(written… today! 🥳)
I woke up early (before my alarm went off).
…another day where the anticipation of the coming day helped me get up early because of the chemicals dancing about in my brain. 🙃
I realized first thing this morning that I forgot to get my bath yesterday! I wasn’t really bad, but it’s been a good little while since I and my clothes have a had a real dip… not since Hokitika Gorge, I don’t think!
😅
And I didn’t want the poor people on the plane having to deal with little whiffs here and there of any unpleasant odors. 🙃
So I drove over to the river that’s just north of where I slept for the night, parked my car in a little gravel turnout, got my soap and shower glove, and walked on over to the river.
The water was cold but not as cold as some other baths that I’ve taken. 🙃
Certainly, not as cold as Peg Leg Creek. 🥶
The power of the river, combined with the shallowness of it (barely more than ankle deep), meant that when I lay down to rinse off, I got lots of little tiny pebbles and sand all in my garment. 😆
I tried to rinse them out because I thought maybe it was just because I was putting pressure against the riverbed, so it was stirring the stuff up, but no, my efforts to rinse the grit out just added more. 🙃
So I gave up and figured that once I dried off, I could just brush the grit off, so that was my approach.
From the river, with my wet clothes against the heater vents to dry, I drove toward the city in my birthday suit–destination: The Warehouse.
So far, it had been a pretty successful morning. I got up on time. I got my bath, and I got to The Warehouse relatively early, shortly after it opened for the day.
🎉
At The Warehouse, I bought another pair of long pants (Don’t worry: I was reclothed by then 🙃), some athletic type super duper thin pants to wear as sun protection while in Fiji, as the long pants that I had with me in New Zealand were sweatpants–one very thick pair, and one thin pair, but still sweatpants.
Not the best for the hot tropics. 🙃
So I bought the athletic pants, and I also bought some water sandals, as my water shoes are about ready to bite the dust (I’ve torn holes in the webbing portion of the shoes because I’ve taken them on more rugged adventures 🙃).
I paid more than I wanted to for everything, but less than I could have, so it worked out.
The next stop was just a few blocks away–the library that doubled as a post office where I could renew my registration.
I think I noticed a week or two ago that it was about to expire, but then I totally spaced it until yesterday.
That’s a big win and some serious gratitude right there, as my registration expired on the 21st, and I needed to put my vehicle in long-term parking today while I’m gone in Fiji.
Pretty good chance they’d be checking vehicles while in the lot, and had they found mine with expired registration, I might have come back to New Zealand to find my vehicle no longer in the parking lot because it was towed for lapsed registration. 🙃
I’m also very grateful that today is Monday, so that I could get it done! 🙏
Oh! And I’m also also very grateful that the post shop that was able to do the renewal was just about right next door to The Warehouse and basically kitty corner to the next store that I needed to go to. 🙏
$100, or so, later, my vehicle was registered through the next 6 months, so I’ll have another 3 months with it, and then whoever buys it from me will have 3 months left over, just like I did.
Relatively painless. 🙏
Next stop was heading over to the Mega Mitre 10 to buy some paracord to measure the height of cliffs for potential future cliff jumping opportunities. 🙃
It’s funny. I asked two or three workers at the store where to find the paracord in the store, but the way the New Zealand accent is, I guess they kept thinking I was saying power cord, because they kept sending me over to extension cords. 😆
I did say rope, but I guess the guy didn’t hear me, or maybe it didn’t register.
Funny. 🙃
I also bought a little bitty can of penetrating oil for when I get back. I’m going to try and see if I can figure out and fix the transmission issue, which is likely an issue with the neutral safety switch. But the little nut that you’ve got to take off to remove the neutral safety switch is rusted to the stud that it’s screwed on to, so I figured I’m going to spray it a few times a day for a week or so before trying to actually crack it loose (to get maximum chance that I can crack it loose without breaking it. 😅).
As I was driving toward the airport, I passed a New World grocery store, so I stopped to pick up some granola bars for the flight. Don’t know how my brain has been functioning properly, remembering the penetrating oil, remembering granola bars… and everything actually going right this morning!!! 🤯
The New World grocery store didn’t have the granola bars I wanted, so I backtracked to the Pak ‘N Save I had passed earlier, buying five or six boxes of granola bars, and dumping the contents of two or three of them in my backpack.
From there it was on to the park and ride parking lot to get myself all packed up. The bus for the airport comes every 30 minutes to that lot, and just as I was getting to the very last odds and ends of packing, I saw it pull up, so I scrambled super quickly to throw everything in my pack, disconnect my battery, lock my doors, and speed walk over to the bus.
I realized later that I forgot my headlamp. I don’t know that I would have remembered it even if I weren’t scrambling to make the bus this go round, as I didn’t have it on my packing list for Fiji.
But I made the bus, and I got that nice free ride over to the airport from the far away parking lot, and now the adventure was getting real.
To be honest, I didn’t really want to go. It’s been nice being a New Zealand. Each day is a known quantity. I don’t really have any surprises. My van is all decked out, so I don’t find myself in a pinch really ever. I just… go about my business relatively stress free, other than the stress that is built into my life just because of… who I am and where my life is at, in general.
Fiji is a fairly unknown quantity and quite the whirlwind of planning. I don’t generally plan trips out in detail like I have this trip. I like to just sort of show up and explore, but from what I was learning, the main island, the biggest one, is not the most desirable for exploring, so here I am with an actual itinerary.
Go figure. 🙃
With the help of a pilot looking fellow, I was able to navigate over to the International terminal. I’ve only been in this airport once, and I completely forgot the layout.
