Greetings from Raglan - a laid back surfer town on the west coast of the North Island. I am sure you can take a wild guess why we are here - surfing! All surfer folks know that Raglan is a spot featured in the classic surf film, The Endless Summer. Jay wasn't a superstar in this film - but he was a superstar on the waves today! I played in the surf while Jay surfed - so I got my salty fix too! Jay probably will hit the waves again tomorrow before we drive back to Auckland....I think he is quite happy right now.
You may be wondering what we have been up to the past week or so. Well - after diving at Poor Knights we headed north to the Bay of Islands. We had some quality beach time in fleece jackets because it was quite chilly - but we enjoyed the towns of Russell and Paihia. Best of all though - we visited the grounds where the 1840 Waitangi Treaty was signed. This treaty was sort of a peace treaty (although some would argue it didn't really work out that well) between the British and the Maori people. Pretty progressive for that time eh? The grounds were beautiful - the highlights included seeing the largest Maori war canoe in NZ (called Ngatokimatawhaorua) and a beautiful Maori meeting house. These pics are all in Jay's album...
After we left the Bay of Islands we drove to the town of Whangarei to meet up with an American friend of ours from URI - Ralph! Ralph just finished working for the Peace Corps in Samoa and is currently working in NZ before heading to SE Asia (just like us!). We had not seen him in 3 years and we had a LOT of catching up to do. He is a great guy with many interests and a prime example of these interests is that he was volunteering at a glass blowing studio in Whangarei. So we were able to watch him help out this glass blower for an hour or so (very cool). Then we headed to a brewpub for all that "catching up on life" type stuff. We spent a few grand days with Ralph - the boys went spearfishing for dinner one night and another morning we got a tour of the NIWA aquaculture facility Ralph works at. Neat stuff. Check out the entertaining pics in Julie's album.
You may be wondering what we have been up to the past week or so. Well - after diving at Poor Knights we headed north to the Bay of Islands. We had some quality beach time in fleece jackets because it was quite chilly - but we enjoyed the towns of Russell and Paihia. Best of all though - we visited the grounds where the 1840 Waitangi Treaty was signed. This treaty was sort of a peace treaty (although some would argue it didn't really work out that well) between the British and the Maori people. Pretty progressive for that time eh? The grounds were beautiful - the highlights included seeing the largest Maori war canoe in NZ (called Ngatokimatawhaorua) and a beautiful Maori meeting house. These pics are all in Jay's album...
After we left the Bay of Islands we drove to the town of Whangarei to meet up with an American friend of ours from URI - Ralph! Ralph just finished working for the Peace Corps in Samoa and is currently working in NZ before heading to SE Asia (just like us!). We had not seen him in 3 years and we had a LOT of catching up to do. He is a great guy with many interests and a prime example of these interests is that he was volunteering at a glass blowing studio in Whangarei. So we were able to watch him help out this glass blower for an hour or so (very cool). Then we headed to a brewpub for all that "catching up on life" type stuff. We spent a few grand days with Ralph - the boys went spearfishing for dinner one night and another morning we got a tour of the NIWA aquaculture facility Ralph works at. Neat stuff. Check out the entertaining pics in Julie's album.
Julie, Jay, and Ralph are "privileged" to drink beer at a darn good brewpub in Whangarei
Jay catches a wave in RaglanOn our way down south to Raglan we stopped at a neat spot on the west coast to check out a gannet colony. This was a real treat - what amazing birds. A stinky place with lots of little bugs flying around our heads to annoy us....but we would not be driven away! We watched these birds and their chicks for a long time. They were quite funny to watch as they crash landed into the cliff - not as graceful at landing as they are in the air! Some of the chicks were dead and we watched the parents continue to preen them and poke them, this was quite sad but interesting to watch as well. Check out all our photos of the colony in Julie's album.
Gannet coming in for a landing
Finally - we leave on FRIDAY for Sydney! Can you believe it? We are very excited to head to Indonesia too (on Monday) and think we found the company we want to do the liveaboard dive trip with around Komodo Island. But before Indonesia is Australia, even if it is just for 3 days. Guess what? We bought tickets to see a performance at the Sydney Opera House - a must see for any Aussie backpacker. Here is the link to the performance we will be seeing....exciting eh? (OK - I can't get the link to work - but go to this webpage and look for "Symphony Didgeridoo Meets Orchestra" and you will get the pictue)http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/whatson/Tead_and_SymphonyDidgeridooMeetsOrchestra.aspx
And while I'm putting in links - here is the link to the ship we will most likely use for the dive cruise in Indonesia - can you believe this is only 1 1/2 weeks away??
http://www.komodo-liveaboard.com/felicia.html
That is all for us now....I hope we have time to write one more blog about New Zealand and our wonderful time here. But it is time for us to leave countries that are sort of similar to the states and experience some really different cultures and landscapes. We are super excited and can't wait to fill you in with our stories!
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