3-Day Rock Climbing Field Trip...in New Zealand

New Zealand is incredible. Not because of the sunsets, lush hills, myriads of waterfalls, or even the cheese. New Zealand is amazing because so many perfect days fall into place one right after another. Most of my days-if not all of them are perfect. "And Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man." Those are the elements to a good day: learn, exercise, spiritual growth, and being social. I realize that physical activity has been largely minuscule (great oxymoron) in my life now that I can compare it to biking every day and going to classes like kayaking, surfing, and rock climbing. I did some rough estimates last night and I think I've biked 303.6 miles since I've been in Invercargill.

I love that field trips here include being whisked away to lake-side bays for three days and being graded on tying knots. The 34 of us pitched tents next to Lake Wanaka on Glendhu Bay. When we got there the lake was perfectly reflecting Mount Aspiring. This stillness was later disturbed by the violent wind, but for our arrival it provided the perfect location for skipping rocks. Twenty-seven is my new record and I have two witnesses-Heather and Stefanie.

The next three days consisted of rock climbing. Rather unashamedly, it is my new love. I want so much to go home and invest in a harness, helmet, caribeaners, and a few slings and some rope. I want to practice tying water knots, clove hitches, figure eights, and alpine butterflies. I love clinging to a rock with shaking fingers and trying to grope my way around for a new hold. When you're not on the rock climbing you can eat, tell stories, belay a fellow Kiwi, read, or meet climbers from Germany, Italy, or Australia passing by.

Class discussions are usually held on the ground sitting cross-legged and occasionally trying to shake out a tingling leg from falling into that painful sleep. One night we had our debriefing and followed that by learning about the stars in the Southern Hemisphere. Orion comes in upside down and one uses the Southern Cross for navigation in lieu of the Polaris.

I slept outside of my tent. My face got a bit chilly from the persistent wind but it was well worth the view of a cloudless sky and a brilliant Milky Way. It's been a long time since I've seen so many stars. Views like that make you wonder why streets have to be lit at night and why cities have to poison the night sky with the street lights.

Apart from the scenery, it was just plain fun. I loved being with the entire group instead of divided into A and B groups. Taking over kitchen areas is just as fun now as it was during the first two weeks of camping. Playing kick-the-can in the dark and dodging other campers might be my new hobby. Playing tag in the dark with flashing headlamps is nothing more than a laugh attack. Getting to the top of a climb and earning the right to be belayed down is rewarding.

After having reached the top of my climb-which was the first time I reached the top, mind you-I was belaying Becky. She was frustrated at the same ledge I was stuck at for quite some time. Attempting to offer words of encouragement I shouted, "Everything you want is just out of reach from your comfort zone." I thought a minute about what a smart thing was to say. I believe the same thing equivocates to life: you have got to stretch yourself further than you want to if you want to work your way up.

The weather was bipolar. It would rain and then I'd be dying of heat wishing I didn't wear thermals. Then it would rain again and I'd hug the rock in hopes it would shield me from droplets. On the last day some of us did lead climbing. Haeree is a freaking ninja and can scale any wall. Kirsten and I went bouldering which made me oh so very happy. Megan Bird makes me laugh. Katie Jo and I have a lot of similarities. Kathy climbed with one hand and the other with only three usable fingers and one foot because she had to get stitches on the other. Katie Merrill giggles me with her word choice. Brooke is an inspiration because she actively seeks ways to overcome her fear of heights.

I'm here with the best group ever. These people are inspiring and accomplished. Janelle helped invent Honey Mustard Vinaigrette. Stefanie Tanner is a world-class jump roping champion. (She's been on Bill Nye!). Collectively we are musical, rugged, daring, ambitious, smart, and united. I love the spirit our group brings. I love that I just had a 3-day rock climbing field trip...in New Zealand.

One with the Waterfalls

Maori belief is that everything has vibrations; that the water flowing through you is connected with the power flowing threw everything else. Water and flowing is very important in the culture and it is evident in their dances, weavings, and greetings.
This was my first time backpacking. I like it. I can honestly say that I didn't care I was wet. I was hiking threw New Zealand doing the Routeburn trail. I've seen more waterfalls in three hours than you'll see in your entire life.

I looked so hard core with my orange bandana. Stefanie had me make a critter face for the picture with my headlamp. My braids (plats, as they call them here) were a big hit. I also just happen to be wearing a real, live NZ army shirt. It's a wonder the things I can find in my closet.

The first night we stayed in a hut and bunked with people all over the world. The man accross from me was from Holland. We played Mafia while listening to water crashing down the mountain.

