(written on January 17th from notes taken previously)
Okay, so now I remember why we didn’t do anything at the Marine Reserve.
There’s not really… anything there. 😅 I suppose maybe there could be? But there are no rocks anywhere or visible reef for protection, so my hopes to go snorkeling were dashed… again. 🙃
So I headed back toward Gisborne, keeping a lookout for the spot where come with 3 years ago, after a pretty pathetic effort to get some decent food at a local restaurant with the girls, we ended up getting a pizza and heading out to the coast and eating the pizza at a park bench on the coast.
It wasn’t too hard to find, as I had actually noticed it on my way toward my freedom camping spot last night. It’s easy to recognize because the toilet is down below the parking area.
More melancholy. 🙃
What are the thoughts… Is it wanting to go back and start afresh? Regret? Longing for reparation and reconnection?
Some of each, I think.
That whole experience… the fallout… hit me harder than I ever thought, I think.
Anyway, heading back through town, I stopped off at the recycling center to dispose of all the stuff that I’ve been holding on to.
Nice to get rid of it. 🙏
Then… do you remember me mentioning the gas station from yesterday? The amazing price?
Well, I went back today, and it was like 20 cents higher. 😶
I ended up going to like three or four different stations, but the price on Gaspy was incorrect for all of them. They all must have changed over night. 😒
Oh well.
I still had the address plugged into Google Maps from three years ago of one of the people Richard knew on his mission, so I headed that direction. I had tried to visit him back then while I was connected with Richard, but I hadn’t reached him.
This time, as I was almost there, I sent Richard a message asking if he wanted me to stop by, and he said sure, so I did, and this time, it was a success. 🎉
I ended up chatting with the older gentleman for probably an hour or two?
Whatever it was, it was a good little while. The brother had a friend of his over, and we all just sat around outside and chatted.
We chatted about life in New Zealand. We chatted about their lives and history in the LDS Church together. We chatted about the old days when my brother was there, and after finding the right memory trigger (supplied by Richard via text), he finally remembered Richard.
Pretty amazing for being almost 30 years ago with countless missionaries going through.
The brother showed me around his place, brought out snacks, and then took me over to his sacred Maori family building. I forget what they are called, but it was really neat with beautifully ornate wood carvings throughout the inside.
Good stuff.
After the long visit, I headed up into the hills to explore the Mangaone Caves, reaching out to Emma, one of the people I met while in New Zealand last time, arranging with her to send out a search party if she didn’t hear back from me by a certain time of night.
Thx, Emma.
I was grateful to have micro John, as I found myself in dire need after arriving at the turn off on the side of the dirt road out in the middle of the sheep hills. 🙃
It was a fairly long walk to the cave, at first being switchbacks up the side of a very steep Hill until getting to the top where it leveled out to more gently rolling hills through sheep pasture.
Eventually after what was probably a few kilometers, I arrived at the gate to the cave area. Picture in the middle of bright green grassy hills, with sheep grazing here and there, a basically square section of forested land fenced off, perhaps 100 meters each of the four sides, and one gated entrance.
It was the type of gate where, if looking down from the top, you would have a greater-than symbol as the stationary piece, and then a swinging gate inside the symbol that can’t open outside of the symbol, such that to go through the gate, you sort of shimmy around the swinging middle piece.
It also had a latch on the outside, which didn’t really seem necessary because of how well the gate design would seem to be at keeping livestock out.
Thinking exactly that, I didn’t latch the gate when I went through, thinking the odds of a sheep being able to even go through the gate were small, and the sheep would have to come up to the gate anyway to even have the possibility of doing that, and the sheep warrant near the gate.
Let’s just say that leaving the gate unlatched would come back to haunt me.
😅
Going into the cave, it turned out to be a pretty basic cave with no obvious side tunnels of any significant distance to explore. There were a couple of ladders up to higher levels, but those tunnels dead ended after maybe 30 or 40 meters or so.
Interesting cave, but not to explorable (at least not obviously so).
So I left relatively quickly, maybe after 20 minutes or so. But when I came to the gate, I noticed a fresh sheep poop right there at the gate, and to my horror, I heard a bleeding sound coming from inside the fenced off area, somewhere in the forest. 😶
You’ve gotta be kidding me. 😒
What were the odds?!?!?!
But there I was, my options being figuring out how to get the sheep out of the large, forested enclosure with one side having a pretty sheer drop off of many meters where the cave goes in, we’re trying to figure out who owned that piece of land in order to let them know that a sheep was stuck inside.
I figured the ramifications for future cave visitors might be pretty crappy if the landowner had to get involved to rescue his sheep out of the enclosure, so I figured it was my responsibility not just to figure out who owned the ranch, but to actually get the sheep out of the enclosure–somehow.
And thus began the “stupid sheep saga.”
Yes, after today, I rank sheep as one of the dumbest creatures on the planet. 😅
At first, I got inside the enclosure, found the sheep, and tried to hurt it toward the gate, but it wouldn’t go through the gate. Over and over I tried, having propped the gate such that it was right in the middle, so there was room for the sheep to go around relatively easily and back out.
But no, it wasn’t having any of it. I would have to chase it around the entire enclosure multiple times in an effort to get it to go back near the gate. But no dice.
Eventually, despite concerns for my back, I straight up just lifted the gate off of its hinges and set it to the side so there would be a big gaping hole for the sheep to go through.
And did it go through?
No.
Every time the sheep got near the gate, it would just run right on by. I don’t even know how many times I chased that stupid sheep around the enclosure back toward the gate. Sometimes I was on the inside of the enclosure running through the brush. Sometimes I was on the outside of the enclosure chasing it around. Sometimes I would throw clumps of dirt or sticks into the enclosure in certain areas to try and get it to go back toward the gate. Sometimes I needed to climb the fence from the outside to the inside, which wasn’t so easy with it being barbed wire at the top.
Again and again and again I tried, failing every freaking time.
Man I was getting frustrated. 😒
Ugh… stupid, stupid sheep.
I put the gate blocking one side, so as it came around, it would be funneled right out of the opening back into the fields, but no. Every. Single. Time. I would chase it around toward the gate, despite there being a wide open spot for the sheep to go right through and into safety, nope. The dumb thing would run right on by, ignoring the open gate.
So I took sticks and broken tree branches and hedged up the way on one side with the gate blocking the way on the other side, and did that work?
Nope. Instead of going right out the opening in front of it, it jumped down a drop off down toward the cave, almost entering the cave itself.
😲
What the?!?!?!
I tried again and again, and each time, it was exactly the same problem. It would avoid the gaping gap, freedom and safety and would plunge down into the heart of the enclosure at the base of the drop-off where the cave went down deep into the Earth.
Eventually, I gathered enough wood from dead trees to, combined with the gate, hedge up every single direction but out such that if I could chase it around counterclockwise, the only option left to it would be to either plunge through all the barriers I had set up, or go out the darn gap.
Oh, finally. Oh thank you. The stupid sheep was out.
Holy. Freaking. Crap.
I think I spent somewhere around two hours trying to get that stupid freaking sheep out of that enclosure.
Guess who’s going to latch the gate next time. 😅
I spent some time deconstructing my barriers, so they wouldn’t be in the way of future cave goers, and then I put the gate back on.
I walked back across the rolling hills looking around as I walked to see if I could identify the pain in the neck juvenile problem sheep, but I didn’t remember any identifying marks, so I just kept walking the park across, up and down the rolling hills and then down the switch backs of the steep hill and back to my van.
Good golly.
From there I headed to the freedom camping spot by the river just outside of Wairoa, just before the big Wairoa River meets the ocean.
What a day.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 