Bay of Islands Babble 2

Home from work - and what an awesome day I had! I attended a conference on Working with Maori Youth and I learnt so much about Maori language and culture and traditions - I felt really moved - they are a very whanau (family) oriented and spiritual people. Anyway, on my way home, I parked and was planning on going to the local post office when I noticed a new jewellery shop that had opened (very trendy $$$ area) and went in. I got along really well with the girl in there and she is very interested in seeing my range - so that's a good start and very exciting. We were having a chat and this Maori woman walked in and heard me say I was from Melbourne and her sister lives in Ballarat so she wanted to have a chat. Turns out her daughter has just graduated from fashion design and might be interested in collaborating doing stuff together so we'll see what happens there. Anyway, I am starting to feel part of rather than a visitor here and it's a good feeling. Back to my tales of travel...
Where was I? Oh yeah, the dolphins gettin sexy... I can't remember if I mentioned that then the skipper (who was female which I thought was very cool) noticed the swell out of the Bay in the open ocean was pumping (2-3metres) so she decided to take us out for some action and we were getting air off waves and had a totally sik time. I couldn't get the smile off my face for ages. We were buzzing when we touched down back in Russell so we went for a drive to a little arty crafty town called Keri Keri and went up to Rainbow Falls. Apparantly if we wouldn't have been there just on dusk, the waterfall would have been cascading into a pool of rainbow. It was really beatutiful though - very tropical rainforesty vibe - with cows grazing just across the river. We jumped the barrier and sat on the rocks beside the top of the falls. It was gorgeous. The smells were so lush I could taste them in my throat - the sweetness of the spring forest and mustiness of the damp earth and the freshness of new leaves and the general smell of new life. It was very touching and serene. We got some pizza in Keri Keri on the way back and then I made a chocolate pudding in the microwave (there was no oven) when we got back to the chalet - another early night - I am such a nanna these days!
Sunday we got up early to head north. We drove and drove and drove and drove and stopped for coffee refuelling and tried not to eat muffins again and then drove and rove and drove and hit a gravel road and kept driving and ended up at the most Northern point of the country where the Tasman meets the Pacific. I think half the country had the same idea - there were tourist busses and people everywhere so we took a few obligatory shots and sat on a hill eating the rolls we had bought at a bakery on the way up and pretty much spent hours driving there only to eat and bail as quick as we could to get away from teh swarms of tourists! It was a really sunny day so we went back the more coastal route and drove out to the Kari Kari peninsula to Matai Bay where we sunbaked for an hour or two in the sand dunes and then (being the crazy daredevils we are) ran into the ocean and swam in the pale turquise tropicality of the bay. It was kinda cold but we lay in the sun and warmed up again before the drive back. We stopped again at the Manganui Fish Shop - it is world famous in New Zealand for the best fish in the world/country. So we had fresh fish and chips before arriving back in Russell totally exhausted.
We awoke early Monday morning to make the most of the kayaks that were available to us free where we were staying and kayaked around the litttle bay below our chalet in the morning rain. It was peaceful - except for my splashing - I have to say I didn't totally master the art of kayaking in a straight line, let alone being graceful - but I'll get there. I loved it. We are planning a little kayaking trip sometime in the near future. We want to kayak to Rangitoto island which is a 1.5hour trip from Auckland. It's an old volcano. Anyways, we made it home having clocked 12ookms and again, had an early night!
I had such an awesome time. The Bay of Islands reminded me a little bit of Apollo Bay - all the towns there are pretty small and had similar vibes and there is some pretty forests not far from the sea. It's lacking the surf beaches though...
So, that's all folks - see you in cyber space, on the phone and in the dreams I have each night. Last night I dreamt I had lunch with Madonna in Melbourne with a whole bunch of my friends and we weretelling her about the time we all went swimming with dolphions and got invited back to the dolphins village to eat sushi in underwater heavenly bubbly world! Bizarre and fun!
I am feeling filled with life and air and nature and feeling really grounded and connected which is a nice change because a week or two ago I was feeling the total opposite.
MWA

Bay of Islands Babble 1

I have just tried writing this blog twice and it has been deletd off the screen. I have fifteen minutes to try once more and then I have to go to work. I have no idea why it keeps happening but I am not going to give up and I am trying desperately not to get pissed off - but I must say, my heartrate has definately increased!
The weekedn already feels like long ago as I am going to a conference today on Maori youth so because it was a long weekend, I only had Tuesday and Wednesday to get the weeks worth of work done so I have been c-r-a-z-y-b-u-s-y but totally fine as well.
Anyways, we left early Friday and went out for breakfast which is a real treat. We took it pretty cruisily on the way to Russell (I'll just note here that we did 1200kms between Friday and Monday incase I forget to write it later). We had lots of stops on the way for Dave to refuel on caffeine and for me to try not to be tempted by the many muffins in the many cafes at the many stops we made. We stopped at a place called Waipu Cove which is a pretty beach where we went for a walk and watched the surfers try to catch baby waves. We got back to the car and it was my turn to drive and I realised my glasses were no longer hanging off the front of my dress and I had dropped them somewhere during our walk. Luckily an old, grey hairred surfer heard the commotion and said he had seen some glasses lying on the grass nbot far from the car. Lucky! We stopped next at a place called Kaitia (I think it was Kaitia - we definately stopped at somehwere called Kaitia over the weekend but I'm not sure if it was on Friday or not...). Anyway, Kaitia is the town we named "The town where everything looks closed but is open". It was like a ghost town to drive through but once we parked and walked around, as we got to the front door of a few places, we realised they were open despite the lack of lighting and visibility from the street! Very bizarre. We got to Paihia and wandered around for a while - I got a pineapple fritter and we just got a feel for the place. then we got a ferry across to Russell and followed a winding road up a hill for 2kms to come out at the top and see the Bay spread open before us, displaying its beauty like a proud mother. It was breathtakiong. We were staying a bit out of Russell so we were still not yet in the township - we explored that on Saturday. We found our beachfront chalet with a beautiful view from the balcony fomr which many grogeous sunsets were viewed over the weekend. We were pretty tired so I made a steak salad for dinner and we relaxed and had an early night. I sewed a patch I cut off a kids top I got in an op shop a few weekes before - onto anothe top I got in the same op shop a few weeks before. The patch had military style writing on it with pilot related vocabulary on it so now I feel like a true pilot's grl. I am not going to spell check this cos I don't have time so please excuse the typos!
Saturday we explored Russell and enjoyed (well, I enjoyed) going to the local craft market in a hall (very old biddyish products) and we looked in some gift shops which we assumed were all locally made stock. We bought a metal kiwi bird to stand in the garden for Dave's mum for her birthday and then realised it was made in Africa! Anyways....back to the chalet for lunch - I made yummy asparagus and tomato salsa bruschettas. Then we went down to the wharf to board the Excitor - a 40 knot powerboat racer with twin 800horsepower engines which created a big rooster tail behind us as we zoomd around. We went out to the famous Hole In the Rock but couldn't go through it cos of the swell and floated into a cave on one of the islands and then came out and noticed some dolphins playing. Our skipper was quick to tell us that dolphins are always doing one of 3 things - playing (with boats etc), eating or fucking - and they definately weren't playing with boats and didn't seem to be eating so we figured they were in the seduction phase. Also, I learnt that dolphins are the onnly creature other than humans that have sex for pleasure! I will have to sign off now and continue the story when I get home from work as I have only half an hour to get out the door now! Damn computer - I had finished the whole story once and halfway twice and now I have run outta time....Love to you all