Excerpt from Hawaiki

Of course, you can’t really go back.  Well, you can physically.  And, energetically, you can spend so much time in the past that it’s the present that becomes surreal.  But you can never again become who you once were, do things as you once did them. Nor can you undo them.

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The place hasn’t changed much.  There’s still that sense of being on the film set of a cowboy and western movie; the feeling that you’ve just landed the role of a prospector, come to take a chance on the Gold Rush.  Not that this place has brought you much luck.  The clock tower stands where it always has, at the top of the main street – this wide road that has always just lacked some tumbleweed to complete the scene.  The pickup trucks have been replaced by newer models, but they still amble along as always, finding little reason to rush.