WE ARE BECOMING "LOCALS"...

Monday, February 28, 2011 – Surfdale – It’s hard to believe that it is March tomorrow!!!!  Only 28 days left here so we are going to make the most of them before heading back to the good ole USA and UK!

We had a very emotional week watching the news about Christchurch and seeing pictures of so many places in the suburbs that we had stayed in or visited only 2 weeks prior.   Sometimes the pictures have been hard to look at without getting teary eyed.   The stories of survival, rescues and sadly of those dying have touched us forever.  We did not feel the earthquake or have any larger waves as a result of the Christchurch earthquakes and aftershocks.  Geoff and I both posted that we were okay on our Facebook pages since many family & friends do not know that we are 500 miles north of Christchurch and we had many inquires about out safety. 

The sadness finally got to me so we went out for the day on Thursday to take our minds off it all and go beachcombing on this island.   We took the bus to Onetangi and the beach there is normally quite different then we found it…after Cyclone Wilma left tons of horse mussel shells in piles as deep as 18 feet high, the beach was a mess.   They crushed and buried the shells recently only to have the aftermath of Cyclone Yashi stir up and deliver more horse mussel shells…not so many this time but very interesting to walk on and they are large & quite crunchy sounding!  

The day started off warm but overcast then the clouds burned off and the blue sky and sun shined through: 

We saw our first NZ “sea snake”: 

Then another bus ride to “Palm Beach”—smaller in size than Onetangi Beach but no horse mussel shells here—more people enjoying the sun and surf:  

Geoff says there is a “nude beach” just up,over & around these rocks but it wasn’t worth it for me to climb them!J 

Then we rode the bus into Oneroa and ended up at the “Sand Bar” enjoying a cold one and the views of the beach & bay from there! 

It was a lovely day on Waiheke Island!: 

We spent the rest of the week just walking our local beaches and then went to Stefanos for pizza, wine and “Mojo Risers” music Saturday night—we didn’t wander the home until nearly 1 AM—it was a fun night out.

Sunday we walked around Surfdale and Blackpool beaches up into Oneroa and stopped at “Ricky’s” to listen to the live music—The Gary Harvey duo—and they were quite good.   An added bonus was one of the lead musicians from Mojo Risers was there and played harmonica with them for a bit…doesn’t get much better than sun, surf and good music all afternoon long! 

When we got back to our street—here’s what we saw: 

It's a small world note:  while I was watching the kite/wind surfers, a young man, named Evan, from Iowa walked by and we chatted--he had just arrived from North Carolina where he is stationed at Ft. Bragg in the Army (on 30 days leave) and wanted to know what to do on Waiheke--turns out he went to West Point for 2 years and would have graduated with Jon in May "but left after two years--it's a long story".   He didn't know Jon--there were only 1,200 or so cadets that year and he was in the 1st battalion but can you believe I met someone from Jon's WP class here on Waiheke?  Too wild!  Oh and I told him how wonderful NZ is & some things to do here on Waiheke! 

Love, Sue & Geoff, xo   Waihekians now (funny how we are recognized locally already and we recognize the locals in town)!