bonjour france

we left spain around 10 am and headed out of town. Not sure what hwy to take or how to get there, we just followed what we thought were the right signs. The surfboards were a little more secure this time since we got a different rack. We knew we had taken the right route when going through a toll booth , the lady said "merci" Laurie got so excited, she said back "merci, merci , we are in france" the lady laughed.

we drove in to Biarritz and not sure where to go, we found a cute little hotel. it really was the first hotel we could park at, since the streets were filled. we found out there was a festival down on the beach, that night. we had a fabulous lunch. I had a salad with tuna and anchoives, laurie had a fish plate with three different kinds of fish, two huge prawns, and a bunch of muscles. she ordered nicely. we went back to the hotel, saw the surf and decided it was time to go surfing. I was going to swim, and laurie surf. So we marched down to the ocean and we got ready to surf, and we were told , no surf. The waves look good, there was one person out , we asked, "why no surf" . The young man said red flag. well the red flag means its to dangerous to go into the ocean. in biarritz they created a break water and the high tide does not allow you to make a safe exit from the water. even though we were both good swimmers it was not safe, due to the side current and the lack of exits . they told us to come back at night.
we walked into town and found the surfboard repair shop. we then went back and had some drinks at a cute little place with a view.
that night laurie put on her wetsuit at 8:30 and i put on a shirt and shorts. she went surfing, and i went to the festival, they were in the same place. The surf spot is called Cote des Basques. Laurie caught some huge waves, i watched her fly down the faces, as i drank good belgium beer and ate french tapas. we were both happy. I saw her get out of the water , so i chased her up the stairs. we showered up and went to dinner at 11 at night. it was not dark till 10:30 which laurie was so impressed by.

The next day we surfed in the morning. I rented a board and then went body surfing. the waves had punch like el porto and i would watch laurie go flying by, as i pearled after pearl. i decided to bodysurf. The water is pretty dirty. Lots of plastic and junk in the water. Its pretty gnarly. Laurie remembers paddling into a plastic bag. we will need our anti-oxidants on this leg of the trip. we took my board in for repairs. It was a german guy, who kept saying he did good german work. we then walked all around town, and out to the sea rocks, and up and over the hill. It was just beautiful. The scenery is amazing. Laurie is in love with the hydragenias growing wild everywhere, with huge flowering stalks. we had a nice dinner and then we settled down to watch the world cup. Today we head to hossegor for some more surf. Laurie had read two australians surf biographies and they both talked about hossegor.
ovrua

the car ordeal and san sebastian

we take a bus to the airport to get our car. The place is crowded and when we get to the front of the line and there is mess up. they offer us a non automatic , but we do not know how to drive manual, if we did we would have been in a campervan. so they feel bad for us since its are honey moon and they find us a car. they give us the price we were quoted. We go down to pick up the car, and find that we are now driving a mercedes. a nice mercedes. we get to the hotel, strap surfboards on top the mercedes and take off. the racks that we have bought are not so good and we stop about a dozen times adjusting them. we finally just cross our fingers that they do not fly off the car and drive. we arrive in san sebastian 7 hours lateer to find another festival and another surf contest. Laurie is in surf heaven. San Sebastion is such a cute town and very romantic.
we find a cute hotel, that has parking. We shower up and head out to the streets. Its about 10 pm and the town is in full party mode.

we are not sure where to get dinner, but laurie is starving so we find a place that looks ok. The bar tender who has the most amazing deep voice was very nice and the waiter was super sweet, so we decided to stay. I had a few tapas from the bar. The big thing in san sebastian is the tapas, and how they just are put out on the bar and you grab what you want and you pay for it at the end. . laurie had a very nice steak, i had squid. the high light of the meal were the most amazing fried peppers, with salt and garlic. we have a few drinks and head back to bed.

The next day we hiked the mountain in the center of town for some amazing views. there was a cute museum and church on top of the mountain along with a castle. The hike up was difficult but felt great. we then hiked down and had lunch. we walked along the river , laurie and i holding hands. we decided to make out since every other couple was doing it. Laurie kept saying"its so romantic in spain."
I ate more tapas , almost every tapas could get my hands on. They are very different tapas, and there is a lot of variety. we walk all over town for hours. It is such a beautiful town. we walked down to the beach, where Laurie kept calling out waves that look good, and i would point out the topless women. All of sudden i heard some giggling from laurie and i looked back and she was now topless too. So i pointed at her and said topless. She would go about 5 minutes before putting her top back on, and then i would ask a question while walking and discover she was topless again.

We then decided to go for a swim in the Atlantic Ocean. Very refreshing. We couldnt believe how crowded the beaches were. the water was cool, but the weather was hot, which made for good swimming. we swam way out to the floats and did a little sun bathing. we then swam back shore.

