TA Day 67: Lightning over Whakahoro

It’s just after 1:00 am and I’m wide awake in my tent. About forty-five minutes ago, I was abruptly awakened by torrential rain and bright flashes.

I have rarely been so scared lying in my tent. Rays of light continued to illuminate the thin plastic material. It felt like lightning was dancing directly above his head.

Terrified, my mind immediately went back to my wilderness first aid training years ago, and I began searching for a solution.

No, it wasn’t near rocks or tall trees. However, he was camping in a field on a hill above a large river. Generally, the Whakahoro campsite is located in a valley, with bush and farmland surrounding the area. The camp has a couple of shelters nearby with metal roofs, pit toilets, wooden fences and a small cabin about 50 meters away.

The lightning was so bright and the thunder was so loud that I was afraid to leave my tent and walk.

Extremely nervous and scared, I began sweating profusely as I hid under my sleeping bag.

With my hands covering my face and neck, and prayers for safety running through my head; my heart was beating fast.

What if they hit me? Maybe I could survive. Perhaps my sleeping pad would insulate and protect me from any drafts in the ground. Tons of thoughts kept running through my head. Would it be safe to turn on my phone since it is metal?

I couldn’t see exactly where the lightning was, but it seemed close. After each strike, I waited for the thunder to come and prayed that the storm would pass safely.

With the deep rumble of thunder, the ground seemed to move along with the noise. The storm was definitely near. The raindrops kept bouncing, falling from the sky like the feeling in my stomach.

In the end, despite the continuous flashes; The lightning seemed to keep going. I also regained enough sense to start counting the distance between the flash and the noise. He couldn’t remember the exact calculation, but he did know that the greater the distance between the impact and the noise, the further away the lightning was. At first, when I started counting, there were only about ten seconds left. Then, sixteen seconds. It seemed to remain at that distance for quite some time until finally the flashes became fainter and more than twenty seconds had passed.

Still wide awake, but more certain that this beam has disappeared.

*I wrote the above passage on December 2, while I was terrified of being struck by lightning before beginning our canoe trip. The weather was terrible and it was raining so hard that it was difficult to hear the thunder despite the constant bright flashes.

After one storm left, another came; Continuing until early morning, when the storms finally seemed to dissipate with the light of day.

It was truly a terrifying experience that capped off a nice day on the road walking with friends to camp.

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