(written on November 26th from notes taken previously)
I was a bit antisocial this morning. The gentleman doing the van life thing in the van next to me was up early and chilling in a lawn chair next to his van eating breakfast and whatnot.
But being a bit antisocial this morning, I stayed in my van for a long time. 😅
I eventually got out, grabbed a garbage bag, and started cleaning up trash that was all over the parking area, and ironically enough ended up having like a 2-hour conversation with the gentleman (his name was Matía from… Italy was it?)
He’s been living in New Zealand for the last seven or eight years, I think it was.
The garbage cleanup yielded an entire garbage bag full of trash, filled mostly by a bag of clothing that someone had left in the bushes that had been there long enough to start rotting, I think, full of bugs and whatnot.
Matía’s views of New Zealand and the world were… not very positive–frustrated with the way New Zealanders treat their country and life, from his perspective.
Not a very uplifting conversation for me, but I think it was still positive in some ways?
Took a walk around the park area, taking in the scene over looking Whangarei Falls. It’s so familiar that it feels like home each time I go back. We stayed there multiple times, maybe 3 or 4 times back in ’22?
As I was walking around, I saw a little bag of what looked like cocaine or meth or something. One of those super-tiny Ziploc bags with a white powder inside.
I picked it up at first, and then I got all germaphobey and tossed it back in the shrubs on the cliff side of the lookout fence.
Not wanting to leave the trash, but also nervous about touching the bag itself. 🙃
Headed over to The Warehouse (kind of like Walmart Supercenter, but with only a couple of aisles of food choices as opposed to an entire grocery-store-sized offering.)
Bought a bunch of auto-repair tools, wrenches, sockets, ratchet, screwdrivers, etc.
Chatted on the phone with my sister Heather while shopping there.
Went to Repco after that (New Zealand’s version of an AutoZone-type store). I had tried to find out what a master cylinder would cost for my van, wondering if that might have been the issue, but when I looked online, I couldn’t find any listing of a master cylinder, so I went to the store and found the same issue: they don’t have aftermarket master cylinders available for it.
Junk yard is the only way to go, it appears. 😕
Maybe I could have one shipped from Japan or something.
Headed over to Mitre 10 (New Zealand’s version of Lowe’s) and bought some clear tubing to bleed my brakes with, as though unlikely, that was the first things to try in diagnosing the super-soft brake-pedal issue.
From there, it was back to the Warehouse to buy brake fluid because it was a lot more expensive at Mitre 10 for the same brand and bottle size.
Stopped off at Pak ‘N Save and loaded up on food (a boat load of chips and cheap soda, among other things 😅).
Yes, I’m on the ground, and my wagon isn’t even visible in the distance. 😅
Used Google to find a local post office where I could fill out the form and submit the ownership documents for having purchased my new rolling home.
Headed to a pick a part junkyard, but they didn’t have any Estimas of the same generation.
If I didn’t mention it, my vehicle is a 2000 Toyota estima with about 245,000 km on it. Chain-driven engine, but the chain does rattle on startup. 😕
Something I would have known that I’ve been able to inspect the vehicle when the engine was cold. 😞
[sigh]
After spending hours inside the various stores, I finally got out of Whangarei and headed for the coast, Northeast of town.
I stopped off at Taupiri Bay, the place Chase and I met Maya back in ’22, and the place we saw the incredible tide pools.
The tide was higher this time, and it would have been more of an adventure than I wanted to take on to go back to where we had seen the octopi and whatnot.
So onward I went.
It was mostly a lot of driving today with no reasonable places to stop for the night.
I ended up heading west through the hills as the sun was going down, many times being completely blinded by the Sun and unable to see the road pretty much at all, which is pretty scary on a winding narrow road through the hills.
After finally giving up and driving all the way to the Kawakawa public library, the nearest official Freedom Camping place, I called it a night.
Would have liked to have spent more time back at Taupiri Bay.
Oh, all that time I didn’t bleeding brakes didn’t resolve anything. 😕
Oh well, is what it is. Another New Zealand day in the books. 📚
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 