We watched the first half of the usa game in bar till we could not take the smoke any more. i swear they just blow it right at laurie . I loved when in one bar she gave out a huge loud argghhh sound when this guy blew smoke her way, i quickly looked her way, he made eye contact with me, and i never saw a guy move so fast toward the door. we decided to leave spain the next morning and head to france.

barcelona

not sure what happen to the computer. so we arrive in barcelona at 11 in the night. we had left seoul at 1 pm. we have been in transit for 16 hours. we then wait an hour to get our boards. My board is damaged. surprised. we get a taxi, get to our hotel and hunker down for the night. laurie sleeps fine, i am up at 6 am wide awake.
In the morning we wake up, put a bag together and head out walking. The coffee is good and strong in spain, and the bakery goods are delightful .
We start off by doing some laundry at the laundry mat. I talk laurie out of letting the hotel do it, since they charge by the piece. Its nice to have clean clothes again. we were down to nothing.

we then set off to the familia sagrada. A wild looking church that is barcelonas most famous site. Laurie loves it, and it was how i remembered it from my trip in 1998 , which is fantastic. we then head over to the ramblas and walk into the market for lunch. The food looks so fresh. I get some bocadillos and laurie gets a lentil dish and a pasta dish. Both are fantastic. we then walk around the old city. jet lag has its claws in me and i need a double espresso. Laurie gets a churro y chocolate. We both laugh since that is the name of our high school spanish textbook. with caffeine in the body we charge on. we go to see gaudi's botllyo house. I saw it 12 years ago and it was even better the second time around. Laurie now wants to decorate our house gaudi style. we walk back to our hotel and i tell laurie i want a little nap. i then pass out at 7 pm and do not arise till 4 am . Wide awake at 4 am. I sit there wishing i only took a short siesta.

day 2 we have our wings under us and we hit the road running. we find out that we are there during a festival. so all the rentals cars are filled and we might be stuck in barcelona through the weekend. we go to the local surf shop, where we buy some roof racks for a car, since it does not look like we are getting a van.
we then go sight seeing. we go to park gruel and the harbor and to the famous church in the old city. 　laurie is not feeling well , so she crashes out, and i go searching for strange tapas. I find octopus salad. fresh and salted sardines and a few other local delicatesins.

we then watch some world cup and call it a night.

we stay one more night in barcelona and we get together the neccesities for our trip . we get maps and translation guides. we buy some little things, and we walk around town. we rent a car that we are to pick up the next day. we go have some tapas. I get snails in a spicy sauce, and squid cooked in its own ink. Laurie has a salad and gaspacho. we then get a few more little tapas and head to bed.

ｋｏｒｅａ ｓｐａｉｎ

when we arrived in the lobby we explained we wanted the shuttle over to the other hotel to catch the bus to the airport. They told us we could walk. I told them i wanted the shuttle they offered. It was hot out and if I carried all our luggage , I would be covered in sweat and i would sit on an airplane for 11 hours covered in sweat. heck no. I put a little LA stink face on and we got our way.

Airport went sort of smooth. They wanted to charge us 600 dollars for are surfboards. We bargained it down to 125. We were off. Good bye korea hello lufthsansa. The flight was full to frankfurt. You know someone loves you,, when they share　ｔｈeir　ｓｅａｔ　ａｒｅａ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｙｏｕ　ｆｏｒ　１１　ｈｏｕｒｓ．　　Ｌａｕｒｉｅ　ｒｏｃｋｅｄ　ｏｕｔ　ｔｏ　ｔｅｃｈｎｏ　ｍｕｓｉｃ，　ｗｈｉｌｅ　ｉ　ｗａｔｃｈｅｄ，　ｔｈｅ　ｂｌｉｎｄｓｉｄｅ，　ｉｔｓ　ｃｏｍｐｌｉｃａｔｅｄ，　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅ　ｔｏｏｔｈｆａｉｒｙ　ｓｔａｒｉｎｇ　ｔｈｅ　ｒｏｃｋ．　　ｓｏｒｒｙ　ａｂｏｕｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｆｏｎｔ　ｃｈａｎｇｅ，　ｔｈｅ　ｂｌｏｇ　ｄｏｅｓ　ｍｙｓｔｅｒｉｏｕｓ　ｔｈｉｎｇｓ　ｗｈｅｎｉ　ａｍ　ｗｒｉｔｉｎｇ．　ｉｔ．　Ｉ　ａｍ　ｇｏｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｓｔａｒｔ　ａ　ｎｅｗ　ｏｎｅ，　ｓｏ　ｉ　ｃａｎ　ｇｅｔ　ｒｉｄ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｔｙｐｉｎｇ　ｓｔｙｌｅ．　

last day in Korea

james picked us up at eleven. He drove us to a nice new suberb of seoul, that reminded him of irvine. I having never been to irvine, will have to take his word on it. Seoul is growing so fast that these new little just pop up. We ate a nice little japanese/korean fusion bento place. I finised my bowl first , then i ate lauries , then i ate james leftovers. James was amazed . we then got some coffee , and took in the nice day. weather was perfect. Overcast and breezy. It was nice to not have the heat and humidity of the past few days.

