The night before we were due to take the bus in for its final brake recheck, we watched ‘Everest’, the movie. We were astounded to learn that Sir Edmund Hilary climbed everest the same year as our bus was made, 1953. It put it into perspective for us. The same technology that Edmund used to climb everest(huge cumbersome oxygen tanks, woolly clothes, swimming googles), was the same technology that went into these brakes. These brakes that were being tested on a machine that wasn’t even invented when they were made. We were exhausted and felt like we had been battling up hill forever. But just as Edmund has his mind set on achieving a goal so did we. We weren’t going to give up.
We were a familar face at VINZ Te Rapa by now. So when the attendant saw me with my head in my hands to scared to look when the bus went through, he kindly passed on the word that WE HAD PASSED.
Those words, that small piece of paper, had been our focus for near on 4 years now. I’m sure i don’t need to explain how we all felt. We had reached the Summit and the view is amazing.