The minor vicissitudes of life

Life, as we know, is full of ups and downs. Every cloud has a silver lining, and every silver lining has a cloud … and all that kind of stuff. We know to expect it, but that doesn’t stop us (well, me, at least) being a little unsure about how to balance my feelings of disappointment when things don’t go quite as planned with my delight at the successes (actually they mostly just balance themselves!)

Saturday was a case in point.

My friend Cath and I set off for the west coast just north of Wellington. I, of course, was interested in finding caches (with scenery attached, of course); Cath was more than content to come along for the ride and enjoy the scenery (and she was bemused and tolerant about my cache obsession, so that was all good!). The day got off to a bad start from a caching point of view. Three DNFs (Did Not Finds) in a row. It’s been a while since I’ve had such lousy form.

However, the third DNF was where I took the first photo. I was annoyed not to find the cache here, especially as it was the third failure, but I have to admit it was a pretty spot and it was still worth visiting.

Now, there was, in fact, a sadder story. A friend had recommended that we should visit Kapiti Island, which apparently has amazing bird life. Unfortunately there weren’t enough people wanting to go, so the trip was cancelled. This was disappointing. As it happened, however, our travels on the day took us nearby, and so the second photo is Kapiti Island from the point of our closest approach.

You know what? There was a cache just up the hill behind where I was standing to take the photo, and I found it easily.

Heh. It was a good day, I reckon.