(written today!)
Once again, I really don’t want to write in my journal right now. I’ve spent a pretty good chunk of today and yesterday doing journal catch-up work, and the last thing I want to do right now is write yet another journal entry.
But… habits. I want to get this habit back, and my self discipline has been garbage in pretty much every area of my life for a long time now, so… this seems like a pretty good area to work on since I eventually get to it anyway.
[sigh]
😅
The sand flies this morning were the worst that I think I’ve woken up to since I’ve been in New Zealand this last time around.
They weren’t gathering on and around the window screen in massive clouds like in that one spot after crashing for the night by the river while heading east on highway 6 a few years ago. It was only just a handful, which is wonderful in and of itself, but it was still enough to need to stay moving if outside of the van and enough to make me think twice about even opening the door. 🙃
I did open the door, however. There was a Honey-Bucket style large, plastic long drop, and it was nice to be able to use it this morning instead of Micro John. 😁
Not that I don’t appreciate Micro John: It’s just much more convenient to use a toilet than to spend time lining MJ with toilet paper to keep it ready for next use without needing to wash out.
🙃
After wandering around the little camping area (down to the river and then across to take a picture of the van), I started heading deeper into the hills to explore.
It was a cloudy day, but the greens of the bush and forest were still quite vibrant.
The road I was on doubled as a logging road, and I passed one active logging site with several pieces of equipment doing various jobs.
I passed the site just as a freshly-filled logging truck fall of recently cut pine tree logs was exiting the base of operations to head down to civilization, presumably to a nearby mill or drying lot.
Deeper and deeper I headed into the hills, forwarding several streams, expecting to go over a pass and down into another valley.
The road sign didn’t include a dead end marker, and looking on Google Maps, the road went all the way through the hills and down to farming country in the next valley.
Buuuuuut, but the sign and Google were wrong. The road dead ended in a logging tract, closed to public access or passage, chains holding the gate closed.
Darn. 😔
So I headed back down the way I had come both today and last night, driving a good little ways–all the way to beautiful blue Lake Tekapo.
With the sky being cloudy, the electric blue color of the lake that’s so mesmerizing on sunny days is significantly softer and less sensorily stimulating.
Still, it is beautiful and enough to make me smile. ☺️
I spent a good little while on a little dirt road right off the water at the far southeast end of the lake, snapping some pictures, enjoying the colors and the wildlife, and working hard on my journal catch-up efforts. I got five entries posted yesterday (three of which had been written previously but didn’t yet have pictures), and I was hoping to get a minimum of another five posted today, and hopefully more like seven.
Gratefully, I did make some fantastic progress, getting pictures chosen and attached for five previously-written entries and making corrections to a couple of entries that had incorrect chronological data.
After finishing up and posting those five entries, I headed north along the east coast of Lake Tekapo, determining to reprise the experience Chase and I had three years ago, but hopefully going further this time.
It was my goal to go as far up the braided river of the old glacial valley as possible. 😎
I stopped here and there to take pictures and to vege out a bit.
I found a very large mushroom, maybe the size of a baseball or softball, that as best I could tell was actually edible. I guess it’s known as a Giant Puffball? And they can get up to 50cm in diameter!
This one was big, but not that big.
Don’t worry. I didn’t eat it. 🙃 (Though if I could get it verified for sure, I’d have been all about that. I’d have even broken out my cooking pans. 😆
After deciding to leave the mushroom where it was, I continued along the road, passing through private property at times (with legal access) before arriving at the Lilybank-Macaulay River crossing.
This is where Chase and I had to turn back last time, and I was hoping to make it across this time.
Unfortunately, that… wasn’t to be. In fact, I don’t think I even went as far this time as we did last time. 🙃
I crossed one significant ford, but this is a huge braided river system with many crossings of various widths and depths spanning about a kilometer at the crossing I was attempting.
Not small. 🙃
I stopped the van shortly before the second major crossing, proceeding to cross it on foot to test it out.
The result of my foot crossing was that I felt like, though it was a little sketchy, I figured the van would make it.
I didn’t want to make the attempt, however, without assuring myself that I wasn’t just going to have to turn around at the next crossing, so I left my van running and started walking the “road” I was hoping to follow.
The next ford was totally doable, but the one after that was super sketchy, the water being shin deep, with no guarantee that the rocks underneath were packed tightly enough to provide a solid road base.
It was a bit of a moot point, however, as after crossing that ford and walking all the way to the next, it was clear that the next one would be completely idiotic of me to try and cross. That next one was probably 25 meters wide, I think about knee deep, and the water was super swift. 😶
I’d be concerned about that crossing even in a 4WD truck with a snorkel! 😅
Sooooo I snapped some pictures of the gorgeous landscape.
And then I walked all the way back to the van, did a probably five-point turn to get turned around on the narrow road, and crossed the large crossing I’d already traversed maybe 20 minutes ago (a ford that on both crossings was just sketchy enough as I navigated it to make me wonder if I might get stuck 😅).
From there, the next major stop was going to be wherever I was going to spend the night. There had been a sign saying no camping because it crossed onto private land, but on the way back, I noticed a little gate that said “public conservation land,” with a little sign that requested passers by to close the gate behind them.
I’m allowed to stay at public conservation land in a self-contained vehicle, as long as the land is not listed as being a scenic reserve or a recreation reserve, and as long as there are no signs prohibiting camping.
So the question is, did the sign way back toward the beginning of the road mean that every place on the entire road was not allowed or just the parts that went through private land?
😅
I opened the gate and went through to explore what was over there, wondering if maybe there were more possible river-crossing opportunities, but it ended rather quickly at a collection of active beehives (great place for beehives, as there are wildflowers absolutely everywhere out here).
So I parked the van, spent a good little while working more on journal catch-up efforts, snapped pictures of the beautiful vistas as the sun went down, used duct tape to remove tiny cactus-like needles from my feet (after walking barefoot through a section of wildflowers that apparently had those little hair-thin needles on them. Itchy little buggers! 🙃), and now I’m doing my best to be self disciplined by writing this journal entry tonight.
And… I’ve succeeded. It’s 10:47, and I’ve now written two nights in a row and have full entries written for most of February so far! 🤯
Progress!!! 🥳
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 