Inbetween Days...

Thursday, April 8th...

I hesitated to throw back the curtains this morning. I wanted to stay in my world of illusion a little bit longer, the one where the wind had died and the sky had cleared.

The shadows of the trees on the curtains were quivering all night. Now, they seem quite still.

Dang! I stood at the window, and if you had been on the outside you probably would have laughed at my expression of despair. The wind was still making the surf "fussy," but the sky seemed to be clearing. Hopefully, yesterday's monsoon had abated.

Good. I will ride the bike into Gisborne and get some things to take back. I will search out that tee shirt for Andy that I can't seem to find. None I saw looked cool enough on my first run through town on Tuesday.

Wayne picked up some unreal Thai take-out last night! We had a long talk about surf travel. He is disillusioned with Bali now. After the trip he took there this past summer, he probably will not go back, he said. It was his getaway for some years now. He declared it a "joke" now, so many people in the line-up. Surfing is way too popular these days. He says the Europeans are all over it, and they can't even surf. They are floating buoys messing everything up. Add to that circus the Brazilians and the Japanese, and that wipes that dream off my list. We looked at his photos of it all on his computer. What great waves! But, crowded to the max, even at dawn, he said.

Next, he brought up a shot of me I had sent to him last year that he wanted to know all about. It was from the point, last December, a great peeling green wall that I had forgotten. It was just a tad overhead, and I told him about how it breaks.

He is thinking about Nicaragua, and wanted to know everything about my trip. I told him to go straight to the Surf Sanctuary, and tell Tony that I sent him. That is what he is planning to do. It would be fun to go together, then I explained how we were planning to get a bunch of friends together and take over the camp. But, everyone backed out, I said, and he understood how those things go.

Now he is off to work, and I am heading for town on the mountain bike. I realize, with a smile, that it is 6pm on Wednesday back home, and the Sundogs are just rolling out on the Wednesday night bike ride. I climb on the bike and think, I am riding with you guys, just on the other side of the planet. I am just a little ahead of you guys ... don't I wish!

I get caught in a shower, and have to pull up underneath a motel's overhang for about fifteen minutes. It is so quiet, and I look all around, at the mountains, the hills, and the flowers everywhere. The clouds are all around, but there are patches of blue. Soon, it stops, and out I go. I find this cool little cafe when I get to town and, starved, order a big slice of the vegetable pie. As I take a bite I think, this was worth traveling to the other side of the world for! So amazing, and such a huge slice that I can't even finish it. I sit at the window, drinking delicious peach iced tea, and watch the people passing by. The Maori families are so cute, the kids with their rat tails and the men with their mullets! The moms seem so loving. I see an old man sitting at a table selling cookies. I read the sign: "Girl Guide Biscuits." What the heck? Oh! I get it! Girl Scout cookies!

I walk all over, into so many shops, to the grocery store, and two surf shops. I can't find a decent New Zealand tee shirt to save my life. Finally, I ask someone in a shop, and they tell me there's this place five blocks away and around the corner. I manage to find it, and they even have good ones! They are expensive, but my surf pal, Andy, is worth it. He is even looking after the Prius for me while I am away.

That's another thing that was baffling me! Why no Prius' here? Where are all the hybrids, New Zealand? I thought you guys were the environmental leaders? I asked Wayne this morning, and he said the consensus in New Zealand is that it doesn't make enough sense, that the batteries pollute the planet when you have to dispose of them, and that the electricity use negates the positives. Oh, come on! Something is better than nothing, isn't it? I sure hope so.

Back to work on my kids book. I have the rest of the afternoon. I laid in the sun for awhile when I got back from town. I could not believe there was full blown sunshine! I even got warm enough that I got the crazy thought to go down to the beach and go swim, just for fun! As soon as I walked down there, the clouds came over and I shivered. Dang! Have mercy on me, surf gods, and give the yank a break!

Looking out the window at the surf right now, the sea is blue green, a bit windblown, and the skies have blue patches. I know it is bigger than it looks. This morning I thought it looked smaller, but as I rode into town I saw three guys out at that same spot I surfed on Tuesday, and it was definitely still overhead. Sure, whatever.

More to come...