(written… today!!! 🥳)
It was another fairly uneventful day today. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I drained my car battery down overnight from having the key on for several hours at a time (without restarting the car 😬) in order to keep my internet going; so after going to bed about 6 a.m., I woke up around 8:30ish because the The sun was starting to heat up the van a good bit because I only had the windows a little bit down because of the cold temperatures and super strong wind last night.
So I guess I did have that problem to solve. 🙃
And as it turned out, that probably ended up being a little bit more of a problem than I anticipated. 😅
Usually, I just ask whoever is parked near me if they wouldn’t mind giving me a jump. It’s probably happened a half a dozen times already since I’ve been New Zealand. 🙃
But you know how I like finding places to stay out in the middle of nowhere? Well, it seems that I succeeded spectacularly this time, as it took probably 3 or 4 hours to finally get someone to give me a jump. 😲
I guess not too many people go to the side of Lake Brunner that I was on camping at.
I figured someone would come, so I popped the hood, I had my jumper cables out and ready, and then I waited.
And waited…
And waited. 🙃
I had a little SUV pass by while I was still in bed, and I could have jumped out and flag them down, but I figured I would catch them on their way back out.
They just… didn’t come back out. 🙃
So yeah, eventually, after spending a good little while veging to pass the time and then working on planning my trip to Fiji to try and be productive with the time, eventually, when a truck was driving by a road probably a hundred meters away, I looked over toward him and flagged him down, and gratefully, he pulled to a stop, reversed back toward the entrance to the little road that goes out toward the lake where I was, and pulled up to me, and gave me a jump.
Thanks, brother! 🙏 I think he said his name was Dave?
I did make some good progress in my researching how I want to travel through Fiji. It seemed like everybody was saying to not spend much time on the main island, and all of my planning had been exactly that, to stay on the main island. The reservation for the place to stay. The rental car. Everything was for a week on the main island.
Oops. 😅
So now I’m a bit better prepared, though I haven’t falled through on any of the actionable to-do list items that need to be completed in order to be fully prepared for the trip.
After a quick trip to the remarkably clean long-drop toilet, I set off to find the trailhead for Carew Creek Falls, which, gratefully, turned out to be easy to find.
At a brisk walk, it was a 12-minute journey from Car Park to the base of the Falls, and once there, I took a little dip in the freezing cold water. 🙃
From now until I get back up to the North Island, all of the rivers and waterfalls and lakes that I’ll be going to in the South Island will be quite cold. 🥶
Of course, it is exhilarating and feels good, but it’s cold enough that I can’t stay in for all that long, because it starts to hurt a bit. 🙃
Anyway, it was nice to take a dip, freshen up my clothes and myself a little bit, and just enjoy the beautiful scenery. 😊
Headed back to the same parking lot where I stayed the night to use the bathroom again, to vege out a little bit more, and to plan what I was going to do next today.
I decided I was going to go check out another waterfall and maybe some glow or stuff down and inland from Hokitika a bit.
As I was driving through the middle of the bush on the gravel road, I was reminded of the fact that my oil change is quite a bit overdue, so I pulled over and changed the oil.
As often seems to be the case, it took a good long while to get my oil changed there on the side of the gravel road because someone had so ridiculously tightened the oil filter that I needed to hammer (using a big rock) I screwdriver through the base of the filter in order to get the leverage I needed to loosen it up and remove it.
I also found four or five inch nails in the gravel where I was parked, so I spent a little while walking around looking for nails. In the end, I think I found four or five.
Hopefully none of them found my tires. 🤞
I didn’t have reception, so I couldn’t look up how much oil the system takes, so once I had put in a bit over 3 liters, which is about what I took out, I stopped putting more in and just poured the rest of the 4-liter jug that I had into a nearly empty 1-liter jug, using the newly emptied four-liter jug to hold the used oil that I drained out into two different two-liter ice-cream containers. 🙃
That’s… a bit of a long, wordy sentence. 🙃
Let’s see… I stopped off at that playground in Kumara, this time empty, and hung for a bit to try and stretch my back.
I replied to YouTube commenters who commented on my comments about the crazy Greenland stuff.
I’m just… I’m shocked and appalled by President Trump’s actions and embarrassed by it. Even if it’s just bluster, which is so common to him and his business style, I… ugh.
Even if he has no real intent to use military force to take Greenland (which I don’t think the American people would stand for), the threats alone are destroying the world’s confidence in us as the reasonable super power you could trust to support the sovereignty of free countries.
I’ve never felt like Trump understood the principles upon with freedom and our Constitution rest.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve been happy with or voted for a single general-election candidate since I’ve been old enough to vote.
I’ve always written in the names of people who I actually think would do a good job as president.
It’s mind boggling to me that our last election, in a country of 300+ million people… a choice between Harris and Trump is the best we can do? Really?!?!
What a mess.
And I despise the approach to problem solving that says the ends justify the means.
I’ve abhorred it every time I see people and groups and media and politicians twist and lie and manipulate and coerce to achieve their desired end just because they believe their end is the best end.
Sorry… end rant. 😅
After getting back to the main road, I passed a completely empty freedom camping spot right there along the main road as I was heading south toward Hokitika, and I was tempted to stop there for the night since it was empty, but it was so early in the day, I think maybe four or five-ish? that I passed on it and kept going.
To my surprise, I hit Hokitika a lot quicker than I expected, not even realizing that where I was headed necessarily passed through the little town first.
So I drove into Hokitika and then headed inland toward Lake Kaniere, my next destination being Dorothy Falls.
Once I arrived at the lake, I stopped to snap a few pictures, spent a little time working on journal catch up and vegging out a little bit, and then I continued on toward the waterfall.
Along the way to the waterfall, I took a note of multiple potential places that I could spend the night, one seemingly absolutely perfect–a very narrow dirt road through the bush that took a hard 90° angle right at the bank of the lake, following the Lakeshore for a little bit.
I figured that if I didn’t find any better place as I kept going, then that would be perfect for me to stay the night tonight.
From there I headed over to the waterfall, snapped a few pictures and enjoyed the scenery for a brief little bit, and then I headed back down the road I had just come up in order to get back to cell reception.
I spent the rest of the night veging out, getting tired fairly early because of the massive lack of sleep last night.
Honestly, I’m surprised I’m not even more tired than I am.
Unfortunately, the place that I pegged as being perfect for staying the night tonight, was occupied when I went back to lay claim to it for the night.
Gratefully, I had other spots that I could try, so that’s where I am now–parked up a very short dirt side road and off to the left a little bit.
Hopefully, I enjoy an undisturbed night. But that’s it for the night. It’s 11:20, and I’ve yawned multiple times in just the last couple minutes, so I bid you good night!
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 