I can't imagine a night tour more real than this. That night safari I had in Singapore... where I had to queue for 20 minutes to get a ticket... was nothing.
At the visitor information center,
"Do you need all those things?" asked a lady ranger to me pointing at my camera back.
In an instant my respond was, "Why would I bring it if I don't need it?"
I told her that I wanted to take pictures and she told me that it would be dark. I said I know and she replied flashes are not allowed and I answered, I know that too. If I fail to make a clear shot in the dark, wouldn't that be my problem? Why should you be that concern??
"Just bring what you need," she repeated. Ah, she should have seen me bringing my camera backpack. Maybe she would ask, "Are you living on that?" Aha.
I negotiated myself, took out just the camera, left my wide lens, cleaning kit, purse, powder pouch, note, and pen inside the bag. I brought my bag to the office desk. The lady behind the desk (not the ranger) looked at me like, "What?? You want to put this here??"
"Just now I was told to leave my bag. Now I hand it to you and you look confuse. I am, confused."
The lady ranger came forward and arranged to keep my bag together with another guest's backpack inside a locked room.
"You don't need to worry. Nobody is entering this room. It's lock," she said.
I replied, "I am only worried about taking pictures."
[Cellphones were required to be switched off in fear of disturbing the animals.]
When we entered the sanctuary, I understood what the hassle was all about. Another guest who apparently had (successfully) insisted bringing her backpack with her was required to open her backpack, poke through, shake it... "to make sure that there's nothing that might infect the environment such as insect, pet, etc."
We were told that once there was a visitor who brought his dead pet intending to bury it in Zealandia. "The thing is, we don't know what that animal died of." Bla, bla, bla.
Okay. Aside of that dead pet story, I understand the motive, I respect that, and I totally agree to that. Even I'm not a New Zealander, with all my heart, I do want to preserve such a beautiful, pristine, original environment which might be nowhere else in this world.
However... why start with, "Do you need all those things?" ??
Put it into the introduction part about the efforts made to return this environment into pre-human time and then why it means a lot to bring as limited stuffs as possible into the sanctuary.
*****
Naturally, most of us, wished to see a kiwi. Some of us had seen it, but in zoos. Some of us wanted to see glow worms. "Anything that's not in Indonesia," I answered to the question "What do you expect to see in this Night Tour?" I don't remember what the ranger responded, but it just seemed that she wasn't please with my answer.
Walking in pitch dark forest with a dim torch, prohibited to make noise -- otherwise the kiwi will be scared off -- it was more adventurous than fun, very less entertaining. Kind of a military practice :D
"Hey." A fellow guest touched my shoulder from behind. "Can you not walk like this?" He motioned his feet. "Like this. This, this."
I understood he meant my walking made too much noise. The road at that moment was covered with pebbles. I stopped walking, but it didn't seem that the noise subsided any bit. Oh well. Afterwards I took care to stay far behind him as not to disturb him with my walking.
Making matters worse, I had a cough on that day. Right when our ranger was about to explain something, I couldn't help coughing. "We will start when everyone stops making noise," so did she responded to my cough.
Then! The awaited moment came! We spotted a kiwi!! In the silence of us all, a fellow New Zealander lady guest pushed me with her plump body and blocked my view. Boom. Afterwards whenever we made a stop to look at something, I made sure she was already standing in front so she wouldn't need to push me again.
Somehow she seemed to get the message. When we stopped to look at glow worms, she turned to me, "Did you see them?"
"Uhm... nooo..." I answered. I didn't examine the photo on Zealandia's information sheet beforehand, I have never even heard about glow worm. So actually I didn't know what to look at. "They look like chandeliers, don't they?" said our ranger. Then I was trying to picture a chandelier in mind.
Sensing my uncertainty, this fellow New Zealander lady guest who worked in an i-Site Center, signaled me to follow her. "Here. You see that? And that ones over there, too."
Yeah... I saw them. They added the list of my wonders in New Zealand. Worms that glow in the dark, so bright indeed... true it is like a chandelier... I can't stop thinking about that.
We were lucky to spot a kiwi twice. It was like all this millions of rupiahs I was spending on this New Zealand trip became worthwhile. Like a video clip set to automatic replay, I keep on reviewing in mind how the kiwi walked with its beak pointed down sniffing the ground... cuteness overload... so adorable.
I waited for our ranger to give the signal that it's allowed to take picture as she had announced in the beginning of tour. That signal never came.
The other cutie moment for me was when our ranger opened the gate to takahe's place. Obviously takahe knew she would be coming, with some food. He had been waiting by the gate. And then wobbly wobbly he followed her inside like he couldn't wait for our ranger to hand in the snacks. This didn't happened when I visited in the afternoon with my Walk Talk Tour guide. At that time the takahes were just too busy with themselves.
I will also never forget the moment when we stood on the bridge gazing at the shelter made of sky and decorated with stars all over while the lake below us glittering.
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
(Isaiah 40:26)
No comments:
Post a Comment