I decided to cram everything I was bringing to Fiji into a medium-sized backpack (as in something you would bring to junior high school).
That was a bit strategic because my other pack is relatively expensive, and I knew I was going to be in places where I was going to have to leave my pack such that others could walk off with it if they wanted. I still don’t know exactly how I’m going to keep everything safe all the time, my passport, my wallet, etc… especially with all the cash I have in my wallet right now in preparation for the different things that I need to buy.
Cash is the general means of transaction in a lot of places.
Anyway, as I was going to show my passport and digital ticket, the guy doing the inspecting told me that I needed a paper ticket, so I ended up having to go back down to the Fiji Airlines counters and weight in the big long line for all the other people who are checking baggage in order to get my paper ticket printed.
Gratefully, my carry-on came in at an acceptable weight. I believe 7.5 kg is the max for a carry-on.
But I’m honestly not bringing much at all. My wet suit is the vast majority of the space taker in my pack, and I’m only really bringing that because it’s summertime, which means even though it’s still rather unlikely that I’ll run into a box jellyfish, it is more likely in summer than in winter.
And given some of those critters can kill you in under 2 minutes if you’re stung, I figured it might be nice to have the majority of my skin covered, despite the fact that I’m probably going to roast to death in the bath water of the South Pacific Ocean. 😆
Once through security, nobody giving me any issues about my hundred gram tub of Vaseline (in preparation for potential chafing), I sat down at one of the charge stations to charge my phone and had a WhatsApp call with my friend Malaki (the last person I had work for me before I shut my business down).
I spent some time doing some journal catch up as well, every day that I’ve been in New Zealand now at least having an outline of the events of the day. 🎉
That’ll make the writing much easier, as I don’t have to go back and try and remember.
Texted a little bit with my mom and my sister Heather.
Was grateful I had an aisle seat for the flight because I purposely had a significant amount of water to drink, having not had much to drink yesterday.
I didn’t want to end up with a migraine from dehydration. 🙃
The inflight dinner was nice. I did some more journal catch up, and then once I lost reception, I settled in to watching The Dark Knight Rises, which ended with seconds to spare (the last maybe five or 10 minutes of the movie were just subtitles, because they made me put my headphones away).
I love small airports.
Going through customs was a piece of cake. If I had been prepared with something to write with while on the plane, it would have only taken me just a few minutes. Unfortunately, I didn’t have something to write with, so I had to wait till I got to the airport to fill out my little international intake form, which meant that I was pretty far behind in the line. Even then, it went relatively quickly.
Texted a bit back and forth with my brother Richard.
Was grateful that I had my ATM card with me. I haven’t used a debit card in… years. In fact, this card expires next month. 🙃
I never ever use debit cards because I get too much cash back using credit cards, and I always pay them off every month, so I never pay interest.
It’s nice to have the credit card company pay me. 🙃
My sister Heather sent me some money via Western Union for my birthday, setting it up for me to pick up at the airport when I got there, so after pulling out a bunch of money from the ATM, I went over to the Western Union place and picked up the additional money that my sister had sent me. 🤍🙏🩵
I think I’ve got enough cash now to be good for the trip here. 🤞
I probably have way too much, but I’d rather have too much than not enough, especially when I’m going to be on one of the more remote islands for a bit (Taveuni).
It’s definitely going to be a much more interesting trip, I think, than my original plan of just driving all over the main island for seven days.
By the time I go home, I’ll have been to four, maybe five different islands and enjoyed a broader spectrum of experiences.
I think. 🙃
The place I’m staying at is super close to the airport, so it didn’t take me but probably 15 minutes to walk from the airport to the main road, walk along the main road for a good little way, cross over to a side street with businesses, and then wind around to the neighborhood where my homestay was.
It’s about a 15-minute walk from the airport to the homestay. A 15-minute walk from the homestay to the grocery store, and a 15-minute walk from the home state to the hotel I’m going to be picked up at tomorrow, though humid and sticky.
No rental car needed. 🎉
Speaking of humid and sticky (and hot), I was a little unpleasantly surprised by the fact that even though I’m pretty sure this place advertised AC, it certainly does not have AC.
And the cockroach in the bathroom a little bit ago was absolutely ginormous. 😆
Welcome to tropical Islands, Stephen.
Oh, and the WiFi promised… it’s garbage. It doesn’t actually reach the rooms that we stay in.
Oh well. I got myself checked in, and then I turned right around and walked to the grocery store. Foolishly, I took off my pants and switched them out for shorts because of the heat.
Fiji has sand flies, too.
😆
So I got a handful of bites on my beautiful but hot and sticky walk to and from the grocery store.
Interacted with a handful of friendly locals, mayor may not have bought ice cream 🙃, managed to buy some dish soap and water and whatnot.
Met one of the other travelers who’s in the little dorm section of this place. She’s from New Zealand, but her father is Dutch but lived in the islands all over the Pacific, so she’s going out to visit family, and she speaks Dutch in addition to English.
I’m trying not to overheat, wearing nothing but my skivvies, ceiling fan providing only the slightest breeze.
Summertime means daily highs are going to be in the high eighties and the daily lows, overnight, are going to be about 80. 😆
Oh well. It’s going to be a great trip, and I’m also going to be really happy to get back to New Zealand. 😆
It’s coming up on 10:00, and I actually got my journal entry written today. Miracles of miracles!
Lots of things to be grateful for today. It seemed to like, unlike so many other days where nearly everything seems to go sideways, today, it just worked out.
Other than the AC and the Wi-Fi. 🙃
Onward and upward.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 