Land of the Kiwis A runner in New Zealand

Merry Christmas, 2009

Woke up today having slept for 8 hours straight (not even a stir). Then I lounged around for another 2, finally rising at 11:15.

Ian had Christmas dinner samples and some excellent fruit bowls waiting for us, and that was only his backup plan. He was going to produce some blueberry pancakes of his own design but, through no fault of his own, failed to predict the extent of our ability to sleep in. Christmas dinner was planned for 4 with guests arriving at starting at 1:30, so Cary and I decided to get in our training immediately.

Ran down to the Bay of Plenty, about a half mile away, stripped down and struck out into the warm ocean water. I waded, and waded, and waded. After about a quarter mile I looked back to be sure I was going somewhere. The water still hadn't come up past my thighs, and I was almost halfway across the bay. What finally stopped my journey was when I froze at the site of a jellyfish 2 meters to my right. Now I just finished listening to Bill Bryson talk about 18 different jellyfish in Australia that will drop you dead in times ranging from 7 hours to 12 minutes. Now New Zealand is generally far safer but I wasn't about to go against my gut instinct, so I pulled a 180 and headed back to shore with the utmost caution.

I asked a sunbather about the depth situation and they said, "Yeah, you can walk all the way across the bay... But, you can go to the dock by the ferry. That's the only place that's deep enough."

They were right. After about a half hour, I finally found the perfect place by the ferry. There was a nice current that allowed me to just jog right in place. Plus I was thoroughly amused by the flow of life around me. I'm not sure anyone knew what I was doing just treading water by the pier but I got tons of curious glances. I fell into a pattern taught to me by Brian Cole, of winking at anyone that maintained eye contact for more than a second, sometimes signalling them to move on, but usually initiating a brief dialog,

"You training to be Coast Guard or somethin?"

"Yup."

After a little while, a bunch of kids came around and started jumping off the dock in all sorts of manners (this being the only place deep enough). They were fun and funny, and the time flew by much faster.

After 60 minutes I got out, performed a mediocre can-opener (does anyone other than Chaffees use this term to refer to the jump where you clutch one leg to your chest, lean back slightly, and pray your thunderous splash sprays up vertically?), and basked in the applause from the little Maori boys.

Jogged a half mile home. 1 mile total today.

Christmas itself was thoroughly amazing. The dishes we used were gorgeous, the dinner delicious, and the wine bountiful. I especially enjoyed our dessert, a chocolate log Ian filled with some home-made whipped cream. Sensational (even if I do have an incredibly easy to please sweet tooth)!

We chilled out the rest of the night, just enjoying the holiday and each other's company (though I took a brief reprieve to gather myself from the wine). Ian even thoughtfully bought Cary and myself thermoses as a Christmas gift (a coincidently insightful purchase as Cary had forgotten his water bottle). Myself, I will now be able to go through life without borrowing Deady's when I want to bring some hot tea on mountain adventures.

(My apologies on picture quality. They're from Cary's iPhone cause I was too lazy. To be honest I needed a bit of a break from the old shutter-bug lifestyle after the past 3 weeks. I promise to return to old form soon)