When I am asked about my favorite part of a life changing trip, I always find it hard to answer. I always pause to search through my mental picture reel, trying to find the places that made me gasp in awe—the places that I can pinpoint were what made the trip worth it.
However, I find my list of beautiful places difficult to narrow down to only a few. The best moments of the trip might also be the smallest of moments, not necessarily the most dramatic. Coming up with a list of "the best places to go" always felt a bit underwhelming.
I realized instead of specific places, there were distinct moments that made my trip with my family in New Zealand special.
Here is a list of the moments that made my experience real. These are the moments that have made me reflect on what is important in my life, taught me lessons, and reminded me to dream. These are the memories that made my trip to Aotearoa unforgettable.
F I R S T S I G H T O F T H E L A N D O F T H E L O N G W H I T E C L O U D
New Zealand took my breath from the first sight. When my plane flew from into Auckland I understood why this place was named Aotearoa, "Land of the Long White Cloud". The mountains have shaped the atmosphere in a way to form lines of clouds bordering the island. The clouds act like guardians of this land, welcoming its foreign travelers. I felt a bit emotional as I saw North Island's rugged coastline frame the sea. I don't usually like comparing countries, but the jagged landscape was similar to Portugal's, but also felt more undisturbed and uninhabited.
I felt extremely lucky that I am fortunate enough to see my childhood dream come true, to experience a place I have only seen in movies and my imagination. As a child, I always saw New Zealand as a place closest to the world of Narnia, where talking animals and tree spirits ruled. I admit, I was an odd, only child who often imagined I could talk to trees. And so New Zealand became a haven for my imagination.
As I grew up, I learned more about the country's conservation and biodiversity efforts and was drawn to this place tucked away in the Southern Hemisphere. But I was also a very nervous that my expectations were too high. What if I had set this place up on a pedestal it will never live up to?
But then I flew past twisted trees shaped like upside down artist paint-brushes. I realized I have been drawing these trees ever since I was six years old.
W I N D Y N I G H T A T D U N E D I N
We freedom camped for the first time on the second night on the Long Beach near the Dunedin peninsula. We chose to park our van near the bushes under a large pine tree thinking the tree would help block the winds at night. At first we were a bit disappointed that parking right next to the beach wasn't allowed (ruining the van-life image). However, that night we learned why that would not have been the best camping spot. There are rules for a reason.
I was woken up at 11pm with the sound of hurricane-like winds ramming into the side of the vehicle, causing the windows to jitter. We had gone to sleep around 9:30pm to be up by 5:20am for the sunrise. But the winds were so strong that they rocked the whole van. The right side of the van crackled with every gust of wind. The wind also scraped the pine tree branches on top of the van. It wouldn't have surprised me if the roof got punctured through by the branches, or if the door blew wide open.
I had spent months convincing my parents that freedom camping in a van would be worth it and I was very sure my mother was rethinking that decision. Suddenly it crossed my mind that the wind gusts might have the power to flip the whole van over. I quickly searched online what perpendicular wind-speed this type of vehicle could hold without toppling. It turned out RV sized vehicles can withstand wind-speeds less than 60 miles per hour.
Honestly, it felt like any gusts slightly stronger than what we were experiencing was going to push it to the breaking point. According to AccuWeather, the gusts that night went as high as 35 miles per hour so we were safe, theoretically.
Although reassured we were not in imminent danger, I still couldn't fall back to sleep. Maybe I made a wrong decision bring my parents here. As I laid down on the top bunk, I drew back the curtains of the sunroof. I peeped out and was completely stunned by the amount of stars that were in the sky. The wind was howling, hitting the van in unpredictable bursts. But the millions of twinkling stars were silent. It felt like they were whispering secrets to each other that only I couldn't hear. I felt suddenly at peace, and I realized although I could not sleep, the winds had allowed me to witness something special. This is what freedom camping is about. Completely unpredictable, but worth it nevertheless.
