Falling asleep at the wheel would have been impossible at this point as I cautiously snaked around each sharp “S” in the road, secretly concealed in night’s black cloak. No lights provided any indication of where the road was going or if it was even a road at all. The only lights within my visibility were the murky yellow streams that gently poured out of my headlights and the other two confused sets that followed me with every unpromising turn. Although my ears were popping at this high elevation, I could still hear the constant crackling of muddy gravel as my tires crept up an assortment of roads much too steep for these giant, orange, fuel-burning machines that pretended to be efficient vehicles. I widened my eyes as if they would somehow emit a magical light and show me where we were. There was nothing. Just the vans, a rocky road, and some sort of cliff compiled of chunky rocks and dark mud that billowed high above the right side of the van. To the left was a black swamp, which could have easily disguised anything from a forest to a desert. I would never know. But it appeared to me to be more like a black hole trying to grasp you in its sharp, cold fingers and suck you in. It was a horror movie to look in that direction, and I was ready for anything to pop out from the abyss and attack.
The GPS had no hope for us as it lost track of our location about fifteen minutes ago when it told us we were approximately 6.7km from our destination: a campsite called Totaranui Coast Track located in Abel Tasman National Park of South Island. Still we pressed on, up a rocky slope, down muddy hill hugged with thick fog, and around unexpected hairpin turns. This was New Zealand driving at its greatest. All of these features were part of the typical drive about the South Island, only taken to the maximum. Driving during the night, I never had any idea what kind of odd formations and landscapes surrounded us as we parked to camp. But when daylight approached and we poked our heads out of the van, it was like stepping out into a whole new world that nobody could possibly know. At times I was not sure if we had somehow hopped the ocean and travelled to another country. The last light of one sky would leave me with visions of a sunset reflecting in a calm ocean inhabited by sleeping seals and blue penguins, and the first light of the following sky would burst out from behind jagged, snow capped mountains where glaciers and icebergs reside. It was the most beautiful feeling to wake up and not know what unreal, untouched world was awaiting you outside the van door. There was not one morning that I woke up without thinking that we had gained some type of exclusive VIP pass giving us front row seats to the best views in town. I thought about this as I lurched onwards, hoping that the menacingly black curtain and blinding fog would lift and reveal its secret of a deeper beauty to this currently eerie and suspicious world.
Growing extremely tired from the three hour drive made before taking on this dismal road to nowhere, I started to realize now that my friends who were supposed to entertain me during the night drive were now dozing off. I was alone suddenly, trying to navigate foreign roads that did not exist to my struggling, spastic GPS. Being the leader, I was only able to follow my dwindling hope that some sign of life would eventually emerge around one of these bends. Not sure if we were even on the right road anymore or if this place actually existed, I decided to pull over and figure out a plan with the other vans. All I knew is that we needed to find a place to sleep soon, seeing as most of the drivers were getting weary. Somehow we came to the conclusion to keep going on the basis that if we did not reach this destination soon enough, we would just camp on the side of the road where I knew we were sure to encounter the creatures that roamed the abyss in my horror movie. No big deal. Seconds later, something actually did pop out of the abyss directly into the beam of my lights. A deadly creature? No, just the typical New Zealand road kill, a possum. It was actually somewhat relieving to almost hit that possum as it forced me to not succumb to sleepiness and it proved that at least there was some life here after all.
Time was seeping out of the clock as it seemed like we had been on this road for at least an hour now; a drive that I believed would only last about twenty minutes. I thought about the lack of signs along the course and how the only signs I remember seeing earlier depicted rock falls and narrow roads. Realizing that on one side of my van, rocks were gazing down at me tempted to crush any vehicle stupid enough to cross this route and the other side carried vicious demons looming and determined to attack us trespassers, I assumed that escaping from this fate was no longer an option. But then, to my relief I finally saw the first sign. Squinting with fiery red eyes, I was pleased and a little shocked, due to lost faith, to see the name “Totaranui Coast Track” and an arrow directing me to the right. Breaking out of the darkness, I began to see a few dim lights from the main cabin and I felt myself internally rejoicing at the sign of my survival and my ability to close my eyes and cuddle up with a warm blanket at last.
After the long night’s nerve-wracking journey, it was naturally amazing to open our eyes to a vibrantly green enclosure that unveiled a vast rusty colored beach where no footprints existed. It was like the first snow of the season, glistening in the crisp morning sun, ready to be touched and molded by the first feet to sink into it. Taking in the pure serenity that the morning seemed to offer as an apology for night’s cruel deception, I thought about how unique that drive was and how the fears that surmounted, now became an experience that I would not have wanted to miss. Driving in the South Island reflected the words of U2’s song Beautiful Day, “You’re on the road, but you’ve got no destination.” Every drive possessed a feeling of aimlessness where we were entertained more so by the unexpected adventures that we encountered and dwelled in the mind-set of just going, living in the moment, and taking it easy.
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