The day began about how it ended: It was gray outside, the sunrise not visible from all the clouds, the rain was pouring down.
We’ve had tons of rain since we’ve been in New Zealand, pretty much every single day, but this is the first time where it’s sort of felt to me like, “ok, really? Isn’t it about time for this to be done?”
It probably didn’t help that we were still fighting through the mess of figuring out our travel plans with all the crap our airlines were putting us through to make any changes whatsoever.
Every time I run into stuff like this, I just want to start a business that treats people properly. But gosh, how do you start an airline?!?! And is that what I want to dedicate my time to?
No, of course not.
I wish I had Elon Musk money and could start businesses with policies that treated people properly and fairly, how they would want to be treated if they were customers of their own companies (speaking about the policy makers).
Anyway, given that it was raining as much as it was, pretty nasty outside, we took the time to get everything figured out with our airlines. After realizing that no matter how we spun it, it was going to be a good bit of a stressful mess, Chase suggested that we just cancel everything. That way, we wouldn’t be trying to force ourselves into the time frame and travel itinerary that our airline companies wouldn’t let us out of. It was going to cost us more money, but we’d be free of the stress of trying to figure out all sorts of creative ways of traveling in order to not get completely screwed over by the airlines.
One thing that was never mentioned by the airline companies until that morning was that we might be able to get some kind of credit toward future travel if we canceled. We wouldn’t lose absolutely everything, at least.
The more we sat there and thought about it, the more attractive the proposition became of just dumping the entire rest of our itinerary and starting fresh. My airline was going to screw me over. Pretty good on credit toward future travel, telling me that I would get $800 credit left from my trip, which is absolutely crazy, but whatever. Whatever. And then even worse, they would charge me $500 for cancellation, so I would only get a $300 credit for the entire last two legs of my trip. I understand the cancellation fee because they have to find seats to fill, but for having sake at least give me the credit that I deserve from having still two legs of my trip completely unused.
But whatever. At that point, we were tired of playing games and tired of trying to figure out how to adjust our vacation to fit their extremely customer-unfriendly policies.
So we said, screw it. We’re canceling.
And we did.
Chase got something like a $900 credit after the $100 cancellation fee was taken out of his leftovers. And I? Well, they told me initially that I would have an $800 credit But a $500 penalty, for a net credit of $300. But then when I called back to actually cancel, she told me that I was going to get a credit of nearly $1600 and didn’t mention anything at all about a penalty. I have that part of the phone conversation recorded, and I’m not sure who was right and who was wrong or if any was right, given that every single time I talked to a customer service person with both Expedia and Qantas I got differing, contradicting information from each person about how everything worked for my ticket.
I went ahead and followed suit with Chase and canceled the entire rest of my itinerary. I’ll find out probably today sometime what actually will happen with my credit. She said they would be in touch within 24 hours by email, I believe with all the details. I’m not holding my breath. I’m assuming that I’ll probably only get a $300 credit, but it would be really nice if I got more. Doesn’t make sense, as that’s almost the entire price I paid for the tickets initially. So I guess we will see.
Needless to say, the end result is that we both marooned ourselves here in New Zealand, no longer with any definite date of departure nor means of travel.
We’ve marooned ourselves. 🙃
Honestly, canceling our booking was actually super liberating. No longer were we bound by time constraints about where we could go and when, worrying about being on the wrong end of the country and having to drive all the way across town. Nor did we have to worry about how we were going to travel in Australia. If we were going to buy a car, or if we were going to backpack or what. We were just simply free to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted.
I think I’m going to travel this way every time I travel in the future. No sense restricting myself and causing a bunch of stress just to save a few dollars. Do what I want , go where I want, and do it all when I want, and then leave when I’m good and ready. 🙃
So, as of right now, I have no travel plans or requirements set in stone. I’m in New Zealand. I own a car to drive around with, and that’s just how it is. 🙃
We’ve talked about doing just little weekend warrior trips from New Zealand to Australia. Sort of bouncing and visit one part of the country, and bounce back out. That way we don’t have to worry much at all about transportation around the country. Just fly in, mess around for a few days, and fly right back to New Zealand where we’ve got our lovely little Sophie waiting for us.
Anyway, I guess we’ll see what happens from here. Chase already bought his return ticket, because he still has a deadline for when he needs to be home. I, on the other hand, don’t have any deadlines at all… Just whatever I need to do to make sure my businesses run smoothly.