I stayed awake watching the stars until 3am when the wind gusts died down to 15 mph. I still managed wake up at 5:20 to catch a peaceful sunrise.
F I V E M I N U T E S O F S I L E N C E A T D O U B T F U L S O U N D
Most people know to explore Milford Sound if they happen to be in New Zealand. I on the other hand, highly recommend taking the longer journey to Doubtful Sound if you have a chance. It may be less dramatic than Milford Sound in terms of shock factor, but with only 2 tour companies occupying the area, the place feels a lot more untouched.
Our experience at Doubtful Sound will probably not be repeated the next time we visit. The fjord is located in an area known to have over 200 days of rain a year, but we had amazing luck and had perfect weather. There was not a cloud in the sky and once our boat hit the water, we never wanted to leave.
Our tour with Real Journeys was memorable not just because of the place we were in, but because of the experience that came with it. It almost felt prehistoric. At one part of the trip, the captain parked the boat in between two towering cliffs and for five minutes shut down all the engines and air conditioning. No one was allowed to make a sound. No one spoke, no cameras clicked, no jackets rustled.
I never noticed how much noise is in our daily life until we purposefully stripped it away.
For five minutes we cut into the silence. And slowly you can hear the quiet splash of distant penguins, birds in the trees, and waterfalls trickling into the fjord.
This picture was taken right after this moment and it does little to capture the five minutes of everyone soaking in the experience.
S H O O T I N G S T A R S A T T U T U K A K A
After a tight schedule driving around the South Island, I built in a couple slow days in North Island as "rest days" for the crew. When we arrived at our Airbnb in Tutukaka early during one of those nights, we cooked a homemade dinner with our family friends. My dad had only joined us for South Island and my mother's friends joined us for North Island after he left.
We made corn soup and grilled while listening to Italian cooking music and New Zealand classics. The Wandering Eye by Fat Freddy's Drop was a great backdrop as we watched the birds from the porch and enjoyed the early evening in the picturesque cottage.
After the sunset, we turned off all the houselights, put on red headlamps, and laid outside on the grass. Eight of us had our eyes glued to the sky.
Soon, a star shot across the horizon and was spotted by a few of the group. It soon became a competition as to who can spot the next one.
Laying there under the stars, I was reminded by the universe that life is the best when we deviate from our comfort zone. I had just recently wrapped up my swimming career of 19 years when I went on this trip and had been questioning if I made a mistake ending it. But laying there under the skies reminded me of all the possibilities that were out there. Continuing to swim would have been a familiar and easy road for me. I knew the routine of setting goals in swimming and achieving it with the help of my teammates and friends. But a harder challenge would be to find something else I love and figure out a new way to pursue it. Going for something undefined, something new I feel equally passionate about is going to be an exciting new adventure in uncharted waters.
Right before the moon came up, I saw a bright orange shooting star burn through the southeast sky. It had a long white tail and a fiery red core and was the largest shooting star I have ever seen. It was as if it was telling me, this was the right choice, you have an exciting journey ahead of you.
F I R S T D I V E A T T H E P O O R K N I G H T S I S L A N D S
I had spent 19 years of my life swimming in a chlorinated rectangular pool but I had never had a diving experience.
I tried open water swimming and hated it. I didn't like the unpredictability of the waves breaking my stroke or swimming off course. I much more preferred the predictable wall at the end of 25 yards and of course, like most swimmers, the smell of clean chlorine. But when I tried surfing and free-diving, I fell in love with it after just one day. That's when I knew I liked the ocean as long as I wasn't training in it.
Nevertheless, I was skeptical of diving. I was proud and I loved to feel free in the ocean. The concept of only being able to move around in the water with a loud and heavy oxygen tank wasn't appealing.
But I gave it a shot.
Since I wasn't licensed to dive, I took a Discovery Dive trip with Dive Tutukaka. The experience allowed me to tag along all the other divers, but have a one-on-one guided diving experience. Talking with the experienced divers calmed my nerves and reassured me that this was an experience I wouldn't regret. I snorkeled around at the first location and then after a break for lunch, we had a boat tour around the islands. The waters were freezing in November but I absolutely loved soaking up the sun and getting warm with a cup of soup afterwards.
