(written today!)
Not much of an adventure day today, but definitely sensorily stimulating.
I woke up for the last time relatively late, around 9:30 ish? grateful for the cloud cover, so the van didn’t heat up quickly.
Despite the cool weather (highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s [It’s been an unseasonably cool summer this year, by the sound of things]), the van can still heat up quite a bit once direct sun is on it, so I’m grateful it was cloudy to start the day.
I woke up with less of a headache than I went to bed with, but still present, And for most of the morning, I battled the same headache and nausea symptoms as yesterday–continued consequences, I think, for not taking proper drink breaks during my attempt at climbing Mt Sealy.
😅
I spent some time conversing with my siblings about some important health concerns with close family members.
I had been mostly out of cell range, so I had only gotten a few messages here and there from an entire family thread. Gratefully, multiple family members replied back to fill me in.
I was also grateful to have a long drop just down the road, so when I needed to go to the bathroom rather soon after getting up and starting my breakfast, I was able to drive right on over and plant my growing tush on the amazingly clean throne.
😁
I think I veged out for a bit and then Somewhere around noon, I started heading inland to do a little bit of exploring today, first following Pukaki Canal Rd (a private road but that’s still open to the public 🤷) over to Ohau Canal Rd, past the hydro station, and then over to the inlet bridge where the water from Lake Ohau enters the Ohau Canal.
Amazingly, somehow my phone, despite my reception appearing to be hanging on by a rogue signal wave, was able to video call my mother who had tried to call me a couple of times. 🙏
My sister Heather was there with her (my nephew is getting married, so Heather and Hans made the drive to Arkansas for the festivities), so I got to chat with them for a good little while, showing them video of the electric blue/turquoise water and the beautiful blue sky that had shown through as the clouds significantly diminished.
Good stuff.
After chatting with them, I headed along Glen Lyon Rd, taking pictures of the electric-blue-colored lake over and over, first with hills in the background, and then with mountains in the background.
My intent had been to drive all the way up the Hopkins valley as far as I was able, and I guess I did that, it just wasn’t as far as I had hoped.
About 3/4 of the way north up the east side of the lake, I ran into a sign indicating private property and instructing anyone who entered to make sure they got permission first.
Darn. 😕
I had hoped to go all the way up the valley to the base of the mountains at the end, but oh well. There’s a road on the west side of the lake that I’ll try tomorrow. 🙃
I hung out on the side of the lake just staring at the water for a while, working on my journal catch-up efforts that stalled out after my adventure up the mountain left me absolutely hammered.
I only finished one entry, one I had already been working on, so it didn’t really feel like much progress. 😅
But it was something at least, and given that I’m writing this entry day of, it means that at least today I’m making progress. 🙏
I also veged out for a bit and simultaneously watched YouTube videos and snapped a gazillion more pictures as I slowly made my way back down the valley along the lake. 🙃
The colors are just so… fake looking that each time I look at the lake after looking away for a bit, my senses are once again jolted with this sense of wonder and amazement.
Honestly, I’m glad that, though I’ve experienced the colors of these lakes over and over again several times over multiple years, I continue to be mesmerized by them.
I’m sure that were I to live here, eventually, seeing those colors would become commonplace, but for now, the colors are so striking, so vibrant as to look artificial, that I’m continually taken aback, snapping dozens if not hundreds of pictures as if I never seen those colors before, when I just saw them yesterday, and this morning, and every 60 seconds all day. 😆
I love it. I just… love it.
When I was in the North Island, I felt like I loved the North Island more than the South. Now that I’m in the South Island, I feel like I love the South Island more than the North.
How wonderful to not have to make the choice. 🙃
After snapping a gazillion more pictures on the way down, I headed into town to the grocery store, as my food stores were much less than I had thought they were.
I could swear I have another jar of peanut butter around here somewhere, but I looked a fair bit and couldn’t find it in any of the places that it should have been, so I bought more peanut butter from the local Four-Square in Twizel, along with several other things.
Sang along a bit to the music playing over the PA system.
Swallowed my normal frugality and bought food more as if it were Pak ‘N Save (prices weren’t terrible, but definitely more than I would have liked to have paid).
Was grateful that there was a gas station right across the street that had a convenience store inside, which meant that I could get gas there, which I did, chatting it up with the two ladies behind the counter for a good little while.
A storm had just rolled in, and one of the ladies behind the counter was afraid of storms, and the other one liked storms, and… well… y’all know me: Give me wind. Give me rain. Give me lightning. Give me thunder. Give me hurricanes. Give me tornadoes. Give me earthquakes. Give me volcanoes.
😁
Love the sound of the rain on the roof of my van as I write this.
It’s just after 9:15. Got a beautiful little picture of a rainbow, which takes me back to Nadi, Fiji a bit.
Got some beautiful pictures of the sun setting over Lake Ruataniwha, where I’m staying for the second night in a row–The rain falling where I am, but just enough of a break in the clouds in the hills on the far side of the lake to give some beautiful contrasts.
I love nature. I love this world.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 