Lengthening days on Great Barrier Island 30 June was our anniversary of arriving in New Zealand for the second time, in 1999. We crossed the Pacific in a vintage containership, the Argentina Star, but we didn’t realise just how vintage it was until I searched online for a photo (we didn’t have a digital camera back then) and learned it was demolished in 2002! In those days these ships were just about no longer being called freighters. The voyage was one of the best experiences of our lives! After leaving Los Angeles, we saw no land or other ships until we arrived in Auckland 15 days later! All we could see was a big flat disk of water all around us, as far as the 360-degree horizon. Aside from the first and last couple of days, the sky was blue, often with just a narrow ring of low clouds hugging the horizon, and the sea as calm as Blind Bay when the wind’s not blowing from the west. We really got a feel for the size of this planet of ours and we felt that traveling relatively slowly over it, about 30 km per hour, was a more realistic transition, one we could experience on a deeper level, from the continent we’d lived in for about five decades to a brand new start in Aotearoa, knowing we’d never go back. This ship was small by containership standards, with room for only 12 passengers, and the accommodation wasn’t flash, but for people who love to swim, we were delighted to find a small salt water pool, perhaps two or three strokes across, that was refilled daily from the ocean. Our swims got progressively warmer as we neared the equator, and then cooler again. We took the daily 20-minute fast walk we’d been doing for years by circling the outer decks a few times! The ship was ahead of schedule, and for two days mid-voyage we drifted with the engines off! One day we joined the other passengers in the lounge and watched a video with them. Their choice: Titanic!!! And then our New Zealand adventure began, searching in “Lil Red” the micro-van for the best place to settle and mindful of the need to get our residency sorted one way or another. After 16 very full years – full of good as well as bloody awful – in Golden Bay, we made another big move to Great Barrier, sight unseen, not even online, but guided by the need for a change, the island's mystique, its appeal to down-to-earthers like us, and the recommendation of friends. So here we are, 16 months later, a whole lot more familiar with the island and very happy with our decision! On to the here and now…. The TVNZ Country Calendar episode featuring our friends – the tireless, 100% onto it and life-loving market gardeners Gerald and Caity Endt of Okiwi Passion – was aired late last month. You can watch it online at www.tvnz.co.nz/ondemand/country-calendar/series-2016-episode-15/25-06-2016 When we arrived at Blind Bay one day, the Spirit of Adventure was anchored offshore. We watched the 44 people onboard (28 “trainees” and the rest crew) paddle to shore and frolic on the beach! In fact they had to struggle to paddle against a strong wind and outgoing tide, so their frolicking would have been all the merrier! Here’s a similar photo, cropped. And a closer-up from the website www.spiritofadventure.org.nz Coming ashore. For those unfamiliar with the Spirit of Adventure, it’s a trust whose mission is to give young people a unique ten-day experience of learning together to sail a big ship! As you can imagine, along the way, lots of personal growth occurs! We won the prize draw at Stonewall Store! Every time you spend more than $50, you write your name on the receipt and they choose one every month. We didn’t expect something so valuable. We found out that the prizes are always worth more than $50. We’ll probably donate it as a raffle prize for the New Years Picnic! Right after this we jumped into the sea at Pah Beach! The day before this and the day after we swam “with” dolphins at Blind Bay. They were the closest to shore we’ve ever seen them. They stayed and stayed around the same area, circling mellowly and going slowly back and forth. We weren’t far from them in the water, but they kept on feeding, or whatever they were doing, and ignored us. A kingfisher photographed through the ranch slider. It would have flown away if I opened the door. Early evening at Kaitoke Beach. The sea had been very rough for days! Microgreens by the ranch slider. The wide leaves are aduki beans; the others are peas, chickpeas and French green lentils. Yesterday Ro and I celebrated our 44th anniversary of being together! From meeting on Long Island, in southern New York State, in 1972, to the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State in 1976, across North America and in Europe by bicycle in 1979-80, to New Zealand for seven months in 1989 and Hawaii for a year, back to the Adirondacks, then Tucson, Arizona, over the sea to Golden Bay in 1999, and now Great Barrier Island, with many experiences and adventures, learning, earning, yearning, sharing, evolving separately and together, and most of all, loving, all along the way! And now, the last instalment of Dropbox photos (until Paul and Mary return!) – my selection from those that Barbara took one morning in April during her visit here with Judith. As a group, these photos are a study of Kaitoke beach, from under her feet to as far as her eyes could see. Once you open the link and then the first photo, you can use the arrows to get to all the rest. www.dropbox.com/sh/osyxlvmeh1mvjeh/AACGcgUaeDsj8ogYQxjVvvgTa?dl=0
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