I was hanging around my older sister, she had made a new friend and I felt it was my duty as a younger brother, to make sure this new friend was aware I existed. They decided to start climbing this hill at the steepest face. I expected them to give up pretty quickly so thought it was best just to observe. When they got past the first slip and dead sheep, about 25meters up, I started feeling fear number one. What if they made it up the hill? I’d look like a chicken just sitting there. My sister would make my life a misery for the rest of the holiday. There was no way I was going to risk it so up I went. As steep as it was, I bounced up that hill with all the skill and grace a mountain goat would be proud of. I took great pleasure in showing the girls the best route to take and pointing out any hazards coming up. At the 60 - 70 meter mark I stopped to assess the girls progress, I thought they must have been quite away behind me now because of my far superior climbing skill and also because I hadn’t heard either of them for a while now. When I looked back I found they had decided to go back down and were almost at the bottom. They gave me a cheeky wave, laughed and ran off. Damm! Without an audience this wasn’t much fun anymore. I started to head back down the hill but quickly found it much harder to keep my balance and after a couple of scary slides discovered fear number two. I had a fear of falling down step hills onto rocks…go figure. I seemed to be fine with height thing; it was more a falling thing. I sat there for what seemed like eternity holding a clump of grass as if my life depended on it pondering my fate and thinking about those sheep. I finally decided the best way down was up. So over the next 2 hours I slowly and methodically inched my way up the hill.

The view from the top of that hill is absolutely spectacular. You can see the entire Hawkes Bay coast line from the highest point. I know this because I’ve climbed that hill on a few occasions since that day, using much safer routes of course. On that day, when I finally reached the top, I ran. I looked back a couple of times because it felt like I was being chased by someone or something, but I ran straight down the other side. I didn’t stop. Not even when I got to the bottom. I kept running until I could see our caravan and my parents sitting outside. Just when I thought my lesson for the day was over I spotted my sister and her friend and fear number three overwhelmed me. The fear of looking like a fool! I stopped running, composed myself and walked in as if I’d just finished a quite walk in the park. There was no way I was going to let anyone know what I had just experienced. When asked what I’d been up to my reply was a cool “nothin”.