It's been a while, but I guess I'll fill you in on how my more settled life is. I've been in Paihia now for a month, which is where I'm working and living. I live in a cabin at a campground and I help manage the campground in exchange for free accommodation and then am working at the Jetski tour company when the weather's good. At the beginning of the month we had great weather then about 10 days of crap and now is quite nice again! Besides work though, I have managed to have a bit of fun too. There are 9 of us now between the hostel next to the campground and the campground that are all here for the summer, so we have some long term friends along with the people who are always coming and going.
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| Sailing through the Bay |
The Bay of Islands is known for sailing and I've met a friend who has a boat and have been out twice with him. Friday nights they also have races at the yacht club and are often looking for crew to help on the boats, so I've gone to that twice as well and may actually join the yacht club, so I get access to the boats whenever I want. I'm determined to be at least proficient at sailing by the end of the summer!
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| My Jon Dory (just before eating it) |
As most of you know, we had orcas in the Bay a few weeks back and while I was walking home from work, I saw them just offshore. I hopped in to the kayak shack, which my friend works at, and he let me hop on a kayak and I sat right in the middle of them! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, but it was incredible to have them so close to your kayak and swimming right under you! I sailed that night as well and we saw them again. I also got a free trip on a boat called The Rock, which is an overnight, all-in-one experience kind of thing. Despite not having amazing weather, we were able to do all of our activities still. We left around 5pm and drive out to the Bay where we got to fish and I caught my first Jon Dory, which tasted delicious! Then we night kayaked and the water was full of phosphorescence, which was really cool and we even went for a brief night swim! I became friends with an Australian/Canadian couple and a Belgian guy, so we hung out for the night and had a delicious dinner. The following morning, after breakfast, we snorkeled for sea urchins, which are edible and tasty, but have very little meat in them. Finally, we went to one of the islands, which I had been to before, and got to walk up to a lookout across the Bay and all of the islands before heading back. For the price I paid, it was an awesome trip! There's still more I want to do though, such as diving, and camping on one of the islands!
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| Dolphins! |
The owner of the hostel/campground is making a big Christmas breakfast for us, then I will be going over to one of the families I stayed with before for brunch at 11am. I don't think I'll go hungry :) Life is good here, but I do wish I could be home to spend the holidays with all of you! Miss you all!
