(written on December 23rd from notes taken previously)
The day started off rainy today, so the day opened with me just kicking it in my van following along with the college football scores as the games were played.
Once the rain stopped, I headed over to do a little bit of a reprise of November 2022 when Chase and I found ourselves in this same spot and hiked up to the New Chums Beach lookout.
The day we hiked the lookout three years ago was sunny, as I remember, which allowed for much more vibrant colors than I had today with the gray skies which brought about significantly tempered ocean hues, if I can even say it like that.
Still, at the very least, it was beautiful and fun to take another step on memory lane.
I initially over shot the entrance point from the ocean shore into the bush. When you leave the parking area, you first walk along the Sandy Beach past a restricted area for endangered seabirds. Then you have to wade across the river that gets maybe waste deep as it meets the ocean?
From there, it’s Boulder hopping along the beach for maybe a kilometer or a kilometer and a half until you pop from the rock-filled shore into the dirt trail through the bush.
Having missed the trail but not wanting to double back, and thinking I had a decent idea as to where I was in relation to the path, I just pointed my body uphill and did my best to not slide back down the steep slopes that were, because of the rain, quite muddy and slippery.
Fortunately, there were no significant slips and no injuries, and I found the trail and was able to safely navigate up to the lookout point at the top where you can see both beaches.
It really is a beautiful place with beautiful views. 😊
I texted back and forth with my sister Heather a bit, sending some pictures of a tree that I think is sometimes called the New Zealand Christmas tree because it blooms with beautiful red flowers starting in November and lasting through the Christmas season and longer, I think.
The trees are absolutely everywhere along the coasts of the North Island. I don’t remember if they are in the South Island match.
I headed down to the New Chums Beach side of the lookout point and began walking the beach from one end to the other, looking to see if a small dirt road that from Google maps looks like it goes all the way to the far side of New Chums Beach actually does go out there. Spoiler… No it doesn’t. And if it did, judging by the map, it would probably end up being a private road anyway.
As I walked, I found an old intact-ish sea kayak. It looked to be pretty much usable, until I noticed that it had apparently been out in the sun so long? that the little ridge that you slip your spray skirt over was disintegrating.
Not usable. 🙃
Unfortunately, it was way too big a piece of beach litter to reasonably drag all the way back. 😅
As I walked along the beach, I passed some more of those endangered birds, this time with a little baby running around the sand with them. I didn’t notice the baby until one of the birds crossed my path making a really interesting behavioral display, partially spreading its wings, and running at an angle such that I could see both partially spread wings as it tilted its body toward me and ran around me.
I think trying to make itself look bigger to catch my attention and distract me away from its baby?
I tried to get some pictures or video or whatever of it, and probably wasn’t a very nice human for a bit as I deliberately walked toward the baby in order to try and get the bird to do that same behavior, so I could get a digital picture of it. 😅
Spent a little time out in the ocean swimming a little bit until I saw a school of whatever kind of fish start jumping out of the water, in and out and in and out as if evading a predator (if memory serves from watching all those nature shows as it youth 🙃).
Seeing them heading diagonally toward shore not far in front of me, I decided it was time for me to exit the water. 😆
Have no idea what predator it might have been, but I certainly don’t fancy a shark deciding to take a nibble out on my legs.
It started to rain again while I was out there, but I was already soaked from being in the ocean, so it didn’t matter.
And I generally love the rain anyway. 😊
Alex, whom I met up in Northland ended up parked near me in the parking lot there and message me to let me know, so when I got back to the parking area, I sat down next to him to chat while he was playing the guitar.
We chatted for a bit, and he handed me the guitar, and I played for a bit.
Got me thinking about maybe buying a guitar for the trip. 🙃
Alex told me that he had heard that there was a beautiful walk at Opera Point, so I joined him and headed over to Opera Point to hike around the area.
It was a nice little walk, mostly on the beach, with a small natural hole/arch in one of the freestanding cliffs on the beach.
