Another early day as I set off on the Kiwi Scenic Rail from Auckland to National Park. It’s a beautiful (and apparently rather new) train coach with big windows to look out over the rolling hills as we head south. It’s a gray cloudy day, but the windows provide a constant stream of lovely green and it’s nice to watch the world go by. My seat mates are interesting companions and my takeaway from the morning is “make plans, God laughs”. The lovely 39 year old across from me has just completed weeks of radiation after having her cancerous thyroid and lymph nodes removed. And now she will be scanned quarterly to see where the cancer lands next. Her 3 and 4 year old children are due to meet her on the platform. My cancelled plans for walking the Tongariro Alpine Crossing tomorrow (it will be pouring rain) are suddenly a lot less important.
After a quick check in at a local hotel, I hop a ride up to Whakapapa Village where the information booth is for the Tongariro National Park — I’m anxious for a little hike to get the kinks out after a 5 hour train journey. My companions in the shuttle van have been here a few days so I join Lorna and her adult daughter Andrea on their hike through a lovely forested area up to the visitor center. I choose the Taranaki Falls track — 2 hours out and back with views of both significant mountains — Ruapehu (snow-capped) and Mt Ngauruhoe, which was Mount Doom in the LOTR trilogy — and a waterfall!
It’s interesting to me how in the early part of a hike I find my mind wandering — about aspects of the trip ahead, or whether I packed correctly, or where I might have dinner — and I have to force myself to get in the moment and stop my monkey mind. Within 45 minutes of the walk, the peace settles in… The repetitive motion of legs striding and arms swinging and deep breathing mountain air, and before I realize it, my mind has calmed and I’m present and and sounds of birds and bees and water tripping over rocks are the music of the minute. The power of walking.
The landscape is varied. Some scrub, then a forest. A river on one side and a flat plain on the other. The paths are well marked and paved with small black slate-like stones. And at different turns I see the two mountains in the distance, both hiding beneath caps of clouds — portends of the storm forecast for tomorrow.
My new friends and I are are ferried back to the hotel at 6PM, and they invite me to join them at the pub across the way for dinner, which I gladly do. As much as I enjoy traveling alone, the dinner hour is my least favorite time of day. Lorna lives in Nova Scotia, but is considering the next part of her journey — perhaps a French immersion in Quebec and a rental apartment. Andrea lives in Melbourne and is contemplating the meaning of a career, vs the stress it induces — trying to make peace with enjoying her profession without the ambition in which so many of her gen x compatriots thrive. It was nice to have some companionship over fish and chips and a glass of vino.
And a reminder… Make plans… God laughs.
Monkey mind, indeed. Shhhhhhhhhhh.
A Japanese dish, made up of typically either seafood or vegetables that are battered and deep fried and enjoyed by millions of people across the nation, has its own special day each year on January 7th when we recognize National Tempura Day.