Living in a Poem

For the last four days, PD Group C was on a canoe trip on the beautiful Whanganui River. The river travels through the lower half of the North Island of New Zealand and took us through the most tranquil, scenic expedition that I have thus far experienced.

Our time off the river was spent primarily mobilizing our belongings to the three campsites where we slept. We would lug our enormous waterproof barrels and our dry bags containing tents up onto the land surrounded by a forest of ferns and coniferous trees. On the campsite, we would would build our tents and prepare our dinners before marveling at the purples and oranges of the nightly sunset.

Come sunrise, we would wake up, eat our breakfast, and then reverse the process. Our lunch breaks took us to coarse beaches thick with stones carved perfectly round by the river and time. Here we discovered our passion and the true meaning of life: skipping stones. One in ten of the rocks were perfect discs so we could finally perfect our technique without having to worry about combing the beach for the perfect skipping stone. This, combined with the smooth flow of the river led to a serene and satisfying toss, guaranteed.

The more time we spent rowing upon the river, the more it all blended together - a long and winding road we travelled with great walls of foliage encroaching upon us. For miles, it was just like this: an endless landscape where the only colors to be seen were lush green, the blue of the sky and river, and the neon red and yellow hulls of our vessels. The rowing became like clockwork: a part of us. We couldn't think of the aching in our forearms or the sweat on our brows because all that existed was the water constantly helping us push ahead.

However relaxing and beautiful this was, it still was a bit monotonous. Our instructor, Andy, remedied this with a few semi-competitive games (more so for certain group members). The first one had us hunting each other down with sticks while still on our canoes. We were to locate and poke our given target and upon completion were then to poke their target. The worst case scenario would have one being the target of the canoe partner rowing behind them. The second game used the same structure but had a more lexical twist in which we had to get somebody to say a certain word. These games provided endless fun upon the river and any misunderstandings regarding the rules were settled with tightly regulated splash-fights.

The most significant moment took place when Laurel ventured to the deeper reaches of the second campsite wherein she found a small gift from the previous Pacific Discovery group. There, she found a small jar with a small piece of dark chocolate and a note telling us that we should cherish our time upon the river for we were truly, "living in a poem.”