Friday 9 December 2016
I was curled up this morning, wishing the day outside was everything it was not. You may wonder what it was like outside; heavy mist and just a little wind (mostly, we are sheltered from it). I watch the rain falling and try to be only positive. I had woken and checked the weather which was tough, as I don’t have that magic weather wand. I continue to wait and continue to frown. After all, I’m the one who has set the weather parameters for this coast, but it’s still a bitter pill to swallow.
However, I was determined not to dwell on it, so we made many jokes this morning while we cooked breakfast. We are still eating our way through the kilo of bacon that Ev had gifted me and I just have to laugh at the fact we have eaten bacon three times a day for an entire week and still have more to go!! Then we got stuck into the planning of the last few paddling days once I am eventually round Cape Reinga. That made us both feel better and more productive. I sometimes feel exhausted just thinking about the huge challenges I have set myself. But I also feel somewhat positive for, when I get the chance to gap it, I have told Bianca that she will have a job trying to get me out of my kayak! I’ve also made her promise not to share our plans with other people.
The next hiccough is my laptop. It obviously didn’t enjoy the small drink of Chai tea I gave it yesterday and now the keyboard is playing up!! Should I laugh or cry? I have to laugh, using some dark humour to try and get through this problem. To be honest, I’m hoping it will be able to work okay until my return home and Bianca is positive she’ll be able to fix it. I give her the "go for it" look, saying "it’s all yours!”
As it is such a damp, dull, humid day, we head away from the Houhora campsite and aim for Ninety Mile Beach, planning to stay there for a few days. But, when we get there, it wasn’t anywhere near the beach. We look at each other and decide it’s not the ideal campsite for us, so back down the road we go, stopping to eat lunch to lighten our mood and make a few decisions about the next few days, including where to base ourselves. It seems we have two options, move on to the East Coast to check out more landing locations or stay on the West Coast. In the end, the latter seems to be the best option. I feel happier here at the moment and feeling as though I belong, so Ahipara is the unanimous decision. We had both already said that we wanted to stay in this little calm neck of NZ for longer, so back we go via a couple of shops in Kaitaia. As we drive, the heavy skies start to lift.
This road seems to be one on which we are going to have to travel on a lot as a team over the next few days/weeks until I can eventually escape. In the meantime, we reassure each other that we could be in way worse locations. We plan and plot what to get up to, including surf practice for Bianca, for sure. Our moods are lifting and, for the rest of our day, we talk about finding new hiking trails and seeking out a local swimming pool. We also have a damn long beach on which to run; an entire Ninety Mile Beach to discover, in fact. Now that, to me, is rather funny, especially after some of the really small beaches on which I’ve been stuck before now so, run Forest (Gump), run!
But one thing is still creating a frown on both our faces; the lack of cell phone and Internet coverage. At the moment that’s more than a tad frustrating. In fact, we have now got the skill of doing everything we can out of coverage down to a fine art and then, if and when we actually locate coverage, we send out the emails, etc. We will just have to get used to having our phones in silent mode. Apart from having to use them to send my blog each day, I just shut them down, otherwise it’s far too damn frustrating for me. After all, we lived without them once, so we’ll just have to learn to enjoy life without them and learn to live without them again.
We decide to take out some of our frustrations on Cuzzie! She’s a total dust bucket by now, everything we touch is coated in the stuff! We decide to remove everything and clean inside. It’s nuts I know, but neither of us can stand it any longer. I manage to knock over the bucket of water, so that helps with the washing of the floor. Eventually all the dust has gone and we pack some food for a late picnic dinner on the beach in order to watch the sunset from the sand dunes. We also watch a carload of teenagers attempting to dig their car out of the sand. In fact, they fail in their efforts, eventually getting rescued by another vehicle, managing to get a tow out of the sand trap. Apart from commiserating with their misfortune, it’s the best part of the day, sitting high on the dunes, wave-watching, people-watching and eating out of doors, a day of going a little stir crazy.
We have also enjoyed the challenges, although it has taken me a while to redirect my thoughts and obsessive mind but, at last, I have. Now, we will wait, enjoy life while we wait and be sure to be utterly thankful that we are enjoying every moment of our lives. I am so incredibly lucky, something I just have to remind myself on these few off-days.
Thanks to Google instructions, back in Cuzzie Bianca is happy, having managed to remove the laptop keyboard and also having managed to locate a replacement to purchase, how cool! As for me, I’m just happy to be in Ahipara, back by the West Coast waves.
My smiles today:
Bacon for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Having returned to the West Coast ocean.
Crazy, but true, cleaning out Cuzzie.
Fresh season sweet corn, yum!
Ahipara beach picnic dinner.
Grumpy when I have to sit still!
Our campsite. We have Dyson hand dryers.
My thoughts today:
In life, you can absolutely count on one thing: everything can turn around in one day, even in one minute, sometimes!
Goodnight from Red and Bianca.
Ma Te Wa.
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