Nothing exciting happened today so I am quite glad that I get to talk about Day 5, it had enough adventure to satisfy two days… enjoy.
Day 5
I awoke at 6:45am to the prehistoric cry of spur-winged plovers. If pterodactyls were still living they would sound like this bird, and at 6:45am I wasn’t far from being the cause of the plovers extinction. Graeme rolled over and asked groggily if we were in Jurassic Park and seeing as we had arrived at the park when it was dark out we were all pretty excited to see what the other side of the tent walls would have in store for us today. Benedict was the first one out and before she spoke I could see the look on her face was unimpressed with her surroundings, “I do not see de sea” she sighed. Well I suppose we can’t always wake up in paradise…
There were little wooden boxes that claimed to be showers but their sole purpose was to give you a false sense of hope and take your money at the same time, rude. Once our group had revitalized themselves with their lifeblood of tea and coffee we were off to our adventure of the day. We left our tents and major equipment set up at the site with the intentions of spending another night there solely because we had grown tired of setting up in the dark after a long drive. Many of us were starting to resent the aimless spur of the moment walks and had been itching for a lengthy full day hike up in the mountains with a set goal or summit to reach; so after consulting two or three guidebooks we decided our desires would be satiated in the Coromandel Forest Park on a trail called ‘The Pinnacles’. The ride to the park was roughly an hour of incredibly mountainous, scenic driving that took us right into the heart of the mountain range.
Roughly ten minutes into the hike we had to cross a narrow one person bridge suspended over a river. Finally a little hint of danger! Though this was about as crazy as playing checkers compared to what we would face later. The trail led up steep steps that were carved into the stone of the mountain, left behind by pioneers who had once mined these hills for gold and logged the forests. After an hour or so of climbing we found ourselves atop a rocky ridge surrounded on all sides by radically shaped mountains, the skeletons of what once were volcanoes. Strangely disfigured and gnarled trees stuck out of the low-lying brush of the mountains like rogue hairs on the backs of giant beasts. Up to our right in the distance was a peak comprised of what appeared to be sharp teeth, a crown of thorns threatening the blue skies above. I looked longingly at it, hoping that this was our destination, our goal. Fifteen minutes later we walked past a hut used by campers and veered up to the right, directly towards my mountain. It glared at me, taunting me, daring me to climb it.
From the very second I laid eyes on the summit I was consumed by it. Haunting my thoughts, it had this audacious attitude towards the skyline it was a part of, an individual. It was one of the most formidable looking mountains I had ever seen and I could not wait to test its merit. A seemingly endless staircase shot straight up the front of the mountain like a zipper. To the left was a valley carved between rugged peaks that stood watching like guards atop great walls of an entranceway leading to the Pacific Ocean. Islands lay floating like ships in the distance, the blue water of the ocean a mere shoreline to the sea of green that flooded the waves of mountains before me. I shook my head in disbelief; never before had the two elements of land and water played such a magnificent role together in any stage of my life.
The wind had picked up, whistling past my ears and making my eyes water. I was nearing the final climb to the summit but paused one last time at its base to take in my current vantage point of beauty that I knew was about to be magnified just a few moments later. The final climb to the top was along a series of steel ladders that had been bolted into the mountain like piercings on its face. The wind was howling now, sending shards of rain to test my footing. Clouds started sliding past me like snow down a rooftop, lower into the valley. One more ladder to go, the steel slipping slightly in my hands, I thrust myself upwards, legs like pistons, lungs like a furnace. I reached the top with cheeks that matched my bandana and breath that challenged the wind. Euphoric, I stood there and cried out to deaf ears, my words carried into the clouds as soon as they formed. Nothing remained of the view but I didn’t care, the taunting, the glaring, the power of the mountain had swallowed me whole and that alone rivaled the beauty I had seen but a few meters below where I now stood. The clouds raced before me like the dust of a stampede and I stood there laughing; I stood there alive.
When the rest of the group arrived at the top there were mixed feelings about their accomplishment. Yes they had made it but all of these damn clouds were in the way of the pictures, it was freezing cold and the rain and wind were showing no signs of surrender. After fifteen minutes of photos in front of a grey wall we began our descent down the unforgiving trail in what appeared to be nearly the worst conditions possible. A few meters from the top of the mountain I stepped off a rock and as I placed it on the ground it slid from beneath me sending me crashing into the back of Graeme’s legs as he was nearing the top of the next ladder. Heart still in full contraction I sputtered out a thousand apologies in a thousand languages. Graeme turned to look at me, a few shades whiter than he was a moment before and told me that it was likely he was going to die on the way down anyway and that he didn’t need any help doing it.
