More adventures on the Barrier First things first!! A dolphin encounter!! We were happily swimming about in Blind Bay one on-and-off rainy morning when we noticed a group of perhaps ten or twelve dolphins also swimming happily some metres away. Their behaviour was different to what we’d seen before at Blind Bay. Usually they were on the move, swimming and diving rapidly and exuberantly in one purposeful direction. I always wondered what would happen if we were in their path! On that special day they were more subdued, staying in a smaller area, going gently in and out of the water and swimming in short curves and loops. They came closer and then so close we could have touched them, and then they moved a bit away again. We treaded water, watching and waiting, trying to call them back with messages of joy and welcome. They did return! Again so close we could have touched them. And then they moved off again, much further out, where they seemed to get their usual boundless energy back, diving through the water fast and high, and breaching, a few times so high they completely cleared the water, vertical! An ordinary swim became extraordinary – my first interaction with dolphins! Ro had been near both dolphins and porpoises as a child when the water off the beaches of southern New York State was purer and full of life. Our continuing smiles expressed the inner radiance we felt. This isn't our photo! On the last day of July we saw some jellyfish for the first time. It was the same day we felt some small bits of something touching us as we swam and bobbed about at Medlands Beach. We thought perhaps the jellyfish were feeding on them, whatever they were. A few days later we mentioned it to Lorraine, whose photo I sent last time, and she said: "Jellyfish won’t be a problem. We rarely get them here, only once in a blue moon." And guess what! The day we saw them was the July blue moon! So we can relax knowing we won’t see another until January 2018! One day we were talking to Chris, of Hooked on Barrier fishing and sightseeing trips, about one of our favourite topics — can you guess? The sea! And our understanding took a big leap about the reason the waves on the two sides of the island are so different! We learned that the ones on the ocean side are swells, not waves! Both waves and swells are effects of wind, but if strong winds blow for hours over the ocean, the water takes on enough energy to change how it moves. It forms those swells that surprised us when we first saw them here, which advance in long lines independent of the wind. Once they get going, they keep on going, even if the wind changes, and the lines can lengthen as they progress. Unlike waves, they only break near shore. This explains the enigma of big waves crashing on the beach on calm days, because they could have originated a thousand miles away! We completed our exploration of the island by car. We’ve now traveled all the sealed roads to their ends and gone as far as we could on every unsealed road in our low-to-the-ground, non-4WD drive car. I’m a failsafe gauge of when to turn back. When I start freaking out because the road is too rough, too steep, too narrow with too much of a ditch on one side or sheer drop-off on the other, it’s time to find the closest place to bail out. This is a view of Tryphena from as far up as we went on Rosalie Bay Road at the south end of the island. The road doesn’t actually end at a Bay, but at a track to a lookout. You can barely see the mainland beneath the low clouds in the distance. Here’s the ferry to Auckland heading out from the wharf at Shoal Bay, which is to the left in the photo above, with the tip of Coromandel Peninsula in the background, 20 km to the west. The ferry comes over and returns three days a week, in summer five days, or less if the sea is too rough!, about 4.5 hours each way. As for us, we’re doing fine, gently coasting along for the first time in our 43 years together instead of involving ourselves in projects of all sorts at our place and beyond (though I’m still editing), while possible answers to the question “What’s next?” simmer below the surface. Here’s a selection of other photos. I have a whole lot more — next time! Got another rainbow for you! This one is near our favourite swim spot at the southern end of Medlands Beach, where Oruawharo Creek enters the sea. The footbridge leads to some houses overlooking the beach (to the left of the scene) and also to a track that goes all the way to Tryphena. Ro at Awana Beach, mid-afternoon on a bright, full-sun day. Now we know what happens when we take a photo directly into the sun. This is the next surf beach north of Kaitoke Beach. The inaccessible Palmer's beach is in between, separated from Kaitoke Beach where Kaitoke Creek (next photo) enters the sea. Swimhole in Kaitoke Creek, which flows to the sea from Kaitoke Swamp, one of the largest wetlands on the island. We were surprised that the creek is so deep we couldn’t touch the bottom. It’s a good, though very cold, option if you want a swim on the rare days when the sea on both sides of the island is very rough, or it's rough at Medlands and the tide is out on the other side. (The track to the hot springs follows the edge of Kaitoke Swamp for part of the way – photos next time.) Dune grass geometry – nature’s compass. Bees in a yucca, or maybe it’s an agave. The flowers started at the base and over the weeks they gradually moved up to the top. Sunset from our deck. As the photo shows, mid-level to high clouds are one ingredient of a beautiful sunset. View in the far distance of the southern end of Medlands Beach, where we swim often, from Whangapoua Beach up north, taken the day of our big exploration last month. You can see part of Arid Island to the left. Small-scale gardening in strawbales in the front yard, containers on the deck and microgreens by the slider, plus sprouts in the kitchen. Great Barrier Island, from the Coromandel (we think – where else could it be?), not taken by us
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