Mum's vacation (by Mindy)

Fun in the sun in December on the beach (Only in New Zealand!) We gave mum 12 hours of sleep and then packed her up for 4 days at the beach. We had the cutest bach just steps away from the rumbling ocean. Our first full day there we decided to walk down the beach to a trail through the mountains. Looks were a little deceiving, because we walked about 45 minutes on the beach before we even reached the trail. Fortunately it was a beautiful day and we didn't mind so much. We hiked up the mountain through a beautiful trail that had some magnificent views from the top. We made it back just in time for lunch (okay, so I started snacking on the way back!). After lunch and a nap Brandon and I decided to try our skills at kayaking. We (and by we I mean mum and Brandon--I'm pregnant :) hauled a huge, heavy two-man kayak down to the beach. The waves looked big, but we decided that must just be part of kayaking in the ocean. Undettered by 12-15 foot waves we made a plan, strapped on our life vests and pushed off. We got fairly far out before I finally chickened out. Out in the ocean in a little kayak watching waves that are WAY high above you crashing down (looked a lot like a tsnuami coming at you) is a little scary. So we managed to get turned around and headed back before we finally got tossed from a little vessel. We thought it was a pretty good first voyage over-all. We got the kayak back to the beach and went and played in the smaller waves for a while. And by we I mean Brandon and I, mom was sitting in a lawn chair trying to recover from wathing her daughter and her young family facing tsnuami sized waves in a kayak. We got back to the bach and went on a VERY long tour of about 3 or 4 towns trying to find somewhere to eat that was open. Our next day at the beach we drove to a city that was near by and did some shopping and ate some wonderful ice cream. When we got back we decided to go walk on the beach. We came over the little sand dune to where we could see the ocean and it was as smooth as glass! Not a single wave!! We stared at each other a moment before busting out laughing--kayaking lesson no. 1: don't try to kayak in hurricane type winds! We collected sea shells for mom's class and I collected Paua shell, which is a shiny shell. That night we cleaned our little bach--the directions left for us said it should look like no one had stayed there. The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn (5:30!) loaded our stuff and headed out to swim with the dolphins. It was AMAZING!! We found a pod right of the bat. They were in the process of feeding so we just observed, but it was SO interesting. The dolphins all spread out to herd a school of fish. They all came together and made a perfect circle around the fish and ate like crazy. After they ate they swam around and played with the boat. We were told it was time to swim so we donned our wet suites, masks and snorkels. We divided up into two groups on the boat. The first group went but the dolphins swam away, so we chased them down and the second group went (somehow Brandon and mom missed out on both those first groups but I jumped in on the second group). The boat left us when the dolphins swam off to see if they could bring them back. The boat returned but the dolphins didn't. After cathing up with them again the guides connected a big swim bar to the boat with ropes. When we caught up with the dolphins again we were told to jump off, swim as quick as we could to the bar, grab ahold like superman and put our faces under the water to look for dolphins. What they didn't tell us was that as they dragged us along behind the boat at 3-4 knots (fairly fast) icey water was going to shoot down our wet suits which takes your breath away. It took several goes before the dolphins finally got used to us and were will to swim with us. I enjoyed it, I saw 3 or 4 dolphins swimming under me, but was more impressed by all the dolphins swimming and jumping beside me. Mom was also being drug along at that time so she got to see them too. Unfortunately Brandon hadn't made it into that group and never did see any while in the water. It was VERY fun, but VERY cold! When we got back to land we ate lunch and headed to another town on our way home where we did some shopping. We finally found a store that sold maternity clothes and just about bought the place out! This morning we woke up and mom and Brandon were both a little sore from being drug along behind the boat. I didn't have much sympathy for them since I'm 3 months prego and feeling just fine! Today we took the train downtown and went to a little market and walked around downtown a bit. We are now home in our pj's watching "Griswald Family Christmas" and getting ready to crash for the night!

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