Getting reunited with Kathie again! Emma and I met up in Dunedin. Emma could not join me from the first because she had a task to complete for her placement as a vet student. She just came down here yesterday. We decided to take a day off before we go for a big trip on our foot. Thank you Umi the cutest smiley girl in the world for let us stay in her room. Thanks Maho and Janice for having as well. Can't appreciate enough for those girls.
Emma and I started hitching to get to the Albatross Centre. We received a middle finger from two different drivers. If you don't like hitchhikers then just leave us alone. You don't even need to spend your energy to put your middle finger up. Emma was talking about how some customers at a restaurant can be aggressive about the service from waiters or the food and she called it "waste of saliva". Made my day. The driver who picked us up eventually drove all the way up to the centre further passed his destination. Most of the people are very nice. We were talking about the principles for hitchhikers that he could consider to pick up. He said "I wouldn't give a ride for the hitchhikers with tattoos." I became silent. Maybe I had to be because I'm very good at wearing it on my sleeve. Inside me: Hmm... we both have one... Anyways we managed to get to the centre. Thanks David the driver! Got reunited with Kathieeeeee!
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I'm grateful to my runners that she let me run since my junior school time and walk almost 10k everyday for the entire semester and trek nearly 30k a day during my travel. 7 years of history with her can be seen on all those scratches, holes and dirts... I'm gonna miss my old runners but it's time to let her retire and my journey accompany would swap to my Evangelion newbies!
We left Oamaru for Dunedin. Started hitchhiking for a spot where the highway seems like to just start. I think the approximate time to get a ride is usually about 15 minutes. It could be much faster or plus 10 minutes wait sometimes but usually it works in quarter an hour if you're at the right spot.
A red car stopped by and we got a straight ride to Dunedin before noon. The driver was on his way to a hospital that his daughter is hospitalised. He said his daughter is diagnosed with cancer and it's not a very hopeful stage. Kathie and I could only say thank you to him and handshake for goodluck for his daughter. I always regret after that saying goodluck was not a word that I supposed to say him. Because it sounds like her life is depending on luck. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything. Maybe I should have just given him a hug. Words can hurt people so easily. I still don't know the answer. What should I do when I bump into the similar situation next time? What will I want to get said if I or my family or my friends become her? Maybe nothing. I have decided to stay in Oamaru for another day and take a sightseeing with Kathie my German friend who my flatmate hosted a couple of moths ago in Palmy. It was really nice to be reunited with her. It just made me very relieved. Travelling brings me a lot of cool opportunities to see heaps of many people and inspirations but sometimes I need time to be not so exposed and thrown into a new world. So I think it's time to recharge myself to get ready for the next discovery. We wake up at like 4.30 AM (I don't remember but anyways it had to be super early) to watch the sailing game America's Cup. Our host told us how much NZ govt invested for this sport which was overwhelming amount of money. He said "There are some people who wants to deal with like Maori people who sleep under the bridge and claim those invested money should have spent for these issues." I totally agree with that but apparently he values the fancy sport more than the people's lives. Sad as. After the game the TV was reporting about some other sports including golf, additionally he mentioned about an Asian looking girl one of the NZ national golfers who has Korean background but is a NZ resident, said "Oh she doesn't look like Kiwi but... (something something I don't remember what he said after that)". Shocking. He also mentioned about immigrants into NZ that he doesn't welcome as "the bigger population will not benefit us." I didn't know what to say. Kathie and I went for a walk. We walked the steep hill for sunrise. The dawn glowed the sky in gradients with many colours. No matter what, a new day begins. It was just beautiful. It was a good experience for me to face the different perspectives.
I couchsurfed lat night in Christchurch. The guy who host me seemed pretty busy so we didn't really get talked to each other much but it was an awesome experience to meet those cool and passionate rock-climbers. After I added the guy on FB and we found that we had a common friend. I have been only living in Palmerston North and it was my first time ever going to South Island you know? For real, the world is damn small! It is not that surprising anymore coz it just happens all the time, yeah I mean New Zealand is this small. You can hardly know no one at a new place for you. Like, you can literally find a relation through people on the second day anywhere.
Today I was up too late, nearly 11 AM. But I was so chill for somehow like "I'm hitching anyways and Oamaru is just 4h drive. What could disrupt me to get there? Hey, it's important to have a slow-life according to your spirit aye? Don't even check time, let's take it easy." Not even to mention, in the end, it became the fight against the time. I wanna kill myself back then. I left Christchurch at 1 PM. I started walking to where the highway hit the edge of this big city. How could this country idiot imagine it takes almost two hours to get out of the city centre. I kept walking and walking and finally I was standing and started hitching just out of the crowd. 20 minutes passed. Nervousness was attaching me like a miserable storm. A taxi stopped by and the driver asked me where I was going. I said "Sorry I'm hitchhiking, to be honest I cannot paying for taxi man. Thank you." and the guy said "No, where do you go? I can give you a ride just to the out side of the town." I had two "what?"-s. First what?; is this taxi driver offering me a ride for free? Second what?; "outside of the town? Is this place that I am standing right now not outside of the town?" Consequently, this Indian driver Sidhu was keen to drive me to the highway for free. Also, he gave me his number in case that I didn't get a ride and stuck at middle of nowhere. I finally started hitching on the true highway at late 3 PM. Waited for 20 minutes with huge anxiety, an Aussie guy picked me up. He said "Do you wanna ride? I don't know any names of the place in NZ but where do you wanna go?" Cracked me up. I said Oamaru but obviously he didn't know where it was haha He was on the way to Timaru where is still 85 Km to Oamaru. He dropped me off at the other side of the town and also gave his number and even offered me a place to sleep if I have to stay in Timaru tonight. I made a promise with him if no ride in half an hour I stay here because the sun had already started to hide behind the mountain. I had to rush. It was getting darker. I was tired. I wanted to get to Oamaru where my fiend is staying. I wanted to see her and get a big warm hug from her. God knows what I need. In 5 minutes, a lady picked me up. She told me in her car that there used to be a lot more hitchhikers back in ten to five years ago. Since then I decided to pick them up when I see them on this highway between Timaru and Oamaru. But these days, the number of them has been declining and she said I'm the first one she picked up this year. I was going to cry. I don't know how many times I said "THANK YOU SO MUCH" today. I always feel frustrated that there is not many words to tell this appreciation. Wanna say them THANK YOU SO MUCH again. They all made my day great. Now I'm in Oamaru couchsurfing with my friend! Hell yeah, I'm landing on the South Island man! I met some super lovely ppl on the ferry. Oh my gosh, they cracked me up for the entire 3 hrs and I'm exhausted, yeah I mean in a good way. And I found a friendly German guy who is giving me a straight ride to Christchurch right now! I'm gonna enjoy this 7 hr drive! p.s. It was great to see you guys, MC and Lelly! Keep making people happy!
