Episode 103 - That Time I Fell on My Face in New Zealand
Episode 103 - That Time I Fell on My Face in New Zealand
Hello, friends!
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Now, on to this week’s episode.
I recently returned from a trip to New Zealand with some of my family. My husband and I and a couple of our children went to visit one of our sons and his girlfriend who have been living and working there for the last 5 or 6 months. It was a lot of fun. The jet lag coming home was a little bit rough but overall it was a really fun experience. We wish that more of our children could have joined us for this adventure.
We have been planning and preparing for this vacation for quite some time. We got more and more excited the closer it came time to leave. We have traveled quite a bit but never quite as far away as this. In New Zealand, they are currently 5 hours behind us here in the Mountain Daylight Savings Time Zone but tomorrow. For example, if it is 9 pm on March 19th, it is 4 pm on March 20th. Isn’t that crazy. It still is a little hard for my brain to wrap around that.
On our way there, we basically lost a day. On our way home, we basically gained a day.
New Zealand is a beautiful country. It has a north and a south Island referred to as Northland and Southland. We spent our time in the south of the south island. It has such a beautiful diverse landscape. Everything from dry fields and mountain ranges to lake towns to glaciers to fjords and subtropical rainforests. There are also no predators there. Except they do have mosquitoes and these annoying flies called Sandflies. They don’t drink your blood like mosquitoes. They are smaller than mosquitoes and they scratch your skin which gives you these little rashes that itch. There are actually more sheep than people there as well. We even went golfing at this small rural course called Tarras Golf Club. It was on your honor so we had to pay using a self-pay envelope that we put in a drop box. But that isn’t the best part. We golfed alongside sheep. This course was basically a grazing field for sheep with the putting greens fenced off. We would hit the ball down the rough fairway until we could hit onto the green. Once our balls were on the green we would need to open up the gate to putt. It was hilarious.
We planned some exploring for the first few days of our trip. So after we arrived in New Zealand, we visited Queenstown and we met up with our son and his girlfriend in the beautiful town of Te Anau. While staying there we spent time visiting places like the Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, the Big Chasm, and Marion Lake. Amazing.
At the end of our trip we stayed in the town of Wanaka. This is where our son and his girlfriend have been living and working. We hiked, mountain biked, cold plunged, and sat in a sauna by a mountain lake. We ate hand pies, ice cream, and fresh salmon that we caught ourselves. We played card games and watched a New Zealand made movie in a theater with couches and hot freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
In the middle we went on a backpacking trip on Stewart Island just off the south end of the south island. We took an 8 passenger plane ride with all of our backpacking gear to get there. This small island has about 300-400 full time residents. It reminded me of a coastal town in the US. It is very green and lush because of all the rain it gets during the year.
It was interesting preparing for this part of the trip because we had to pack for our sightseeing part of the trip and our backpacking part of the trip. This meant bringing a lot of things we wouldn’t normally bring like tents, sleeping bags, and a water filter. It is also a different season in New Zealand. It is fall there so we had to plan for colder, rainer weather as well.
In New Zealand, they refer to hiking trails as tracks. Instead of using the hiking they call hikes on the established trails walks or great walks depending on the trail. If the trail is more technical and less established it is called tramping. So, we definitely did some walking and some tramping.
The route we chose to walk or tramp is called the Rakiura Track. It is a loop that is just over 23 miles. We decided to break it up over the course of 3 days. After we landed from our short plane ride we took a cab to the trailhead. We hiked along the shoreline for about 6 miles. The trail was nice and maintained and was surrounded by beautiful subtropical rainforest.
That first night we set up camp right next to the beach of the Tasman Sea. Luckily, we were able to get our tents set up before a rainstorm hit. New Zealand also provides two-sided shelters with a roof that people can use at many of their campsites. Inside these shelters there are available counters to prepare food on and tables to eat and play games on. So we were able to eat dinner dry and away from the rain. The seashells were amazing here. Usually at the beaches we visit, there are shells but they are battered and broken. It can be a challenge to find a fully intact shell. But this beach was full of them. We filled our pockets with some to take home.