Gratefully, after we’d made our decisions to cancel our itineraries completely, the rain let up, and we were able to go outside and begin enjoying the day. It was about 9:30 or 10:00 by that point, I think.
I don’t remember exactly what we were doing at the time, but at some point in time a local on a tractor pulled up, and I started talking to him. We we’re planning on heading to New Chums Beach, and he agreed that it was a beautiful beach, but also suggested that we climb the little point between the two bays.
About that time it started to rain again, so Chase and I threw on our rain gear (Thanks again to my wonderful mother for giving me my early Christmas and birthday present of rain gear. It’s been absolutely wonderful so far in the first week of my trip!!! Up to and including this very moment where I am writing this blog post while sitting at the top of Whangarei Falls. Having traveled all the way back up to Whangarei again last night. The rain is coming down, and I’m just sitting at the top of the falls on the rocks. A handful of feet away from where it crashes about maybe 60 ft below.)
We hiked around the rocky shores, scrambled up the jungle-looking foliage, and then followed a very muddy path of sorts steeply up, up, and up until we made it to the top of the point.
The view was breathtaking. This was the first place we’d been to in New Zealand where the ocean was a vibrant turquoise color. Pretty much everywhere else we’d been, it had been lighter and darker shades of just regular old blue. Beautiful, but not this turquoise color that we were seeing in this area.
We took a bunch of photos, panoramic pictures, and Chase got his drone out and took some beautiful shots as well. Super super awesome!
From there, we climbed back down and headed over to New Chums Beach, which was on the other side of that point. Much more secluded than the one we camped at. There were a handful of people on it, but not many, and it was totally worth the hike over.
We swam and body surfed in the rolling waves, ate some food, and relaxed a little bit on the beach. Beach. We ran into another local and chatted with him for probably 20 minutes or so, both while sitting there, and walking back to the other beach where the car was parked.
After we got back, we ate lunch, and I went body surfing again at the beach where we spent the night. I think that particular spot was the best spot I’ve ever been to for body surfing. The waves and the beach came together just perfectly to have me riding powerfully along the way and then get sort of slammed up into the beach itself. It was quite fun. 🙂
As I mentioned the other day, I’ve continued to spend tons and tons of time on singles dating apps. But I also noticed that my loneliness or my animal whatever has come out more and more and has me contemplating doing things that I know that I would regret later.
I took a bit of an unconventional step as a means of short circuiting those thoughts, and though I’m not happy with the step that I chose to make, it has worked so far to get my brain back, at least somewhat centered in my head, and I didn’t want to risk doing something worse that I would regret the rest of my life.
So… Here we are. The Chase is a great guy, I’m still lonely. Not lonely because he’s not a good friend and traveling companion. He certainly is. But my heart longs for that connection that has no limits. Where My whole being, soul, mind, and body can be connected
Sometimes when the animal passions come out, needs, whatever you want to call them, that’s all that’s visible, and the greater connection, the thing that actually means something to me gets lost.
I hate that about my biology. And my brain. And whatever else is responsible.
Anyway, we chatted with a German couple for a little while, and then we made the decision to drive back up north and take a scuba diving class at the Bay of Islands. It’s a 4-day class, so that’s going to eat up a good chunk of our trip, but where else are we going to be able to go scuba diving in one of the top 10 best, scuba diving places in the world while we’re learning to scuba dive? Sounds like a pretty good no-brainer to me if we ever want to scuba dive at all. And though I’ve always been afraid of it, I have wanted to at the same time. So… Here we are!
Well, we’re not there yet. 🙃 We stopped off at a local pizza place on the peninsula there, and I ordered a very vegan pizza, and then we drove to Whangarei Falls in the middle of the night, getting there sometime around 2 :30 or so. And that’s where we stayed the night last night, and that’s where I am as I write this blog post as it rains… again. 🙃
Oh, if I didn’t mention it, apparently they have chiggers here in New Zealand. 🙃 We were wondering what our chigger like bites on our legs were, and Chase looked it up, and sure enough, chiggers they are!
I guess nowhere on earth is going to be absolutely perfect. 🙃
Well, I best be getting back to the car to transfer stuff from the seats to the bed so that we can get on the road and head up to the Bay of Islands in preparation for our scuba class. We are now all caught up with posts!
Here’s my stalker link for the day if you want it. 🙃
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ij1kojfc392AWKHs9
Love and hugs. 😊
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 