The Poor Knights Island is known the best sub-tropical dive destination in the world. The islands stand by the continental shelf and are encircled by nutrient-rich subtropical waters. This means you can find large cold water aquatic life as well as those typically found in much warmer climates all in one location. Our second dive spot was called Middle-Arch and it made me feel extremely spoiled for being my first dive experience.
It took a few minutes to adjust to breathing into a snorkel underwater, but as soon as I adjusted to it, I cannot believe that this was a whole world I've been missing out on. I've never seen colors that vibrant and fish in such quantity. There were bright orange, pink, red, green, white, and grey colored corals and sponges overlapping with each other. My favorite were the Blue Bell Tanicotes which had a blue translucent color that covered an entire underwater cave we explored. They glowed quietly, dancing with the waves. They looked like Studio Ghibli forest spirits in the water. I learned afterwards that they can only be seen in the winter, and they disappear when the warm waters arrive in the summer.
I saw two short tailed sting rays swim right under me as well as groups of hundreds of blue maomao. I felt so much like a visitor as my fingers brush against the kelp, revealing the life underneath. I saw orange and green colored sea slugs, large red lobsters, and numerous sea stars. I swam through an entire school of fish and then tried to chase them. My eyes boggled wide open the entire 45 minutes.
I was shivering in my 5mm wetsuit in 16 degree Celsius water (60 degree F). And afterwards my guide even noted that my hands were shaking so much during the trip that she often had no idea what I was pointing to. But even though my fingers started to feel numb and I really wanted to pee, I didn't want to pop through the surface early.
The Poor Knights Islands are a protected marine reserve which means there is no removal or breaking of coral, no fishing, no feeding allowed. We were only to be observers in this place. Compared to my only other experience of snorkeling in Green Island, this was beyond spectacular.
With all the news in the media these days about coral bleaching and the massive die-offs of underwater life, I didn't know there would be places where I would be able to see this much color. This is what everywhere could be like if we protected it. But we don't. I firmly believe if more people dove and realized there's more to the world than the what we see on land, everyone would be more willing to care about the ocean.
Since I do not own an underwater camera housing just yet, these are pictures from dive magazine that could do the scene I saw better justice. These pictures accurately represented a fraction of what I saw.
Diving made me realize that I had spent 19 years of my life being familiar with one type of water, learning to move through it effortlessly. Now, I have the opportunity to explore and love all other bodies of water. I can't wait to kayak, sail, surf, and dive and explore my love for the water through other mediums.
After most of the divers returned up to the boat, my guide told me to pop up. It had been a little over 45 minutes and she was so surprised that my oxygen gauge was still in the green zone. I was told I had great oxygen intake efficiency, especially for my first time diving.
I tipped my invisible hat to swimming, thanking it for giving me the skills to be so comfortable in the water, no matter which type.
F I E R Y O P O N O N I S K I E S
The weather had been shaky all day with thunderstorms when we were in the Opononi area. So instead of pressing to another destination, we decided to take an early night and rest. The Airbnb we stayed at had mixed reviews from the crew. Some thought it was too outdated but I thought it had a bit of a rustic charm.
We had one shower to split among 8 people so I decided to take mine right before dinner. While I was still in the restroom, I heard someone in the house mentioning that they saw a rainbow, that the sky was getting a break, and the sun seemed to be visible.
Recognizing that the most dramatic sunsets are always right after a storm, I ran out of the bathroom, hurriedly grabbed my camera, screamed to my mother "I'm going, you better join me or you'll regret it", and rushed outside.
I saw the rainbow overhead as soon as I was out the door. The sunset had lit the rainbow burning red, I had never seen anything like it. Hopping over a large gutter, I ran towards the shore—my shoes still untied, and saw one of the reddest skies one can imagine.
