You flipper you brought her
December 31, 2005Ruby Bay, New Zealand
12:49am
Woke up after consuming six quick beers and a half bottle of cheap red wine. Basically the story of my holiday season. Not only did people travel across the world to spend time with us on Christmas, but they came to accompany me in the raising of many a beer, scotch and wine glasses to my gaping maw of a mouth. I can actually feel the weight creeping back on my body. I even stopped the morning walks, using a tiny blister on my heel as an excuse, when really it was the lethargy and hazy malaise from all the drinking and eating. Must. Get. Back. On. Track.
Tony is here. Picked him up at the airport the same day I dropped off Dad and Miriam. Felt a bit like an airport shuttle service doing the same drive over and over again. Needless to say the parental visit was awesome and so far so good with the little Italian friends stay.
The last couple of days with Papa and Oma were spent going for drives up the coast to small hippie artisan villages on the coast. This included the drive up and down Takaka Hill, which my father white knuckled in the passenger seat the entire way. It was a bit like a slalom course, and if I was new to my 15 year old car I would have winced a little on the curves as well. I did manage to get everyone back to the barn in one relieved piece.
Later that night we went for dinner at the Riverside Café, a small restaurant Steph, Hud and I attended weeks ago and loved. It was a nice meal with Hud finding a playmate to secretly eat cane sugar with as we feasted on cheese fondue, monkfish, steak and roast chicken.
Hud looked pretty darn cute in his new Canadian hockey jersey, so it was easy to dismiss his arcane sugar woofing down.
Sure he went to bed a little after two in the morning, but a small price to pay to look at this every day.
After dinner, a spirited, spirit filled conversation ensued back at the ranch. I managed to both agree and disagree with my father without getting too emotional. I have a tendency to emote heavily when a discussion gets heated, ignoring articulation, tripping over a collection of tears in my eyelids. But it was all fine, if not resolved, with Steph and I being more the opinion pitchers instead of the problem catchers. The next day everyone awoke with good old fashioned smiles on our faces.
It was departure/arrival day, so with bags jammed into the car, we drove and dropped off my father and Mir at the airport. It truly was a great visit, with enough downtime to get comfy, and enough activity to avoid annoyance with each other. Hud, of course, benefited the most, relishing the new attention, seeking out the love of 2 of 6 grandparents.
And then there was Tony.
After lunch in Nelson city, we drove back to the airport three hours later to find Tony waiting in the airport lobby. He took an earlier flight and was there a mere 45 minutes after we left the airport the first time. But Kreskin I am not, so he got a feel for Nelson by reading the airport brochures.
His first couple of days at Casa Graham/White were spent drinking and eating and generally filling the gap of time between May and now with anecdotal tales of his, and our mutual friends lives. Nothing much has changed he said. Which we knew to be the case. We did manage to get up to the beach for a true taste of what NZ summer holidays are like.
It was pretty crowded, but nothing like Wasaga or even like Toronto beaches in our summer.
Yesterday was a pretty awesome day. One that will go down as a trip highlight, partly because Tony will have the same memory, and partly because what we were able to witness. It started in the morning as we boarded the twin hulled sailboat that was to take us into the park for a day of sailing. It was a bit overcast and chilly, but we bundled up and made our way to various points of interest up the Abel Tasman coast. Hud stayed with Tony for the most part, finding a new friend to chill with, something Tony looked like he earnestly enjoyed.
We stopped in Anchorage Bay for a sausage and steak bbq aboard a floating backpacker home, and then returned to the boat for an afternoon of gentle sailing back home. The other people on the boat ranged from quiet Germans, to friendly Brits, to a talkative buck toothed Asian, who had her eyes on her own little Italian sausage. Prrowwwrrr.
About halfway home, Mark, our curly locked captain asked if anyone wanted to have a go at sailing. I quickly said yes and made my way to the back of the boat to work the two rudders. It was a nice feeling, standing there, sailboat under my control, my son sitting next to me asking if I was steering the boat. I demanded Steph take the appropriate over the top picture.
Almost immediately after relinquishing the controls back to Mark, he announced we were going to take a detour. There was a pod of dolphins to our right and he wanted to get a closer look. The ten passengers all quickly emerged from their various stages of slumber and went to the front of the cat.
I thought we were going to look over yonder and get a glimpse of the curved dorsal of the dolphins as they jumped out of the water. Big whoop, we had seen it many times before on our journey. What I did not expect was the pod of dolphins to approach and swim right along side of the boat for a good five to ten minutes, completely thrilling and surprising all passengers, including an almost giddy three year old. Four or five dolphins actually swam and crested and leapt right in front of the boat, moving with such speed and grace and playfulness it literally left us with non stop smiles. It was quite simply one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life.
The rest of the trip was spent trying to recapture the joy of the dolphins after they quickly disappeared.
Mostly it was spent under the now clear sky and hot sun, drifting in and out of consciousness, dreaming of Aquaman leading an army of grinning dolphins.
Maybe that was just me.
Love to all,
J.
posted by Jason @ 4:42 AM
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