The Greatest Day in NZ So Far!

Today may have been the best day in NZ so far. It was a totally unplanned day, but unplanned days often turn out to be the most memorable, don’t they?

We both had the day off today, and usually, we’ve planned in advance (at least loosely) something fun to do for the day. That something often involves leaving Akaroa because, well, it’s a small place. One gets a bit stir crazy and aches for new scenery (which is pitiful when the scenery is as gorgeous as it is). But we had planned nothing other than sleeping in and maybe going for a walk somewhere.

So the best day in NZ so far started with sleeping in. Such a luxury, sleeping in! Just starts the day off right. Then we had a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and some super (if I do say so myself) chocolate chip banana bread that I made yesterday. We then messed around the house for a while, putting in a bit of laundry, taking the recyclables over to the depot, cleaning up, making phone calls home. Household chores under control, we threw a few munchies into a backpack and hopped into Betty, aiming for a spot of reserve land nearby. (There are little walking tracks all over NZ, so we often drive past little signs indicating trails and make mental notes to go back sometime.)

The whole bay area was covered with low clouds this morning, and as we drove up and out of Akaroa, we gradually found ourselves surrounded by white mist. We could see none of the mountains around us! But the mist made our walking track pleasantly cool and moist – it was like being in the rainforest a bit. We did a short loop around, and then got back into Betty. Well, that was fun. What’s next?

So we drove ourselves over to the other side of the harbor to a little village called Wainui. We drove and drove and looked at the birds and the sheep and the harbor. Such a lovely place we are living right now! We drove past Wainui, and kept going until the road turned to gravel. We had an amazing view of the mouth of the harbor, where it spills into the Pacific Ocean. Living in Akaroa, where you can’t see the mouth of the harbor, it’s easy to feel like you’re in a very cozy, enclosed space, with mountains all around you. But when you finally see the mouth, and see the enormous, endless Pacific beyond, you get a sense of how small you are and of how completely surrounded by WATER you really are!

By the time we were heading away from Wainui, the sky was revealing small bits of blue. Must be breaking up! (I should mention that the weather here is nothing to write home about. I thought I was being so smart heading to NZ for its summertime, but I hardly call this weather summery. It’s completely unpredictable. 80 degrees and sunny for two days, 50 degrees and cloudy for three days, hailing for one day, and then hot and sunny again the next. I had been told before I left that you experience four seasons in a day in NZ, and I filed that away in my “whatever” file, but it’s completely true. And forget the weather forecast. Nobody has a clue what’s going to happen from one hour to the next.)

Anyway, skies were clearing, and it was getting to be lunchtime. Why don’t we stop in Duvauchelle (small town nearby) and grab a sandwich at the store? Someone told me recently that they have great sandwiches. So we stopped, ordered two curried chicken sandwiches and two beers and had a seat on the outdoor patio. We watched the clouds break apart, cars whiz by, geese and black swans bobbing around out on the water. Just generally relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.

Know what we should do after lunch, I said? Let’s go out on the spit!

The spit is the Onawe Spit, a long, narrow piece of land that juts dramatically into the harbor on the northern end. We pass it every time we drive into Christchurch and wonder to each other if it’s possible to walk out there, but until today, we never have just stopped and tried to walk out there. And sure enough, there’s a walking track all the way!

I’ve been trying to figure out how to describe the spit with just my words, and it’s really hard! From the mainland, the track rises sharply up, and then back down again, right into the water. The track continues a few feet later on another patch of land, with a steep climb up some rocks, all the way up to a large grassy area on top. So it’s like two humpbacks jutting up from the water, the first one a bit smaller than the second.

The walking track climbs precariously over the narrow pieces of land. Both sides of the track spill straight down to the coastline, making the track a bit of a balance beam – if you step off of the track, you are going to take a very rocky fall. But once you get onto the second patch of land and climb up a ways, you finish with a nice gradual climb up some grassy fields, and you get an AMAZING view of the harbor. It was so lovely up there – we couldn’t believe we’d been here two months and never done this walk!

On the way back down, we were feeling very hot and sweaty, so we decided we ought to take a little dip in the water. We stripped down to our under-things and started to make our way in. The water was freezing. Ice cold. I had just my feet and ankles in, then Bjorn jumped in all the way. How bad is it? I asked. It’s COLD! He said. But you have to come in! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I screamed, and I jumped for it. When I came up for air, I was gasping. AAAAAA! SOOOO COOOOLD! I CAN’T TOUCH! BJORN, I CAN’T I CAN’T I CAN’T. I thought I was going to get myself under control and it would warm up, but suddenly, I actually couldn’t breathe. I was gasping. We got back over to the shore and everything was completely fine, but yikes! I’ve never actually gotten in water so cold it literally took my breath away.

I put my clothes back on pretty quickly, and it’s a good thing, because probably thirty seconds after I finished dressing, a huge group of school children came bounding over the hill. Ha!

What a day it was! I don’t know if we were both in great moods and anything would’ve been great fun, but it was just such a nice, free, unplanned day. And while many people might find nothing to do in a place like Akaroa, Bjorn and I have been very good at exploring all the nooks and crannies around the bay area.

I like Bjorn because he brings out this part of me that I lost years and years ago. I remember myself as a fearless child, wanting to go out and get dirty, pick up frogs, have mud fights. But I went to college and life became a party, I went to New York and life became trendy, and I lost the part of me that loves to go out exploring and playing and not caring about getting dirty or being seen acting foolish. I love that part of me, and I’m glad to have found it again.

So! Time in Akaroa is running out, believe it or not. In less than two weeks, the family arrives, and by the time they leave on January 5th, we’ll only have three and a half weeks left here. And that’s fine with us, I think. The travel bug is itching both of us pretty badly. We can’t wait to get back out there!