We also heard the call of the Kiwi birds at night while we were backpacking. The Kiwi is a rare nocturnal bird in New Zealand. Most people, even the people who live there, never actually see a Kiwi bird. They actually sound like a mini T-Rex.
The Kiwi is one of New Zealand's many flightless birds. They didn't need to fly because there weren't any land mammal predators before man arrived to New Zealand 1000 years ago so they don’t have wings.
Kiwi call at night to mark their territory and stay in touch with their mates. The best time to listen for a kiwi calling is on a moonless night, up to two hours after dark, and just before dawn. That’s when Kiwi stir from their burrows and call to make contact with their partner or family, and to mark their territory.
Because Kiwi do not fly, their feathers have evolved into a unique texture to suit a ground-based lifestyle. The Kiwi has an extremely unusual beak. Not only does it provide a keen sense of smell, it also has sensory pits at the tip which allow the Kiwi to sense prey moving underground.
We never saw a Kiwi on our backpacking adventure but we most definitely heard them.
On the tracks you also meet people from all over the world. We met Melody from Morocco, Benji from Texas, Sophie from Montireal, Reagan from Northland New Zealand, Liz and Stewart from Australia and more on our journey on the Rakiura Track.
When we arrived at our campsite the first night, we visited with Melody and Benji underneath the protective shelter as we watched it rain. It was a fascinating visit. Melody and Benji were co-workers and Melody had convinced Benji to go on this track adventure with her. They had decided to hike the track from the opposite direction than we did. By the time we had connected with them, they had been hiking for two days through the muddiest part of the track and would be hiking out the rest of the way the next morning. We learned that Melody loved the adventure and in her exploring she had found a Lion’s Mane mushroom and Paua Paua or a sea snail with a beautiful pearl shell. In visiting with Benji, we learned he didn’t like the adventure at all. In fact, he said, “I hated every minute of it,” and “I didn’t even see anything because I was staring at my feet the whole time” when referring to his hike so far. Same circumstance but totally different experiences.
As our Rakiura Track adventure continued, this would become a family joke. I remember on the second day of hiking we battled 9 miles of mostly muddy track. We had to watch where we stepped and figure out different routes to walk in the least amount of mud. We would joke how we “hated every minute of it.” Or that someone was being a “Benji.” Don’t get me wrong. We liked Benji and we all have “Benji” moments.
The second day of muddy tramping was actually a big part of the adventure for us. We had fun and we were lucky enough to not have much rain while we hiked over the three days of our backpacking.
However, once we reached the campsite for our second night, the rain began as soon as our tents were set up. It would come and go as we prepared dinner and as we enjoyed a warm campfire. But just like the night before, the rainstorm became stronger as we headed to bed. We could hear the rain and the wind during the night. We knew this would add to our muddy adventure the following day.
The next morning, I woke up feeling particularly Benji-like. I was actually tired of sleeping on the ground, and feeling wet and cold. We had gotten up earlier that morning to get a good start on our hike out. We needed to make it back in time to catch our plane off of Stewart island that afternoon so we could continue with the non-backpacking part of our trip.
I was trying to get my stuff gathered together and roll up my sleep bag so we could take down our tent. I was struggling to find some of my things and just feeling pretty grumpy.