Part of me didn't want to risk leaving the to run back to tell my mother that this was something that she had to see. But I decided to sprint back and dragged my mother, her friend, and my hesitant aunt out.
When I came back, the rainbow had disappeared but the sunset was still stunning. We all stood still, enjoying the view. It's amazing how brilliant, beautiful moments can appear suddenly after stormy times. You just have to be ready for it.
S T A N D I N G I N T H E F O O T S T E P S O F G I A N T S
This is Tane Muhata. The Lord of the Forest and is New Zealand's largest known living kuari tree. It is said that Tane, sun of sky father and earth mother, separated his parents' paternal embrace to bring light and life onto this earth.
There is something about it's magnificence that moves a person from the inside. The tree doesn't just have life surrounding it, life is also within it. It is scary to know that the a deadly disease is threatening this fragile ecosystem. Carried by human trekking shoes and mammals, the Kuari dieback fungus had already taken the lives of Tane's neighbors. Humans who step on its roots and carry the fungus from forest to forest are quickening the spread.
It's sad to think that something that has been living for over 2,000 years can be gone within our lifetime. This reflects how we are treating the world everyday around us. Even with conservation efforts, within our lifetime penguins might disappear from mainland New Zealand, royal albatrosses are also on a decline, and even kiwis may become extinct.
I sat on the bench, taking in what was around me. Something about being in the presence of this great tree calmed and grounded me. I look up at his tall white trunk and I feel like he's saying "Don't give up. Give me a chance and I'll be alright, don't you worry."
S U N S E T A T L A K E T A U P O
I love planning trips. When I have the honor of planning a trip, I feel like I am the luckiest member of the crew. I get to dive deep into the local culture, scour the internet for secrets, and carefully consider what type of experience I'd like to create. The process of selecting places to visit usually involves me researching all the potential destinations, effectively allowing me to travel to the place even before the trip even starts. My favorite part is creating a playlist inspired by the local artists which always make the road-trips more cinematic.
But this trip is a trip for a large group with my mother's friends and my family. I came to New Zealand with a group of people with a wide range of physical capabilities and interests. I often felt like I had to take into consideration what itinerary would be best for everyone rather than just what I was most interested in.
I found myself at times during the trip, wishing that I was able to do something else more exciting and challenging. Or wishing that we didn't have to rest and go on to the next destination.
But the drive from Taupo to Ohakune shifted my perspective.
We had just finished dinner at a great lakeview Indian restaurant after a great day kayaking on the Taupo waters and still had to drive an hour and a half to our stay at Ohakune for the night. The sun was setting across Taupo and it was burning bright orange.
Three of us excitedly screamed for my mother to pull over. So we stopped at the campgrounds at Five Mile Bay. It was one the most stunning sunsets I have ever seen. The sun, setting over the clear blue waters, strangers lined up on the beach side bonding, sharing stories. It will be one scene I'll never forget. It was at that moment when I realized no matter how beautiful something is, the moment is sweeter when it's shared.
I wanted to stay longer, but my mother wanted to get on the road, knowing that we still had the Tongariro national park to drive through made us want to get on the road as fast as possible.
On the road back, the sky was painted with water colors and reflected over the smooth waters.
That energy from the sunset fueled our drive. Our car ended up playing games the whole way to Ohakune. We played "think of everything related New Zealand", told jokes and stories until the we all died of laughter. I learned so much about people who made such a difference in my life. Like any great trip, what makes it special is the company you were with and the memories you make together with the backdrop of the scenery around you.
New Zealand has stunning views that I won't forget for a lifetime. But when remember what made this trip special, I think back to these little tiny moments in between the highs.
What I will miss are the stargazing and game nights we had with the whole squad at Ohakune, silent moments under the night skies, and the all times when nature seemed to be my personal guide.
Thank you Aotearoa for giving me strength for the next stage of my life.
For more New Zealand stories, check out all the new things I learned about Aotearoa and stay tuned for my next article on my favorite pictures I captured on the trip.
Comments