A few years ago I was walking into work on one of the first few days of January and it was raining. I commented to a coworker- how weird, it doesn't rain in January in Mexico City. And she told me of an old farmers tradition of predicting the weather for the year and knowing what kind of weather to prepare for. The tradition says that the first twelve days of each year reflects the weather for the twelve months of the year. January 1st reflecting weather for January. January 2nd reflectin weather for February etc. That's why it was raining on jan 6th... June- rainy season.
I was reminded of this after the first few days of the international part of our trip, starting in New Zealand. The first full day had a series of unfortunate events and the second day was the opposite...
Both days intermingled with places we had dreamed of visiting and unforgettable views and experiences... Putting on my philosophical hat, I wondered, will these first few days be a taste of the extremes and all the in between that we'll experience in the next five months of travel?
The first place we visited on our first day was New Chums beach, a "secret" beach that you have to hike 20 minutes o get to. It was a highlight if the trip for us- it was beautiful, the waves not too high, very few people there.
Next, Cathedral Cove. Another beach about a 20minute hike- with beautiful rock formations. It was on the way there we realized that my walking shoes - my precious Skechers I had bought for the trip- may not have gotten put back into the car after our picnic lunch at New Chums. They had been out on the roof Of the car to dry and we couldn't remember if they got put in or not.
They had not been. In a flurry of rushing out of there and thinking about heading back to new chums to see if they could be found we realized we could not find Julio's cell phone. Thus we began a 20 minute search for the cell phone and went back to the cathedral cove parking lot wondering if the phone could be found. Nothing. No shoes no phone. At this point I was not thinking of the shoes at all, only the phone. It had important apps and documents for our whole trip, it had a significantly better gps than my older phone, it had julios whole music collection, it had a Mexican SIM card which was going to make it easy for Julio's family to contact him back in Chicago.... It was hard to swallow that it was gone.
We both decided we had to go to the last place on our list that day and not let the losses get in the way- Hot Water Beach. It is recommended to go two hours within low tide- that day it was around 7:30am and pm. We got there about between 8 and 8:30. We weren't planning to be there at nighttime, but It was spectacular and unreal. Natural hot water baths made by digging a little ways into the sand. There seemed to be certain hot spots where the water came out especially hot-almost too hot to touch. Just one of new Zealand's many incredible geothermal phenomenons.
That night at our camp site we tried to make the best of the situation and tried to download some information on my cell that had been lost on Julio's. We started philosophizing and comparing trips to life and drawing life lessons from our situation...We didn't sleep very well and in the morning We did another shake down of the car, sure it had to have just gotten stuck in a crevice somewhere. No luck.
The next day we headed to Karangahake Gorge and Trails where we saw some incredible network of mines and hiked along a beautiful gorge and walked through a km long tunnel. We headed on to lake Rotarua. We were going to walk to the lake, find internet and head to our campsite that evening. We were about to get out of the car when the tablet slipped out of Julio's hand and under the passenger seat. The console in the van is as about as high as the seats, there is less than a fingers width between the seats and floor between the passenger and drivers seat. As we were fingering under the seat to get the tablet... I bend down on the passenger side to try to get a view of the tablet and what do I see!? I can't describe to you the unbelievable joy and relief I felt upon seeing the little silver top of Julio's phone. All I could do was laugh and laugh and laugh and cry a little too.
It had somehow slipped into this tiny tiny crevasse under my seat and the color made it blend into the metal under the chair. It was a place we had both looked the day before. My theory is is that it didn't even fall into that crevasse until after a days worth if driving, it could have been hanging out and Sliding around under my chair until on some hard turn or brake it landed where it did. And if the tablet hadn't slipped under we may never have found it. We were ecstatic. We splurged on a beer at a bar and some munchkins at dunkin donuts- the guy workin there even have us two free ones!
