I didn’t mind listening to podcasts. It was better than talking myself into an emotional cul-de-sac or being inside my head with those awful thoughts, but I still hadn’t asked Josh about the whole “not-so-bigger life” thing. I racked my brain for ways to bring it up casually.

So, Josh, how come you’ve stalled on the big changes you wanted to make? Why have you abandoned your own life philosophy? I came up with a big fat nothing, so we sat in silence—me agonising over what to say and Josh seeming not to care. I wondered what he was thinking.

My vibrating phone interrupted my thoughts. Saved by the buzz.

“Oh, hey! According to Google, this is officially the start of the Hana Highway. Look,” I said, pointing ahead of us, “there’s mile-marker one!” It was the most excited I’d ever been to see a mile marker, probably because the car was starting to get claustrophobic—my own doing—and we’d get to stop soon.

“Yeah, that’s cool,” replied Josh.

“Those waterfalls are in about five miles,” I said, using miles instead of kilometres for the American. When in Rome and all that.

“Awesome.” Josh didn’t say anything else and as the road had started to snake, I let him concentrate on driving. Most of the turns were tight and when a car came from the other direction, both cars had to hug the side of the road. There were some worrying places where the side of the road was a wall, or a giant boulder, or a cliff dropping into the raging sea.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic, but it definitely wasn’t the best time to start a conversation about important life changes. About fifteen minutes later, we slowly approached the location of the waterfalls. Josh pulled the car off the road as much as possible and on my side, we were so close to a rising rockface, I would have to climb out on his side.

“This is where it’s supposed to be,” I said, frowning—not a waterfall in sight.

“Let’s check it out.” Josh looked at me. “You don’t trust your directions?”

“Google’s directions,” I corrected.

“Come on, we’ll figure it out.” I reminded myself that I was an adventurous traveller and to go with it.

Josh took his phone out of the centre console and put it in his front pocket, and I leant over to put mine in my back pocket. We weren’t going to lock the car—there was no point with the roof being down—so phones were coming with us. Besides, we’d want to get photos.

I reached around for my beach bag, then climbed out the driver’s side of the car. While Josh headed towards the closest bend in the road, which was where the falls were supposed to be, I retrieved the towels from the bag, leaving the snacks behind.

“Sarah! You gotta see this!” Josh was leaning over a railing next to the road and I hurried over. From our vantage point, we could see three distinct waterfalls, side by side, all cascading into a small rockpool. They were officially called “The Upper Waikani Falls” and unofficially, “The Three Bears”. I liked the unofficial name, as there was a baby waterfall, a mama waterfall, and a papa waterfall.