(written on February 21st from notes taken previously).
I got a bit of a late start today, but I guess that’s to be expected with the late night last night. 🙃
I think the low, thick cloud cover and light rain helped with being able to sleep in a bit. 🙏 And though the clouds obscured pretty much everything else, they did provide a different kind of beauty.
I tried to capture the beautiful vista in pictures after having driven a fair way around the one end of the lake, but unfortunately, my pictures didn’t turn out the best.
After hanging out for a fair bit in a small pullout on the side of the dirt road where I took those pictures, I headed back toward the freedom camping spot to either use the bathroom or have signal again (or both?), before heading back to that same spot on the road for a little while and then finally toward Arthur’s Pass.
Chase and I had loved the Arthur’s pass area, exploring and enjoying several hikes in the area, including an unnamed sort of secret falls that turned out to be Chase’s favorite falls in all of New Zealand.
With the cloud cover and the drizzly rain, the vistas were quite different than they were for us three years ago, the mountain tops covered and the greens dulled, but again, they were still beautiful in their own way.
And I think there might have been multiple waterfalls that either weren’t there without the rain or that were much bigger and more majestic with the rain.
Or perhaps I just don’t remember them at all, and they’re actually the same. 🙃
I stopped here and there to take pictures and to enjoy the vistas and even to vege out, I think.
One of the little dirt-road turnouts that I think Chase and I slept at at least once last time had been turned into a paved parking lot vista point. 😕
I totally understand why, as it is a beautiful vista point, though I was disappointed that it was now a paved-over, official thing, as that would attract more people simply because it was a designated vista point with a sign.
And such was the reality, I think.
When I was in the Pass with Chase last time, I don’t remember a single other car pulling up onto that little dirt area with us, but there were many people pulling in and out to see the view now. 😕
For me, as you’re all well aware, the presence of lots of people takes away from my experience of a place. Perhaps I can figure out a way for that to not be the case, but unfortunately, it is right now.
I think there’s a part of me that’s thinking something to the effect of: People who aren’t actively engaged enough to explore their surroundings looking for beautiful vistas and lesser-known treasures shouldn’t have them handed over on a silver platter.
I think maybe there’s a sense of feeling like it cheapens the experience as it mainstreams it to the wider public?
Perhaps a sense of entitlement within me that I feel is being encroached upon, I the explorer having to cede my treasures to consumers.
Maybe something like that.
Clearly I could have a better attitude and perspective about it. 😅
And I imagine there are plenty of reasons that people choose more of the consumer tourist experience than the explorer experience. Perhaps people are driving rented cars and don’t feel comfortable taking them on dirt areas. 🤷
Still, it’s less enjoyable for me with my current tastes and perspectives.
[sigh]
Driving through the pass brought back memories– seeing the large concrete spillway waterfall shortly before that new “viewpoint” I was just referring to, the viewpoint itself, etc.
And I did manage to find another dirt road lookout spot that I don’t think Chase and I noticed before? Or at least I don’t have any memories of it from before.
It wasn’t too much further through the canyon pass that I came upon the little dirt turnaround area at Peg Leg Creek that was the starting place for the journey Chase and my secret falls.
(I imagine there have been many people who have been up to that falls before, but when there’s no trail to get there, no signs for it, no named falls on maps or online anywhere that I can find, and when it’s no easy scramble to get to, and since it’s a unique and stunning waterfall that one would think would be “on the map” of known about, it feels… secret. 🙃).
Though I gave coordinates to it to some of those people I was chatting with at Hokitika Gorge yesterday😅, so maybe three years from now, there will be a trail to it and a paved parking lot. 😬
I hope not. 😅
Anyway, I hung out in my van in that little dirt parking lot for a good little while, veging out. The rainy weather kept me from making the return trip to that amazing place.
So I pretty much spent a whole bunch of time waiting out the rain just staring at my phone, watching YouTube videos about the whole Greenland fiasco (fiasco from my perspective), and a whole bunch of other stuff.
I also texted back and forth with my brother Richard quite a bit.
Eventually, with the day spent and the night coming on, I needed to find a place to actually crash for the night, as I couldn’t do that here, so I started looking.
I stopped off at multiple little side road spots, including a little road that led to the package lift building.
Three years ago, Chase and I had done the hike from the main road up to the Temple Basin Ski Area, and I remember that when we were at the top, there was a lift (think ski lift) that was specifically designed for sending up supplies and what not.
Well, I guess I found the base of operations at the bottom. 🙃
At the end of the short dirt road, there was a rundown (but still active looking) building that was the ground base for the supply lift up to the lodge area.
Though it wasn’t the place I could stay for the night, it was kind of fun to run into. 🙂
My next possibility actually came at the area where I think Chase and I had parked to start our hike up to the Temple Basin Ski Area.
It looked quite promising, as there were DOC signs, and unless specifically prohibited, you can freedom camp on any DOC land that’s not a recreation reserve or scenic reserve.
And I didn’t see any freedom-camping prohibited signs, and none of the signs indicated that the area was a recreation or a scenic reserve, but I just couldn’t get myself to feel good about it, so I headed out, deciding to just stay at the same place that Chase and I had stayed at by the train tracks down in the valley beyond Arthur’s Village, a spot we had stayed at that was the parking place for the other exploratory, trailless creek walk we had done in the area.
Before getting to that spot, though, I passed a huge recycling container! Eager to dispose of my recyclables, I turned around and headed back, gratefully disposing a fair collection of recyclables.
(there’s not much room in the van, so when trash and recyclables build up, it’s a nice relief to be able to get rid of it. 🙃)
And with that, I headed over to the dirt road that went to the train tracks by the confluence of a side-canyon river with the main river, parked on the other side of the train tracks, veged out a fair bit more, was surprised by the number of trains that came passing by, and then crashed for the night, grateful to have my headphones drown out the noise of the train as it went by.
That was a long sentence. 🙃
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 