Of course all trips have ups and downs, although these were two extremes in the FIRST TWO DAYS. I guess it prepared us for what's to come... And made us realize from the start that our health and lives are the most important things and we'll be happy as long as we have those. We may lose things, we may gain/acquire things, we may have some pretty awesome experiences, we may miss out on some things--- but with health and life of us both- we will be thankful .
I was reminded of this after the first few days of the international part of our trip, starting in New Zealand. The first full day had a series of unfortunate events and the second day was the opposite...
Both days intermingled with places we had dreamed of visiting and unforgettable views and experiences... Putting on my philosophical hat, I wondered, will these first few days be a taste of the extremes and all the in between that we'll experience in the next five months of travel?
The first place we visited on our first day was New Chums beach, a "secret" beach that you have to hike 20 minutes o get to. It was a highlight if the trip for us- it was beautiful, the waves not too high, very few people there.
Next, Cathedral Cove. Another beach about a 20minute hike- with beautiful rock formations. It was on the way there we realized that my walking shoes - my precious Skechers I had bought for the trip- may not have gotten put back into the car after our picnic lunch at New Chums. They had been out on the roof Of the car to dry and we couldn't remember if they got put in or not.
They had not been. In a flurry of rushing out of there and thinking about heading back to new chums to see if they could be found we realized we could not find Julio's cell phone. Thus we began a 20 minute search for the cell phone and went back to the cathedral cove parking lot wondering if the phone could be found. Nothing. No shoes no phone. At this point I was not thinking of the shoes at all, only the phone. It had important apps and documents for our whole trip, it had a significantly better gps than my older phone, it had julios whole music collection, it had a Mexican SIM card which was going to make it easy for Julio's family to contact him back in Chicago.... It was hard to swallow that it was gone.
We both decided we had to go to the last place on our list that day and not let the losses get in the way- Hot Water Beach. It is recommended to go two hours within low tide- that day it was around 7:30am and pm. We got there about between 8 and 8:30. We weren't planning to be there at nighttime, but It was spectacular and unreal. Natural hot water baths made by digging a little ways into the sand. There seemed to be certain hot spots where the water came out especially hot-almost too hot to touch. Just one of new Zealand's many incredible geothermal phenomenons.
That night at our camp site we tried to make the best of the situation and tried to download some information on my cell that had been lost on Julio's. We started philosophizing and comparing trips to life and drawing life lessons from our situation...We didn't sleep very well and in the morning We did another shake down of the car, sure it had to have just gotten stuck in a crevice somewhere. No luck.
The next day we headed to Karangahake Gorge and Trails where we saw some incredible network of mines and hiked along a beautiful gorge and walked through a km long tunnel. We headed on to lake Rotarua. We were going to walk to the lake, find internet and head to our campsite that evening. We were about to get out of the car when the tablet slipped out of Julio's hand and under the passenger seat. The console in the van is as about as high as the seats, there is less than a fingers width between the seats and floor between the passenger and drivers seat. As we were fingering under the seat to get the tablet... I bend down on the passenger side to try to get a view of the tablet and what do I see!? I can't describe to you the unbelievable joy and relief I felt upon seeing the little silver top of Julio's phone. All I could do was laugh and laugh and laugh and cry a little too.
It had somehow slipped into this tiny tiny crevasse under my seat and the color made it blend into the metal under the chair. It was a place we had both looked the day before. My theory is is that it didn't even fall into that crevasse until after a days worth if driving, it could have been hanging out and Sliding around under my chair until on some hard turn or brake it landed where it did. And if the tablet hadn't slipped under we may never have found it. We were ecstatic. We splurged on a beer at a bar and some munchkins at dunkin donuts- the guy workin there even have us two free ones!
Of course all trips have ups and downs, although these were two extremes in the FIRST TWO DAYS. I guess it prepared us for what's to come... And made us realize from the start that our health and lives are the most important things and we'll be happy as long as we have those. We may lose things, we may gain/acquire things, we may have some pretty awesome experiences, we may miss out on some things--- but with health and life of us both- we will be thankful .
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