Hello my Charmings!
Lets wander where the WIFI is weak. – Anonymous
Another week has gone by and have arranged quite a few meetups for the coming weeks. Im not really the hiking or tramping (as they call it here in NZ) kinda girl. But if you’re living in a place as beautiful and scenic as New Zealand, you’ve got to explore.
I’ve been living in Auckland for just over a year and I’m still finding ways to meet new people. My husband came across this app called Meetup. It’s a free app where you need to register and select your interest to find a group that you think you’ll fit in. There are tons of groups that you can join. It might be for dining out, for movies, photography and any outdoor activities, you name it they have it. Since we haven’t explored much of Auckland, we thought that it’s nice to find a group with like minded people who love exploring the outdoors, and so we did. As I was scrolling through groups about outdoors and photography, I came across Feet first. They have around 6,743 Feet First Enthusiast and luckily they have an event last weekend (5 July) and we quickly joined (as there were few spots left).
All information is given in the group, meeting place, what to bring and other sorts of essential information. If you don’t have a ride, you can inform the group that you need one and you can arrange a car pool with other members thats in your area and just share for gas (usually $20 for both ways). Every event the organizers suggest to donate a gold coin ($2) from each person which goes to running the group.
Often, the events are free. But there are some groups that are professionally organized that have fees. People in this kind of group like Feet First volunteer their time to arrange this kind of event for free. Donations are suggested as group organizers need to pay annually for the group to be in Meetup.
So the tramping begins. It’s a 4 hour easy walk, with stops for lunch (you need to pack your own lunch), admiring nature and of course taking photos. Scale of difficulty is 2 out of 5.
The group met around 11am at the Lake Wainamu carpark. It started with a group introduction – just introducing your names- and some quick info and off we go.
You need to be ready for anything. We walked through water (so be ready to get your feet wet or should I say your shoes wet). It was a winter walk with a possibility of rain, so we were informed to have warm clothes and a raincoat/umbrella.
We climbed stairs…
Climbed the side of the mountain and have to slide down going back just to reach the top of the falls.
and the price of it all…
The most amazing part of it all on this walk is meeting these new amazing, funny people. Different backgrounds, different age groups even different nationalities but it seems like we all have one thing in common – meeting new friends.
CHArmed Life 