We’ve seen the leaflet for Tarawera trail in the tourist information and already fallen in love with how beautiful it looks and excited by the hot springs, but like any tinder profile the leaflet and trail fail to mention its baggage. The hills. The kind of hills that after you’ve climbed straight up for 30 minutes you plummet back down again only to go back up once more. Then repeat 40 times or so. But let me backtrack.
We start the day early having to catch the boat to the beginning of the trail. Although we would have preferred to do it in reverse and end with the boat trip back across the lake, our out of season visit limits our timings. So we board the little boat with some conservationists with their tools and rucksacks who are going to be working in the woods and a group of girls who are off camping for three days with ginormous backpacks and gear. David sits with the backpack and camera bag. Then theres me, sat in jeans and an vivid pink aristocats sweatshirt with a tiny handbag. Trail ready.
As the boat gets out into the open it speeds and lifts further out of the water, the silent journey broken only by the cries of geese and the lapping of the water. The sun bounces off the water and its perfect. We get closer into the jetty and you can see the steam floating off the water, where the stream reaches 91c.
We walk around to the official start of the trail, it begins with stairs. A lot of stairs. Starting off confidently, too fast and far too soon we start heading up.
Up and up we climb only to track back down and back up again, I start to think about Sisyphus. And then I become aware of some noise in the bushes close to my head. Its wallaby! I squeal and David thinks its a landslide or something.
I’d like to take a moment and truly apologise to David. I’m sorry I overreact to everything and always at volume. Also sorry to the wallaby, I was surprised and let that surprise carry me away.
David and I took bets on how many people we’d run into on the trail so I’m disappointed when the fourth person walks past us and leads David to victory against my guess of three.
Denny and Debbie's Little Big Adventure 