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Published: February 5th 2011
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Teresa arrived at ten, just as she'd said she would. She took me to buy a second USB drive, as I've filled the one I brought with photos. The 4G Sandisk I bought was on sale for half price at $12; it was cheaply made, but I only need it as a backup.
After that, we went to see Lake Taupo. It was indeed a large and attractive lake. Teresa found a beach, and we went down and walked by the water. I had worn my Ugg boots, so I couldn't walk in the water; otherwise I might have.
There were black swans on the water; I had never seen black swans before. There was also a gray-and-white swan; I wasn't sure whether he was simply a color phase of the black or a different species.
An entrepreneur had set up a number of golf tees on the shore, and a pontoon with three holes on it a considerable distance out on the lake. You could pay to take swings at the targets. A sign said that the attraction averaged one hole-in-one every two weeks. The three holes were different sizes; one large, one half the large one's
size, and one the size of a normal golf hole. I didn't attempt it, but someone was trying it while we were there. I heard one of his balls at least hit the pontoon.
We stopped at an artists' flea market and looked at the artwork on offer. I liked several of the paintings, especially a view of Waikato gorge (the place I'd walked yesterday). There was also a display of feather-work; the one I liked best was a kiwi done in pheasant feathers. But I couldn't have afforded any of it, and if I could have I couldn't have gotten it home.
After that, Teresa drove me to Huka Falls. Sure enough, a sign there said that Spa Park was an hour's walk away. The Falls were not at all what I had expected. I'd thought the water would actually be plummetting from some considerable height. Instead, the Falls were a narrow raceway of whitewater, with about a two-foot drop at the bottom into a pool. The whitewater was lovely to look at, but it wasn't a real waterfall.
I noticed that the Falls were the same color blue as Lake Tekapo -- that same strange
powder blue that is, indeed, at Tekapo, caused by powder -- powdered rock in the water. Presumably the cause is the same here.
Next, at my request, we went to see the Craters of the Moon, a place of mudholes where steam comes out of the ground. I was rather frightened; I kept worrying that I would lose my balance and fall onto the hot ground, or, worse, into a hot pool. I didn't, of course. I looked down from two different viewing platforms into larger mudholes; in one of them, the mud was actually boiling.
I only walked about a third of the way around the Craters' walkway; not only was I tired, but I was being affected by the heat. The temperature was only 78 (so, at least, Wunderground insists) but the steam from the craters made the Craters area hotter, and the sun was blazing down.
Lunch didn't help much, and after lunch all I wanted to do was to lie down. Teresa took me back to the hostel and then got on the road back to Hamilton.
I lay down, away from the sun, and waited to feel better. When I didn't,
I finally realized, to my considerable surprise, that I was dealing with heat prostration. Luckily I know what to do for that; I took some salt, straight from the shaker, and felt much better.
I then spent the afternoon doing laundry, without incident except that the permanent press setting on the dryer seemed awfully hot. Time will tell whether any harm has been done to my clothes. One of the hostel staff was kind enough to carry my laundry upstairs for me; I appreciated it greatly.
Oddly, my room seems hot tonight as well, though it can't be more than 85 or 86, which is only a little hotter than I choose to keep my room at home. I don't want to open the window for ventilation, which is what everyone else is doing, because it'll make the traffic noise worse. Perhaps, though, I should have opened my window before I went out today.
Well, I'll remember that for the future. At least I don't need to worry about the state of my lungs.
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