Lost in Papamoa Hill

It was another non-working day, Joanne and I don’t want to waste our time of doing nothing in the hostel. Hence, we decided to go to Papamoa Beach and watch sunset at Papamoa Hill. As usual, we went out to the Te Puke town to hitchhike to Fashion Island shopping center at Papamoa beach.
We were chatting about the past experience that we had for hitchhiking while we point out thumb out. Few minutes later, a big truck past by and I saw the truck driver wave his hand to us, the truck then stopped a meter in front. He wanted to give us a ride. What a coincidence! We were just thought about we haven’t hitchhike big truck & police car. We needed to climb up to the passenger seats. The driver told us he is coming all the way from Auckland and he can only drop us at the junction to Papamoa beach. After we were dropped at the junction, we managed to hitchhike another lady to give us to a ride to Fashion Island shopping center.
We're on a truck
Fashion Island

Library
Park in front of Papamoa Beach


We spent our time to shop around, visit to the library, and at the beach. The beach is nice, we saw people surfing, play water, kissing on the water….

Before the dusk is coming, we decided to go to Papamoa hill to watch sunset just like what our friends did last night. They went up to the hill a day before and they told us the sunset is beautiful there. Again, we hitchhike another car to the foot of the hill, but we can’t see the direction to get up to the hill. Hence, we went to ask a guy in a farm house. The man told us if we follow the normal way to get up to the hill, we won’t be able to watch the sunset because by that time it’s already become dark. He taught us to take a short cut to climb up to the hill from another direction by cutting path from a farm. We thought is easier and can shorter our time to get up to the hill, so we started to head to the direction he told us. We walked across a farm, jump over the fence, and climb up to the hill.

this is where we climb up the hill by using our both feet & hand



After climb up to the hill, we found that there is no any wind direction indicator we suppose to see on top of the hill. It looks like there are rolling hills here whereas we were only on top of one of the hill. It is getting dark, we have to find our way out. We can’t return to the way we climbed up due to it’s hard and dangerous if we use the same way down. We got no choice but have to move to another top.

The sunset is beautiful, but we have no mood to watch anymore.....

Finally, we found the indicator and we saw a sign to the summit and also saw the sign of carpark at summit. But too bad, we can’t see the path to get down to the carpark after the small summit. It was dark and we can’t see any path to go down the hill. We tried to call our friends who went up to the hill before to ask the direction. But again too bad, they can’t give us a clear direction. Hence, I asked them to seek help from others. We were terrified as the place getting darker and we were frozen.

We found the wind direction indicator
freezing, but still can smile... : )

My phone rang while we were searching for the way down. It was call from cop. Our friend had sought help from 911. The cop asked for our direction, so I described to him about our surrounding. But it seems like they don’t really familiar with the surrounding here, they called me for a few times to locate us. We were waited there for quite some time, we both felt very hungry and freezing. It was very windy up the hill but luckily it’s a moonlight night. We were both not wearing warm enough. There were times when helicopter hovered over the hill and inching away, we thought they were searching for us. It's a moonlight night.

After waited for an hours, until we became frozen stiff, we saw the beam from the car headlight. Hooray! They found us. The cops can’t find us due to there are too many hillside here; hence, they seek help from a farmer live at the foot of the mountain. We were saved by the NZ cops. Finally we were successfully hitchhike the police car.
We were saved!

It was another unforgettable day for me; we both learnt a good lesson for such a thrilling experience. There is so many unpredictable things that you never think of will happen in nz.
****有惊无险的一天****

U jump! I jump!

Taupo Tandem Skydive

Waiting for jump

My instructor - Albert help me to dress up

Just because of one sentence, “U jump! I jump!” bring me to the 12,000 ft from the ground and throwing myself out of a perfectly good plane on a cord of a parachute. I never think I'll do that before I met a gang of crazy friends. There was no choice, I had to go skydiving for my travel.