James then took us for his favorite dessert. Its crushed ice with either coffee or cream, and red beans and ice cream. Perfect dessert. I will be looking for this one in k town when i get back. We then drove to see james condo. He showed us the elementry school he attended and the middle school he would have attended if he was not told to pack his bags one june and shipped of to the states. He had a day to pack as he remembers . The view from his place is fantastic. The surroundings at the base of building are spotless. Kids running around everywhere.
We then went down to the beach. aka River. we walked along the river, learning more about seoul. Seoul in its rush to grow, forgot to put in greenery, so now it is trying to replace some of the concrete with green. Seoul is like LA meets new york with no parks. The river park seems to go for ever, and we saw tons of bikes on the bike path along with roller bladers and runners.
we then went back for a quick clean up and out to dinner with james and his girlfriend.
He took us to his favorite shabu , shabu resturant . food was good and clean. we loved it.
we took a tour of the university at night. Looking for the pelicans. I found a mouse ,which i pretended to pick up. Everybody believed I had it and took off running as i approached.
We said good bye heyoshin, james girlfriend, and james dropped us off.
James you were an amazing host. We hope to see you both soon in LA.

hanging out with tor and becky and eating live octopus

first stop was the kimchi museum. Laurie had been talking about this museum since we arrived in seoul. We finally found it, with in the coex mall. This mall is massive. Museum was not very big but very informative . We read about the different styles of kimchi, the different vegetables, meats and fruits used, and how it was prepared in the old county and now. We were so impressed we bought a dvd on how to make kimchi and will be attempting it when we get back.

Walked around the mall, getting lost a few times. we then took a subway to the fish market. we arrived early , and walked around a little. I called tor and told him we were at gate two. But we came off a different subway and realized the one he was on, had no gate two. Laurie starving tried some deep fried seaweed rice logs. she was in heaven. i asked for a second little piece which she denied. thanks.
we went over to the subway that tor and becky were coming in on. I was keeping my eyes peeled since i had told them gate two and there was no gate two.. A few minutes later I see them both , and they are asking someone on a bridge where gate two is. I quickly grab lauries hand and run over toward them and shout it, "there is no gate two". Tor shouts back , I just found that out.
we introduce everyone and we are off to the fish market.
tor and becky have left portland and are teaching english in a suburb of seoul. they had been to a fish market a month earlier in busan, and suggested we try it out today. The fish market was great. We saw everything that was ever in the ocean and more. we walked around taking pictures and trying to figure out where to eat. somewhere there were suppose to be restaurants. A chinese guy took a liking to me, and wanted me to arm wrestle his friends. As we were walking becky and laurie took the lead for about two minutes, till the men swarmed them and they fell back behind tor and I. I guess tor at 6'3 and me at 6'5 made good blockers for the women. we were confused on where the restaurants were and finally asked directions. A man walked us to a place. we were not sure but it looked clean, and they had what we wanted.
we sat on the ground and the hite beers, and appetizers came out.
i was disappointed cause i thought these ten dishes were all we were going to get, and i was starving.
so far we had kimchi, some other vegetables, some skary looking fish, mackeral, tofu, salad, muscles, and quail eggs. I thought this is it.
next thing i know the doors open and two huge plates of sushi show up, we had some white fish, tons of it, and then we had tuna, sea squirts, abalone, uni, clams, crab, yellowtail, egg, shrimp, friend tempura like veggies, salmon, squid, everything was there.
so the lady then showed us how you should eat the fish, she took a piece of lettuce, stuck some fish in it, put some red miso looking stuff , put some fresh garlic in it, a little chilli, and then wrapped it up, made a gesture towards her mouth and then looked at me and shoved it in my mouth. it was heavenly.
Next to come out was octopus, still moving with sesame oil and salt. you know its fresh when it is still moving. its wild. as you eat it, it sticks to your mouth and is still moving around.
we loved it. even an hour later in to our meal , when you would grab a piece it would still move.

completely full, we walked out into seoul and started strolling around town. we walked to the subway and caught a train to a market laurie and i wanted to see. it happen to be next to a man made creek so we walked in the creek drinking beers . we got to hop rocks over the creek, and tor and I stared down the fish, wishing we had a pole.
we then went on a hunt to find a restroom, which took us to the third floor of a closed market. it was hostel spooky. Tor and i decided to try chicken feet, pork skin, pork face, and pork kidney. we sat a market stall, drinking sochu and beers and trying to figure out if it was polite or not to spit out the loose bones we found in the chicken feet. the food was amazing . we feared for our stomachs, but i was fine that night and the next day. we bought some more beers and hung out near the river again. we then decided to find some more food , before parting. we found a chicken and beer restaurant, had some good chicken and some good beer, before making our way to the train station for the final train of the night. my stomach was in shock of what i ate. I felt like i was andrew zimmerman.
thank you tor and becky for a fun day.

more palaces and james takes us to a buffet

woke up and walked to coffee bene. I love how they take the name of something popular and change it a little . Coffee bene looked similar to coffee bean.

we then jumped on the subway and headed to a group of palaces we did not get to visit the day before. Weather was humid, but mild, i was worried about sweating through my clothes in the first twenty minutes. Laurie loves humidity and was practically running around as i slowed to a turtle pace not to soak my clothes.