The next morning we looked out to the view and discovered that the night rain had brought a few more waterfalls. Such was the case throughout the entire tramp. So we all geared up in our multi-colored rain gear, believing it would be impenetratable by little drops of water.

*****
I have sometimes wondered how anyone can be as connected with water asMaori culture presents. Such is no longer a mystery.

I lived in a cloud for three days. It rained more than I've ever seen rain. I've hiked up waterfalls, down waterfalls, over waterfalls, under waterfalls, and I have become a waterfall. For the first while we were all stepping on rocks in streams. After a while we didn't care. My socks were wet. And I'm sure my rain gear helped some, but after the third swim I was wet.
















That day we hiked a good 5 of 6 hours, meeting a man from Germany in a rest hut. This rest hut is just a small room with a toilet on the other side. This man was shivering and wet and so he crashed there during the night instead of making it to the bunks. He was dry when we met him but we told him not to bother putting on dry clothes. Best he just starts out wet.

The second night we camped in tents. We hung our long johns around the pavillion (as you can see in the backround of the pictures) and proceded to heat up our water. Stefanie Tanner, Erin Muir and I ate a feast of rice over our bunsen burner. We had some chicken soup in our tin bowls and it was so nice and warm to hold! Naturally we used it to heat up our cold noses.












We set up camp and all got ready for bed. It was only 6pm. Stefanie, Me and Erin decided to pitch our tent under the pavillion. We got a lot of grief from Jackapo saying that we weren't hard core. I say we were using our resources.

To pass the time we chatted and ate chocolate-covered almonds. I loved the chocolate-to-almond ratio.

The next morning we heated up water and had oatmeal. We lit Katie Paxton's shorts on fire. Well, we didn't mean to. It just sort of happened. This was the last day hiking. We only had to go 4 hours. We crossed through a massive waterfall, so massive we had to take the flood detour and even then I felt like I was in a hurricane.

It's kind of funny how your legs stop working the minute you're done tramping. It's a miracle I can walk. My poor little legs have been abused. All in all, it was the best tramping experience I've been on!

Routeburn

Make sure you re-read my Crossed Off entry. Tell me if you feel like you're there. I'm trying to improve my ability to evoke specific emotion in others through my writing.


COMING SOON: *to be read aloud in movie-announcer voice*
Backpacking the mountain of a thousand waterfalls. One cloud. Three days. Eleven people. Will they drown while climbing up a cascading water wall or freeze to death wearing wet socks? Most importantly: do they have any cool pictures?

26 and 14

Having pulled the purple curtains from the window I looked through the glass to a gloomy morning. Dull. Dark. Damp. Dim street lamps let off a caliginous musty yellow which would have been long since obsolete had the clouds not been opaquely blocking the 7 o'clock morning sun. Clanking of dishes in the kitchen jarred my still-waking mind. I just wanted to curl up back in my purple covers and bury my head under purple pillows and fall swiftly back into sleep and dream of non-purple things. But I knew I couldn't. Curse schedules.

Hoping that the view unfiltered by glass was somehow better than watching the gloom with my elbow on a window sill, I opened the window and cautiously strained my neck out until I could feel the breeze hit my ears. Just as I suspected: a drab morning. Poking my head out of the window did nothing to improve the view but it surprisingly did improve my morning. I could smell the rain on the pavement. It smells the same here in New Zealand as it does at home. It smells refreshing and clean but better than laundry detergent. I could better make out the distinct droplets on the yellow roses framing my brick perch. I could have reached out and flicked the droplets off the petals but opted instead to keep the water beads sitting contently on the blossom. I preferred it that way.
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Hopefully you could see the scene I just described. As a writer, I strive to interpret and translate my feelings and thoughts into words so that the audience is connected to my senses. My job as an author is to make you feel as I want you to feel, to see and think the way I want you to think. When people read my pieces I want them to feel emotion: joy, peace, distaste, fear, anxiety, worry, love, passion, grumpy, exhausted, enthralled. Language is a delicate art. I am not a dancer. I do not paint or sculpt. I have but 26 letters, 14 punctuation marks, and the few bold layers of life inside me.

We all have the same 26 letters and 14 marks but I wonder why some take great care in the way they display them while others carelessly toss them around the garage. It bothers me when people do not treat these same tools with respect. I hate abbreviations used in texting. I hate when people type emails or blogs or notices with no punctuation or capitalization. I hate movies with a bad script. Language is power yet few seem to use it in daily life. Language was not meant to be ripped out and shoved in a blender.