Going to jump soon

We spent about 10 minutes journey up to 12,000 ft enjoying the buzz and watching each and others freaking out. People say it is easier to go first because you don’t have to watch others bowl out before you. But I was terrified to jump out for the first when I look down from the plane. I felt my heartbeat stopped when the moment I tumbling out of the plane, feeling completely befuddled. That was the scary part.

oh my god! help ~

my heartbeat stopped

The rush you get is difficult to explain. It is tough to breathe and hard to think. My mind goes blank. I even forgot the cameraman in front of me to take my photo and video.
But surprisingly, I felt no fear after a few seconds during my freefall. I felt the pressure, felt like a bird and started to realize the spectacular scenery is just down there. You can even see the earth is round. The mountainous and lake scenery is phenomenal and would inspire even the most worried jumper.

awesone view from the top

the earth is round

flying like a bird

the camera man is in front of me

beautiful lake scenery

i'm the supergirl

At 12,000 ft you get a 45 second freefall , it’s the shortest 45-second in my life. The parachute open after the 45 second, and I can now hear and breathe and absorb the great view. I started to scream like mad due to too excited. The scenery is so so beautiful. The instructor even let me to control the parachute for a while and turning me around for 360’.

Parachute was opened, the fear was totally gone

After ‘flying’ in the sky for about 10 minutes, I was slowly gliding down to the ground with instructor and parachute in tow. This is the experience as close to flying I will ever get in my lifetime. I guess this is the craziest thing I’ve done in my life. All I can say is that the feeling of freefall is an out-of-world experience. I'll definitely jump again if I have the chance.

gliding down to landing

landed safely

YYY!

Can't believe I've made it

We all made it!

A Loss may turn out to be a Gain

I felt a bit unhappy this morning because F4 left me alone and went out with another friend. I can't follow due to there was no more seat for me. I felt betrayed by them. At the end, I decided to go to Mt. Maunganui to join Joanne & Cassey. They went there early morning by hitch hike. There is no way for me to go there unless by hitch hiking car. Although it's not the first time I hitch hike, but it's the first time to do this alone. I took the company van to go out and walk to the main street. After stand at the roadside for about 10 minutes, I was nervous and felt hesitate whether want to put my thumb out. Finally I stand out and reach out my hand, a few cars pass by but didn't stop. After few minutes, a car stopped in front of me. It was a gentleman inside the car. I told him that I want to go Mt. Maunganui, he asked me to hop in to the car. Henry is a nice guy. He actually wanted to back to Papamoa, but he purposely drove me to Mt.Maunganui. He is working in Adelaide and having his vacation at his mum's house. We talk about his job and job opportunity in NZ & Australia. I have a better understand about the job opportunity in NZ & Aust.
I felt lucky that I met a nice guy like him as there is not always a good guy you will meet during hitch hiking. It's always certain risk to jump in a stranger's car even though in a safe country as NZ, especially for a single lady. I'm glad I took this step as I will never do this again in other place.


Beach @ Mt. Maunganui...lots of birds............taste the yummy ice cream, but melting very fast


A few guys fishing at the cliff whereas the terrifying waves (惊涛骇浪) keep hitting the cliff

I met Joanne & Cassey at the beach, we have a bush walk in the small island beside the beach. After that, we "attended" (actually just watch aside) to a couple's romantic wedding ceremony on the beach.


The good luck didn't follow us while we were back. Three of us tried to hitch hike again to go back to Te Puke, but there was no car willing to stop. It become dusk, a van stop and offers us a ride. However, there was no seat at all for three of us but only a space at the back with lots of painting tools. We got to squeeze ourselves at the back together with the painting tools & ladder, just like a illegal immigrant. It was so funny and clownish.

What a weird and special experience for me. There is a Chinese proverb, "When the old man on the frontier lost his mare, who could have guessed it was a blessing in disguise?"
塞翁失马，焉知非福。
Life is like a box of chocolate, you will never what you will get.
很多事情看起来是不好的，到后来却出人意表得让你有所收获。不要把事情想得太坏。