Family, friends and followers of this blog, I apologize for my absence. It is as if I have invited you all over for a movie and paused it with five minutes to go, only to invite you back a month later to finish it… I do have a few good excuses; the main one being that I live in New Zealand and “island time” has sorely affected my level of urgency. I will however pack in the last of my two days of the Spring Break series into one entry (you will understand why after reading). I hope you have all been well, and perhaps embarked on an adventure of your own that may prompt you to start a blog like this one (though hopefully a little more updated…). Well, without further adieu I give you Day 8 and Day 9 of the Spring Break Series:
The morning started off around 7:30am with over exaggerated goodbyes, hugs, and fake tears as we said farewell to nearly half of our group. They were all headed back to start studying again (I should have gone with them…) while Benen, Benedicte, Bene, Graeme, Alex, Giso, Danni and I stayed in Piha for one more day to hike the forests that backed the beach.
Our first stop was a small shop that essentially sold meat pies and maps, pretty standard for New Zealand. Graeme was in speaking to the owner while the rest of us dumped the garbage from Jackie Chan into nearby rubbish bins and filled up water bottles at a trailer park across the road. We were starting to develop into fairly efficient road trippers.
Not too long after this Graeme emerged with a plan and we headed towards the trailhead about five minutes away. There were houses all around the trailhead but the second we stepped into the forest we were yet again enveloped in lush green vegetation strung along a single track that led us onward into our adventure. The weather could not have been any better as we were overlooked by clear blue skies and the temperature was warm and light. Every so often along the trail there were checkpoints for us to spray and scrub our boots to stop the spread of kauri tree dieback.
Roughly ten minutes into this hike I ran into the first bit of trouble I have had here in New Zealand. You see everytime I head off to a new country for school or really just a new school in general I manage to get injured. In grade seven it was a fractured tibia, somehow I dodged a bullet at CWDHS, but then it caught up to me at boarding school with a fractured tibia and fibula in Ohio, then Roanoke College with a torn LCL in my knee, and as I shuffled my way across one particularly mossy boulder on this track in New Zealand, I slipped and started sliding towards a running water.
Now… the way I like to tell this story is as follows: There I was in the New Zealand jungle in the middle of a great storm, maybe the greatest in the history of the island (as I mentioned earlier, blue skies and sunny). I had just finished building a storm shelter for the citizens of Piha with nothing but my bare hands. It was starting to get dark and the path was becoming more and more treacherous as the winds blew branches and debris across the trail (it was the morning still, and the trail was quite clear and well marked). Then we came to a river crossing, a set of rapids infested with man eating crocs and blood thirsty piranhas (these don’t live in NZ... and it was a stream). I could hear that there was something following us, most likely a jaguar teamed up with an anaconda (though they make a likely duo, these also do not live in NZ, it was the rest of the group). Knowing full well that this was the only way (I found out later there was clearer crossing further up the stream) I jumped from boulder to boulder as the man eaters thrashed about below me (I skipped and pranced (like a girl with new shoes in the rain) from rock to rock trying not to get my boots wet in the stream). When I reached the other side I was met by a band of villainous monkeys that were armed with poison dart frogs (some gnarled trees with colourful flowers, there are no monkeys or poisonous animals in NZ) and was forced to scramble up a cliff face (boulder) next to the treacherous rapids much like Mufasa (the Lion King) does when he is caught next to the stampede of wildebeest. Just then a gust of wind knocked me from the cliff and I fell in slow motion towards an infinite number of teeth (my own clumsiness caused me to slip on some moss and I began to slide). But just before I reached the open jaws below me, I caught myself on a vine and swung to safety with only a sore finger to show for it all (I caught myself before reaching the stream but at the expense of a few fingers that got caught and twisted in some rocks). I then clicked my boots together three times and the animals disappeared and we continued our hike (I slipped on a rock, slid towards the stream, got my finger caught in a rock on the way down and it is still a little strange looking to this day, but... yeah I like my version better).
Now that I have wasted your precious time, let us continue to the next part of the hike. With my finger looking like a half assed home improvement job covered in tape, we made our way up a series of trails to a lookout that someone had built in the forest. From the top we could see out over the forest to the endless blue waters that stretched to meet the horizon. From there we made our descent to the beach along winding trails coupled with a few stream crossings (which I made very carefully) and when we emerged from the forest we found ourselves back on the black, shell filled sands of Piha beach beside the huge Piha lion (see previous post).
