(written on January 27th and 28thfrom notes taken previously)
Got up and got going doing my dishes.
Got out of my comfort zone, initiating a conversation with a woman I’d a… noticed last night as she walked by my van several times. 🙃
We got to chatting, and her friend came by as well, a couple of late 20- early 30- something French Canadian girls.
We ended up chatting for probably an hour🙃, about them, about our travels, etc. I gave them some recommendations for places to visit.
One is a doctor on sabbatical (the one that caught my attention). I can’t remember what the other one does.
Anyway, I gave them some suggestions, like Kaiate Falls, one of my favorites. 😊
I didn’t invite them to join me when they asked where I was headed because I hadn’t really made any plans, though… I wanted to travel with them a bit.
I did grab the doctor’s number later before I last, as she was walking by again, but she’s got a boyfriend.
Don’t know what I’m doing with regard to dating anyway. 🙃
Complicated…
I sent the ladies a message just as I was leaving, letting them know I would send them a message when I knew where I was going, and then I headed out.
My first stop ended up being McLaren Falls.
Ended up not sending a message to the ladies, because the little indicator showed they hadn’t seen my first messages, so I figured there was no sense in sending more.
Cue self consciousness. 😅
McLaren Falls was beautiful, though quite crowded.
Saturday. 🙃
I keep forgetting to check the day of the week when I head back into civilization. 😅
Never go to activity destinations on a weekend–especially not when kids are out of school for the summer. 😅
I snapped a bunch of pictures, wanted to cliff jump from the bridge to the water below, but there was a big sign saying it was prohibited.
Darn. 🙃
It was a pretty huge drop, though, so I might not have made it anyway. 😅
But maybe. 🙃
After a pit stop at the long drop, I headed over to Omanawa Falls, getting lost first along the way, as Google took me somewhere else, but a kind local directed me where to go. 🙏
I spent a fair amount of time walking. There were three different viewing spots for the falls. One was maybe a 15-minute walk from the parking lot down a very wide path that I think doubles as a road.
It was a beautiful view of the Falls, relatively far away and a fair bit above the falls.
There was another viewing platform closer to the Falls, with a sign saying something like 677 steps to the falls.
The only platform that I could see from from the platform above was way down closer toward the level of the splash pool for the waterfall, so I figured that the 677 steps would take you down to that viewing platform, so on I went.
I didn’t realize until I was all the way at the end of the trail and had come to a viewing platform, that it wasn’t going to be the one that I had seen from above. Not only wasn’t it that one, but the vegetation had grown up so much that you couldn’t see the waterfall at all from that second one. 😆
Long walk, good exercise, no waterfall view. 🙃
After making it all the way back, I headed down to the third lookout, which was lower down and more of a direct line of sight straight out instead of diagonally from above like the first one.
Unfortunately, this one had a big steel cable in the way of the view, there being a cable that ran from that platform down to the platform I had originally seen way down below by this splash pool.
Unfortunately, that one is not open to the public.
Darn. 🙃
From there, I went to the Poripori Water Holes, but it was so crowded that it was a pretty big turn off.
I waited there for a bit and then just called it…
Just… too many people.
Thinking I might run into the French Canadian girls, I headed over to Kaiate Falls for a reprise, and I did indeed run into them–they having spent a good while there and just leaving, and I just arriving. Oh well. 🙃
It was crazy crowded like everything else. [sigh] Weekends. 🙄
Want to remember the weekend problem!
Though I missed them at the waterfall, I started and jumped a bit and explored a bit more, hiking around and over to the top of the upper falls (checking it for jumpability 🙃).
I arranged to meet the French Canadian girls at Maunganui Beach, thinking we’d go boogie boarding because supposedly it was a pretty good place for that, so I headed that way.
Spent a good little while chatting with my sister Rebecca. We don’t catch up very much, so it was great to have a longer conversation.
Good stuff.
As for the beach… there were pretty much zero waves. 😆
So much for boogie boarding. I saw some people trying, but the waves were so small that it was hopeless.
I chatted with some locals for a while–middle-aged Christian guys. I forget what all we talked about, but I do remember one of the guys telling me I had a really good bright spirit about me. That was nice. 😊
I do care, and I am genuine.
He asked if he could pray for me before they left, and that was lovely as well. 🤍
Got a message from the girls that they’d arrived at the beach, and after finding them, which took quite a while, we just hung out on the beach and chatted, mostly talking religion (I think I mentioned the experience I’d just had), politics, my nonprofit hopes and ideas (often a natural addition to a conversation when politics comes up).
The girls were atheist or agnostic, I think?
Anyway, we talked for a pretty good little while until they left to grab some food.
For whatever reason, I have a pretty strong rejection complex. I don’t know where or when it started.
So, when the Canadian girls were the first to initiate separation both times we spent time together today, it was hard for me not to go there.
…and I did go there. 😕
Apparently, I haven’t really grown in that area of my life since my last trip to New Zealand. 😞
I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise. I haven’t really worked on that. I’ve barely been keeping my head above water.
I think, though, just like with the Austrian girls 3 years ago, it’s all internal on my end–my assumptions/fears hit me so hard but are actually a poor/inaccurate representation of reality.
Funny, I’ve always been really good at reading people, but when it comes to what other people are thinking about me, sometimes I’m just as good, and sometimes my perspective is so twisted by the fear or perception of rejection that I can’t see reality.
I decided to head west out of town, feeling low…
It’s funny, my actions could very easily be taken the same way for others. When asked what my plans were, I always said I wasn’t sure, so I never had anything concrete to invite them to. I could have made concrete plans and invited them.
I think it could easily be taken as disinterest or ambivalence on my end.
Ironic.
So quick to feel rejected or be afraid of it… Maybe something happened when I was a kid? Maybe I’ve just had too many women tell me they’re not interested? Maybe I’m weak minded? Hearted?
Maybe all of the above. 😅
Anyway, I told the girls I was going to send them some recommendations of places to visit, and I did, making a huge list for them and sending it over.
I drove a good ways west to a freedom camping place at Waipa Reserve. Gratefully, despite the whole place being ham packed, probably dozens of vehicles in the prohibited area as well, there was one spot left in the legal area.
And I took it. 🙃
🎉
Not too far away from Hobbiton… I might go again? I’ll at least drive up and see, I think.
So many sand-fly bites around my ankles. 😅 I’ve got a row of itchy red boil looking things, in some places bites on top of bites.
Well… what a day. Courage. Fear. Beauty. Discouragement.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 