After two weeks in Auckland I continued on to visit a friend in Opotiki. It was like I had never left. Even though it had been nearly a year and a half since I had been there, walking through the door felt so familiar, just like something I had done the day before. Everything seemed to be as it was before, including, to my great delight, the outdoor bathtub. I have written about this bathtub in the past, as it was one of my favorite things during my last trip in New Zealand. A bathtub in the yard, with an excellent view of the sky creates quite a delightful evening.
I decided to take full advantage of the outdoor bathtub. The first thing I needed to do was go to the beach to collect wood for the fire. I danced with joyous abandon while I collected drift wood. I needed a lot for a fire big enough to warm my bath water. Two buckets full looked good enough to get me started. I packed the hole in ground underneath the half full bathtub and got the fire started. Now we play the waiting game. I found that an excellent way for me to pass the time was a glass of wine. When it is ready, I lay in bath for well over an hour. The coals that still burn in the fire pit underneath keep the water warm as I star gaze to my heart’s content. I go to bed with a smile on my face.
I enjoyed my week in Opotiki very much. With walks on a beautiful beach, outdoor baths, cooking up a storm and good company, how could I complain? I even got a day of paid work, though I could hardly call it “work” per say. My last day there was the Motu Challenge: a race including mountain biking, kayaking and road biking. I set safety on a rapid for the kayak section.
The day started with a coffee while watching the competitors bike past the house. As the rain drops started to lightly fall, my enthusiasm waned; I wasn’t looking forward to sitting by the river in the rain. We had a few hours before the kayak section of the race so we went to a café to drink a coffee and meet with the rest of the river safety crew. While drinking our coffee a man tells us about a river safety course coming up soon. His name is Nick; he is part of NZRA (New Zealand Rafting Association). Even though the weather didn’t look much better, it was time to get moving.
I was assigned to cover the lower most rapid. It was conveniently located beside an access road; however my spot for best coverage was on the opposite side of the river. I am not a river kayaker, so thankfully the river was flat below the rapid and I was able to paddle across without trouble. I knew I had some time still before the competitors were due so I gathered wood for a fire and read a book. The weather wasn’t sunny, but at least it wasn’t raining the entire time. As it turned out, even though my rapid had the most action, I was hardly needed for assistance. The rapid was barely a class II and the river afterwards was flat and not very deep. Even though they didn’t need saving while in the water after flipping over, they still appreciated help with emptying the water from their long boats (5 meters/15 feet plus). When late afternoon came we joined the party on a field in Opotiki, drinking the free beer that was offered to us for being part of the race. It was quite an enjoyable day.
The next morning I began my New Zealand hitch hiking experience. I had only hitch-hiked maybe three times before: once in Hawaii when I was 16, and twice in California, one time being because we ran out of gas. I was excited and nervous. After ten cars blasting right past a truck stopped. He was only going to the other side of town, but that was better than nothing. Getting the next ride took an hour of waiting. A woman finally picked me up who was luckily going all the way to Gisborne, also my destination for the day. Now is where I must admit that driving makes me sleepy. Let me correct that, being a passenger in a car makes me sleepy, when I am the one driving I stay awake just fine. It is an odd thing, I will be fully rested, not tired in the least, then I get in a car and I can’t keep my eyes open. This doesn’t happen all the time, more so on long trips. This was one of those trips. I literally could not stop my eye lids from dropping. I was trying to stay awake, trying to be good company, but I just couldn’t. At one point, as I was drifting off, my mind noticed that she had just asked me a question and replayed the last few words to my conscience thought. It was something like, “Have you ever seen that?” or, “Have you ever done that?” and I answered “No” without thinking. After the word came out of my mouth I realized that I had no idea what I just said no to. I tried to make my brain replay more of what she had said while I was drifting, but nothing came arose. I was better at staying awake after that.
In Gisborne I visited two friends. The first being a woman I met last year, Biddy. The second was someone I had met recently in Auckland, Stephen. Biddy lives in a house with a garden; Stephen currently lives in a room at his parents’ hotel. While I was at Biddy’s the sun was out and it was beautiful. I enjoyed watching ducklings waddle after their mother. When I went to visit Stephen the weather turned unpleasant: rainy and cold. With weather like that I stayed indoors a lot. Even then however I was still so cold. There was one day that I was so cold it took half an hour in a sauna to warm up. After twenty minutes my feet were still cold then at thirty I was finally warmed up enough to start sweating. I’m not a big fan of the cold. Yeah, I’m from California and I like the sunshine.
So, the Shining. Have you seen this movie? I have only seen it once and that was about four years ago. From what I remember of it this hotel I was staying at reminded me of the Shining. It was only one story, not as big as the one in the movie, but something about it, maybe the décor. Or maybe it was the fact that there were no guests. All the doors to the rooms were kept open and each room was decorated differently, creating an interesting, sort of ominous feeling as I walked down the hall to the room I had chosen. I was allowed to pick any room I wanted. My choice was narrowed based on the décor, then determined based on the comfort of the mattress. It was fun checking out all the rooms.
When the weather finally cleared up I hit the road to hitch-hike to Taihape. I was heading to River Valley to visit Arnie, a friend from California. I drank a coffee in preparation for the long hours in the car. It took five rides, including Stephen driving me to the edge of town. The second guy had a dog and was on his way to a hot spring. There is something… odd about the people that frequent hot springs, both in California and in New Zealand. At least, that is what I have encountered. This guy spent almost the whole 30 minute drive talking about “lump heads.” The third ride was from two guys who travel around for their job doing something for the military. They drove me from just south of Gisborne to Bulls, five hours or so including lunch. Once again I felt the pull of drowsiness. Why wasn’t that caffeine working?! I ended up allowing myself to nap, but it only lasted half an hour. I wonder what the social etiquette is for sleeping hitch hikers… The fourth ride was the fastest ride I had gotten so far. As I was getting my bag out of the car, before I even set it on the ground, my next ride was pulling over. Yeah, he was hailed by the guy who was dropping me off, but it was a pretty sweet switch. He drove me the hour north to Taihape, where I only had to wait ten minutes before a friend of Arnie’s picked me up and took me to River Valley.
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