We spent an hour or so watching over the black beach and the white capped waves that crashed into it, keeping the lion company before piling back into Jackie Chan and making our way towards Waitomo. This was also the point when Bene left us to meet up with some other friends for the remainder of break. We ended up staying at the oh-so-luxurious Holiday Top 10 campsite, but this tourist run location would not budge with the price and we ended up paying $21 each for the night. This was somewhat frustrating because not only did we have to fork out more money for a campsite that was nowhere near as nice as the previous two locations but finding it was an absolute nightmare. It was well past sundown and Jackie had guzzled just about all of the gas and our GPS took us to a gas station that looked as though it had been out of service for the last decade. The second location brought us to some back alley beside an auto body shop and it wasn’t until we toured around the town on fumes that we found a pump that worked. Benen emerged from the station seconds later with a book of maps and the menacing look of GPS-murder in his eyes. That being said, we took full advantage of our $21 when we finally got to the campsite, with a hot tub, pool, kitchen, internet, and most importantly hot showers.
After a hot shower, a bottle of red wine, a package of couscous and a can of tuna I was set for bed, hoping that the morning would perhaps bring me some good news about the blue sausage that was hanging off of my hand where my middle finger should have been.
The next morning would bring me no such news and stuffing my tent and sleeping bag into their respective stuff sacks became an impossibility. The good news was that it was fairly nice weather and we had discovered a trail that would take us to the famous Waitomo caves. Gizo, Benen, Alex and Dani decided that instead of the caves they would head to a set of boulders to do some rock climbing leaving Graeme, Benedicte and I to the cave walk.
The hike to the caves was pretty sad, it followed the fences of farmer’s fields all the way to the park area. Perhaps this is just me being spoiled by the beautiful scenery of the previous eight days but I mean this was flat out unimpressive. Just as we arrived at the park it started to rain which didn’t help things because it had been beautiful earlier in the morning but no matter, we were going to see some of these caves rain or shine. All of the biggest caves had locked gates at their entrances with signs demanding tickets and a booked guide but we did manage to see some caves that were a little more broke-college-road-tripper friendly.
Like giant auditoriums, ceilings of caves rose above us as we walked through seemingly dull stone archways our voices of surprise and wonder echoing all around us. Other caves housed sections rivers that passed through them along the worn riverbeds and down into ravines at the other end. It did not take us long to work our way through the Ruakuni Bushwalk and its accompanying caves. I am glad we didn’t have tickets to the actual caves because my first caving experience through the Piripiri caves earlier this year and the glow worms in the abandoned gold mine have some great memories tied to them. I think a guided tour through caves that have locks and gates in front of them would have left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
We ended up being picked up in the middle of a farmers field just before a thunderstorm hit on our way back to meet the rest of our group. It was really starting to feel like the last day of our adventure. That afternoon as we started to drive home I fell asleep in the passenger seat for the first time during the entire nine day trip. Perhaps it was the fact that Benen had plugged his phone in instead of my computer but man I crashed, zero battery life, terminated, exhausted, empty, you name it. I woke up somewhere near the town of Taupo where we dropped Benen off at a bus station so he could return to his sisters. The weather had changed back to being sunny and my god, Lake Taupo was gorgeous. If we had had another day I think Taupo would have been a good place to be. The lake sprawled out at the base of the mountains was fitting because the peaks were so impressive they deserved to see themselves.
Our drive through this portion of the country was incredible as we passed a series of volcanoes and mountains, Pihanga, Tongariro, Ngauruhoe all looking down on us with their snowy faces. As we passed by I tried to snap shots out of the van window but it simply wasn’t working out so we pulled over took some time to document this short but short but significant portion of our journey. The landscape was quite strange in this area because it was so desolate, a tundra with little tumbleweed looking bushes everywhere. But as we drove further and further south towards Palmerston North those rolling green hills started to come back and the little towns that boasted whatever they could came with them (Taihape - Gumboot Capital of the World, Te Kuiti - Sheep Shearing Capital of the World etc).
After driving through a fiery sunset, one final song brought the speakers of Jackie Chan back to life as we rolled up Atawhai Hill,
Hakuna Matata!
What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze
It means no worries for the rest of your days
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!
Thank you all for reading! I apologize for the breaks between entries and disparity in writing styles, some days are better than others. I am very excited to tell you all that there is another series coming up that talks about my week long trip to Australia! Before we get to that there will be a short (hopefully) entry to fill you all in on what happened during the month or two between this Spring Break series and the upcoming Australia series.
Cheers,
Brayden
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