My husband, my youngest daughter and I had been sharing a tent. They had gathered their stuff and were under the shelter getting their backpacks ready for the hike out. I was grumbling to myself about hiking in the rain and not being able to find all of my stuff as I finished packing up my things. I remember complaining to myself and saying something like “well, I guess it was time for things to just not work out.” I can’t remember exactly but there was definitely a pity party going on. I grabbed all my gear and proceeded to climb out of the tent. But, because it had been raining during the night we had our rain fly on. This is an outer tent, in a way, so the regular tent is protected from the rain and it won’t leak water inside. Because of this, there are two zipper doors to go through – the tent door and the rain fly door. So, as I was trying to navigate the wet doors with my arms full of gear, one of my feet got caught on the tent and the next thing I knew I was falling forward into the early morning darkness. I landed right on my face and my left hand bent backward (which is the hand that has recently healed from being broken). I began to cry. I knew I had hit my face but my wrist and hand hurt worse. I sat up holding my wrist, crying and trying to gain my bearings.
My family came running to me to see what had happened. I remember hearing my daughter say, “Is there something we can use to wipe the blood off of her face.” Later, my son told me that when they got to me my face and teeth were covered with blood. They could also see that I had hit my face on a log in front of the tent. They weren’t sure if I had bitten through my lip or knocked out some teeth. They took me over to the shelter to lay down and make an assessment of my injuries. I was still afraid that I had re-broken my wrist. They cleaned up my face the best they could and put a split on my wrist. That is the great thing about having medically trained family members. They knew exactly what to do.
The next thing I remember hearing was my son saying something like, “Mom, I think that this would be a good reason to get you a ferry ride to the end of the track.” When people get hurt on the track, there is a way to get help out of there. We had just spoken to someone the day before who had to get help for his dad. But as soon as my son said this, I said, “No! I am not taking a ferry out of here. I am going to hike out!” My family quickly divided up my belongings into their backs to lighten my load. After a few more minutes, I stood up and put my backpack on. My family carried most of my things along with all of their things for 9 miles so that I could hike out.
I looked like I had been in a fist fight. My head, face, mouth, and wrist hurt. My lip and nose were swollen and I had a goose egg on my forehead but I was able to hike out on my own.
During the hike out, I had a lot of thoughts. I thought about how ironic it was that I was complaining right before I smashed my face. The humor of it was not lost on me.
I also asked myself, “Would I have come on the backpacking trip knowing that I would fall and hit my face and hurt my wrist?” I even asked my husband this same question as we were hiking. I thought about it a lot. And I came to this conclusion. Yes, I would. The mud, the rain, and my bloody face were part of the adventure. You could say they were the 50/50. Because there was also laughing, sandy beaches, subtropical rainforests, fern trees, moments of no rain, shelter from the rain, moving my body, my knee not hurting, sea shells, campfires, rivers, an angry seal lion (that’s another story), new people, plane rides, Kiwi bird calls, and seeing my family come together to take care of me. If I knew that I would fall on my face, I would totally do it again to experience everything else.
This is like life. There are some really sucky parts like the rain, the mud, and getting hurt. But by staying home or stepping out of life, we miss living. By embracing all of it, including the mud and the blood, we get to experience the beauty of the journey. Sometimes, we are going to fall on our face. And when we do, we can cry and feel all the feels because it does hurt. Then we have a choice. Do we pull back because we are afraid of getting hurt or do we put our pack on and embrace the beauty of the journey. It really is a choice.
Once I answered the question of whether or not I would go on the backpack knowing I would fall on my face, I started focusing on the tender mercies or beautiful coincidences. I didn’t hurt my legs or my body in a way that made it so I couldn’t hike. The longer I hiked I could tell that my wrist wasn’t broken, just sprained. I didn’t knock out any of my teeth or break my nose. I didn’t hit the big tree with my face that was next to our tent. I didn’t poke my eye out. I didn’t break my fingers. I think that landing on my hand the way I did protected my previously broken scaphoid. I was able to spend 3 days hiking in one of the most beautiful places on earth and it is that way because of the rain it receives.
I could list more but I won’t.
I joke about being a Benji but there really is a lesson there. Do you want to live life hating every minute of it and just stare at your shoes so you can just get through it? Or, do you want to look up and take in some of the scenery even though there is rain, mud, and blood?
What are you going to choose?
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