Crossed Off

This is a long story. But some times stories deserve to be told.

*FLASHBACK* Last year, on President's Day weekend 2007, my best friend and I made lists because, well, I'm a list person. I made a list of things to do while I'm single. (Check out my list blog: listitup.blogspot.com This particular list was posted in December and updated just last night) I was venting that so many of my friends were engaged. "Married! You can't get married this early in life! There's so much to do while you're single. Like....kayaking. Yeah. I refuse to first experience kayaking as a married woman." And so kayaking made the list.

So a few months later I see this poster to go study abroad in my program with a kayaking class. I applied. I got my acceptance letter and then I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to go to New Zealand. So, like any good BYU student, I made a pro and con list.

Cons
It will cost a lot of money
I'll be far away from my family
I'll have to get in shape

Pros
I'll go kayaking and cross it off my list
I'll have an awesome experience
I'll leave the country and also get to cross that off my list

So, like any good BYU student, I prayed about it. I said to God, "Seeing I live on the philosophy that I invest in memories and experiences and that my cons list is really lame, I'm decided to go to New Zealand. Will Thou confirm if this is Thy will?"


And then I flipped open to Doctrine and Covenants section 61. I read the chapter heading. It said that Hyrum and Joseph crossed the Mississippi River in canoes. I could be wrong, but I think canoeing is about as close as you can get to kayaking in the scriptures. God had spoken. I was going to New Zealand.

*FLASHFORWARD TO PRESENT DAY*

Monday (the 18th) I went kayaking in the Matarwa river in Gore. This was my 3rd lesson, 2nd in a river and it was scary last time. It's kind of scary to go to a new river every time. I always feel like I'm charting new waters....maybe because I am. I think I've had a few near-death experiences because of kayaking. I didn't go into detail in the last post but the last time we were in the Oreti River and I attempted doing a T-rescue. I found the boat and could see the surface but I couldn't lift my head. I was an inch away from air and I couldn't get it. I could see air. I could see birds flying in the blue sky and the whispey clouds jetting accross the atmosphere. I could see freedom. But a thin layer of water separated me from breathing. The thing about water is it doesn't matter how thin that layer is if you're under it. Transparency means nothing. If you can't breathe, you can't breathe. It's quite a dumb statement, really; yet so alarmingly true. I couldn't poke my noggen past that layer and I had to bail.

But I forget how to bail.

My arms were flailing around in a frenzy. Carbondioxide clamored to be released from my panic-ridden body. Blood raced through my body and I became increasingly aware of each pounding pulse and each palpitation in my chest. My nose burned to inhale and I had to do everything in my power to fight that instinct, knowing that water-though vital for life-if inhaled, would fill my lungs with fluid and drown me. My mind cringed at the image buried in the back of my head; the image of my body flowing downstream in an upturned kayak and the newspaper article reading FREAK KAYAKING ACCIDENT, GIRL DIES.

Luckily the instinct to live kicked in and somehow I managed to surface.

Limitations are for those who can't breathe and when you're under water, you can't breathe. You're TOTALLY limited. It's amazing how fast you can fall from one level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs to another in a split moment. One minute you're drinking in sunshine and thinking about that delicious meat pie sitting in your lunch pail and the next thing you know you're upside-down in a floating coffin tapping on your boat and just praying that your lungs can once again expand with air.

We have two instructors: John looks like Aladdin and Jason looks like Heath Ledger (the guy on A Knight's Tale). Jason told us he would barrel roll us if we went over. (We call it HOG...Hand Of God) So Monday, when we were at Matarwa River, I went over right in front of John and tapped on my boat three times as is custom when one flips over. Nothing. I tapped again. I knew John was right next to me. Still nothing. So I bailed. After wiping my dripping hair away from my eyes I looked at John while cocking my head to the side to maximize visibility with a helmet flopping over my eyes. "I was right there" John said with a kind, patronizing tone.

Apparently John didn't get the memo to barrel roll us. He put his boat against mine for the T-rescue expecting me to grab the boat and flip myself. I'm sure if I had just held my breath for a bit longer he would have eventually rolled me. But it was SO scary. When you're upside-down under water you instinctively want to arch your back to kick your legs under you and push up from the bottom. But you forget your legs are floating above you and everything is so disoriented and you panic. I was waiting for a hand of God and it never came.

