Adventure Magazine

we ARE tramping
SURVIVAL
ISSUE
#237
Gaz Zeh Yaavor
One of the slips at Muriwai after Cyclone Gabrielle left my son
and his family home red stickered.
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Adelaide Tarn
Kahurangi National Park
Photo: Mark Watson
Adventure Magazine has been creating
the ‘survival issue’ for the last ten years;
it’s a lot more than ‘everyone likes a
good train wreck story’ – it’s an issue
about willpower and determination, about
commitment and resolve. It shows the
best of people, sometimes in the worst
situations.
In January, on our way to Alaska, we
stopped over in Fiji. On arrival, our phones
lit up with texted questions, “Were we
safe? Did we leave OK? How was the
airport?” We then discovered that the
airport had flooded as we took off through
some heavy turbulence. The flooding was
widespread throughout New Zealand, and
being away and viewing it unfold was hard
to watch as people lost their homes and
their lives.
Then a week or so later came the second
blow, Cyclone Gabrielle, and with it, the
making of a perfect storm. An already
waterlogged country drowned again and
was battered by the cyclone. The country
was devastated. As we looked on from a
distance, knowing there was nothing we
could do, it made little difference to the
degree of our concern. Then, like so many
others, our family had their own survival
story unfold. Some of our family live at
Muriwai; as the water-sodden cliffs faced
howling winds and more rain poured, the
cliff turned into slips, and the rest was on
the news; loss of life, hundreds of houses
red stickered, evacuation and lives ruined.
A whole community was ravished in one
night simply by the weather.
Time will tell how that story unravels, if
Muriwai will be rebuilt. But that connection
to a survival situation has made this
Adventure issue more poignant.
This issue is dedicated to all those
who have gone through so much over
the last few months, those who have
lost loved ones and houses, income
and communities. Those who feel lost,
isolated, and confused. We want you to
know that you are not forgotten, New
Zealand as a community will help, and
normality will return.
There is an old Jewish fable that says
“Gam Zeh Yaavor” which means ‘this
too shall pass’. That all things, no matter
how difficult, ‘will pass’, which as with all
survival, is the key to success, whether
that is lost on a mountain, faced with
floods or weathering a storm – ‘it will pass’
Steve Dickinson - Editor
your Adventure starts with Us
The story - Gam Zeh Yaavor
King Solomon could not banish his grief
and sadness. No matter what he tried —
the treatments prepared by his doctors, the
guidance offered by his counsellors, he
was just unhappy, depressed, becoming
more despairing every day that passed.
Messengers were sent throughout the
kingdom with a promise of wealth and
power to anyone who could help the king.
The greatest experts, sorcerers, and
doctors came to the palace and tried their
best, but to no avail.
After a while, a wizened-up old man
dressed in ragged clothes arrived at the
palace gate. “I am a farmer,” he said, “I
study nature, every day. I have come to
help the king.”
King Solomon’s courtiers dismissed him.
“I shall wait, then.” Said the old man and he
sat down to wait till the king would see him.
The king’s condition worsened. He felt sad
and helpless, he was lost to his depression
and suffering and saw no end in sight.
Finally, when all hope was lost, the courtier
let the old man in. Without speaking a word,
the man approached the king, handed him
a simple wooden ring, and with that he left.
The king looked down at the ring, read the
etched inscription, and slipped it on his
finger. Then he smiled.
“What does it say, Your Majesty?” asked the
king’s courtiers.
“Just four words,” said the king.
“This, too, shall pass."
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