Tuesday, March 18, 2003
From Takaka back to Nelson
Yesterday when I was in town with Sybille, I met a Canadian girl outside the organics shop. In the thirty seconds or so we talked, it turned out she needed a ride to Nelson today, so we arranged to meet at the Big Fat Moon for lunch and go from there.
Roti curry. Mmmmmm.
Here's Takaka (wave goodbye):
I was half surprised Harmoniah showed. And I almost didn't recognize her when she did because yesterday she was dressed fairly drab and had her hair tucked under a sun hat.
We booked into a quad room in the Paradiso hostel, which was quite a contrast to Club Nelson. Our quad had its own shower and toilet, and was tucked in the far back corner away from all the noise. When we arrived, there were lots of hostelers hanging about and enjoying the pool and jacuzzi--odd to see so many people at a hostel midday.
Stuff stowed, and car left strategically holding a good parking spot at the hostel, we wandered down along the river that cuts through the corner of town, plunked down for a while and took turns playing each other songs we'd written. Hers were great (and I don't say such things lightly):
She wants to try busking, either here or in Australia when she gets there. I imagine she'll do quite well.
We spent most of the day talking about philosophy and mysticism. (Apropos to where I met her, she is quite a mystic.) I warned her up front she probably didn't want to go there with me, but she was quite insistent at every turn...
I also learned she was fresh out of a fling with a manipulative, smoking, drinking type (you know) who she'd met a couple months ago at a hostel. This sort of thing used to mystify me, this ubiquitous theme, but by now I've seen enough examples to realize it mostly just comes down to looks. Yeah, it's that simple. All the rest is just post-rationalization (readily evidenced by the fact that if you average it all together it adds up to zero).
After dinner, we swung by an internet cafe to check email:
Oh, and the AA was open today, so I finally got some maps of the south-island cities.