Young Scotsman travelling the world to visit Mullet

Sunday Star Times

A young Scotsman is travelling the world to visit every place called "Mullet". Kim Knight found him on Friday and asked why.

Shhh. Mullet Point sleeping.

 

It's an elusive prey, and one Simon Varwell has travelled across the world to find.

"This is a mullet at peace with itself," says the 29-year-old Scotsman. "There's a sense of tranquillity. Sometimes you just get a sense of non-event."

Friday afternoon, and Varwell is at the south-eastern edge of Kawau Bay, an hour north of Auckland.

It's stop number 11 in Varwell's quest to visit every place in the world with the word "mullet" in its title.

"I think of it as a curse sometimes. A calling, a mission, a millstone around my neck ... I guess it's just what I do with my holidays."

His search has taken him to England, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and now, New Zealand. He's discounted visiting streets (he won't be going to Mullet Rd in Southland) or buildings (no stopping at Palmerston North's Stunned Mullet), but in a fortnight's time will have added a mullet point, bay and two creeks to his list.

Why?

It started in Albania. Holidaying with a mate, he began ranking examples of the mullet haircut made famous by everyone from David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust days to Shortland Street's Nick Harrison.

Months later, bored at work and idly Googling maps, he found an Albanian town called Mullet. It got him thinking.

"Everybody's got a `what if, or how come, or where is' question in their head. I'm no different. All I wondered was how many places in the world were called mullet and whether I could visit them."

So, here he is, in a camel-coloured Daihatsu Charade kicking up dust on a gravel road, past the blooming pohutakawa, over the cattle stops and into a car park with the sign "Mullet Point Loop Track".

"I don't feel like I'm there yet, unless I'm actually there," said Varwell, hoisting his pack.

Through the gate, down the ridgeline, past crumbling cliffs. "Fantastic." He took off his pack, kissed the sign, and admired the view.

"People think I'm going to do some sort of strange spiritual rain dance or something. But no, I just come here and look at the sign and go home again."

Varwell, a quality assurer based in Inverness, estimates he's spent up to $25,000 since he began his quest in 2004.

"I've become immune to the weird looks I get. There are so many better ways I could spend my holidays ... but it's nice, in a world where culture and travel and the economy is making a lot of things the same, to get past this `one size fits all' tourism and see different places."

Yesterday Varwell was to travel to Mullet Creek on the Kaipara Harbour.

Today, he planned to visit Mullet Bay on Motutapu Island. Next week, he'll check out another creek in Golden Bay.

And after that?

The United States, the Falkland Islands and Haiti are among the countries he'll need to visit to tick off his list of 29.

"I really hope it stops one day," he says. "I want my life back."