Making bread in the predawn

Not because I’m diligent that I am making bread in the predawn time when most of the people are still enjoying the warmth of the bed but because I need to find something to do physically to keep myself warm in the early part of the day, of the winter day. So I was thinking about what to do after my predawn meditation. Ah! Making a loaf wholemeal bread will be a good idea, by doing this I will have to knead the dough and at the same time I can listen to the discourse made by Goenka through my MP3 device.

So then a series of actions followed after the idea I had generated a few minutes ago. I opened the cabinet and took out the bag of wholemeal flour; got all the ingredients in need; set up a working area on the bench and began the process of making the dough.

It was about 6:30 AM in the morning when I started and it was still very dark, the entire area where I live was completely quiet and filled with peaceful atmosphere. I thought of some areas in the world like Syria and Iraq were suffering from endless wars; some rich European countries like France and Germany and the south-east coastal line of Australia were being flooded by the unprecedented massive rainfall, yet people living in Auckland are in their full scale of well-being, how lucky and well blessed we are.

Goenka’s ninth day discourse was being played. I listened to it using a pair of earphones so that it would not disturb other family member in sleep. I enjoyed listening to the discourse of Goenka on the theory and technique of Vipassana meditation. Every morning after I have finished my predawn meditation practice I will come to my desk to pick up the small MP3 device that contained the complete set of the 10 day discourses presented by him. This habit has been going on since March of this year, by a rough estimate I have repeatedly listened to this set of his speech at least 10 times now. Although I have listened for so many times each time I will find that, to my surprise, there are always a couple of places I didn’t notice. This indicates that my attention hasn’t been concentrated on the tasks at hand, and my mind is set free most of the time.

I measured 8 cups of wholemeal flour which according to my experience would make two loaves of bread but I wondered if I could handle it because it would be a big piece of dough, perhaps too big for me to knead. It is out of question if I am totally healthy or if I am on treatment from the medication. But it was too late as the flour had been measured and the water mixed, now I can only go ahead with it keeping my fingers crossed.

When the dough mixture was forming up, I began to feel the clumsiness of my hands. They were moving slowly and both hands were coordinating poorly, but I could not just stop and leave at this stage, I could only keep going till the dough was properly kneaded up to its standard.

Somehow, I had the dough done. It did not look beautiful but I was sure it would rise and would be baked just fine. By the time I put the dough in the bread tin to rise by the hot water cylinder the sky was bright. The main part of the bread making process is done. I have passed over the coldest period of the day.

Holidaying in Whakapapa Village

Walking in the twilight

We quietly planned a three night stay in The National Park located in Whakapapa Village, famous of its most popular ski field in the Ruapehu volcanic area. We did not mention about our intention of making this holiday because we wanted this tour a self assist type, having no assistance at all from friend or our children with any of the map research, on line ticketing, shuttle bus, transportation, meal and accommodation arrangement required for a successful holiday plan.

The journey started from 6:04am of 7/4/2016. Fortunately the daylight saving was wound back last weekend, so we got the one hour back otherwise we would have to walk in total darkness to catch bus at the nearest bus stop 500 metres away.

In the twilight, watching toward the spot near Rangitoto where the sun will rise, it only had revealed a slight brightness over there. The traffic on the main road was just beginning to increase. The temperature was 4 degree at the time we started our initial journey by walking from where we live toward the bus stop, feeling excited like school children going on an outdoor school activity.

Unexpected bonus

To get on board of the train, we must change to another two different buses and walked the remaining 800 meters to get to the place, The Strand Station. My time keeping was proved to be excellent that as expected we arrived at the boarding area at 7:15am, 10 minutes ahead of the required time of reporting your arrival.

Having got our boarding passes, we found our way to our allocated seats. It was a face to face seating with a table in between for four, and I believed it was meant to be only for two of us. What an unexpected bonus.

Beautiful country

The Britain Telegraph News released its survey of the most beautiful place in the world this year recently. The result says that for two consecutive years in a row, New Zealand won the first place. I believe it is so. Alone the way after the train has left the city, all we saw outside was green grass land of plain, rolling mountains, farm house, sheep and cows, scattered across the entire landscape evenly, peacefully and beautifully. What a lovely country I have been so luckily living in.

Day 1

The train was scheduled to arrive The National Park station at 13:15. So it will take five and half hours to send us to our destination. For a distance of about 270km journey, this length of time sounds incredibly too long. Indeed we felt the train was running too slow, but when the picturesque scenery began to show up, we realized the speed was regulated to suit a scenic tour purpose. Soon the nearly 6 hours long journey was coming to an end, the train was halted by the platform.

When I was worrying about whether if my request for a shuttle bus to pick up us had been taken care of by the hotel the other day, I heard someone querying "is there anyone going to Skotel?" when I was claiming my luggage by the storage carriage. I relieved and said in my mind, "ah! wonderful", "the transportation arrangement I have requested over the phone has been processed properly."

We hopped on the van, travelling over the 16km of distance toward the Whakapapa Village where is the residential area nearest to the vocanos. Well before we started working on our travelling plan, our family friend had been reminding us of staying right in Whakapapa Village and not somewhere in The National Park which is actually located on the outskirt of Whakapapa Village.

The van dropped us off the entrance of Skotel Alpine Resort. It is a long log wood building stretching across the best position for views in that area. The log wood interior radiated a relaxing, welcoming atmosphere. We loved it immediately. Feeling we were lucky to end up in choosing Skotel to stay, because not only we loved its natural touch but also it was less expensive than the other one.

