(written on November 28th from notes)
This little boy is a little more judicious with his night time farts with other campers parked next to me when he has the windows down. 🙃
Usually, I just belt them out like tuba in short bursts. 😅
As a light sleeper, it wakes me up significantly more to try and let them out quietly because it requires concentration and proper positioning. 😆
The joys of worrying about what other people think. 😅
Anyway, the bedding that came with the van is quite insufficient for comfort, as it’s far too easily compacted, which makes for hard spots against the wood below.
I also have some extra cushions that get in the way of daily living because they have lived on top of the passenger side compartment. That’s their normal place where the bed set up for two people, and that with necessitate the inconvenience of having to move the bedding every time you want to get into the storage compartments.
Buuuut it’s not being used for two people right now…
I’m writing all that I guess as the intro to saying that I spent part of the morning redoing the whole bed setup. The cushions that normally sit on top of my food and clothing storage compartment that get in the way of accessing the compartment were repurposed to put in the bed itself.
Basically, instead of having too long cushions with the memory foam mattress topper thingy folded over on top of them, creating sort of a crescent Moon shape with me sleeping in the bottom of the crescent, I doubled up the cushions using the ones that normally go on the passenger side, removed the topper, folded it in half, and used it as the second layer of cushion on the rear end of the bed. So now, I basically have a single mattress sized cushion setup, with one of the extra cushions raising the level of the bed on one end.
Hopefully, this set up successfully resolves the issue of not-so-comfortable nights (not really bad, but certainly could be better), and hopefully it also resolves the issue of the cushions being in the way of accessing the food and clothing compartment.
🤞
Actually spent some time today trying to answer some just answer questions, and answered maybe three this morning?
Spent a little bit of time cleaning up the garbage around the parking area, and then was grateful for the young man who was parked a few parking spaces over who alerted me to the fact that I still had my back hatch up as I was driving away. 🙃 I was distracted because I was on the phone with a customer.
Headed over to one of the beach-access parking areas, where I kept trying to answer questions a little bit and also worked on journal catch up.
A little after 10:00, I headed over to the cell-phone repair place and dropped off my phone. Supposedly, they were going to be able to check out the phone, make sure it was okay, clean it out, and put on an aftermarket screen for a grand total of 290 New Zealand dollars, which is like 160 ish American dollars.
It was either that or wait for a screen to come in the mail, which was going to take a couple of weeks, and figuring out male pickup without an address is doable but more complicated, as I have to know where I’m going to be or have to stay in a certain place long enough to not have to drive back to it.
Spent the next few hours or so at the beach access parking area that was just a couple hundred meters down the road from the cell-phone repair place, eating a late breakfast and chatting with a young man who was parked next to me in a left hand drive 2021 Chevrolet Camaro. 🙃
He had some codes for the transmission but didn’t know what they were, and I had my scanner with me that I had brought from the United States, so I was able to plug it in, download the app, Scan his Camaro, and tell him what the codes were.
He took me on a drive around the area, showing me some places that he recommended, and then bringing me back. Unfortunately, he realized that he lost his house and work keys somewhere, so I helped him look for those a little bit, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to find them.
Chatted with a woman name Darcie from Sydney who was living in Raglan and who clearly was a pretty avid surfer (she had at least two different boards in her little compact car).
She seemed like she might be interested in me, so I asked her for her phone number. Don’t know if I’ll ever do anything about it because that area of my life is… weird; but it was actually kind of fun, not to mention a confidence booster. 🙃
Removed the main center trim panel on the dash (the one with all HVAC vents) and then removed the double decker stereo and backup camera interface.
No, I don’t have a functional backup camera anymore, but neither do I have a bright glowing stereo screen glaring at me all the time that requires turning off every. single. time. I. start. the. van. And now fewer components will be vying for my precious car-battery power.
Aaaaaaand I have a pretty large hole in the center of the dash that works great as a little cubby hole. 😊
(I put the honkin’ stereo under the passenger front seat and the installation screws in a bag in my tool box.
Boom. 😎
From there, I headed over to the cell phone place where I was grateful to find that there was nothing wrong with my cell phone. The buttons all worked, and the only thing that it needed was to screen replaced because I had broken it in my attempt to get the salt water out of my phone.
So I paid them to replace the screen with an aftermarket screen, knowing that aftermarket screens, at least in the United States, tend to be junk, so I guess we’ll see what happens, but the most important thing for me right now is getting all my photos off.
And now I can. 🙏
Had I not been so quick to try to take the screen out, I probably never would have had to worry about getting another screen, because clearly the phone was going to be fine, but, it is what it is. I made the decision that I made without really thinking about the consequences, which is something that I’ve struggled with for a good little while now (making choices without thinking through what the consequences might be).
Very grateful to have a working phone. Probably going to wait to put a screen protector on it for a little while until I know whether or not the screen is going to be working, or whether it’s going to have issues.
I also bought a flexible waterproof case for it. 🙃
Since I was going to be heading back down south, I decided to stop by the swimming hole that I was at yesterday, and this time, I turned into my dam-building self and dammed up the river to increase the depth of the water in the swimming hole. 🙃
I also increased the depth by swimming down to the bottom of the deeper spots, loosening rocks from the bottom, and then carrying them, while under water, across the bottom of the swimming hole toward where it ramped up to the dam. 😁
Some of the rocks were probably well over 100 lbs, maybe up to 200? but being under water, you don’t feel the weight anywhere near as much. Once I hit my head above water, I would transfer the rocks to my leg so the weight was resting on my quads.
So much fun. 🙃
Picture me swimming to the bottom, about 6 feet down, grabbing onto the big rocks, both to dislodge them, and also to hold me underwater because otherwise I would just float right back up, then, all while holding my breath, walk along the bottom carrying the rocks. It was probably only a 10-foot walk before I could poke my head out and breathe, but it was just… so fun. 😁
I really am loving New Zealand. It’s hard being here because it would be hard for me to be anywhere right now, and it’s lonely, not being able to share the adventures and the beauty with loved ones, but I’m loving it. I’m thinking I might do this on a regular basis? I have my visa through ’29, so I could potentially spend half my time in New Zealand. 🙃
Thoroughly enjoyed the swimming hole.
Chatted with an older lady after getting back, she asking where the swimming hole was, so I told her how to get to it.
Spent a little more time trying to do JustAnswer (having lost so much money trading 😅). I think I may be answered three or four questions for the day? Not much available, but I tried.
Drove to Waihi, the town closest to my next destination (the Karangahake region), found a Freedom camping location that I could stay at (the first one was only for oversized campers) and then spent the next few hours or so watching movies (Wonder Woman 1984 and part of I Am Legend) while transferring photos from my phone to my computer.
Transfer complete.
Success. 🎉
Aaaaaaaaand The cheap aftermarket screen is already starting to have flashing pixels. 🙃
But my photos are off!!!
Hoping the night’s sleep with the new bed setup goes well! 🤞
Oh, random… put on some antiperspirant (I only ever use deodorant because I don’t think antiperspirants are healthy, but they didn’t sell plain deodorant. 😶 It really is amazing how many choices and opportunities and conveniences I am privileged to have at my fingertips, even living out in the country in rural South Dakota.
That’s probably redundant. 😆
Anyway, holy crap that scent is potent! Just a few sprays, and good golly, it’s almost overpowering. 👃
Been really nice to be on an emotional upswing. 🙏
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 