Te Araroa, Day 30

Difficult day today. At least the first more or less 20 km. 
I put down what I felt walking that part:

Urban walking

Cars

Car sounds, non stop

Police sirens

Ambulance Sirenes

Helicopters 

Airplanes

Squeezing wheels 

Crying kids

Stopping busses

Shouting adults

Machines 

Cars everywhere

Traffic lights sounds

A Cacophony of sounds

Mind on alarm

System in overload

Short circuiting non stop.

Sensory torture.

Can't blend out

Can't deselect

Noise cancelling earbuds 

Not much relieve 

Sights enhance everything

Running people, walking people, cars fast and slow

Many forms, many shapes

Buildings, colors

Too much.

Too much input. 

Walking

Trying to get through this overwhelming hurricane of sights and sounds.

trying

crying

Silent tears

Trying to open valves for releasing the overstimulations.

focusing

walking

pain in the system

Urban walking

Finally I leave the last busy suburbs behind me. Before I do the last more or less 15 km on the road I use the lonely armchair at the side of the road for a break:

Then there is all kinds of country roads. I focus on the beauty in the little things:

I just took the picture below when a car stopped next to me, on the wrong side of the road. A window came down, and the driver introduced himself, starting a lengthy conversation. I listened and listened. It began to rain again, so I stood there, simultaneously listening and being showered by the rain. When I felt I had listened enough (though it still took a while), email addresses had to be exchanged, and I had to promise to let him know where I would be on Christmas and if I was okay.

It’s interesting. It happens again and again. A stranger walking through seems to be a good place to share one’s life and thoughts.

When I pass Bombay School, two girls are in a tree, asking me if I’m walking the entire country, even in the rain. I talk to them for a little while before I move on, still in the rain.

And not far from my Airbnb for tonight, I come across this slightly open gate. What I see behind makes me think that this could be the gate to "the secret garden." I wonder if I would find myself in a completely different world if I walked through that gate...

I don't. I do not enter that gate. There are already enough disputes in New Zealand because of trespassing. So, unfortunately, I missed the secret garden but was saved from a dispute.

Arriving at the Airbnb after 9,5 hrs and 34 km, I get greeted by those fellows:

I stay in a nice little cottage and watch the heavy rains that started shortly after my arrival. I am glad I made it inside before that.