A week ago, in search of an extremely 1 flower called the tagimoucia, I travelled to Taveuni, where the plant only grows.
My host Vagoni told me that many locals may have only seen the flower in pictures. He also told me that I'd be 2 to climb the mountain without a 3 ."You'll be on the steep (陡峭的) service road before you 4 the rainforest on an unmarked track to have any chance of finding the tagimoucia. There's thick 5 and it's always raining," he said. "At best, you don't find the 6 . At worst, you get completely 7 ."
I asked Vagoni 8 this worst case had happened before. "9 !" he said. "Just two weeks ago, a group of seven locals went up without a guide and got lost in the cloud. There was a search-and-rescue mission. What a 10 !"
Soon, we set out up the service road with a guide. I'd hiked Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, and made it 11 the Everest Base Camp. 12 , I quickly discovered that Taveuni's extreme humidity and the trail's steepness make the climbing astonishingly 13 . I needed to stop to rest every 10 minutes.
An hour later, we were in the forest, ducking under fallen trees and climbing over other obstacles. Suddenly, the guide pointed up with 14 . "Look! The tagimoucia!" he shouted. I couldn't believe we'd found it - I also couldn't see a thing, as my glasses were 15 up in the mist.