Later that day I was practicing railing and peeling out of an eddie and tipped over yet again. This time Jason HOGed me. Everyone cheered because I didn't bail. That felt pretty cool. I got back in line to peel out again. And that's about the time I had a mental brake down. I couldn't even lie to myself and tell me that I wanted to kayak. I thought big people weren't afraid of things. I thought the older you got the fewer tear ducts you had. I was terribly mistaken. I'm 20 and there I was, crying in my kayak like the time I lost the student body election in 6th grade. Clouds of fairies and unicorns couldn't have made me feel better. I wanted only to get out of my floating torture trap and walk to the other side, dragging my coffin behind me. It was certainly shallow enough but Jason wouldn't let me do that. Instead, he escorted me and Haeree (she has more problems kayaking than I do, if you can imagine; she was shivering with cold and she can't remember the last 10 minutes in the river) to the other side and we got out before the rest of the group.

The problem with near death experiences is not the experience itself. When it's over you know that it was only a near death experience and not an actual death experience. Your mind, however, doesn't like living so close to the edge. Even if it's actually safe with instructors and lifejackets your brain says, "Put your hands in the air, step away from the kayak, and no one gets hurt." Your body usually listens to your brain and when it doesn't, that's when you have problems.

Wednesday was the last day for kayaking. The group went to Waiau river. I considered aligning my bodily condition with my mindset by hitting my head on a large rock so as to provide a decent excuse to avoid the river excursion. But the better part of me; the part that is not easily deterred by fear and motivated by challenge, followed through. I had to get over such a mental hump-no, mental mountain-to even get that skirt on and sit in a kayak even while beached on pavement. But I did it. I entered the water (perhaps timidly) and came out on the other end. I went through rapids And I didn't even cry..

I have inspirational 70’s posters decorating my walls at home. One poster depicts a kayaker paddling down intense white water while the accompanying caption reads, “Courage is mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” I always thought it was poetic but only recently have I internalized those words; coincidentally by doing the same activity on the poster. I am courageous. I am Spartacus. I can do hard things. I can do scary things. I can kayak.

I can do anything.


"Kayak" is now crossed off the list.

Hard Core cuz I Live Hard Core....with an Orange Bandana

NOW UPDATED WITH PICTURES AND DETAILS!

Monday 11
Ropes course. I am an animal. I fell off and had to pull myself up. My arm is bruised and I win for the biggest bruise. I am Sparticus!

Those few tires you see are part of the vertical playground. If you're wondering how you get from one tire to the other, then you should probably watch me do it. My partner, Megan, and I showed them tires who's boss!

Tuesday 12
Near death experience. It's a touchie subject and I choose to no longer discuss it.

Wednesday 13
Surfer girl. That's me....well, minus the stay on the board part. Regardless, I want to throw my life away and be a beach bum.

Thursday 14
Valentine's Day party at the branch and that's good because I get service hours for it. Wahoo!

Friday 15
We took a group trip to Queenstown. The city has an atmosphere a lot like Park City. It's the recreation capital of the world. I went to the Lord of the Rings store and took a lot of fun pictures....that are on other people's cameras, of course. We did a lot of shopping, had a lot of fun in our gorgeous lake-side hotel, and had some adventure-duh.

This is me jumping from the bridge over the Kuwaru river, otherwise known as AJ Hackett Bridge. It’s the birthplace of bungy jumping..

That’s right. I went bungy jumping. I brought my BYU bookstore bag because they have a photo contest for the best picture with one. I think I’ll have a good chance.

Bungy jumping was actually not scary for me at all. I don’t know what was wrong with me. Here I am about to jump off a bridge and other people are shaking like leaves and all I can think about is how to keep that stupid bag on me.

Do you think I can have the bag when I go sky diving? ;)

As I went down I sang "And I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, free falling" (It's a song by Tom Petty). I'm SO hard core!

Saturday 16
Shopped in Queenstown

Sunday 17
Biked to church in the windiest wind ever. I'm going to have massive quads when I get home.

Kayaking 101, Waitangi Day, and Respecting Recreation

Tuesday, Feb 5
I started kayaking lessons. I am so cool. I don't know if you know this but when you kayak you have a skirt-ish thing that also goes over the kayak. This creates the "I'm a paraplegic" illusion. So our instructor is sitting in a kayak in the pool and he flips over so he's basically drowning. Then our other instructor, Bill (we call him Scuttle), flipped him back over.

And that's how you get back up if your boat flips over and you're attached in it.

You should be asking yourself, "What happens if you don't have a person in the water to flip you over?"

Again, John flips over and just like a magic trick, gets out of the water alive. ("I will now escape from a kayak under water" *Ooo!) Really all you do when you're in that situation is pull your skirt and swim out from under your kayak.

