Author: Harrison Kasper – May 11
As we awoke to our third and last day at the Palace Backpackers in Nelson, all of us were eager eyed and ready to go. Today was interesting because although we had not delved into many leadership activities/practices, we were about to have an hour of media time to facetime/text/call back home to update our loved ones on our trip. Everyone was really excited to have this chance because after this hour of our generation’s favorite addiction, we were completely disconnected from WiFi and service entirely as we embarked on the next leg of our trip. I personally got to talk to my Mom, Dad, and my Boyfriend Kinnon (love you all/miss you all so much) P.S. taking a lot of pictures for you mom, don’t you worry.
After we had finished and had to shut back off from the other side of the world again, we had a pow wow outside before leaving for our next destination. Everyone set different intentions for the trip/day and verbalizing them made them powerful because we could all hold each other accountable. Being a cohesive team in the coming weeks of the trip is important as a lot of our values and strengths will be put to the test. Luckily, we have a pretty kick-butt group so I’m not worried about a single one of us. Jonie from Whenua-Iti joined us to welcome us into their adventure program. Members of Carpe Diem said that Whenua-Iti is one of the best contacts they have in the entire world, which made me and others increasingly excited.
We packed our packs and walked to the bus where Jonie guided us to one of their camping stations. As we sang our hearts out on the bus pitch perfect style and crushed a couple rounds of trivia we soon arrived at the starting point of our journey with Whenua-Iti. Myself and my now buddy Evan grilled up over 30 burgers (including two veggie burgers for our lovely vegetarians) for lunch and we loaded up our stomachs before diving into our first leg. We have officially finished orientation and are now heading to one of the first major adventure on our trip… The Resurgence. The Resurgence is a beautiful naturally made river with the dense forests of New Zealand that holds a lot of sacred value to those of the Maori tribes who we will be working with for the next couple weeks while learning about how they view the environment.
Mike, a Maori tribe member, welcomed us to the trail and taught/practiced a traditional Maori greeting (Hangi) with us before we made our way up the trail. What was interesting is he directed us to walk alone with about 15 seconds of time in between each of us in order to fully appreciate the trail, the rustling of the river, and the beauty of the silence. Doing this made me strangely emotional and hit me out of nowhere which was completely unexpected, but it had to do something with the energy of the forest especially after the power of it was just explained by Maori Mike.
We completed the trail and regrouped at the top of the river where it was directly flowing from a cavern jutting outward from a rock formation. Mike explained to us that it is traditional to wash your faces in the water as it is water coming directly from Mother Earth that has been beneath the Earth for over 100 years. Purifying and refreshing we all partook in the Maori tradition and allowed the water to rush over us almost as if we were giving into mother earth and allowing her to directly cleanse us of any impurities (a natural facemask).
Making our way back down, several of us were itching to get fully in the water so after the persuasion our of multiple pleas to get into the water we were finally allowed (keep in mind it was about 50ish degrees out making the water significantly colder than that). All of us got down to our shorts or underwear since we didn’t have much of another choice and jumped into the lower pool. Strikingly cold, it was almost like I had 10 shots of espresso at once, but I wouldn’t want it any other way because the experience of all of us taking the leap was incredible.
Once we had dried off and made our way back to the camping site we settled in, debriefed and had an amazing dinner. Before we did that though we finished out the day with one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen because it stained the whole sky and scenery a rosy pink sort of color. We saw this as we made our way along the beach in our free time and walked along the sand bars that were present for low tide. I wouldn’t have wanted to finish out the day in any other way, especially after experiencing such an amazing culture in one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever witnessed. Kia Ora (Blessings)
P.S.S. Thinking about you every day Kinnon, L word.
P.S.S.S. Enjoy the video of DA BOYS jumping into the Resurgence