The cold steel handles of the ladders paralyzed my hands so I gripped them with my eyes and descended one slow, slippery, step at a time. When we got to the clearing at the top of the staircase where I had paused earlier I again looked out, this time through grey space. In the distance light seemed to be shining down as if into water, refracted, sifting through the clouds with its long slender fingers as if it were looking for me. I stood there long enough to witness the birth of a rainbow before I turned to follow the steps back down to the bottom of the mountain.
At the base of the stairs we stopped at the hut for a quick bite to eat and a break from the rain. Of course within the first few minutes of arriving there the clouds parted, the rain stopped and it was as perfect a day as any. The mountain sat there smugly, laughing. The hut was quite impressive with showers, a kitchen and enough mattresses to sleep eighty people, yes, eighty. After eating a tuna sandwich, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a peanut butter and banana sandwich I felt as though I had enough energy to keep going. We backtracked for a few kilometers down the trail and then took a three-hour track back to the parking lot. This new trail followed networks of paths left by the pioneers including a set of the steepest railroad tracks I had ever seen. To have seen the train in action would have been damn near miraculous.
Now because two of our friends wanted to go climbing instead of hiking we gave them Jackie Chan leaving us with the other two cars. This would not have been an issue except there was this one thing that happened… Bene’s beloved Helga would not start, no power, no turnover, nothing. Furthermore because it was a strange car and had a custom built bed in the back we had no idea where the battery was to try and jump it. Out came the tools, out came the bed, out came the frustration. Luckily before we got too far in taking the entire van apart screw-by-screw, Zach located the battery. Because we didn’t have any jumper cables we tried switching the batteries but not even that was working. While Ross, Zach and the girls drove off in search of jumper cables and maybe some help, Graeme, Bene, Alex, Benen and I started pushing the van down the road. We didn’t get very far before we decided that we would rather throw stones as designated targets and wait for help.
About an hour from the time we finished our hike Jackie Chan showed up with the fuel light on, needle flirting with the E, could it get any more perfect. I grabbed some rope from my backpack and we tried towing Helga but she’s a big girl and ended up breaking my rope about a kilometer from where we started. So there we waited with one van running on fumes and the other not running at all, waiting for Ross to return with jumper cables and maybe a gas station. When he finally showed up with cables it was nearly dark. We tried unsuccessfully for about twenty minutes to jump the van before two of the scarier bush men I have ever seen showed up and helped us out. After ten more minutes of swearing, three cigarettes each and the focus of thirteen pairs of desperate eyes, the engine roared to life.
We piled sluggishly into the vehicles and stared intensely out the windows with the hopes that we could possibly conjure up a gas station beside the van. After what seemed like the longest ride of my life Jackie sputtered and lurched into gas station, thirstier than ever. An hour later it was 8pm and we were back at our campsite more than thankful that we had chosen to leave our tents up. While we ate dinner the park owner showed up to fix the showers and informed us of an abandoned gold mineshaft nearby that was lit by glowworms. Excited by the prospect of another night hike we wolfed down the rest of our food and grabbed our headlamps.
The owner wasn’t kidding when he said the cave was lit by the glowworms. With the headlamps off you could make out the silhouettes of people using only the indigo light of the worms in the deepest part of the mineshaft, so cool. There were also cave weta which are essentially massive crickets a few inches long, crawling all over the roof and walls of the shaft.
As we walked back to the campsite I looked up and was blown away by what I saw. I have climbed to the tops of mountains to look at stars but never in my life have I ever seen anywhere close to the number of stars that were staring back at me right then. No amount of words can do justice to the feeling I experienced in that moment, seconds, hours, maybe years could have gone by while I stood staring up at them, lost.
When I finally managed to get my neck to move back down to a regular position I returned to camp. Satisfied with my accomplishments for the day I retired to my tent, absolutely exhausted. I was followed closely by Graeme and Benedict and the three of us were asleep in seconds, while millions of stars watched from above.
Thanks for reading, hopefully you’re getting a bit of an idea of the incredible time I am having over here. I will try and get Day 6 up as soon as I can… I have to fit school in here somewhere.
Cheers,
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