The palace was beautiful. There are three palaces connected and they cover a great deal of ground. Laurie has found an appreciation for doors and now takes pictures of every door she comes across. we toured the first palace about an hour and then walked around the second palace. The second palace was much bigger and contained a green house and two large ponds. We loved the ponds , because as you stood near the edge , this monster looking creature in the water would start swimming toward you. the monster turned out to be giant koi. we finished in the grand palace and then headed out into the street.

we were so hungry we ate at the first place we came to. I went safe with bim bim bop. Laurie had a spicy octopus fried rice concoction . we then walked to the local art market and strolled through watching the street performers and checking out all the shops.

I ate some fried street sweet dumpling, laurie would not even get near. we then walked down the street looking for a subway to make our way back. we took a wrong turn and ended up in an alley with tons of food stalls. I wanted to try everything but laurie reminded me were going out to dinner with james, and it was going to be a buffet. We were most intrigued by the barrel of black centipedes. they were huge, and we wanted to ask if people ate them or used them in medicine but the man not happy with us staring , then shooshed us on.

we decided to walk to dinner and it was a great idea, till the thunder kicked in and the skies opened up. It was also warm out. we arrived early to dinner soaked. Dinner was fabulous. we got to try a little of everything. We also got to talk to James girlfriend more, who we just adore. she gave laurie a lovely gift she had picked up . James we are waiting. we finished dinner and decided to walk around. James took us to a bar that over looked seoul. we then walked over to the food stalls , and we were pointed out what was good and what was not.
the rain started coming and laurie and i took a cab back. Another great night in seoul.

korea loves their football and the palaces and markets

woke up and got after it early. we found a coffee bean, and had our favorite drinks. we jumped on the subway and took it to the seoul city bus tour line .. Laurie has been talking about bus tours for days now and she wanted to do one. we made it to the bus, and jumped on. we then went 200 feet and got off, since the first sight was the first stop and we wanted to see it.

we walked around the deoksugung palace. We just loved it. so open, so beautiful. the colors of the korean palaces are brilliant. we walked around the palace for about 45 minutes, and then headed to the front for the changing of the guard ceremony. we loved it. took pictures with the guards, and then jumped back on the bus.
next stop korean national museum. we had lunch at a little cafe. Laurie had kimchi friend rice, and all you can eat kimchi. the lady kept saying , something in korean , like "no way your eating more." i had a nice soup.

museum was huge and we fell behind schedule so we moved through it quick. Laurie loves korean paintings. Our favorite was a waterfall painting. the water fall was left blank but both sides were painted and the sky above it. symmetry was perfect.
we then jumped back on the bus . we drove up the seoul tower mountain. then jumped off the bus at the korean traditional village. Laurie tricked me into sticking my head through a traditional korean womean photo cutout. which all the locals laughed when seeing me stick my face through it.
we walked around the village , learning about ancient life in korea.
back on the bus we headed to dongdaemun market to find korea t-shirts for tonights game. the best we could find was an xxl that was really a xl. the market was huge and there was tons of street food. i held off since i did want to see the game that night and was not sure if it would give me problems. I did hear the voice of ken sackman in my ear, saying "do it , do it" ken is my food guru.

not finding any 3xls. we decided t try the american market near the us base. so we subwayed over to the market. i did find some big and tall stores, but no korea shirts. we saw a lot of american soldiers in the area, and we got back on the subway and headed home.

we made plans to meet james at a bar to watch the game. we walked to the subway and then to the bar. we were wearing are red shirts and the koreans loved it. the place was getting fired up. everyone was wearing red and the streets were getting packed. we saw on tv , that they had shut off street and put up huge tv screens. we knew if korea beat argentina all hell was breaking loose.

the bar was great. the game not so much, since korea loss. Laurie and i loved the bar food. dried squid, beef jerky, peanuts, raisins , seaweed sticks , and banana chips. I looked at james, with a what the heck look. he just smiled and said, its good, and its korea.

we got to meet james girlfriend, and she is just fantastic. we then walked out together and down to the subway , making plans for the next night.
james was spent, work all day and then he really let it all hang out with the game. he was leading cheers in the bar, and i could tell he was upset at the loss.
laurie and i jumped back on the subway, and we headed to the late night food area around our hotel. we had spicy pork and sweet beef bbq. laurie tore through the kimchi like it was going out of style.
food was great, we walked home satisfied and tired.

