By: Christina Vy Pham
I went to see Laneway festival with my friend Christina a few weeks ago and it ruled. It was so nice to have such good music playing with such a smaller scale crowd than i'm used to. We had gotten to the front for almost everything. Blonde Redhead, Warpaint, and Beach house rocked my shit all over again. So glad i went. And so glad i could finally drink at a festival! We also saw these adorable kids doing haka on the street. Guess which one was the loudest.
A few weeks ago Brittney, Navah and I had taken a day trip to Rangitoto, which is a small volcanic island situated in the bay. It's literally just a volcano that exploded out of the water and became an island, though apparently, this is how it always happens. I remember watching a terrible reenactment of the "birth" of Rangitoto while on the bus to our classes Bay of Islands trip of a stoic Maori man standing on the shores of Auckland gazing on, completely unfazed as the water before him burst into flames and made an island. I know that the Maori are bad asses, but I don't care how many enemy's you've eaten, if you see that happen, you're going to shit bricks.
When we arrived at Rangitoto we were pleasantly surprised to see that the entire island was a preserved nature reserve, completely free of touristy stalls, uppity cafes, and slummy youth hostels. We quickly began our climb to the summit as we only had about two and a half hours to explore the place. The hike was fairly easy, we passed through basalt fields and German tour groups for the first part of the trip. Eventually we began the less than easy climb to the top. It was hot, there was no wind and at times the trail was so steep it seemed like we were going nowhere. After being passed by a group of Asian girls wearing flats we decided that in order to regain our honor as "trampers" we had to pick up the pace.
When we finally summited Rangitoto we were pretty spent. The views from the top were spectacular from every point. After catching our breath we headed to the lava caves. As we walked to the caves I could hear Germans faintly talking on the trail behind us, and while i'd like to say that watching Shindlers List and reading The Diary of Anne Frank didn't predispose me to get REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE when being followed by people speaking in German, it did. I feigned tying my shoe and let them pass before we made it to the caves. The caves, in all honesty were pretty fucking cool. They were a bit slimy with moss but it never ceases to amaze me how they always have a cool breeze coming from inside of them. After taking a few pictures posing like smeagol we headed back to the ferry and headed home.
This past weekend with the weather finally permitting, the girls and I rented a car for the for our first real North Island road trip. We were headed to Whirinaki Forest park to do some hiking and camping for the weekend. I've noticed that while on these long road trips, regardless of who your with, where your going, or what you've brought to distract you, the scenery itself is enough to keep you entertained for the duration of the trip. The main highways twist and turn through the mountains, steep lush green hills roll around either side and cows and sheep pepper the hillsides. It was enough to keep me with my head out the window pointing and awing at the landscape. I wanted to conceptually make love to what was going outside of the car AT ALL TIMES.
That being said, it was a 4 hour trip in a place we had never been to before, naturally we got lost a few times. Not without a little bit of personal gain though. Driving by a town near by Rotorua, we all became incredibly hungry and turned into one of the small towns on the way to grab some lunch. We found this cafe that didn't look like very much from the outside. The sign read, food GLORIOUS food and with navah spotting the Oliver Twist reference we decided to eat there. The decor was actually quite chic for being in the middle of nowhere and we were greeted by a bubbly middle aged man at the counter. After showing us all of the available options and commenting about the suggested age of the sandwiches in the showcase we ordered and waited to be served. When this food came out, I thought I was in fucking kitchen stadium. My chicken sandwich was absolutely beautiful, and tasted even better. We scarfed our food down and mumbled things like "ohhhmahhhgaaahh duuuss usss soooo guuuhh". Incredible. We payed, promised to return and headed back out on the road.
After about 30 km of sickeningly twisting and dirt roads we found our way to the park at about 16:00. We gathered our packs left a note in the window and set out for the forest. Entering this forest feels like your entering another world, so different from any other forest I've ever been in, smelling so sweet, and completely pristine, lush and green. The trail itself was relatively easy going; it winded along with the river up and down the terrain. We passed a few small waterfalls took pictures and ate god knows how many energy bars. About an hour or so into the hike we came to a portion that leveled out a bit with the river and neglecting the "WARNING KEEP STRICTLY TO THE TRAIL" sign we jumped off the track and went for a Ryan McGinley-esque swim in the river. We continued on the trail for a while and after realizing that it was already 19:30 we had to hoof it in order to get to camp before night fall as we knew that hiking in the forest at night is nearly impossible. We picked up the pace and made it to the last waterfall, from there we hiked another hour to get to camp. I, the anxious one, trailblazed at the front batting vegetation and spiderwebs from my face with exhaustion and anxiety setting in at the same time. Its true, this one hour was hell, and I thought as though I was loosing my mind. The distant calls of weird birds and the forever swelling of the buzz of cicadas filled my head. It felt more like the scene out of a movie, you know, the one right before the person looses their shit or gets eaten by monsters or whatever. In any event, my freaking out was not in vain as we made it to Vern's camp just as the sun was starting to truly set.
The camp was much more than I had expected. There was a large pavilion what had a wood burning stove, a sink with running water and plenty of left over supplies for us to use. We set up the tent and started a fire with purel, journal pages and left over wood and twigs from previous campers. We roasted hot dogs and pineapple over the open fire, drank whiskey and shared stories. I'll admit, being in the woods alone is fucking scary, and as much as I'd like be be all bad ass and Chris McCandles about it, this trip took me completely out of my comfort zone. It's not that I don't love nature, camping or hot dogs, its just that the three of us were completely alone and that's hard to fathom without wanting to die. As the night went on I began to get more comfortable and eventually began to legitimately dread leaving the forest in the morning. We slept in our tent, the girls eventually rolling onto me as the night went on considering it was pitched on a slant. The frequent calls of kiwi birds and the itching of mosquito bites didn't make for the best night sleep I'd ever had, but I was happy. We left early in the morning to hike and dive our way out.
Its weird, many people before I left for this trip asked me why the hell I wanted to go to New Zealand in the first place, and I would always make some snide remark about London being a hellhole or the fact that there were no other English speaking programs available, but really, I came here to confront my uneasiness with being disconnected with the world. Over the past few years I've become so dependent on the internet, phones, email everything to stay intouch with friends and family while I have been away in Boston; but I always felt like I was never really present, never really fully and completely where I was because my mind was always attached to the lives of people miles away. It's exhausting to say the least and something that I've always wanted to change about the way I interact with the world. I knew that coming to New Zealand would force me to actually be present, deal with reality and but my head back in synch with my body. The sheer remoteness of this place has put me in a healthier state of mind, one that can finally let me work on myself and make time to talk to others. As romantic as it may seem, I thought no better place to be alone then in the last place on earth. Now, putting myself smack dab in the middle of a sub equatorial rainforest, alone, with nothing but recent friends and hot dogs is quite a big "baby" step, but I don't want to waste any of my time here being afraid of anything. I'd rather be out there alone and exposed to the world than sitting home in my apartment on facebook. I just hope that my grand adventures end up a bit better than candide's.
"I should like to know which is worse, being raped a hundred times by negro pirates . . . or . . . just sitting here and doing nothing? "
