And, indeed, her courage did change the world.
Let’s go back to the middle of winter: August.
IFSA-Butler (the program that I’m in) planned a daytrip for my group to the Waitakeres – in this place where the old gods once roamed, Xena and Hercules fought side by side in the New Zealand rainforests. The Waitakeres, a place transformed into Ancient Greece, was the shooting location of our favorite son of Zeus and, of course, our favorite Warrior Princess.
In this amazing rainforest, I hyperventilated, nearly froze to death, slipped and fell enough times to rival Commander Kimpulse in bruises. I also had one of the greatest experiences of my life... and the great thing? If you’re not afraid of hiking through a rainforest without a guide, you, too, can hike through ancient Greece without paying a penny.
Anyway, here we go-
Saturday morning, we hopped onto a bus with Mel (our Student Liaisons Officer aka our advisor aka our New Zealand mum) and two guides. After a long and windy bus trip through the curved roads of New Zealand (and another near-carsickness/throwing up incident), we arrived at the Waitakeres guest center for our first view of the rainforest. From the little museum-like area with its displays of the local wildlife (mainly birds and insects) and geological features, we could stand on a little balcony. Here’s the grand view:
Yep. Straight out of Xena.
We got our bagged lunches, headed back into the bus, took another winding drive up into the rainforest, and stopped right before my breakfast decided to come back up out of my stomach.
Checked our clothing (to make sure no one was wearing anything with cotton), stuck food and warm sweaters into dry bags, then started the hike.
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting very much. I expected a nice, easy hike – the name of the trip was simply “Wander in the Waitakeres.” If that trip was just a wander, I’d hate to think what a real tramp through the rainforest would be.
Anyway – hiking. Or tramping. We walked downhill... through some obviously man-made slippery wooden steps, hands bracing our bodies against everything that we could see. It had rained the day before... and things in the area were just naturally wet. I grabbed several ferns and tree trunks and branches to steady myself, though I probably released and sent several sharp splinters into the face of the person behind me.
Unfortunately, I didn’t actually kill anyone...
When we reached the bottom of the steps, our guide pointed out a little pond area. At this point, I realized that I had forgotten to bring a water bottle. Our guide (I don’t remember his name, so I’ll call him Elmer) said that there were parasites in the water that could cause diarrhea... but, otherwise, it was safe to drink.
So... eh... good thing I don’t get thirsty easily?
Some more hiking.
And then. Wait. What? We were going to hike in the water? But what about our clothes? And shoes? They’ll get wet!
Yes. They will get wet.
Yes. You will fall.
Yes. You will freeze to death.
Oh. Ok. That’s fine.
So into the water we went.
Looks great, eh? We spent most of the hike knee-deep in water, carefully navigating the smooth, slippery rocks at the bottom of the river. There were random bursts of fast water and random moments of peace. It was cold at first, but after a while, it didn’t matter anymore since I could no longer feel my legs anyway.
At first, we tried for the high ground, avoiding the river whenever possible. If there were rocks above water, we climbed them. Sometimes, the water was just so deep that we had to climb them... inching slowly sideways against the rocky side of a cliff. Of course, if we slipped, we would fall backwards into the cold water... and a hike in the river would become a swim in our clothes.
But hey – I wasn’t really that wet above my knees. It was all fine and dandy.
Pretty trees. Pretty rocks. Pretty bugs. Pretty sky. Pretty mountains.
Oooh. Pretty waterfall. I wonder how we’re going to get around that.
Wait. What? Say that again?
We will be... climbing.. down this waterfall... with a rope. Abseiling. Ok. Breathe. Sounds fun. Breathe. Sounds dry. Breathe. People are doing ok. Can’t be any different from the last part of rock climbing, right? I’ve done that before... (FOOT Rocking Trip, 2006!)
You go first.
Ok. Looking down. Not scary. Nope. Not at all.
Climbing. Or... opposite-of-climbing. Lowering.
Don’t let go. Hold tight. Rope burn won’t kill me. Falling will.
Ah! I’ve made it! I’m alive! Nervous laughter.
More hiking. More beautiful scenery. More reminders of scenes from Xena... and yes. I watched the entire series all at once during exams period freshman year. So... heh.
Oh. Hiking.
