Rain in the Rainforest and My Shoes


Rain in the Rainforest and My Shoes

I took a break from this blog last week because I was on a Seminary of the Wild virtual retreat. This week I return to more stories of our time in New Zealand.  I enjoy the opportunity to continue to live and relive these stories again and again.
            Our first full day in New Zealand it rained.  This was fine because we planned to tour the glowworm caves in Waitomo, which are deep underground.  We arrived in Waitomo in time for a quick lunch before our tour.  We walked up a hill, in the rain, to a restaurant.  My feet got wet.  This was a surprise because I had on waterproof shoes.  My feet were not supposed to be wet.  I had worn these shoes for several years, in the rain, through puddles and shallow creeks and my feet stayed dry.  Why, at the beginning of this trip, are my feet wet?
            After lunch, we walked down to the entrance to the glowworm cave, in the rain, and my feet were sloshing. This is an inconvenience. We had a wonderful, insightful tour of the caves. The glowworms, Arachnocampa luminosa, are a species of fungus gnat found exclusively in New Zealand. The larval stage produces a blue-green bioluminescence. This glow attracts tiny insects which become supper for the glowworms. The larva spins a nest out of silk on the ceiling of the cave and then hangs down up to 30 silk threads along which it places small sticky droplets. When prey is entangled in a silk thread, the larva pulls it up by ingesting the thread and feeds on the prey.
            That’s the biology of what is happening. The effect is to see an entire cave lit with small bioluminescent dots.  This was a wonderful sight to see.  I tried to be present. I looked in amazement. However, my socks were soaked. Why are my feet wet?  We are inside.  No rain here. Yet each step wet socks and wet feet.
            After the glowworm cave and a tour of another cave, we decided to hike the rainforest at Waitomo on the Ruakuri Bushwalk. It was still raining but not heavily.  What better way to see a rainforest of New Zealand than in the rain? I had a raincoat so almost all of me was dry. How wonderful it would be to hike the rainforest without the rain in my shoes, but this was my chance to go and see and wet feet would not stop me.
            It was a beautiful hike.  We saw tall palm trees, lush vegetation, moss covered boulders, fast running streams, trees a hundred feet tall. The air was thick and a mist rose above the treetops.  I wasn’t sure what I expected of New Zealand, but I was not expecting to spend our first day in this dense rainforest.
            After we came out of the rainforest, I decided to see if I could get some of this water out of my shoes.  I walked out to the parking lot, took off my shoes and socks, and wrung the water out of my socks. Quite a bit of water.
            I am supposed to wear these shoes for the next two weeks. Other folks on the trip went and got nice hiking boots but I didn’t need any.  I had these waterproof hiking shoes. Except that they weren’t. Now what am I going to do.
            When we got set up for the evening with our RVs, I decided to set my shoes out so they could start to dry.  I took out the insoles and discovered I could see daylight through the heel of my shoes. Both shoes had holes in them.  That explains the water inside the shoes. How did the holes get there?  The shoes were only a couple of years old. I shared this discovery with the rest of the family because they had heard me complaining about my wet feet.  My son Drew offered me his old pair of Nikes (his second pair of shoes. I only brought one pair).  Fortunately, they were my size and fit.  Drew’s shoes were what I wore the rest of the trip. (Thank you Drew) The hiking shoes went into the trash.
            Lesson – best laid plans sometimes aren’t. You do your best to be ready and prepared.  You think through everything you think you need. And there will be something that will come up you never anticipated, like holes in your hiking shoes. So, you make adjustments. Do what you can. Share the predicament with others. Perhaps they can help. Embrace the moment so you can see how to respond and then move on. These things will happen, again and again. They will usually make for a good story.

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