We turn into a side road off the Owaka-Invercargill Highway. The GPS has been serving us well thus far this trip so we have no fear it will drop us into another river, the way it did five years ago.
Soon we spot a small parking area. There are other vehicles are already stationed there, but far fewer than we’d expect. It’s not peak season, perhaps, or folks are too impatient to get to their destinations. A detour isn’t for most.
We love detours. Any excuse to get off the beaten track and get lost.
Isn’t that why we travel?
We enter the brush, far damper than it looks from the outside. New Zealand and its temperate rainforests, so similar to our own yet a world of difference. It’s cooler here, for one. Tropical rainforests have the benefit of eco-diversity, of course, but when you’re trekking beneath a thick canopy, no one needs the extra heat.
The forest floor beneath us is alive with moss and lichen. Fungi and ferns.
Then we turn around the corner, and there it is: the Pūrākaunui Falls. A 20-metre cascade of water, falling over three separate tiers. It’s a wonder. We know we’re heading here – that’s why we turned off the highway, after all – but it’s still a surprise, a delight.
How often do you experienced something that’s better than advertised? Life ought to always exceed expectations, no? Maybe if we open our hearts wide enough to everything, it will. Yes.