Korea day 1

laurie and i got our own rows on the flight from auckland to oskaka. Once again air new zealand was fantastic. we then switched planes in osaka to air asiana and flew into seoul. It took 3 hours to get out of the airport. I decided to put our surfboards in storage at the airport instead of lugging them around.

we found a bus that took us to our hotel. i was glad to be in the bus with air conditioning . we have left the winter of the southern hemisphere and we are now in summer and it is hot and humid.

We decided to go to korea to visit my good high school friend james ahn . Its his busy season with work but he was excited to have us visit, and especially during the world cup. The hotel he booked for us was super nice, and he is refusing to let us pay him for it. he keeps telling me its a korean hospitality thing, but i keep telling him , i met him in high school in the states, so that falls under states friendship, but he decided we have a worldly friendship and we agree we just have a really great friendship.

once in the room we decided to head out and get some lunch . we walked into one restaurant and were not sure what was being sold. I have decided to eat there on my last day, since we now wave at the owner when ever we pass it.
we walked around this back street amazed that it was packed with restaurants. we did not know what place to head into, and after walking back and forth a few times we just chose a busy place. They spoke no english, but we pointed to dishes on the menu, and smiled and bowed a lot. We lucked out, because we got a beautiful cold noodle dish and a hot beef bulgoi dish. laurie started inhaling the kimchi, she just loves it. they give you all these amazing side dishes. we shared a hite beer. we loved it so much. I tried tipping at the end of the meal and the lady thanked me and then gave it back. they just do not tip. we did a lot of bowing and smiling and rubbing our tummies and headed out the door. we went back to the hotel and then walked around the area.
That night james took us out on the town. we started at a beautiful resturant that had a waterfall. we had the most amazing korean bbq. we just kept laughing, that we were finally in korea. we drove around seoul. traffic puts the 405 fwy to shame. we had coffee at 10 at night, and the night was just warming up for seoul. james works early mornings teaching kids how to take the sat's and toeffl. so we called it a night.

closing up in new zealand

well we woke up checked out the surf and then decided to head to the peninsula near christchurch. its a windy road in that took us through a mountain, up over two , and down two more. we got to a cute little village where we had lunch and then set off driving up the the mountain and down the other side into some beautiful bays. We tried our hand at fishing but got no bites. Laurie wanted to camp in one of the bays but i got a spooky deliverance feeling. we ended up camping back in akeroa.

In the morning we did a little walk through the city and got off on the road. we stopped by a cheese factory, where cheese was over priced and not very good. we felt bad they opened up a bunch of cheeses for us to try but we did not like any.

we had a breakfast lunch back in town , i decided to try polynesian food , corn beef, banana fritters, and these delicious noodles. laurie wanted indian too, so we ate indian lunch special for 4.99. We were stuffed and decide to check out the surf on the chance it was any good. It had been ok so far down here.
we arrived at the beach to find it pumping. Huge waves just rolling through. We paddle out through the boat launch and were put right into the line up. The water was colder than anything i have ever been in. I was scared to put my face under the water it was so cold. my neck would cramp when i had to dive under the waves. We caught some beauties . the beach was called sumner and its known for being a longboard spot, but you could ride any board today. felt like a beach break sunset, with both lefts and rights. sunset being the one in LA, not hawaii. we surfed till we could not feel our limbs anymore and then we drove to some hot showers and hunkered down for the night.

next day we surfed again, but it was not as good. we checked out town and we found a new campsite to try out. we walked to a local tavern to watch the all black beat up the irish. we then went next door for dinner.
we had dinner at a nice steak house called lonestar. the walls covered in a history country music, new zealand sport and culture and what ever else the owners wanted up. after eating dinner and drinking a few beers, we decided to head home, but on the way i started talking to two nice gentlemen.
Our introduction and talking started off a three hour country music , beer and rum and coke drinking extravaganza . The owner of the restaurant knew his country music and gave us a tutorial in it. Laurie was in heaven, since she knows and loves country. I other than lady antabelum and johnny cash was completely lost. I grew listening to hip hop i kept saying. But we had fun listening to these great tunes, and hanging out with these two great guys. We closed the restaurant down and i laughed when both guys called for a cab. Laurie and I walked home through the freezing night , 31 degrees. we crashed. What a great end to our christchurch segment of our trip.

the next day we turned in the campervan, and headed up to auckland. we walked around auckland . It was a beautiful day . Boarded our airplane and headed to Korea.

south island day one two and three

we woke in the morning and drove hundred yards to the ferry. boarding was fun. we went on the bottom with the trucks. the ride was rocky but fun. we played cards and drank coffee. we arrived in picton to pouring cold rain. we found a great bakery and had lunch.

on the road we got. when we arrived in kaikoura , we found a surf contest going on , so we stayed and watch. coming into town we found the seal colony and laurie fell in love. baby seals are cute.

they also smell.

found our campsite and made dinner. we ate the last of our fish and read up on news and e-mail.

