(written on the 27th and 28th from Google Maps stalker data and other memory-trigger data 🙃. And finally got things fixed enough to add a picture of my van to my post for the 1st)
Woke up, gratefully able to sleep on the side of the main road in and out of town. Grateful for noise maker apps. 🙏
Spent a good chunk of time trading and made a grand total of $45. 🙃
Better than losing. 🙏
Grateful to have a trash bin to dispose of the trash I’ve been collecting at various places as well as the trash I’ve been producing.
Did a little trash cleanup around the area before leaving and then headed up the far northern peninsula. Don’t know if it actually has a name, but it’s the one with 90-mile beach and Cape Reinga
Everyone goes to Cape Reinga, and I went with Chase last time, but I was hoping to go to the furthest north point possible, North Cape, which is out away from the tourist stuff, but upon traveling there, I realized it was on private Maori land, and I couldn’t go there without permission. 😕
Oh well.
After wandering the dirt roads through the forest on the eastern side of the peninsula, cleaning up more trash on the side of the road, I ended up at Spirits Bay–not an area I could sleep overnight at but one I could spend the day at.
It was gorgeous. Bright green hills, rugged terrain, beautiful beach. Great temperatures.
Paradise. 😊
I love New Zealand. 😊
Once there, I actually spent pretty much the whole day (of my productive time anyway) working on the van, organizing and trying to figure things out.
I also realized that the screws used to put the wood storage compartments and whatnot together were put together using screws with square driver bits.
😶
Really? 😒
I guess I’ll need to buy more tools.
Unfortunately, the person who did the conversion didn’t… what’s a nice way I’d saying it… do it like I would have? 🙃 (the screw thing was… hmmm… what’s the opposite of the icing on the cake?
The blood in the poo? 😅
No, it’s not that bad. Probably a first effort, I’d guess with lots of… room for improvement. 🙃
For example, they left the rail brackets for the rear seats in, so you have those as an obstacle when trying to store stuff in the storage compartments they built. You can’t lay something on top and have it sit flat, as it’s a ridge a foot long and a couple inches wide that’s about twoish inches tall… so… working around them is awkward. Not to mention that those brackets can get caught on and/or leave grease on stuff stored there here.
Not sure why they left them there.
Would have been super easy to remove them during the build.
Significantly harder after because you have to dismantle at least parts of the build. 😒
(I spent hours? today trying to pry them out without having the right tools. 😒)
Stymied from lack of tools, I just did my best taking everything out of the van and organizing my storage as best I could to maximize efficiency. Stuff I think I’m never going to use in the far back driver’s side storage section. Stuff I’ll use but not very often in the front driver’s side storage compartment.
Food in the passenger compartment.
It took a long time. I spent probably hours working on the organization, stuff strewn about. 😅
As I was working on everything, a 60-something? gentleman popped over and offered me some fresh sea fish of some kind that he had just barely caught.
I accepted, not knowing exactly what I was going to do with it, but I now had a large bag full of fresh fish. 😅
Chatted with him for a little bit. He makes fishing line, so he gets to go fishing to test the product.
He hates his job. 😉
Since I wasn’t allowed to stay in that area overnight, I drove away around dusk and found myself a little spot on a logging road (in an area that had already been logged), figured out how to get my little stove working, and proceeded to overcook until dry and tough nearly all of the fish I was given. 🙃
Oh well… the first pieces were good. The rest… would suck all the moisture out of your mouth if you tried to eat it, as I had exactly zero for seasoning or sauce. Sooooo… the fish because food for the smaller creatures in the food chain. 😅
Spent some time installing lights (that came with the van) to the ceiling, so I don’t need to use my headlamp or cell flashlight to see at night.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 