Elder and Sister Saunders Mission : Kiwi Walk

Last night, Friday we decided to go on a Kiwi Walk. There is a special kiwi Reserve in Ohope so as the Kiwi's only come out at night we decided to go in the dark. I don't need a tourch I have my phone light!!!famous last words. We were only 10 mins into the walk and my battery was down to 50% so turned around and came back out. By the time we got to the entrance it was down to 33%.

As we were travelling home the phone battery completely died. If we had continued on the walk into the pitch black bush the phone would not have been the only thing that would have died. Little did I know what was on the sides of the path through the bush!!!!!

Saturday afternoon we decided to go on the walk during the day. Such a lovely start to the walk…..
5 minutes into the walk there was a sign post pointing the direction, 25 mins one way or 20 mins the other way. This would take us roughly to the midway point. Let’s go for the longer first leg we decided. Such a pretty first leg, for the first 10 mins. Then we went up and up and up and up and up and a flat spell must be near the top? Then we went up and up and up and up. By this time I was not feeling so good. Those of you who know me will know that general I avoid high place. But from the bottom looking up it didn’t look THAT high. I started to get panicky and started breathing deeply but that only last for so long. Poor Elder Saunders had me holding on to his sleeve for dear life. Until finally I fell to the ground and focused on getting my breath back to normal. Come on girl pull yourself together!!!! So after saying a pleading prayer I started to breath more normally and felt a lot more calm. Had I miraculous been transported down to the bottom of the bush and not still in the bush up the highest mount in New Zealand? (That’s just a little bit of an exaggeration but it’s poetic licence as I’m the author). NO, we were still on our way up to the top. But I was calmer and actually able to enjoy it a bit more. Well actually not really enjoy but tolerate the awful conditions! I now held Elder Saunders hand and calmly (not) climbed the last million steps. (Listen this is my story and if I want to use poetic licence I will, ok). It took us almost an hour to complete the first leg of 25 mins. But made it we did! There’s a photo that I took to prove it. Now the only way is down. So down and down and down and down and down and down and down and up and up, now wait a minute we already done the up bit??? Okay, only just a couple of hundred steps. (Tell the truth now about 40-50). Until finally we reached the bottom, yippee we made it. Now you may ask did we see any Kiwis, of course not they only come out at night. So are we to go back at night? Of course (not).

The view from the top Proof that we were at the top