in the morning laurie surfed mangamanu. she got some great rights and was the only girl out. it was too cold for me, so i read my book and took pictures. we then went fishing wear i caught a shark. not a big one. only about foot and half. we then went back to our campsite and laid low. it was freezing. The next day we woke up and went back to the surf spot. no one was out and the wind was howling . we found a waterfall and hiked back to it. In the water fall were a hundred baby seals playing in the current and waterfall. they were so cute. we watched them sliding down the rocks and playing around. laurie was in seal heaven. she wanted one to get in the van. we then went back to kaikoura and decided to leave. we headed south towards christ church.

we found a little cafe where i had a toasted cheese sandwhich with spaghetti and laurie had a toasted bagel with her choosings on it. they were both delicious. we got to christchurch and went right to the surf spots. they did not look very good. so we headed back to our campsite. had a great dinner and went to bed. its now freezing. i mean 32 degrees freezing.

today we woke up and checked out the spots. we went back over to the other side of the bay. it was low tide and not looking very good.
i found out today my 96 year old nona has passed away. she loved my travels around the world, and always loved the post cards i would send. She is fantastic. I called home and wanted to say hello to everyone. she had been holding on for as long as she wanted. I guess it was time. she kept pulling through the last few years. she reminds me that anything you want is possible. she was always up for a good gathering and where i get my love for hosting others to good gathering.

We decided to surf one , in her honor, and we hit the water at 1 pm . The water was colder than anything I have ever been in. I and laurie caught some great rides in nonas honor.
and that bring us to today.
Today was good. I am glad my grandmother gets to see her love again. I am with my love. She never remarried and always smiled when she talk of papa nick. he was a fun one. He was her best friend. Yet she carried on for 26 years with out him and never once did she complain. I hope he has been working on his tennis game, because i know my grandmothers knees are going to be feeling pretty good when they hit the court somewhere out there in the universe.
laurie and I love you nona.
we miss you.

Lauries biggest wave of her life.

we woke in the morning to find the surf much bigger at oakura. we then drove to sky williams and mangahume . Well we found surf. It was huge, sets were double overhead. Phil and laurie were first to get in the water. Lorna thought it was too big and decided not to go out. I took my time and decided to get a surf in.

I watched phil and laurie make a nice entrance into the surf and paddle out. I on the other hand did everything wrong getting in. I saw laurie catch a huge wave. The phil caught one, then laurie again. I paddle out to meet them. The waves were so big i could not see them and thought they left the spot for another one. i was cursing them both in my head. These waves were huge.

at sky williams there were only 4 people out. phil,laurie, I and guy. it was scary. Once i met up with them, i was not a happy camper. these waves were big mamas and i was out of shape. Plus right when i got there , laurie told me, "don't get caught in the washing machine" , what the heck is that. Phil called outside, my least favorite word, and i looked up to find just 5 monsters rolling our way. what did i get myself into.

I paddled my heart out but i did not make it, and i just ditched my board, cursed laurie and phil, out loud and in my head, thought how smart lorna was sitting up on the cliff taking pictures, and then i dove down as deep as i could, felt the wave over me, my foot being dragged back by the leash, and then trying desperately to make it back to the surface, thinking this may be the day i drown. But relax andrew, relax. back to the surface for air and looked again down the face of another mama about to break on me. again , i dove. This was a 5 setter so , five dives. I saw phil again, and i said WTF.
phil said to think positive thoughts. i flashed him the bird.
laurie was swept away and it was phil and i out in the middle of this bay with huge surf coming. i turned on a few waves but i was scared. ten minutes later laurie showed up again. who knows where she goes when she gets washed away. she said the washing machine got her.

laurie caught a few more, before no goodbye, no warnings she just paddle off to another spot. phil asked me where she was going, and how did she have the strength to paddle so far. i just shrugged my shoulders. i told phil i was going in, and i went for a big wave. i caught it and i was off to the races. i was flying down the face of this wave, i finially got up, got about three seconds of wave and then lost control doing a flying face plant in to the wave. its all on film thanks to lorna. i got to replay my facial and sinus cleansing when i got back to the car. i then got stuck in the washing machine. f laurie and phil a few more times, paddled into the middle of the bay and slowly made my way in. i then saw rocks under neath me and thought oh boy. made it to shore, kiss the ground and waited for phil who followed in. we then saw laurie catch a huge mama at the other spot called mangahume and then saw her get washed around till she came in .
lauries description of the biggest wave of her life " i started paddling for the wave. i was going, it was my turn. as i was paddling i heard two guys start whistling like this was a big one. i felt the wave jack up and i started flying down the wave, my goal was to do a bottom turn and ride back to the top. instead i shot down the face and when trying to turn was shot forward even f aster and then was shot into the whitewash. no turning for me. i just road it out. I then tried paddling back out but gave up since i was heading for the rocks. "
Laurie came out so stoked, that she ran back to the car and cracked a beer. she was just glowing and singing its good to be alive. she was giddy.
we then went to breakfast with lorna and phil. we saw the great pictures lorna took. lunch was good. we decided to check out another spot. When we got there, phil and i backed out, too big, lorna was not in either. Laurie was in her wet suit and paddling out before we could say wait.
i made tea and coffee for us land lovers.
we watched laurie as she paddle way out to sea . she caught two great waves. one was a very long wave. the spot was called arawhata. we said are goodbyes to our new life long surf friends . we heard the strait was going to get bad from wellington to picton so we needed to get down there. it was sad saying goodbye. but lorna and phil were planning on going to peru soon and they needed to stop in los angeles. surf club get ready .
we drove through the night getting to wellington at 9 pm. we found this parking lot to stay in. paid our 12 dollars and went to bed.

