Week 46- Breaking Down Barriers

Waking up with my dislocated shoulder, I knew was going to bring some challenges. Not being able to cycle I had to cancel hockey training that morning but the kids had exams anyway so it wasn’t the end of the world, even if it wasn’t the best preparation for our game on the Wednesday. I dosed up on pain killers and then went to the physio that evening. Tom was pretty disappointed I’d managed to add to my list of injuries. He gave me some exercises to do which involved swinging my arm in circles and explained how it was going to click a fair bit as it settles back into place. Rory brought me some dumplings and we sat and chatted about life in general and how I was going to recover from this latest injury. He walked me home for my group dinner. We made spring rolls and egg fried rice this week and played cards to finish.

Other than school work on Tuesday I popped into Jack and Clare to catch up and show off my exercises. Jack had dislocated his shoulder a few times so I knew I was talking to the expert. Come Wednesday I was feeling a good bit better and walked to St. Peters to get the bus to our match in Avondale. We conceded a soft early goal before starting to play well and then managed to equalise. Almost as soon as we equalised we forgot how to play but we were still on top. Near the end of the game we conceded another soft easy goal and then when I pulled the keeper off to chase the game we conceded again. It was a really tough team talk after the game and I think a very important learning curve for the kids. I wrote down my thoughts after the game and sent them on to the team which I hoped would have helped them learn from when things don’t go well. Marlene was doing a class where she had to make a paper airplane for an assignment so I helped with that in the evening before bed. I was getting better at sleeping upright too.

My hockey coaching was cancelled again on Thursday morning because I’m still not allowed to cycle and the kids still have exams so I just went to class. I went to the physio and got some new band exercises as well as being given a tentative okay to go hiking and camping for four days on Great Barrier Island. I spent the day working on a computational mathematical modelling assignment all to do with the deformation of a spinning disc. I was working in 70 Symonds street and thought it was strange that Sierra (from the frisbee club) made a particular point of asking me if I was definitely going to be finished that evening. I assented that I would be and promptly forgot about it. I was due to have dinner with Mark and Clare and Jack that evening but (in hindsight also strangely) they had to postpone. Jack came over to my flat for dinner while Ulysse, Marlene, Alice and Bridget went to the kayaking dinner. As a backup plan, I arranged to go with Jack to Cooper’s to play cards. Emma came to pick me up and I was still blissfully unaware that there was anything going on behind the scenes. I walk into Cooper’s living room and what a surprise do I find there but the majority of the Auckland Frisbee club! Mainly Cooper, with the help of pretty much everyone, organised for me to be well and truly fooled, surprised and absolutely delighted that so many people would come to wish me farewell as my time in New Zealand was drawing to a close. They all signed a mug for me and we spent the evening playing cards and having a laugh. It was really special. The girls also arrived later from the kayaking dinner to cap it off.

On Friday morning I was up early to walk down to the ferry to go to Great Barrier Island with Harry, Matthew, Julian and Tiina. Harry had organised the trip through the tramping club so all of these people were strangers to me. As I walked down I was aiming to be at the ferry about 5minutes before the ferry was due to leave. On my way I received a phone call to say that I was late. As it turned out, I was supposed to be there 30min in advance so I had to run the rest of the way to the ferry and I only just made it on to meet the rest of the team! This was not the first impression that I had wanted to give but it was a bit of a thrill! If I had missed the ferry, I was not going to be going to Great Barrier Island at all as the four-hour ferry only runs every two or three days. It was a bank holiday weekend for the Queen’s official birthday so we decided to take the Friday off class and spend 4 days hiking and camping! On the ferry we watched the new Jumangi film with The Rock and Jack Black as well as talking to some locals. One of them was 82 years old and come to the island originally to shoot pigs. He told us that he had been sober for 12 years and invited us to his home but, seeing as his jeep was full of alcohol, we doubted his stories!

Once we got off the ferry at Tryphena in the sunshine, we got a shuttle to Haratoanga where we had our lunch and played with a dog before we set off along the beautiful coastal walk to Whangapoua campsite. We were right by the beach with big rip tides so we didn’t go swimming. We set up our tents right by the cook house and made dinner together. We had chili with rice and ginger chicken courtesy of Harry. One person was supposed to be in charge of dinner for each of the evenings but I got out of that task on account of my shoulder. We played cards and listened to music long into the night before retiring to our tents. It was quite difficult for me to get in and out of my tent and sleeping bag but I managed!

On Saturday morning we had breakfast and left camp on a dry but overcast day. We had to start the day on a very steep road with plenty of elevation game. To keep spirits up we told some bad jokes and some anti jokes which I won’t share here! From there we walked up Windy Canyon and saw the massive kauri trees. We rested after a couple of hours to have some tea and chocolate and to take note of some of the birds and plants. We reached the hut by lunchtime and saw some incredible, panoramic views out into the ocean and the land below us.

We played some cards in the early afternoon and met some other trampers, including a woman from Leopardstown! We did put up a slack line for a little bit but we found it was bending the posts of the hut so we promptly too it down. Harry and Matthew went on an adventure together and I would have loved to have joined but it probably would have been a bad idea with my shoulder. We cooked a massive risotto for dinner. I’m not sure how much of it there was but someone said they didn’t think we could finish it. This meant that we all ate far too much food but we did manage to finish it and it was delicious! We played more cards after dinner and joked around before heading to bed in the hut. It was extremely warm in the hut but perhaps that is better than it being freezing cold!

It was wet on Sunday morning, so we had a bit of a leisurely start. We eventually set off an hour after one particular group but we managed to catch them. It was dry to start but then we had a lot of rain and we discovered that my jacket (which I had borrowed from Ulysse, who had originally borrowed it from Harry) was not waterproof. We stopped by a hot spring to have our lunch but unfortunately, with all the fresh rainwater, there wasn’t much hot water. We had to cross a few rivers and climb fallen trees, all of which was fairly slippery. To protect myself from accidentally grabbing something with my bad arm while I walked I kept my left hand in my pocket.

It dried out in the early afternoon, just before we arrived at camp, so we were able to hang our clothes out to dry and it was sunny by about 15:00. While the tide was out we explored round the headland and found an old kauri mill. Once back at camp we made an unnecessary amount of food again. This time 1kg of cous cous with mushrooms, pepper, peas and salami and again we polished it all off. We even had a kind of white chocolate fondue for dessert! We played more cards and looked at the stars. They truly were beautiful in this unique location. After discussing imaginary numbers, I went to bed on the only dry ground and was quite warm through the night.

We decided to get up early so we could walk and get to the road at a reasonable hour to hitchhike back to the ferry. We ended up getting to the road way too early and split into two groups. I was with Julian and Tiina and Harry went with Matthew. For my group, we got our first lift to the airport and then the second lift brought us to a bus stop. From there we were picked up by a guy who was in my course back in UCD for first and second year and was taking a year out to work in New Zealand! He brought us to the pub that he was working at which meant we avoided the worst of the rain. We played more cards while we waited and bought a supposedly famous pie. It certainly tasted very good! My classmate’s aunt brought us all to the ferry and then they had a ridiculous name calling system which involved shouting the names of people on the paper in the rain which made it next to impossible to actually read the names and there was no identity check either. We watched Black Panther on the boat back and then walked home, getting absolutely soaked on the way! We found a $50 note on our way and as we couldn’t locate a true owner, we split it among ourselves towards the cost of the trip. Once home, I hung out all of my many wet clothes and went to bed.