Our voyage aboard the 'Redwood.'

Back in 1901, a large tract of land, just outside the city of Rotorua, was planted with Californian Coastal Redwoods. One of the side trips Allie wanted to make on this trip was to see the grove of trees that continues to thrive in the deep volcanic soil that Rotorua provides. What we found was not at all what we expected. It was astounding to all of us. It was a bit challenging for some of us. Whatever our reaction, I'm sure we all are glad that we took a 'voyage' aboard the Redwood.  

There are hiking trails, horse trails and bike trails that can be followed all over this area of both redwood forest and the surrounding natural forest. I expected, till we got out of the car, that we would hike one of the medium length hiking trails through the redwoods. But as we approached the ticketing booth, our heads started tipping back and we said, "Oh, We Gotta go up there!" 

Just out of the car.

"Hey, what the...look at this place!"

Quick, get the tickets!  Let's go......come on, come on...

Twenty three bridges to cross between twenty two platforms. The longest bridge spans 37 meters (121 feet). As high as twelve meters (40 feet) up.  And the entire walk is 553 meters long. More than half a kilometer. Wow!

Not to worry tree-huggers..no nails were used or other nastiness done to the trees. 

Here we go. 'Come on you guys' says Amiri. He is quick on his feet. 

Grammy loves to read every bit of information provided along the way. 

The posted load limit is eight people on a bridge at one time. However, most of the time we had the bridges to ourselves. 

Not only does the bridge move up and down due to our walking, it sways slightly from side to side as well, due to both the wind against the bridge and the subtle movement of the trees themselves. 
I have referred in this post to our voyage aboard the Redwood. I'll tell you why. If you look back to the picture of the Redwoods Treewalk, you'll notice that the shape of the walk is roughly like that of a boat. (sort of anyway..okay, close one eye and squint) The other reason is that once you're 'aboard' the trees, movement is constant. The wind was continuous up there and I imagined that the sound of the moving bridges might be similar to those produced by a sailing ship's rigging. Jeanne found that after several bridges and all the three-dimensional motions that were happening, she started feeling something akin to sea-sickness. And once we returned to the ground, all of us noticed that the ground seemed to heave beneath us for several minutes while our tree-legs wore off.  
To my family: Remember how we used to thrill at the movement of the suspension bridge across the river at Black River Harbor? Well, these light-weight little bits of bridge Really move. 

The tallest tree in this grove is 72 meters or 236 feet. That's a truly massive tree. 

The benches are probably the most stable place aboard the good ship 'Redwood,' although at 35 feet up, even a tree of this size does sway. 

I found that there are employees who walk the tree walk continuously, just in case some emergency should come up. I asked one of them what they do if someone really gets into trouble up there and can't continue. She said that they do have equipment that would be used to place the individual in a harness  and lower them to the ground. If the problem is fear of heights she said, that action would probably be even worse than making it to the next tree. She had not had to deal with any problems herself. I wondered if blindfolding the sufferer and then leading them might not be the best alternative to the over-board remedy?   She also told us about a group of people who brought along their yoga mats one day and proceded to practice a session on one of the larger platforms. She had to move them along. 

Amiri led our group through the trees. He was always the first to the next platform and seemed to be completely at ease with both the height and the movement. I was very proud of him. 

I don't know if you can tell that we are on a higher platform here, looking down toward a lower one as we get closer to the end of our journey. 

Arram found that being the lightest was a drawback. The bridges were built in short, jointed  sections, and as his mom would step on her end of a section, his end would, like a teeter-totter, bounce him up. He was bouncing all over the place, no matter how gently Allie tried to move. You just can't change the physics. He hit upon the solution though. Piggy back!  Problem solved. I was also proud of him.

Lanterns were everywhere among the trees. These provide light for the night walks that are popular. We are planning to come back after dark for more adventure. 

Allie and the boys have been back on terra firma for some time already as Jeanne and I reach the stairway down. 

Taking a well-earned rest aboard a section of log. 

We came back after dinner, only to be disappointed. Jeanne had been told when she bought our tickets in the morning, to hang on to our receipt and to show it for admittence to the night walk. When we arrived, we were told that to take the night hike, we had to pay an additional $30. The day's hike had been $99. We must have misunderstood. We opted not to take the night tree hike but instead wandered under the trees for a bit. As it turned out, the night was quite chilly and it was probably for the best that we weren't swaying in the wind in the trees. On top of that, we discovered that there was a groups of teens in the trees racing back and forth on the bridges while trying to scare one another. It wouldn't have been the peaceful, wonder-filled experience that we were dreaming of anyway. This last shot gives just a hint of the beauty that we saw from the ground.

I think that this was the boys' first experience with being in a forest at night. There is a magic about that. I have so many memories that I value from a life time of camping, hunting and especially, tracking deer through the darkness. I hope that the boys caught a little bit of the wonder I have felt when I've been in the woods at night.