The next day in Taopo, I wet with a few friends to the local river. There was a hot springs at the edge of it that made the water about the heat level of a spa. As we walked down to the river my friends pointed out a spot a half mile up the river that would eventually lead us to the hot springs. I watched it for a moment as it moved swiftly. It was about 300 feet wide, just wide enough to get a poor swimmer in some serious trouble. I said to my friends, “that looks a little fast” do you know if there are any waterfalls or anything in between here and there?” And they said that they saw some locals doing it the day before. The deep blue was tempting and we looked at each other and realized that perhaps we grew up too fast.
This was life and we faced a false ultimatum. We could really live, or we could live forever. So then we just jumped in. It was about 70 degrees. I was freaking out at the prospect of alligators, Parana, or even bull sharks. I was comfortable with the 7mph river but under the river was what freaked me out. My German friend Vasco looked at me and said “there’s nothing that can kill you in New Zealand, all of that is in Australia.” (my next stop). I remembered that this was specifically the reason that my Mom had already been here, and not to Australia. No poison in this land, no teeth, not even a bug with a stinger. It turns out that the city of Auckland was just a foreshadowing of the rest of the land.
And there it was, the hot springs. We had arrived without a scratch on us. I had colored outside of the lines, kind of
February 14th, 2009