(written on the 24th of December from notes taken previously)
Well, gratefully, nobody bothered me for the few hours that I was sleeping in that little parking lot.
I headed from there over to the Hot Water Beach parking lot, hoping to enjoy the experience of the hot springs without the crowds.
Of course, I didn’t have a shovel, so that makes digging a soaking pool a good bit more challenging, but I nevertheless went ahead with it.
My first challenge was even finding where the hot springs bubbled out of the beach. I walked up from one end of the beach to the other without finding The springs. So I jumped on line and watched a video or two to get some landmark orientation and was finally able to locate the springs.
I started digging with my hands and was making good progress, but the water was so hot that it was scalding my fingers. π
I had hopes that maybe it would cool off a bit, but after digging a fairly substantial soaking pool area, the water was just far too hot. Without a shovel, I didn’t have the interest for energy to try and find a place where the water was cool enough to enjoy.
The dawn broke, just beginning to lighten the sky, and I tried to use my backup camera to take pictures of the beautiful colors and scenery, but it just couldn’t handle the low light situation like my other phone. π
Oh well. Worthy effort. Bring a shovel next time. π
And it’s good to know that even in a busier time of year, I was completely alone on the beach until an Indian could showed up around the time that I was giving up.
Assuming I could find the perfect spot with great water temperature, it would be a wonderful time of day to go to just sit in the dark with the stars out and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach. π
Maybe next time. π
From there, I headed over to Tairua Beach, an absolutely beautiful spot, but just napped and veged in my van the whole day, tired from the lack of sleep and overall busy day yesterday; and I chatted with my sister Heather for a bit.
Sometime just a little after 4:30, I headed into town, was grateful to find some super-cheap gas ππ, and then headed south to maybe do a little hike up to Wentworth Falls.
Once I got there, I realized that it was a really long walk to the falls and already relatively late in the day, so I mostly just hung out in my van and tried to decide whether or not I felt it would be a good place to try and spend the night. In the end, not confident, I picked up some trash and headed over to WhangamatΔ, where I found the first two designated freedom camping places full.
Fortunately, the place next to the Aickin Sports Reserve had room, so I pulled in there with a few other vans and crashed for the night.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 