Ok. More walking in water.
And then... another waterfall! We’ve already done it once. We can do it again. Look! There’s Elmer the tour guide again. He’s probably setting up another rope. Wait... what’s this? He just threw his bag down. It’s floating at the bottom now. Wait.. what? NO! NOOOO!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
He jumped!
Someone else just jumped. And then... and then...
Look at that waterfall.
Hehe.
No. That’s not it. That’s another one that we saw. We didn’t jump off of it. We probably would have died if we did. Here’s the one we jumped:
But yeah. Okay. Shouldn’t be too hard. Just jump far enough away from the rocks. Wouldn’t want to smash into them. That wouldn’t be pretty. Nope. Not at all. Okay. Don’t think about it. Climb slowly to the edge. Turn around. Wave goodbye to everyone else. Breathe. Don’t think.
Just do it.
JUMP!
Scream.
Get laughed at later for my scream – because, you know, hard to think that that kind of sound could have come out of me. Yeah... er...
Breathe. What’s this? Cold. Cold. Swim. Breathe faster. Heart racing. I think I’m hyperventilating. Paddle. Paddle paddle. I think I can see the shore but... it’s too far. Don’t think I can make it. Hyperventilating. Wait. I’m hyperventilating. That means I need to calm down... slow down my breathing. Why am I doing this? Why did I come here? It’s freezing cold... I... I...
A hand. Grab the hand. Grab. Get lifted up... climb up. Up onto the shore. Breathe. Shiver. Slow down... look around.
Whew.
I’ve made it! Wow. Don’t think I could do that again, but it was great! Amazing. Look! There’s that guy that I know with an orange jacket. He’s jumping too. He’s hyperventilating, I bet you. Haha! And... he’s swimming to the wrong spot. Over here now. He’s panicking. He’s climbing. He’s back on shore. I watch. I’m ok. Everything will be ok. I’m alive now. Nothing to worry about.
One by one, the remaining hikers jump off the waterfall. One by one, they panic in the cold. They swim. And they relax. Then comes more hiking. More walking through the river. And, almost immediately, we run into another waterfall.
And, almost immediately, we have to jump down a second (albeit shorter) waterfall. More hyperventilating. Not as bad as the first time, though, but I came out shivering. As a result... since that would be our last jump, the guides and Mel (aka our Student Liaisons Officer, if you don’t remember) gave me a nice big wooly sweater and a funny green beanie. Didn’t matter.
It was warm.
No more waterfall jumps, though. But yes. One more waterfall.
We carefully climbed down it.
Hiked more, still knee deep in water. Stopped, finally, at a little hut area for lunch. It rained for those fifteen minutes of food... but, as a Kiwi friend says, there tends to be four seasons in one day here on the North Island.
Beautiful views, of course:
More hiking. On ground now, though the ground was soft and muddy... our shoes, cleaned by the rushing water of the river, was suddenly brown and mucky again.
The mud, however, slowly transformed into a black magnetic sand as we approached the black sand dunes of the Waitakeres.
By the way – these sand dunes were actually filmed in Xena, though I don’t remember where they’re from. I’ll need to watch again and look for these places... but yeah: Black Sand Dunes.
We climbed up them... and our muddy shoes became encased in black sand. Because the sand was so soft, we ran and jumped off the edge of the dunes.
Fun. Ended up completely covered in this black magnetic sand.
Then hiked over to the beach. Beautiful views.
Relaxed. Hopped back onto the bus. Fell asleep.
And finally, home.
--
Definitely the most fun I’ve had in New Zealand. If I weren’t so worried about wandering through these rainforests without a guide, I’d bring everyone here. If I bring a friend with hiking experience, though, I think we’d manage. If you ever come to New Zealand and you have some hiking experience, this is the place to go.
Anyway, random note-
Kiwis tend to drop their r’s when they speak. Park, for example, would be pronounced pok. Orc, for example, would be pronounced ock. Thus, when you come to Auckland, you also enter Orcland.
With that said, I leave you to get back to my last week of classes. I am now updated up into mid-August. The next update may take awhile... considering that my next trip is my two-week spring break. So I’ll see you then.
I took NO pictures on this trip. All pictures are credited to Brad B, Britt O, and Helen A.
