I'm taking an online course right now on Well-being, and one of the first activities of the course is Savoring. It's the act of stepping out of an experience, one that makes you happy. This way, you notice the little details of the experience, and you are reminded of how and why it makes you feel happy. It refreshes the appeal and the effect of the experience.
I didn't know it then, but it was what I was trying to do when I entered the Redwoods Forest in Rotorua, New Zealand. I had traveled for more than 17 hours before I arrived in Rotorua. My friend fetched me at the airport and asked if I still wanted to check out the city or rest.
I don't know where we get the energy to do something we think we won't be able to do often or ever again, but that's where I got the energy to say yes, I still want to check out the city despite my body feeling so tired.
After dropping my bags at my friend's place, we headed out to check out Rotorua. It was a gloomy day despite it being summer. We circled around the main city streets before heading for the Redwoods Forest. My friend's workplace is just nearby and she would have given me a tour if it was open.
Rotorua is a tourist town. It's not big and sprawling like Auckland. From what I saw while driving around, the city was what I imagined a suburb would be. I knew it was filled with tourist spots that included protected forests, hot springs, lakes, and parks.
My friend works at a research facility dedicated to studying and protecting trees in the country. Preservation of nature is a big deal in NZ.
I don't know if we have redwoods in the Philippines but I am sure I have never seen one in my life. So when we stepped out of the car and walked near the trees, I was astonished to see how huge the trees were. They were so big, and some strange part of my brain was telling me if to hug the trees and see if I could wrap my arms around them. Could that pass off as an origin story for tree huggers?
There wasn't really an entrance to the forest. You just went in and walked between the trees. I was looking for an entrance booth that would collect an environmental fee and payment for a guide. My friend told me that the whole place was free to the public and we didn't need guides. That was a "culture shock" for me because if this was in the Philippines, there would be at least three kinds of payments when entering a tourist spot, an environmental fee, a guide fee, and a fee to use the comfort rooms (with different rates if you're doing a number one or a number two).
I let my friend lead the way because she said she's been to the Redwoods Forest countless times. She would go to the forest during her lunch break and just walk around it. What luxury! I always dreamed of living or working somewhere close to nature. I could imagine deciding to go for a walk in the forest to clear my head.
Come to think of it, I'm working at a University situated along the mountains with plenty of nature for me to enjoy whenever I want to. So it's now how accessible the forest is, but how accessible I am to the forest.
We went inside the forest and there were no words to describe the majesty of the trees. I knew I had to be present to fully enjoy the experience, to savor it. As much as I wanted to take many photos, I tried my best to see the forest through my eyes and not through the lens of my phone. It was a good thing that my friend took a lot of photos of me.
It was still surreal that I was finally in New Zealand, but as I walked and passed by the giant trees, I could feel that I was slightly grounding myself. I would be here for a few days, and let that thought sink in.
We went deeper into the forest and saw familiar tree ferns. I'm not sure if they're the same family but we also have a lot of them in the higher parts of Cebu.
Whenever I'm in an unfamiliar place, my mind copes by trying to think of what would be the closest thing to what I'm experiencing back home.
I asked my friend, "What do we have at home that's even remotely like this?" She was silent for a few seconds before blurting out, "Family Park?" We both laughed at this. But it was true. Family Park is probably the nearest forest park to where we lived back home that offered an inkling of what the Redwoods Forest could provide. Family Park is smaller, doesn't have giant trees, and has an entrance fee, but it's nature regardless.
We were walking towards a stream and my friend warned me of the incoming smell. It was a smell of rotten eggs, of hydrogen sulfide from the water caused by the geothermal activity in Rotorua. It wasn't as strong as I thought it would be. But it was there, lingering, heavier than air. I used to gag at the smell of hydrogen sulfide in hot springs when I was younger. I thought it came from the smell of the countless eggs they were cooking in the hot spring. I wondered why the smell still lingered.
But being in the Redwoods Forest and looking at the river that smelled of eggs knowing that no eggs were probably cooked in them, I accepted the truth that what I was smelling was hydrogen sulfide, mixed with the freshness of the foilage around.
The forest is enormous that it would take almost an entire day to fully go around it. It has several paths that you could follow but we weren't following any colored paths. It was getting dark, so we didn't go very deep into the forest. We circled around our path and came out near the wooden sculptures in front of the forest. They looked intricately made and I'm sure they signified something important.
All of a sudden, a trove of tourists arrived. My friend told me that they were here for the Redwoods Treewalk which was best experienced at night because of the lights installed in the forest. We sat on a bench and ogled at the tourists. We suspected who were Filipinos based on how long they spent taking pictures of the place and of each other. My friend told me about her experience when going to the Treewalk. Her companions practically breezed through the experience while she and her Filipino friend took forever to finish it because they spent so much time taking pictures.
Filipinos take a lot of pictures because we want to post the best photos on our social media. We spend a lot of time on Facebook, more than in any other country, and that means the need to always have content to update our lives.
I'm slowly cutting my time on social media. My phone has incurred water damage and is being repaired. I am forced to use a 7-year-old phone that's slow enough for me to be put off using it for social media.
Finally, it's dark enough that the lights were turned on. I didn't go on the Treewalk. I suspect it was not going to be worth it. Instead, my friend and I walked toward the lights. The place felt magical with all the colorful lights. Artificial firefly lights moved around the trees and the leaves.
We heard the people walking on the trail which was set up above ground. But after a few minutes, it was silent and the lights couldn't keep the darkness out. It was getting a bit creepy. After a few moments, we saw three people coming toward us with their flashlights. My friend reassured me that it was safe in the forest. No one was going to harm us. The three people reached us and we saw that they were elderly people stumbling in the dark and in muddy soil. I wasn't scared anymore, but I was scared for them. They might trip in the dark.
We didn't stay to find out if they did trip and fell. We headed out of the forest and into the dark night. It was time to go home and for me to finally rest.
The Redwoods Forest, I could imagine being used to the sight of the giant trees if I came there often. But my first experience was immensely surreal. I'm glad I savored every bit of it.
That's it for now. I'll continue this travel series in my next post. I think I'll write about my time in the Government Gardens of Rotura.
See you next time. Cheers!
