The Spirit In The Forest

I learnt about this site through a friend of mine who suggested I write in about my experience, so here it is.

Let me start off by saying that this is a true story and every bit described in here is true.

In these summer holidays of Christmas my girlfriend Jenny and I planned a trip to the east coast of New Zealand towards Whakatane and Gisborne, mainly in the remote areas of state highway 35 (The Pacific Coast Highway). Since that's the place where you can find the most rugged and beautiful scenery of New Zealand beaches as well as experience the mighty pacific ocean all by yourself with not a soul seen on the beach for miles and miles, and that's what my girlfriend and I really wanted in this vacation.

We were making our way to some place called Te Araroa, the place where the East Cape lighthouse is, and anyone that has been on that highway from Whakatane would know how deserted it is. We were planning to make it there by 8 in the evening but as our luck would have it, it started pouring, and pouring meaning it was like hail hitting us on our motorbike (we were expecting this weather since we were forewarned), so we planned to stop and camp our tent some few miles off the Araroa place. It was getting dark so in order to stay safe we camped our tent at some place where no one could spot us easily. The place where we stopped was "supposedly" a town with the usual green board placed on the highway.

We entered and there was 2 or 3 houses and that was it, so we parked the bike and followed a pathway to a forested area. We weren't that deep in the forest as we could still hear the waves hitting the nearby coastline (mind you we couldn't see the coastline).

So we set our tent up there in the rain, swearing and cussing and it was almost dark now (I think the sun had just set). We planned for our next part of the journey the next day and had some pizza slices which were there in the bag (which tasted yuck that night) and then off to sleep (with the mosquitoes and frogs keeping me awake with their night sounds). I did fall asleep after some time due to the exhaustion of driving 700+ kms on a bike in that single day, with only very few breaks and only 1 driver, me.

So at some stage in the middle of the night I suddenly woke up (meaning only getting out of the deep sleep not actually waking up) and I hear this noise as if someone is moving near the bushes near our tent. I had to adjust my eyes to the darkness for the first few seconds. There were no sounds of the insects now and the rain had stopped. All I could hear were the sea waves crashing against the coastline and some rustling amongst the nearby bushes which could be anything but sounded like something "large" was moving, not just a squirrel or anything.

At first I tried to ignore it and go to sleep but it wouldn't stop, the sound kept coming at certain intervals (a few seconds) and I was getting concerned. I thought about waking up Jenny my girlfriend but for some reason disregarded it. So I managed to get out of the tent. There was the bright moonlight shining out from the vast tree cover in the forest, so I could see things more clearly than in the tent.

I moved towards the bush, got there the sound stopped. This is when things started freaking me out. As soon as I got through that bush I swear I saw a "human like" shadow move a few metres off in the distance in the direction I was moving. I moved in that direction and I heard a voice as if it's murmuring, I continued in that direction and realised it sounded like a woman singing a poem (in a rhythm with a low voice) I stood there for a few seconds (a cold chill running up my neck). I knew from the way it sounded this "lady" or should I say "presence" was very much near me, at that moment, in those few seconds I realised two things: -first - that the poem the lady was singing wasn't in English, it was in some different language, and the second thing going in my mind was "WHAT THE F***!!!!"

I moved a bit more deep towards the sound (which was very close) AND THAT"S WHEN I SEE, a few feet away from me, a woman completely dressed in white, sitting on a swing (which was made on a tree) and riding it back and forth at a slow pace staring heavily into me and singing that song looking totally calm and relaxed. I ran back in a panic, my heart pounding so hard I thought I was going to die. Amidst all this I tried to remain calm and retrace my tracks back to the tent, since running in the wrong direction and getting lost in the forest at the dead of the night could be worse.

I found the tent, woke Jenny up, told her what happened, we made a fire, and stayed awake the rest of the night. As soon as the sun came up we packed our stuff, made our way to the bike and got the hell out of there.

Some people don't believe what I say is true but only those who have actually gone through the experience and felt the paranormal do.