22 March 2018
Waiheke Island
‘There are those who become so involved in looking at the man-made lights of the city that they unconsciously forget to rise up and look at the great cosmic light and think about it – that gets up in the eastern horizon every morning and moves across the sky with a kind of symphony of motion and paints its technicolor across the blue – a light that man can never make. They become so involved in looking at the skyscraping buildings of the Loop of Chicago or Empire State Building of New York that they unconsciously forget to think about the gigantic mountains that kiss the skies as if to bathe their peaks in the lofty blue – something that man could never make. They become so busy thinking about radar and their television that they unconsciously forget to think about the stars that bedeck the heavens like swinging lanterns of eternity, those stars that appear to be shiny, silvery pins sticking in the magnificent blue pincushion.’ – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tuesday I woke up early and walked across the street to have scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toast at Dizengoff. Ponsonby Road has many excellent restaurants, but food in New Zealand is expensive. I have to eat about 4000 calories per day to keep from losing weight, so I’m not looking forward to seeing my Visa bill when I get home. It was drizzling, so I finished reading my Samuel Beckett and started a book of Martin Luther King Jr speeches. By 10 the rain had stopped so I walked down to the quay and took the ferry to Waiheke Island.
I hiked across the island, and went for a swim at Palm Beach. I had to throw my hiking boots away – they were falling apart and smelled so bad I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with them – so I’ve been hiking in my flip flops. Several days I’ve walked over 15 miles in them, and they must have over 1000 miles on them in total. So my $20 Havaianas have outlasted my hiking boots, and they are more comfortable – at least in warm weather.
On the way back I stopped for lunch in Onetangi – very good gnocchi with summer squash. By the time I got back to Auckland and wandered around for a while it was time for dinner and walking past a place called Uncle Man’s I noticed they served rojak, so I had to go in. Not the best rojak I’ve had.
Yesterday I relaxed and walked around Auckland. Stopped at the museum to see the Maori exhibits.
I’ve had a wonderful time in New Zealand watching the clouds and stars, hiking in the mountains and forests, swimming in the sea.
Serenity
This morning I watched a gorgeous sunrise while eating blueberry pikelettes on the patio of Cafe One2One, an appropriate ending to a wonderful trip.
‘Perhaps it’s done already, perhaps they have said me already, perhaps they have carried me to the threshold of my story, before the door that opens on my story, that would surprise me, if it opens, it will be I, it will be the silence, where I am, I don’t know, I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.’ – Samuel Beckett