The big fish.

we made a plan to meet up later with phil and lorna in opunake. We said if we catch anything we would have a fish fry.

we met paddy, his son mark and estefan from new mexico at a maui station road. we then drove down this road and parked on the side. we grabbed the gear and hiked through sand dunes to a fishing spot.

for the first hour and half we were hooking sharks. it was fun, laurie and i both got a try. Paddy was getting angry with the shark and wanted us to lay into them, now that we were on steel leaders.
I was pulling in this fish, really aggressively, until paddy got a glimpse of its tail and realized i had a new zealand snapper on the line . He then coached me into how to land this big fish. It took twenty minutes of reeling this fish in. i had to walk with the fish down the beach when the surf went out and then pull again when the surf broke. Finally the fish got landed and paddy came running over for a high five and hug. I was in shock. only ten percent of people in NZ catch this fish. Everybody was so stoked. we then through our lines out again and caught some sharks, this time landing one. we then went to the weigh station, where we found the fish to be 9.02 kg. thats a 20lb fish. more high fives. Paddy and mark were fantastic guides. They just loved fishing. we went to paddys dairy farm , where we met his family, and laurie and i got to see his garden and play with his dogs. he filleted the fish and we had a grand old time hearing his fish stories. we called lorna and phil and let them know we would be eating fish tonight.

we drove to the campsite where phil and lorna were. we showed pictures of the fish which no one could believe.. we ate fish, and ate fish, and ate fish that night. it was fantastic. we drank beers that night and prepared for big surf in the morning.

Taranaki Surf---the big fish, and the swell is coming

In the morning we were skunked and decided to exchange numbers and meet up later for surf, if we found it.

Laurie and I once again drove down the coast looking for surf. Phil and lorna had to get supplies for her teaching gig.

we bought a fishing rod and decided we would surf and fish where ever we went.

we drove up and down the coast looking for surf but did not find anything. I called phil , who said they had settled in at oakura beach. We decided to meet up with them. when we arrived the surf looked pretty good and i thought this was time for my first surf of new zealand.

laurie was dressed in her wetsuit when i opened my surf bag to find my board dung in two spots. laurie had a loose fin and the fin key was not to be found. Phil and lorna were catching waves so we decided to quickly take our board to the shop. we got a fin key and i dropped my board off at csa board shop to be fixed by the next day. I got laurie back in time to join lorna and phil and she surfed while i fished.

They got some great waves and I got no fish, but we had fun and my board was being fixed. We had fun that night exchanging stories and hanging out in the parks kitchen, with the cookers and oven on full heat to warm the place up. Phil brought out the teachers scotch and we had a great night.

In the morning the surf looked good again and lorna and laurie went for a session. Phil had done a header into the sand the night before and was not feeling the surf. I fished for two hours but caught nothing.

we went to see if the surfboard was ready, which it was not. so i took laurie to back beach where she had a good session. Laurie went in and had a good session, I hung out with the locals. Laurie got some great waves, while i drank beers and talked about growing up in taranaki with a guy name trim. it was getting near 5 oclock and we needed to pick up the board. trim said we should surf here in the morning, so we made a plan to meet up around 9.
we went back to oakura and had dinner with phil and lorna and drank into the night once again. Phil was predicting big waves , so we decided to find some surf in the morning.
In the morning we drove to back beach where i had my first surf. It was perfect size and we all had a good session. Phil took the morning off and got some great pictures of us surfing. I made friends in the water , and performed my mayor duties well .
we had made arrangements to go fishing with a guide at noon and we were behind on time. Laurie wanted a surf t-shirt so we drove back into town and found one. we then hauled ass down to opunake to meet paddy for a fish.

coast to coast--- and new friends

we woke up and went to the local camping store. i bought some thermals and laurie bought some gloves. we decided to head to the bay of plenty to see if there was surf. about an hour later we showed up to mt. manganui . Cute little town with some good surf shops. we went over to the beach, where we found an ocean flat. depressingly flat. we thought about hiking the mt, but laurie wanted surf. So in the car we got and we drove across the country all day to the east coast. we reached a cute little camper park right on the ocean. this area was known for surf, but we found a rain storm. The night would be 50 mph winds and rain. In the morning more rain. We woke up late, got a late start and drove two hours to fitzroy. we checked out a lot of spots none of which look that good, and we found ourselves back at fitzroy.

