‘Turn The World Around’ by Harry Belafonte, performed by Give My Love To Milo (the music player above may not appear on some mobile devices)

I have been back from New Zealand for a week—a week—and I still haven’t gotten a decent night’s rest. We started in California and visited Disneyland for a few days, hopped over to New Zealand for about a month, came back through Tahiti for a little rest and I slept just fine in all of those places from day one. The time difference was no problem, I just adjusted. For some reason I simply cannot get back into the swing of things at home.

Something tells me my body has decided where it wants to be.

I had never been to Disneyland but I knew what to expect. Great design, great storytelling and great fun. What I didn’t expect, though, was for New Zealand to unfold like a great story as well. We found mountains and valleys and plains and caves—the country’s twists and turns constantly surprised us and there was always a big payoff in the end. I’ve never been anywhere quite like it.

I thought I’d share a song as I desperately try to get my body clock righted (or wronged, depending on my true internal nationality). The first time I ever heard of Harry Belafonte was when he performed “Turn The World Around” on the Muppet Show. Something about the song and the imagery of the tribal puppets stuck with me until I was much older and had to record my own version. Everything you hear was recorded using the same guitar, a very cheap instrument with dulled and cracking wood to give the song a simple feel. Every guitar line was played on it, every drum beat was tapped out on the back of it. I even sang into it when recording the vocals to lend an earthy wooden tone to my voice.

Coming back through Tahiti, while idyllic, made us miss the rugged beauty of New Zealand and the idea that you could just go and feel the world as it used to be. Turning the world around seems like fun.

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