Chris at the northernmost point in Taiwan - we are nearly done with our circumnavigation of the island. Doesn't it look beautiful and serene? It could be a travel poster – go to Taiwan, enjoy the scenery and the wilderness. Except that:

- For a start, this is not the northernmost point of Taiwan. It's close, but the picture I took of Chris at the northernmost point wasn't as nice.

- I omitted the plastic bottles just below Chris's feet.

- I omitted the larger pile of rubbish, spilling out of bags, a few metres away from Chris's bike.

- I didn't include the guy cleaning out his car on the concrete I was standing on to take the picture.

- You can't see the piles of empty shells, likely dumped by local restaurants after they cleared the beach of living organisms.

- You can't see the buses driving by, packed with tourists who exit the buses in hordes at all the 'sights' along the coast.

- You can't see Chris is dripping with sweat because it's 30 degrees Celsius and close to 100% humidity at 7am.

- You can't see the burned-out hotel around the corner.

- You can't see the lack of grocery stores because 7-11s and Family Marts rule, so owner-operated stores are disappearing from smaller villages.

- You can't see the nuclear power plant being constructed a couple of kilometres away and the sign that reads, 'Evacuation point for nuclear emergency'.

- You can't see the wind turbines or the conventional power plant, both visible along the coastline.

- You can't see the radar towers and the fortification on the actual northernmost point, linked with all the other fortifications around the coast in case of invasion, an ever present existential threat for Taiwan. The Chinese Qing Dynasty dominated Taiwan from1683, subjugating the multiple indigenous tribes. The Qing ruled Taiwan until 1895 when they lost it to Japanese invaders. At the end of WWII, Japan had to hand Taiwan back to the Republic of China, who had overthrown the Qing in 1912 (note, China is run by the People's Republic of China, which is very confusing!).

It's no wonder humans are totally at sea in the torrent of images in which we drown these days. I can easily give you a completely incorrect concept of Taiwan using a tailored picture. What could I do if I deliberately took images to mislead you? Or, if I created non-existent scenes to manipulate what you are thinking? That's the world in which we are operating.

Back to Taiwan; the most important thing you can't see in this photograph is any Taiwanese. If you come to Taiwan, you will see many Taiwanese because there are 29 million of them in just over 1/5th of New Zealand's South Island land area.

I believe the goal of any visit here should be to meet Taiwanese people. We thought we had come to see the landscape, but we discovered populated areas were far more interesting (and 'wilderness' is hard to access). The vast majority of our interactions with people here have been extremely positive; none have been negative.

- Everyone is tolerant of our inability to speak Mandarin.

- Traffic gives us room in the streets; cars wait patiently for the lights to turn green and never run red lights that we have seen.

- We get continuous thumbs up from passers by.

- Restaurants recommend food and give us additional dishes to try.

- When we say we are from New Zealand people exclaim how beautiful our country looks (let's not think about our own misleading tourism images).

- Accommodation providers go out of their way to be friendly and helpful.

I'll let another picture have the last word, from our favourite breakfast restaurant of the trip.