Surfing Tsunamis

To be honest, I actually did not see the sign reading "WARNING...Tsunami warning in place. Do not go on the beach for any reason" as we strolled down to the ocean, surfboards tucked under our arm, ready to take our first surfing lesson. However, we were all very aware of the horrible 8.9 earthquake off the coast of Japan that caused unbelievable damage and destruction the evening previous to our surf lesson. And I will admit that we also understood that tsunami warnings were now all over the Pacific, including the exact area we were about to surf.

The evening of the eathquake in Japan, I was already tucked in bed ready for a good night's rest after a long exhausting day. In my sleepy state I remember hearing bits and pieces of the news and realized that this was quite an extreme earthquake and thought about the likelihood of tsunamis hitting New Zealand. Yet I was too tired to get out of bed, so I decided to depend on others to force me to evacuate if any tsunami occurred. Later in the evening, I was partially awoken by a few of my friends returning from some bars, one who was especially worried about the possibility of a tsunami sweeping over Raglan (the beach town we were currently staying in.) Hearing him in his worried state, I started to ask questions like "when is the tsunami supposed to hit?" and "is the tsunami coming to Raglan?" Evidently, I never did ask these questions though, because according to my friends I was sound asleep. Therefore, I must have had this conversation in my head and answered the questions to my own satisfaction so that I could return to my happy, peaceful sleep. However, I do remember hearing things like "we have to leave at 6:00am" and "high ground" and "tsunamis are hitting everywhere!" Apparently, I took this all as "go to sleep, you are invincible."

The next morning around 9:00am, I woke up to glorious sun rays pouring through the window and a dry room that was untouched by any tsunami. It turned out I am in fact invincible! Our group took off to meet our surf instructor and get ready for a full day of catching waves. Our instructor, Steve, warned us of the beach ban due to the lurking tsunamis in the Pacific, but also told us that once the ban was lifted we could begin the lesson. He asked us if we were worried about the tsunami, (at the same time we also recieved a phone call from our program advisor in Auckland requesting that we do not go in the water for any reason) but after a moment we all came to the conclusion that we were more worried about our $70 that would go to waste if we chickened out of the lesson. So we suited up in our penguin suits and took off for Ngnarunui Beach ready to surf any tsunami that came our way.

It turned out to be a wonderful day with nice waves that were perfect to learn how to surf and we all had a blast! As I bobbed up and down over waves, all concerns about a tsunami disappeared and I began to concentrate more on the fact that standing up on a board in the water is much harder than it looks! Also, watching all of my friends wipe out (as well as myself) was quite a thrill! I don't believe the beach ban was ever lifted for the duration that we were on the beach considering that I saw the signs as we were leaving. However, I am glad that those $70 did not go to waste and now I am one step closer to becoming a pro surfer!



WARNING!!! MONSTERS Roaming the City Streets of Auckland!

ATTENTION! This is NOT a bus. It may look like your cute, shiny, friendly neighborhood bus but really it is a mean, green, GIANT, rectangular prism on wheels that is out to attack every pedestrian on the city streets of Auckland!

I never thought that when I came to New Zealand that I would have to constantly be on the look out for these devious monsters. Every day that I walk to the class, down to town, or to the beach, I literally have to go out of my way to avoid pulling a Regina George (Mean Girls) and getting dominated by this killer. But these aren't just your everyday monsters. They may be land dwellers, but I swear from time to time they fly as well. Mostly, this creature uses its wings to speed up and fly through intersections when they spot vulnerable pedestrians trying to cross a road. They also tend to enjoy sneaking up behind a pedestrian who may be just on the edge of the sidewalk and try to get close enough to just graze their side or cause them so much fright that they might happen to jump into traffic and get runover by the next of the monsters in the pack. The worst part of this second circumstance is that the monster's shadow typically engulfs the pedestrian just milliseconds before the actual monster appears, so poor pedestrians can only feel the darkness coming over them but have no time to prepare for the cruel attack. These monsters have no mercy at all, especially towards American's who are new to the country and forget to look right first rather than left before crossing the road. The bad news is that it is impossible to defeat them; they are high in numbers, maintain dominance in speed, size and strength, and are utterly heartless. There is absolutely no getting away! So if you ever decide to be a pedestrian in Auckland, beware of these deadly creatures because (to them) pedestrians DO NOT have the right away and they will go out of there way to make this known.

WAIHEKE ISLAND!

Never have I felt so happily unprepared for an excursion in my life. Off to Waiheke Island, a group of ten including myself hopped on a ferry from Auckland with only small backpacks stuffed with clothing, sneakers, sunscreen, cameras, and wallets. One of the ten had the bright idea to bring a two-person tent just in case; the rest of us were just ready to roll into whatever came our way. Of course the ferry ride had breathtaking views because every where you turn your head, you are bound to see something beautiful here in New Zealand. With no idea what to do, where to go, how to get there, and where to stay the night, we stepped off the ferry onto Waiheke ready to begin our journey. First stop, scooter rentals? No way! Eighty-eight bucks for one day! Ridiculous! Now what? Bike rentals or car rentals? Surprisingly, renting a van that seats exactly ten people is about the same price as renting a scooter (minus insurance.) So this only put us at $15 per person once we divided it up. But wait, we have to drive on the left side of the road and the driver sits on the right? That's a bit of a mind twister. Until we find out that this van is not automatic like most American cars, but manual with the stick shift where? On the left? Oh boy! However, the genious who brought the tent happened to also be the genious who knew how to drive stick and was brave enough to try it the opposite way. So we were off to explore! Here is what we found:

Naturally, we located some beaches where we took the time to soak up copious amounts of sunshine. We also discovered that there are about 18 vineyards and we took this opportunity to do some exquisite wine tasting. While this day was spontaneous, we kept it pretty simple and decided to make it an adventure of doing what we want when we wanted. Because of this mind set, I found it to be the most relaxing and yet exciting day of this entire trip thus far. However, when night fell, our spontaneousness creeped out and came back to bite us. We found quite a lovely spot to park by a beach with a playground and a grill. We couldn't have picked a better spot to camp out for the night, all ten of us, with only our beautiful van and two-person tent. So we grilled up some LAMBurgers (didn't realize that we bought lamb/beef burgers until we ate them) and corn and enjoyed a nice stroll on the breezy evening beach. When exhaustion overcame us and we decided to say goodbye to our perfect day, seven of us booked it to the van in hopes that it would be more warm and comfortable than the tent. This left the remaining three to find that there was absolutely NO room left and pitching the tent was the only option. This tent fit two of the three and the one genious who brought the tent also was the only to bring a sleeping bag, therefore he beached it in his sleeping bag under the stars and left the other two to the tent. I thought I was lucky being in the van, until I realized there was only room for me to curl up on two of the seats, no blanket, and my only pillow was my salty, wet towel that was also caked with sand. Every hour I woke up to either my feet cramping, someone snoring, feeling the need to stretch out, feeling the need to curl up and cuddle with myself to keep warm, and the aweful stench of mildew from soaked towels, swim suits, and my crumpled up towel pillow. I don't think I will ever find an airplane so painful to sleep on after this experience. Once the sun was up, we all were more than happy to get back on that ferry as soon as possible so we could hug our beds for the rest of the day. Of course the only person to be rewarded a pleasant night's sleep was mr. genious who slept under the stars in his comfortable and warm sleeping bag. The other two in the tent found that although they could stretch out, towels were not sufficient blankets and thus shivered the entire night. Despite that dreadful night however, I found that the trip was my favorite adventure and still only the beginning of more adventures to come (except we may put a little more thought into our plans in the future.)