Day 2 activity

Weather forecast for the park during our stay was not optimistic. All the three days were said to be cloudy with occasional showers, some heavy with lightening. Our mind sunk before we arrived, but we soon tuned our mind, thinking that I could not walk far anyway and perhaps just sitting in the room enjoying the great view would be good enough.

The next day we did see an unwelcoming weather. It was drizzling all over the area. The visibility distance was may be less than 100 meters. All the volcanos we saw yesterday evening were all hidden away. But we were not defeated, we set out to explore the interior facilities of Skotel instead.

We came to the restaurant. The meal time was over and the entire restaurant was empty and so was its neighboring Cafe. We found these two spaces had the most breathtaking views of the entire hotel. If you are still not satisfied watching from inside of the building, there are two doors lead to a spacious deck where there are outdoor tables, chairs and BBQ equipment.

Above the restaurant, we came to a chamber room equipped with two sets of lounge couch, a bookshelf, and a piano. A group of elderlies were chatting in a language not known to me at one set of the couch. One of them, a male, walked toward the piano and began to play some tune out of it. He looked toward me and I raised my thumb up to show my friendliness, and he returned me a thumb up and a wink.

My PD medication was putting me at peak effect at that time. When this happens, my personality goes a bit out of tune. I behave a little more wild than when the medication effect wears off. I call this Mr. Bean effect because I will behave as hilariously as Mr. Bean, the comedian.

So I winked back to that gentleman, asking could I have a turn to playing the piano. He gave me an inviting gesture.

I walked to the piano, and said to him, "I am the one-finger pianist, and I am going to play one most popular piece to entertain you." He smiled at me, but I could tell he seemed to be not understanding what I was saying."

I could only play some notes with one finger. I played Happy Birthday To You. When everyone of them recognized the tune, they all giggled and began to sing along with me. They applauded eagerly as well when the play ended, and I made an exaggerated 90 degree deep bow to my audience. The man who had been standing next me asked " are you from Japan?". And I found my drug pushed me to another height that I heard myself giving him the answer in Japanese "Iiiee, watakushi wa Japanese man nakute, watakushi wa Taiwan kala les.". Interestingly, he nodded and turned to tell his group of people that I was from Taiwan. Then I saw all of them looked at me and smiled friendly.

Beyond my expectation, the sun shone unbelievably brilliantly outside by the time I had finished my 'concert'. This added more joy to my international interactivity a few minutes ago. I and my wife walked out of the hotel and started exploring the village.

We came to the four star Hotel called Chateau Tongariro which was about 3 minutes away by walk from our hotel. This is the one we were recommended to stay because of its more advanced development in its dining diversity. We were also strongly recommended to try the so called High Tea available in this hotel.

Prior to coming back to our hotel, we walked into one or two of the nature walks to experience the attraction from this popular activity. Unfortunately, I could not walk long enough before the taste of the nature walk was sensed. For sake of my medication schedule, we came back to our room.

In the night, we decided to indulge ourselves a formal 3 course dinner at the hotel restaurant instead of eating instant noodle in our room like what we did the previous night. The meal was unexpectedly very big. This is very unusual as I have seen the meals served in the higher class of restaurant are usually very small amount. My wife rationalize this phenomenon by the fact that most of the people are here more hungry because the major activity here consumes a lot of energy during the day time and so local restaurant responds to customer's demand in this wise.

Day 3

It was another sunny day from quite early hour of the day, and we left for outdoor activity rapidly.

Having no idea about what to do, we followed our feeling by heading toward the volcano. After a short distance of walk, we found upon a mild turn on the main road of the village there were lot cars parking one after another all along both sides of the road, and what had caught our sight first was a big sign of visitors information center. We realized later it was leading to the ski field.

The information center provides all sorts of historical pictures, videos, maps relating to the volcanic activities of the national park in the past.

We then moved to a cafe for lunch and went back to our room for a rest.

Upon entering the room, we were astounded by the magnificence of the two volcanoes standing mightily in a compelling distance from our room. It was because of the afternoon crystal sun shining from the backside of our room that caused the mountain to reflect sharply. The look of the mountains were so special that anyone who looked at it could feel its spirit, feel it is not stationary.

So, without saying a word, we opened the sliding door fully and moved our afternoon tea to the table out on the patio till the sunset and when the mountain breeze was getting cold.

On the way home

Having had an early breakfast in the hotel, we began to pack up for returning home. I said to my wife, "Happy time is always passing by fast."

The shuttle bus driver met us in the lobby on time. She must have been asked by her customers about what to do when train arrives? where to get boarding pass? this sort of questions, so before I asked when we arrived the train station, she initiated. "look, there is a cafe right by the platform. you don't have to buy anything there, yet you can wait for the train there. When the train comes, you don't just hop on. You wait till the train staff comes to give you your boarding pass, then you hop on after you have settled your big luggage. Have a nice trip home."

Our home bound seating was not the four for two like we had 4 days ago, but it was comfortable.

It was totally dark by the time when we arrived The Strand Station. The train staff asked me if I have arranged transportation for home after arrival? I thought he was trying to get business for transporting their passengers home, I explained that we only need to walk 17 minutes to get to Britomart, then we will be alright. He then said, "do you want to be enrolled on a coach bus which will drop you off Britomart for free." So this is another bonus we received unexpectedly in this trip.

Ah! what a wonderful holiday I have ever had.

Constantly changing

Nothing within the reach of our 6 sensual consciousnesses will remain unchanged. some change so rapidly that even our naked eyes can detect their continual differentiation. Some are slow and only our imagining function of the mind can create a mind picture of its changing process. For an example, a mountain is seemingly not changing, but it certainly changes little here and little there at any time when there is wind blowing across it or a torrential downpour demonstrates its power, surely everyone agree the mountain is changing its shape because of that condition.