Ok... Jumpin' of the falls! Yep i was wanna those crazy kids who just wanted to give it a go!! The waterfalls in question are the legendary Taheke Falls in Northland where I grew up... there was a small one that we used to jump off because when you hit the water the bubbles used to pick you up and pop you out the otherside easy as... and those ones had this natural slide down the side of a rock where the baby eels used to swim up.. had to make sure didn't get under the shorts! Sun bathing with ya mates on the hot flat rocks listening to the thunder of water meeting air meeting water.....
Once your head surfaced you could hear the cheers and hollering of ya fellow comrades dotted up the top off the falls ready to do the same thing you just did! What a rush!!! hangin' out wiv ya mates and their mates proving yourself to be worthy of the jump!
Taheke Falls is a Day in the Life of a Kiwi :-)
Anyway the big falls were HUMUNGOUS.The kind you would count to 10 before you jump. Wind whistling up past ya ears, ya nose and up ya freckle!!! You could probably count to 10 or more on the way down.. we were all pretty hori (scruffy and rugged i guess is a way to describe, no bikinis but unmatched shorts and singlets if ya know what i mean!). Anyway back to screaming through the air waiting for the water to envelope ya body with a mighty splosh! Man when you hit the water it was a blessing, dunno why I'd think I would all of a sudden shoot off at a right angle and join our feathered friends haha... A child's imagination is a great thing! When you hit the water you hoped that you had that great breath before you stepped out into the abyss because by the time you pulled your way up to the surface, air bubbles rising to the occasion, your life depended on it!
Once your head surfaced you could hear the cheers and hollering of ya fellow comrades dotted up the top off the falls ready to do the same thing you just did! What a rush!!! hangin' out wiv ya mates and their mates proving yourself to be worthy of the jump!
One day I jumped... same speed, same buzz.... SPLOSH! DAMN! OUCH! Hmmmmm... leg hurts...hmmmmm... I stick my leg up out of the water and hello blood! The only thing I could think of was the big mumma eels below gettin a wiff of their next meal!! I was a hardcore swimmer thank god so skimmed across the water with one leg kicking for my life and arms powering me to my safezone... sat up on the rock, blood seeping out of my shin.... should I look? Yearh! Don't be a woos!... no dramas mate because once the blood stopped there was a ding in my shin half the size of your little fingernail. No broken or fractured anything...just a scab in the end and now 20yrs on a scar which I sometimes think about when I happen to focus on it... and y'know it makes me laugh at myself and think about those good ole times back home as a kid growing up in the middle of what some people say is the middle of nowhere... to most of us it was a time of enjoying what we had, and mate that's what makes Kiwis great, right on our back door...
Taheke Falls is a Day in the Life of a Kiwi :-)
