roundtrip of an outback postman. Here's a snippet of what else you can expect:
Outback Aviator
Take flight with Doug Sprigg, an outback pilot who spends his days flying over an area bigger than Belgium, Netherlands and France combined. The 66-year-old believes South Australia's craggy peaks, ridgelines and gorges are best explored from the air.
youtube.com/watch?v=FdDN_nEjyOM
White Shark Whisperer
Having been dragged to the ocean floor by a Great White in 1963, Rodney Fox has dedicated 50 years of his life to shark conservation. As the world's first punter to enter a shark cage (which he designed and built himself) Fox has become a fully-fledged White Shark Whisperer.
youtube.com/watch?v=9m_dHEzBxuQ
Ocean Enigma
What better way to see South Australia than with Hayden Richards: surf and ocean photographer, and famed navigator of the Great Australian Bight. Richards is always exploring the ocean's dangerously beautiful playground and this way you get to safely go with.
youtube.com/watch?v=gTOYiNYanZk
Bounty Hunter
Abalone, also known as marine snails and better known as pāua in New Zealand are also harvested off South Australian shores. Join diving duo Tobin and Jonas Woolford for a day of foraging from the sea floor, with a stunning array of ocean scenery to boot.