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Sightseeing when you can’t see

How do you go sightseeing when you can’t see? Keen traveller Julie Woods tells Juliette Sivertsen that rich experiences are just enjoyed in different ways.

There are many ways to see the world, and not all of them require sight. Julie Woods is testament to that. An avid traveller prepandemic, she had visited 50 countries by the time she turned 50 – the majority undertaken after she became blind.

‘‘When I started travelling, people would say to me, ‘how can you sightsee when you can’t see?’ And I would say, because I can smell, hear, taste and touch,’’ says Woods, who became legally blind at 31, as a result of inflammation of the retina. Eleven years later, she became totally blind.

It’s through sensing the world that the 55-yearold believes her mind has been opened far wider than if she had retained her vision.

‘‘Travelling has taught me that there are many ways of doing the same thing, which I have been able to apply to being blind, because I had to learn there were many ways of doing [a lot of things]. I’ve learned that not everyone eats with a knife and fork, or eats mashed potato,’’ she says. ‘‘We’re all different, and when you’re blind, that feels really good, because I am different.’’

Known as That Blind Woman, Woods is a motivational speaker, life coach, author of two books, and she has walked 10 half-marathons in her hometown of Dunedin, among myriad other personal achievements.

Her love for sensory travel was sparked during a visit to Paris for the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, the Frenchman who developed the Braille code for the visuallyimpaired.

She visited his tomb in the Pantheon, smelt the fresh flowers that had been laid for the anniversary, hugged the bust of Braille ‘‘giving him a kiss on the cheek’’, and listened to an organ recital at Notre Dame. Woods says the trip helped her tune into her other senses.

‘‘When your sight is taken away, other things become dominant, and you receive information in other ways, not through your eyes, but your ears and nose and fingers and toes.’’

She says experiences such as Queenstown’s Shotover Jet are great activities for a blind person, as she could enjoy the thrill of the speed in the boat.

The Treaty House in Waitangi and Ulva Island/ Te Wharawhara on Stewart Island/Rakiura were other top New Zealand travels for a blind person, she says.

After a trip to Argentina with her husband Ron, and feeling the force of the Iguazu Falls, she realised there were other rewarding wonders to a blind person than the famous Seven Wonders.

On her return home, she began a list of her

‘‘When your sight is taken away, other things become dominant, and you receive information in other ways, not through your eyes, but your ears and nose and fingers and toes.’’ Julie Woods

Seven Blind Wonders of the World. They include sniffing a vat of fermenting whisky in a Scottish distillery, standing under the Iguazu Falls, eating a pizza in Italy, and floating in the Dead Sea in Jordan.

‘‘After we visited Petra, it was such a unique experience bobbing around, and something I hadn’t felt before. To me, that was a wonder, floating and being suspended in water.’’

Woods keeps a sensory diary to help her connect with the places she visits.

For example, after completing the Otago Central Rail Trail on a tandem bike with her husband, one day’s entry included details such as smelling the dung in the air, hearing echoes through tunnels, tasting a liquorice bonbon she bought from a store in Oturehua, and the feeling of the stone at night when they went curling at the Naseby Curling Rink.

‘‘I’ve shared [the diary] with another blind friend of mine who likes travelling, and she loves it, because she totally gets the experience and it brings it all back to life.

‘‘I could go to look at my diary [now] and if I went through the day we went to Petra, in Jordan, the smell was the apple that I gave to the horse that carried us through the Siq. The touch was the elderly Bedouin woman placing a necklace over my head. They’re just images that come back to me and I can recall the memory of them.’’

Woods encourages other New Zealanders who are blind or partially sighted to not be afraid of travel.

‘‘It’s natural to be reluctant but to push through on your fears is such a good thing to do.’’

She advises using a guide where possible, and to remember that meaningful travel is often about forming connections with the people you meet along the way.

‘‘People are never in the brochures.’’ Woods believes she ‘‘sees’’ many more things than other people who rely on their vision, and says travel has been life-changing for her as a blind person.

‘‘Life would have been very sheltered and I wouldn’t have tried doing things in different ways.

‘‘I would have thought there was only one way of doing things, like the way we do at home. I can’t imagine being restricted by a mono culture.’’

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en-nz

2021-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282514366668879

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