jforbess.org

A very civilized morning with all mod cons: a chocolate croissant,
internet with my very own laptop, and a used bookstore. Usually the
point is made that Hokitika is the first major stop on the West Coast
since it has banks. Pish posh. Banks are not necessary when you have
EFTPOS. (Electronic point of sales.)

There is a lot of pastureland between the road and the coast. Somehow
it smells like a combination of cow manure and Tootsie
Rolls. Disconcerting. Luckily, I haven’t liked Tootsie Rolls since I
ate an entire giant-sized one watching Fantasia in high
school.

For some reason I was in a horrible grey funk (I think I might be
getting sad about leaving New Zealand), but the blue skies helped
balance it out a bit. As did the incredibly cute alpacas. Wow. I don’t
really understand how they can be that cute. They look like a cross
between a Dr Seuss character and a Muppet. Candide was really fixated
on them too, in El Dorado. But all of his died.

Because of the grey funk, I started talking out loud to myself. Not
just occasional outbursts, but full-on conversations. I mean
monologues. Soliloquies. I forget the difference. According to the
Desktop dictionary, soliloquy is more appropriate: an act of speaking
one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers. I’m
not really worried about how crazy I look doing it while I’m biking,
but I do need to control myself while I’m walking or sitting still.

I had a revelation about the big chipness of the road. Readers who
have been with me from the beginning may remember a comment that the
roads here have a very big chip size, meaning they don’t grind up the
gravel very small before they mix it with tar and lay it down. I
thought I had gotten used to it. However, now that I’ve pumped up my
tires to the full pressure I realize it was just that I was riding
with soft tires. Also, it’s the big chip size which is much to blame
for how loud the cars are as they flash past me. Which I hate.

Speaking of cars speeding past me, I spent some part of the day trying
to figure out how to best word a sign to say, “My rear end looks better at
low speed” or “Slow down to check out this sweet butt”. I thought that
I’d have a good shot at getting all the guys without women in the car
to slow down, and an okay shot at getting the female drivers to slow
down. It’s just the male drivers with females in the cars. Also, the
possible increase in honking, and the added distraction of reading
harming their driving skills.

There was a bit more shoulder today, but I was reminded that if there
is a shoulder cars aren’t driving on, there’s lots of broken glass on
it. New Zealand is losing points as a non-redneck country here.

The coast at Punakaiki is really beautiful. Very much like the coast
between Monterey and Big Sur, but with more layers of rocks. It helped
that the sky was blue, the sun was warm, and the tide was in enough to
get a few bursts in the blowholes. It had been awhile since I’d been
on a hike at such a touristy place. The path was asphalted for
wheelchairs. The signs were written for seven year olds. I think that
listening to the waves was the best part. I wished I could have sat
and relaxed a bit, but I was a kilometer from the campground and I
really wanted a shower, so I took a leisurely stroll around, and then
coasted gloriously downhill.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 10:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.