![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerIt's time to get back to Tongariro National Park. ...No, not literally. It's 7,000+ miles away, and we already enjoyed a packed day-trip to Tongariro National Park on our trip to New Zealand last month. It's time to get back to writing about that trip!
One thing I find memorable about that day is that we called an audible around 10:30am. I've written before about calling an audible when traveling and how it's important in travel. This one's also memorable because it recalls for me a few lines from the chorus the 1972 Elton John song, Honky Cat:
I know, "Hiking in New Zealand" and "Elton John songs from 1972" seem to have little to do with one another. So let me explain.
What does an Elton John song from 1972
have to do with hiking in the mountains of New Zealand?I'd been really wanting to hike Waitonga Falls. Of the 4 hikes we scoped out in the park, it was the one I wanted to do most. But the weather had been crummy since early morning and wasn't getting any better after temporizing for an hour or two with a short hike to Mangawhero Falls and a scenic drive. In fact it started raining harder. And the heavy clouds stretched on for tens of miles (we could see them from above when we were on the flank of the summit at Turoa) so it wasn't likely to get much better for hours, if ever that day.
Hiking Waitonga Falls— and not just merely hiking it, but hiking it in weather that didn't suck— was the gold I wanted to find, the whiskey I wanted to drink. Unfortunately bad weather meant neither was available.
After several moments of fretting I accepted that I wasn't going to get what I wanted. Moreover, I accepted that when I can't get my first choice of hiking in beautiful weather, "Hike anyway but in shitty weather" is not necessarily the second choice! I decided that somewhere else the weather was probably better. In fact that view from above at Turoa made it look like the other side of the mountain wasn't so cloudy. So I decided to bail out on hiking Waitonga and drive on to the next place on our itinerary. Maybe I'd find the proverbial gold mine there.
One thing I find memorable about that day is that we called an audible around 10:30am. I've written before about calling an audible when traveling and how it's important in travel. This one's also memorable because it recalls for me a few lines from the chorus the 1972 Elton John song, Honky Cat:
🎵 It's like trying to find gold in a silver mine
It's like trying to drink whiskey, oh, from a bottle of wine 🎵
It's like trying to drink whiskey, oh, from a bottle of wine 🎵
I know, "Hiking in New Zealand" and "Elton John songs from 1972" seem to have little to do with one another. So let me explain.
What does an Elton John song from 1972
have to do with hiking in the mountains of New Zealand?
Hiking Waitonga Falls— and not just merely hiking it, but hiking it in weather that didn't suck— was the gold I wanted to find, the whiskey I wanted to drink. Unfortunately bad weather meant neither was available.
After several moments of fretting I accepted that I wasn't going to get what I wanted. Moreover, I accepted that when I can't get my first choice of hiking in beautiful weather, "Hike anyway but in shitty weather" is not necessarily the second choice! I decided that somewhere else the weather was probably better. In fact that view from above at Turoa made it look like the other side of the mountain wasn't so cloudy. So I decided to bail out on hiking Waitonga and drive on to the next place on our itinerary. Maybe I'd find the proverbial gold mine there.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-19 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-19 10:01 pm (UTC)