New Zealand Story

Well, I had the opportunity to travel to New Zealand and to Samoa. It was so much fun! I went to New Zealand on the 31st of October and was there until the 8th of November and then went over to Samoa. While I was there (it was the 7th of November) I went up to the Bay of Islands on the north part of the North Island. It was really cool. I got to take a boat tour and go around Hole in the Rock as well as a bunch of different islands. We started out and it was raining and gloomy and didn't seem to promise too exciting a trip. After a little bit of rain and water and cool island and rock formations one of the crew members made an announcement that we should look out the port(?) side of the boat. And what did we happen to see? There were all these dolphins that were playing around our boat. We were going to have the chance to swim with them, but they weren't in an area that would've been safe to swim in and it was WAY cold too...but then I was wet already, so maybe it wouldn't have been as bad huh? And no, I wasn't just being whimpy...everyone was cold...even the Poles that were on the boat with me asked the captain if we could go back early because they were cold. But, these dolphins were swimming close to our boat, under our boat...jumping in and out of the water (try to catch a picture of that...obviously I wasn't able to). It was so cool. I have never been so close to a dolphin before (well, maybe I have been, but there was always a really big piece of glass between me and said dolphin. It was so fun to watch them. Dolphins amaze me. I didn't bring a coat to New Zealand, foolishly thinking "it's spring there...I can get by with a few sweatshirts..." Yes, I know, I see the folly of my thinking now...I was cold a LOT of the time while i was there. While it was about 65 degrees on a good day, when it was rainy and there was no sun, it got to feel like a lot colder. Add to that the fact that we were on the ocean in a moving boat...I started out with two sweatshirts on...but the first one got all wet...so I took that one off when it stopped raining thinking that I would be warm enough with one dry sweatshirt. We were moving along the ocean...it seems calm enough until BAM...all of a sudden this HUGE wave crashes over the front edge of the boat where we were sitting and all of a sudden, we were all wet. Not fun. Well, actually, it was at the moment...but then, later on when i stopped being able to feel my toes and finger tips...the novelty of it all wore off. I was actually sitting on the front for a little while after we all got wet, but it got a little too crazy, so I started to head back in...just as I let go of the railing at one point and tried to grab the railing at another point the boat lurched nd I found myself sprawled on the floor of the wet deck...it was pretty funny because I don't even remember the falling process...one second I was standing, the next I was definitely not standing...But, when we were at the Hole in the Rock, there were all these fish feeding around it. It was crazy because the water was mostly calm , but this one patch, it almost seemed like it was boiling...there were little fins and tails flipping everywhere and the water was just churning. The crew on the boat thought it would be perfect for lunch and started fishing right then and there. We consequently got to spend a little more time by Hole in the Rock which turned out cool for those whose camera batteries died and were able to change them (and no, it wasn't me...just another girl on the boat). We went past all these different and cool islands. There was this one with a light house and a home for the person who used to operate the light house. It is the only thing on the island. The people used to have to take a boat in and out of the bay in order to get food or water or anything like that. With the island being on the outside edge of the bay I bet it would be a pretty lonesome place to live...there weren't even sheep on the island...which is odd because there seem to be sheep on every other part of New Zealand. I think it would be cool to spend a day or two on an island all by myself or just with my family...but I don't think you could pay me enough to be a light house operator back in the day when there wasn't even electricity. Now the house is rented out to vacationers that want to "get away from it all" and the light house is run by an electrical wire that was buried in the bay...which is better...but I think I would've gone crazy back in the day when it was run by kerosene and a person was responsible for keeping it lit. I kept thinking of the Pete's Dragon song "Candle on the Water" while we were going past the island though. It make one think a lot about the importance of light and direction, especially when out in the expanse of a sea. After that island we went back into the bay again and stopped at another island (I don't remember the name right now, but I will find it out and edit this later) and had lunch and got to do a little exploring. It was beautiful. We hiked to the top of a hill and got to see islands all around the bay. It was starting to clear up a little and we could see for quite a distance. It was really cool. BUT, I will end this post for now. New Zealand is a beautiful place and the weather didn't make it feel "gloomy" to me...it just seemed...I don't know, it may be cheesy to describe it this way, but it seemed to be a "moody" country. But then, what can you expect from Middle Earth? ;)