I'm happy to know I, too, can escape from flipped over kayaks.

While we were all in Splash Palace learning to kayak (yes, in a swimming pool...I love kayaking class!) all of our red bikes were parked outside. The local newspaper The Southland Times took pictures of our bikes.

Wednesday, February 6
Happy Waitangi Day! It's the day the Pakiha (white men) and the Maori signed a treaty. I'm in favour of it because it means there's no school.

We met at the fountains at Queens Park and started making Valentines. We like to plan ahead. We made them out of coloured paper. It reminded me a little of Stargirl by Jerry Spinneli. After a Turkish Kebab for lunch and some quality blogging we celebrated Ryan's birthday. He's one of the grandkids. He said he went bungy jumping with his girlfriend. I think I can do it. I'm mentally psyching myself up for it.

Thursday, February 7th
Guess who made front page of the Southland Times.
We did.
There's a big picture of Ashley in our group trying to find a space to park her red bike in the already-taken up bike rack. I wish I could post a link but I can't seem to find the picture and/or article in the online version. Bummerface.

I tried a new cereal today. I think I'll stick with Tropical Delight.

Tyler broke his hand. Mark had him and Cameron go to the front of the class. Cameron told the story: "Tyler attacked me, I grabbed his hands and bent them back and broke his finger."
It's actually quite hilarious. Cameron says it almost like it was deliberate. But he's the nicest guy in the world. The irony is hilarious.

Class was awesome. I had my family and recreation class this morning. We talked about how recreation is a scoffed at major because people think we just play all day. Sometimes that's true. But that's not why we choose this major. Second to your health, what you do during your free time is most important. It's what molds you and makes you a person. It includes how much time you devote to spiritual stuff and sports, clubs, meetings, and community involvement. This major is about enriching your life and promoting growth and development. And how much time a family spends together and what they choose to do during that time can make or break a family.

I've been thinking about this a lot today. This class is teaching me activities that all ages can do together instead of just the parents or just the kids; also to avoid parallel activities like watching TV. Joint activities are best.

Cameron and Tyler told me one organization might light us play in the street to get money for them. I went home around 3, talked to Georgina and Jason. I showed them pictures of my family and told them why I have duct tape on my fingers. To take off warts, of course. Jason has a lot of warts so he took some of my duct tape to fix that. His mom is going to think I'm weird.

I took a delicious nap. Haeree told me how she and the Jackapo clique worked out painting a playground tomorrow to get rid of graffiti. I'm excited to get involved in the community like that. Dinner was stir fry (without rice?) and the regular potatoes and the best broccoli and cheese sauce. I LOVE New Zealand cheese. Pudding was a sponge cake with caramel, banana, whipped cream, more banana, and some crushed flake bar. It's called banoffi pie. Mmmm!

After tea Haeree went to Splash Palace. I stayed home because I'm not feeling 100%. ( Pauline and her kids came over to do a project for Harrison. He had to take pictures and print them and just couldn't get any to print at home. They gave me a copy of the pictures. I love these kids. I drew a picture of mountains for Georgina. She's a cutie. Ryan came. It's his birthday today. I made him a giraffe balloon animal. I tried teaching them others how to do it. They're beginners so they're supposed to be abstract. They said I should teach it for my service hours. Good idea.

Haeree came home and we went for a short run. Probably about a mile.We stretched on the grass and talked. Life here is incredible. Haeree and I were talking about why it's so awesome here. The landscape in Invercargill isn't that amazing. Classes are fun but it's not what makes New Zealand awesome. We've come to our conclusion: We have no commitments.

I don't have a job. I don't have a cell phone. I don't even have a watch. I've been plopped here and God has given me what every person dreams of: a second chance at childhood with all the perks of being old enough to cross the street by myself and swim without floaties.

I use a landline phone and ask if my friends can play. We go to the park and swing or play touch rugby. We always meet at the fountains. I have next to no cares. Someone else does my laundry and packs my lunch and makes dinner. I ALWAYS get cookies in my lunch (I was always jealous of the kids who had dessert in their lunches everyday) and I don't have to worry about budgeting my life around rent and Ramen.

I think the best part is I have 34 friends. I can play with any of them. I don't have to worry about being cool, doing my hair (we all suffer from helmet hair every day) or even putting make up on. I'm just going to swim it off, any way.

I am going to have a hard time going back to a life of stress.

Haeree and I also want to make dinner one night. Our list of possible entres include quesadillas, sloppy joes, 7 layer bean dip, smores, rootbeer floats, funeral potatoes, and chili fries.