I did a little swimming, and Alex did some muscle hunting, as I guess the area was full of a green-shelled muscle that I guess is famous the world over for being super tasty? 🤷
Unfortunately, at one point, I accidentally dropped my phone in the ocean. I didn’t think much of it because it’s IP68 rated, or whichever one is the one that is waterproof down to a depth of like 10+ meters.
I figured it would just give me the normal warning about trying to charge it because it had detected water in the charge port and so would not allow charging if I tried to plug it in, but then it started acting funny, and I realized that water had indeed intruded into the phone itself. 😬
Apparently, the screen has been replaced before and not properly sealed when replaced. 😕
At first, I thought it was going to be okay. I took it out of its little protector case, and drying it off a little bit, but then the button that turns the screen on and off stopped working, leaving the screen bright and not turning off at all. 😬😬
Concerned about having water inside my phone, especially saltwater that significantly increases the conductivity of the water, hoping to avoid a short, I went through the digital method of shutting down the phone, realizing just as I had pressed the shutdown button that if the power button remained nonfunctional, I wasn’t going to be able to power the phone back on, which meant that I wouldn’t be able to get my photos and what not off the phone. 😳
We walked back to the van, stopping off to look at the gazillions of little starfish that were absolutely everywhere in one section of the bay/inlet. Once back to the vans, I made the perhaps rash decision to remove my phone screen, wanting to get all of the salt water out of my phone to keep it from corroding the internal electronics.
I used one of Alex’s guitar picks to pop the screen off my phone, miraculously not breaking the glass of the screen itself, but unfortunately, irreparably damaging the contact film that is connected to the screen.
Which means I’m going to need a new screen. 😕
Ugh.
All I could think about was not wanting that salt water in there. I don’t really give the things that I do these days much thought. I just sort of act based on the thoughts that come to my mind quickly, so I don’t think through the consequences of my actions very much because I just don’t have the mental energy nor emotional stamina to do it. I just don’t have much left in the tank overall, so I tend to just sort of throw darts and hope they stick to something, so to speak.
Having turned the phone off, I probably should have waited for the phone to dry out before attempting anything with the screen, but I just was thinking that I need to get the screen off to get all the salt water out.
Oh well.
I did what I did, and it can’t be undone, and though there is a good chance I could have made a better decision, it is what it is.
It’s kind of funny. It’s almost exactly the same amount of time that I was in New Zealand before when I smashed the screen on my brand new Google Pixel 7 Pro by dropping it screen down on a rock in a river. 😅
Greatly, I brought the same phone that I bought as my emergency backup in New Zealand last time with me this time, so I popped the SIM card out of my Google phone and slapped it in the Samsung and was back in connectivity business.
Hopefully my phone isn’t completely borked. Hopefully I can get my pictures off at the very least. That’s what’s most important to me.
Got pretty down on myself for acting without thinking things through very much and assuming My thoughtless actions were now going to cost me hundreds of dollars in phone repairs or possibly lost data.
My sister Heather tried to comfort me, wonderful sister that she is. 🤍
Alex and I ate dinner as all this was going on, he cooking up the muscles he had gathered, and I eating my normal stuff along with some of his noodle leftovers that he offered me.
From there, I headed over to the Hot Water Beach parking lot, hoping to maybe be able to stay there, but there were signs prohibiting freedom camping. I hung out there for a little bit anyway before driving a good ways away to another freedom camping place that turned out to be full.
Double fail.
After quite a bit of driving, I ended up stopping in a tiny town in a parking lot with a public bathroom that was surrounded on two sides by local businesses, or maybe one of them was a library or something?
There weren’t any signs prohibiting freedom camping, and I’m planning on getting up at like 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning anyway to try and catch low tide at the hot water beach anyway, so hopefully between the brief amount of time that I’m there and hopefully it being an okay place to stay anyway, I won’t get bothered or fined or anything. 🤞
What a day. 😅
~ stephen
Lift the World 