Follow the Journey

We arrived on a late, chilly night in New Plymouth, NZ after a long day of traveling from Auckland. Tran, the leader of TOA, picked up up from the bus stop and piled all of us and all of our stuff into his truck. Trans family and Martin, another leader of TOA, had an amazing meal waiting for us at the cottage we would be staying at. Since it was late we called it a night quickly and prepared for our first day.
Our day’s started at 9 a.m. and Martin and Tran never told us what we would be doing so everything would be an exciting suprise. We were first taken to a crater and practically scaled the side of a large rock. The view at the top was of the town of Taranki and the ocean. It was an incredible scene, despite the wind and clouds. We had a full day ahead so we didnt waste much time and moved on to the next activity. We were taken to a thrift store and were instructed to find the moust outrageous clothing we could that we would be wearing for our next activity. Outfits chosen were ubsurd. Some including guys in dresses, pink furry bonnets, paw print booty shorts, and a lot of 90’s sweatsuits. We were taken to a park and started our journey. We were lead through very cold rivers, woods, and then we approached swampy mud. We trudged through knee deep muyd and then a mud fight started. Most of us were completely covered in mud especially after the awesome mud slide towards the end. After the mud slide we washed off in the cold river. By the end the fridged waters were nothing to us. They were actually refreshing and a nice cleanse from the mud.
On day 2 we were taken on a long drive to a river. We were split into 2 teams and each team had to build a catermaran type raft made out of 2 canoes, 2 planks of wood, and ties. Each team had 7 people so there were 3 people on each canoe and 1 person sitting on the planks in the middle. It was quite cold but TOA’s wetsuits, booties, and windbreakers kept us from freezing. Along the canoe ride a lot of splash fights between the 2 rafts broke out, which only made things colder. After our canoe trip Tran and Martin took us to a bakert to try New Zealands meat pies. Most everyone tried them and they prove to be delicious.
On day 3 Tran and Martin took us to a bridge over a rapidy river to do some repelling. Everyone got a turn to repel down the side and we all got the proper instructions for putting on harnesses so we would know for future ventures. The rest of the day was ours to enjoy. Some people stayed at the cottage to chill and some whent into town. Those who went into town went to a museam and then to a rec center that had pools and hot tub. After some car trouble (leaving the lights on and having to get jumped) our group was back together at the cottage.
Our last day we were driven to a river and our task was to be broken up into 2 teams and build a raft out of 2 kayaks, a barrel, and 4 ropes. We had to make it down the river without our raft falling a part. After strategically building our rafts we dropped in the river and started our paddling. It was a ridiculosuly windy day so at one point we had to get out and walk our rafts to the next bend. We were near the end anyway so we just dropped back in and finished the trip. At the end there was a dam that we could ride down in the kayaks, boogie boards, and our bums. Everyone had an amazing time, especially at the end with the dam. Since it was our last night Tran had a barbeque for us at the beach. We built a fire, and cooked burgers and hot dogs. They also had marshmellows at the end which all of us were excited for s’mores. Little did we know, s’mores is not a known thing in New Zealand. Trans family had never heard of them. They roast marshemllows and put them on biscuits(cookies) which were still amazing. Our week at Taranaki was incredible. Everyone had an amazing time and a lot of memories were made. We were sad to leave but we obviously have more exciting things to look foward to.