(written on the 19th and 22nd)
After waking up for the last time and taking some pictures of the morning light through the clouds on the hills on the far side of the lake, I spent pretty much all day today working on my journal catch-up efforts.
I didn’t even spend a whole lot of time veging out. It was mostly just nose to the grindstone.
It… takes soooooo long. 😅
But I really am making fantastic progress. I only have nine more full days of journal to catch up on. All the other entries that I haven’t posted simply need pictures added to them, and then they’re done.
9 more…
As the saying goes, “So close, and yet so far.” 🙃
Oh! I can’t wait to be done. And may I always write my journal entries day of from here on out! It’s so much quicker and easier that way.
And I’m making progress on that front as well. I haven’t been perfect everyday, clearly, but I’ve been doing so much better at writing a journal entry for the day before my eyes close, head on my pillow.
There’s not really a whole lot to write about today. I’ve been parked in the same place all day today as I was pretty much all day yesterday. My van hasn’t moved, and I’ve barely moved.
Mostly I’ve just been switching positions inside my own van as I dictate my various journal entries. I have gotten 10 entries posted in the last 24 hours, I think, so that’s something. A couple of them had already been written and just needed pictures added to them, but still, solidly good progress.
A couple of camper vehicles with some Italians came by and parked in the same place that I did for a little while, going swimming and just laughing and joking, but I was neck deep in a long, detailed journal entry, so I wasn’t quite up for hopping out of the van to go socialize.
I didn’t actually have any other human contact until later in the evening when I saw a kite surfer come around the point near where I am at, kite in the air, but he in the water, trying again and again to get up.
Unfortunately, the wind simply wasn’t strong enough to be able to get up. After trying over and over again, which was probably pretty exhausting, he stopped trying, and the kite just sort of pulled him along the lake.
I started to get a little concerned after I noticed that he hadn’t tried to get up for a good long time, he was just being pulled.
I couldn’t see him moving it all, which added to my concern.
A few minutes later, his kite crashed down to the water, and though I could still see him above water, he wasn’t kicking around or moving or anything. He was just floating along, kite on the water.
After a little while of seeing no movement I yelled from the shore, asking if he was okay, but I didn’t hear anything back.
As my concern increased, I walked over to another car that was parked in the parking lot (a guy who was actually here last night fishing and had come, presumably, to go fishing again) and asked him if he had a pair of binoculars, by chance.
He didn’t but recognized that I was concerned about the person out in the water. He and I got to talking as we both monitored the kite surfer’s situation.
I had wondered if maybe I should put my wetsuit on, grab my snorkel and head out to him. I’m not a good enough swimmer to just swim out and back easily, but if I’ve got a snorkel, I can be out there for hours.
As I watched, instead of coming closer to shore, he was being blown further across the lake, which seemed odd because all the waves were coming in diagonally toward us, but he was being pulled somehow against the waves across the lake. 😬
Eventually, I saw movement, as he swam over to his kite and began using it as a flotation device. From that point on, he started heading towards shore, gratefully.
I also noticed someone in a red shirt on the shore in the area where it looked like he was coming in, so that was good. I had wondered if maybe I should drive down the beach and pick up the poor kite surfer to see if he needed a ride back to his vehicle and to get warm.
I hadn’t been too concerned about him drowning, once I realized his kite was fully inflated, but this is a glacier fed lake, so I wasn’t sure how long he was going to be able to stay out there without risking hypothermia.
And of course it’s one thing to be in cold water when you’re swimming and working hard; but it’s a completely different circumstance if you’re simply floating and not exerting your body.
Anyway, I chatted with Dave for a little bit about multiple different things, fishing, places he’s been in the United States, etc.
Eventually, I bid him farewell and headed back to my van. Not too long later, a flatbed Hilux pulled up, and two guys got out (late thirties, I would guess). One of them had a red shirt on, and it looked like the other one had a shorty wetsuit underneath his t-shirt, and it looks like there was some water equipment in the truck, so I wondered if it was the kite surfer and his friend, so I hopped out of my van and started chatting with them, and indeed it was the same two.
We chatted for a little while, I telling my story of my experience on the shore watching him as he was floating by, and they laughing and all of us talking about the whole experience.
Fun times. They are locals from Twizel (just a little bit further than the other side of the lake), and the one who was out in the water is still trying to learn how to kite surf.
Sounds like tough conditions on this Lake, as the wind seemingly can be gusting one minute and then dead the next.
After chatting with them, I continued working on my journal efforts before stopping to eat dinner and veg out a little bit.
It’s 10:15 right now, and I’m having a little internal battle right now about whether or not I want to try writing another catch-up entry tonight.
I’m proud of myself for writing this entry, as I’m quite tired of journaling. 😆
[sigh]
But I want to get fully caught up!
Do I keep grinding? Or should I say good enough and call it a night. I’ve accomplished what I had “scheduled” for today. I just… want to be done, so I’m right on the edge of pushing myself a little bit more.
I guess we’ll see. I’ll come back to this entry right before I crash for the night.
Oh! Once again my battery died, which was frustrating because I hadn’t left anything on. There was no good reason for why it had died.
I even grabbed my multimeter and did a parasitic draw test to see if maybe having my doors open had turned something on and created a draw, but nope.
🤷
I tried to flag somebody down on the main road, but they were going so quickly around a corner that they didn’t see me until it was too late, if they even saw me at all.
Gratefully, even though I was back at my van, I heard another vehicle coming and booked it back toward the road, attaching a guy in a Jeep just in time. He had actually been parked just maybe 100 meters down the road. I know because I had walked over toward the Jeep wondering if someone was there, hoping to maybe catch them and ask them if they could help them, but no one was in the Jeep at that time. This wasn’t too long after that, but I booked it over, and they pulled over and came over to help me.
So nice to be able to get a jump so much quicker than some of the other ones these last few days.
Frustrating, though, to have my battery keep dying. I keep thinking that I’ve taken everything into account, so there’s no reason for it to die. I check to make sure I don’t have the headlights. I check to make sure I haven’t left my key on.
But over and over I’ve forgotten at least something, so it’s been my fault pretty much every time.
But this time, I have nothing to point to that I did wrong. It was just simply dead when it should have been.
Maybe it’s just at the end of its life at this point. That would suck, because batteries in New Zealand are expensive. 😅
Anyway, I’ll be back soon…
…
[now the 22nd]
I don’t remember what else I did. I think I spent a fair bit of time working on another journal entry before veging and crashing, but I don’t remember now. 🙃
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 