I wanted to get shots with my video camera that I could turn into video backgrounds once PowerPoint catches up to Keynote.  So we began a new hobby  in New Zealand – Waterfall hunting.

Basically it would go like this, someone would tell us of a waterfall just off the beaten path, or we would see a picture and ask around until someone knew where it was. We’d have a name and directions that made sense to people who had been there before and off we would head, into the unknown.

The road would start of two-lanes, paved and marked and you’d pass by gorgeous hills and green valleys. Then turns would get tighter and hills steeper and the markings would leave the pavement and we’d see less traffic and more sheep. Then the turns would get even tighter and hills steeper and the pavement would be exchanged for gravel on the narrower road. Then the turns would get even tighter and hills ever steeper and the kid’s comments changed from “this is like Disneyland” to “I’m not feeling too good” and the gravel road became a trail for sheep and we began to question if we should have taken that last turn even though we didn’t see the town we were supposed to go through.  Just when we were about to turn around, a sign with a name like Waihi or Ototoko would appear and we’d be encouraged to continue into the unknown.

And you know what?

We were never disappointed to follow the narrow road. The payoff was always well worth the time and uncertainty. Life isn’t worth the effort when you stick to the road traveled by many.

-Trevor Lund