My injuries from yesterday have been healing better but the affected parts are swelling and having some pain. I am paying extra attention to make sure that they do not get infected. Thank you for all who were worried about me and also I am sorry that I maybe look like behaving a little more reckless than the other ppl as well.
After all, I came up with a decision that I should no longer continue this walking trip to Wellington. So I would like to officially announce that I have ended it yesterday. I hitchhiked from the place where I fell down to Paraparaumu yesterday and now I am in Wellington where my sister is staying at the moment. I am going for South Island by ferry on the 25th and hitchhike down to Dunedin. Hopefully everything will work along with my planned schedule. I'll keep updating my current situation as much as possible to just inform that I am alive haha Thank you for those who keep following my background stories of my journey so far!
I was walking as usual and got trapped by a circle wire of rubbish and fell down. My left knee and right hand hurt the worst for my past few years as long as I can remember. I feel all the animals that got trapped by people's rubbish in the forests, ocean, air and roads and got hurt. I'm sorry. What humanbeings have done to them came back to me I guess. But luckily I didn't die. I can sing "Alive" by Sia from the bottom of my heart right now. I'm aliveeeeeeeeee! I'm aliiiiiiiiiiiive! I'm aliveeeeeeeeee!
p.s. My friend who is studying vet science told me this wire should be the one used for fencing the paddock/farms. It is designed to be rigid and strong but still flexible and bendable. F!
So there were heaps of super narrow "walkway" on the highway esp when it comes to the bridge. It's width is barely half a meter. So scary. Cars and gaigantic trucks zoom by and they could easily turn out the killing machines. Every time I walk this kind of dangerous spot I feel of my death but at the same time I feel sorry for the drivers because they have to unwillingly slow down... But thank goodness I'm still alive.
I saw so many birds, hedgehogs and unknown animals that were no longer distinguishable hit by a car left in a miserable appearance on the side of the roads. I stoped counting them. Also I stoped counting the number of crosses with flowers offered by those who are left for the loss by car accidents. I obviously don't feel happy seeing them but sad and wrong. One car running speed in 100 Km can kill any natural sounds. I wonder how noisy this world we live in became but as long as this is what we wanted to have this may be what we deserve to have, beside all the other wild lives never and they are even paying by their own lives. Destruction of wild territories, peaceful spaces and beautiful souls made by... guess who and what? I wish everyone could have a slow life so that we don't need a car to go anywhere. Waking miles and miles shows you yourself being with no power depending on something else except yours. I have my legs to walk. That's why I walk. This is my quiet engine. This is my plan from tomorrow.
20th: Palmy - Shannon 21st: Shannon - Otaki 22nd: Otaki - Paraparaumu 23rd: Paraparaumu - Prirua 24th: Porirua - Wellington on my foot till this day 25th: Wellington - Picton by ferry Picton - Christchurch 26th: Christchurch - Oamaru 27th: Oamaru - Dunedin by hitchhiking 3rd - 9th: Dunedin - Queenstown with Emma by walk bf the next semester starts: Queenstown - Palmy by hitchhiking I don't know how tough it's gonna be. I'm already feeling nervous and tense but it is always worth challenging myself to the unknown level. I might give up on the way but it'll be okay like that too. An adventure explores myself. This is how I want to live I guess. Thank goodness for my healthy physical and mentals that I've been granted. And always don't forget this: Love and Peace See you then! 明日からの計画 20日:パーミーからシャノン 21日:シャノンからオタキ 22日:オタキからパラパラウム 23日:パラパラウムからポリルア 24日:ポリルアからウェリントン ここまで徒歩で移動 25日:ウェリントンからピクトン フェリーで移動 ピクトンからクライストチャーチ 26日:クライストチャーチからオアマル 27日:オアマルからダニーデン ここまでヒッチハイクで移動 3日~9日:ダニーデンからクイーンズタウン エマと徒歩で移動 来学期が始まるまで:クイーンズタウンからパーミー ヒッチハイクで移動 どんな厳しい旅になるかわからない。出発前ですでに緊張してるが、いままでやったことのない領域に挑戦することは自分にとって価値があるものに思える。途中で挫折するかもしれない、でもそれはそれでいいかもしれない。冒険は自分自身の内なる探検。こういうふうに生きていきたい。与えられた健康な身体と心に感謝。それといつもこれは覚えていたい、愛と平和の気持ちを。じゃあ、次の学期が始まるまでに戻ってこれたらそのとき会いましょう。 |
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