At fitzroy we walked in to the kitchen , to see two people , one playing guitar and the other ｄｒｉｎｋｉｎｇ　ｈｏｔ　ｃｈｏｃｏｌａｔｅ．　ｉ　ｓａｉｄ　ｈｅｌｌｏ　，　ｈｏｗ　ｄｏｅｓ　ｉｔ　ｇｏ，　ｍｙ　ｎａｍｅ　ｉｓ　ａｎｄｒｅｗ．　　Ｔｈｅ　ｇｕｙ　ｐｌａｙｉｎｇ　ｇｕｉｔａｒ　ｓａｉｄ，　”ｗｅ met already. "
I thought when.
It then occured to me that we had met in raglan and i thought these two were very unsocial, i would soon find out, i made a wrong decision　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅｓｅ　ｔｗｏ. Laurie made her way into the kitchen. And the couples of andrew and laurie , met the fellow surf couple　ｏｆ　ｐｈｉｌ　ａｎｄ　ｌｏｒｎａ．

ｗｅ　ｄｒａｎｋ　ｂｅｅｒｓ　ｔｈａｔ　ｎｉｇｈｔ　ａｎｄ　ｍａｄｅ　ａ　ｐｌａｎ　ｔｏ　ｈａｖｅ　ａ　ｓｕｒｆ　ｔｏｇｅｔｈｅｒ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｍｏｒｎｉｎｇ．　

Rotorua , blue lake and cheif of the maori

woke up and got on the road. we drove 3 hours to rotorua. we arrived early and decided to get lunch and head out to our campsite. rotorua is very touristy. we did a two hour hike around blue lake, that was cold and crisp and beautiful.

we were picked up by our maori tour around 5 pm. driven to their head quarters where laurie practiced dancing with these balls on a string. i read up on my maori history. we got on a bus, where laurie raised her hand for me to be chief. i led the bus in some canoeing chanting.

when we arrived i was seperated from the group and had to stand in front on the meeting house. warriors came out and did a war dance in front of me, threating to hit me with sticks and weapons. i was not to laugh or smile. all the time laurie was giggling over behind me. at the end they put a stick on the ground and i go pick it up and then we lead the group into the village. in the village you learn about maori culture. its freezing out and these poor actors are in loin cloths and little tops. we then go inside for a dance and song. we then go to dinner.
laurie loved the food. i was left asking for more flavor. they offered lamb , chicken and mussles. laurie was in food heaven. bland was my call of the food. i much prefer the hawaiians wayof cooking . we then went home where i led the bus in a singing of the oregaon alma mater. laurie sang marymounts alma mater.

we got home and froze are butts off again.

glow worms,surfing, hells burger and cold weather

we woke up and drove straight to the break. a few guys were out so laurie decided it was time to get in the water. she has been itching for some surf. i decided to stay dry and take pictures.

The weather was horrible. freezing cold, windy, rainy; i found myself in the car with the heat on watching laurie surf. she surfed for about two hours and while i was warm in the car, i looked up and did not see her in the surf break. i started to get worried so i got out in the rain and started walking over to the sea. she was no where to be found.

finally she appeared walking over some rock cliffs. her foot gushing blood and a big smile on her face. she had that super stoked face going and had to start describing the waves to me . she cut her foot on the rocks when she went right on a wave and took it too far. her foot look like a meat lever had gotten to it.

we dried off and drove to bridal veil falls . it was now pouring rain and laurie could not wait to run down to the falls . i wanted to wait out the tidal wave of rain, but laurie was out running the path. i followed. the water fall was beautiful. since it had been raining all night , it was really gushing. so much so, that it scared laurie to be out on the plank looking over it.

we then decided to drive to waitamo. we arrived at around 3:3o pm and i was going to try on a suit for the next days tour. when i asked a guy how was the cave tour he replied we were about to go on it. i asked if we could join the group. they said to quickly go pay.

we put on our wet suits, and booties, they supplied. got in a van and were off . first stop was a platform to practice jumping off , simulating what we would be doing inthe cave. i went first. we were about 6 feet in the air. we put the tube on our butt and jumped backwards. water was ice cold.

we then got back in the van and drove to the cave. at the entrance you climb down a hole in the ground with water rushing around yourfeet. into the dark you go. we first climbed around limestone staglaglites, which looklike icicles . we then got in our tubes and floated in thedark. we then jumped off a waterfall in the dark. floating along we turned off our cave lights and youcould see the glow worms on the ceiling . really neat. we then jumped off some more waterfalls in the dark, saw more glow worms and went down some rapids. when we left the cave it was dark. the gal leading are tour had done a year at ucsb. what a small world.

we got back to the black river tubing headquarters and took warm showers. we then headed for our campsite. it was ice cold out.
what a good day. we got two things done in one day.