Our world tour Part 1

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October 10, 2016

Life is nice even if you do not have wifi for a while.

The lack of wifi is the reason why the last couple of entrees are a couple of days delayed.

The day was divided in 2 basic activities: in the morning we visited "the world town" of Dagaville, about 45 km from our lodge. Why going there? We needed gasoline and Margarita was out of dramamine and thinking of the winding road we arrived on last night having something against carsickness is a must.

Small town, but nice. Again we noticed that New Zealanders are very nice people, freindly, interested and always willing to help.

After our roundtrip to Dagaville, we prepared for our main event of the day: an evening walk in the Waipoua Kauri Forest. No big deal you would say, but doing this with a Maori and his wife, who truelly believe in the relevance of nature in our lives (as should we all), made the walk unforgettable.

The prepartion for the walk was no big deal, just a nice early dinner, but, leaving dessert for after the walk....

In my note of yesterday, I already explained something about the Kauri trees, their height, age, etc. Although we had done some initial research on the trees, we were not prepared for the enormity of them. In 2 words: enormous and impressive. Adding to those words the fact that in effect they age over 3000 years, makes it easy to understand why the maori gave the trees god-like stature.

Our guides are Billy Boy Thompson (not much of a maori name) and his wife. Billy works for Footprints an organization that tries to create awareness of the relevance of the kauri trees and harmony with nature in general.

What made the walk extra special was that we were the only ones in the forest, with Billy explaining about "his kauri trees, their history and relevance to the maori people.

Already in the twilight we visited the largest trees, with Billy singing out loud maori songs. Beautiful.

The attached pictures give an impression of the trees and the forest but not of the spiritual experience.

After the walk, we went home where the promised dessert awaited us.

All in all a great day.

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