During the night, New Zealand made its daylight savings time adjustment. The clocks went back an hour, not forward, thereby increasing the time difference between there and the east coast of the USA to seven hours. In April, the U.S. will make its own daylight savings time, setting the clocks forward, not back, thereby increasing the difference still further, to eight hours.

Actually, that's not quite true. Because of the International Date Line, the difference was 18 hours, decreased to 17 in the night, and will decrease to 16 in April. But because New Zealand is so far east and America so far west, most of the time it feels like New Zealand is behind rather than nearly a full day ahead. And if you followed all of the above, my compliments to you.

Sailing

We drove down to the wharf. Dave, Leen, and I waited while Brunnen-G and Puck went out in the dingy to the Spirit of Breaker Bay, Brunnen-G's 30 foot sailboat. They sailed around to pick us up, and then we puttered out into the ocean. Once we were far enough away from other things, the motor was shut off and the sail was raised.

Under the confident command of Captain G, I learned a great deal about sailing that day. For example, I learned all about cleats. Cleats are intrinsically cool, because they hold ropes fast WITHOUT REQUIRING YOU TO TIE ANYTHING. I learned (the easy way, even) to keep one's head low around the spots that the mainsail beam thingy swings around, lest it swing around. The boat is COOL. I spent some time alternately sitting up front (or "bow") in front of the mainsail and standing in the very back (or "starboard") just behind the steering thing (or "steering thing"). I explored the forward cabin AND the backward cabin and was tickled to note all the cute little dishes in the cute little kitchenette and all the cute little books on the cute little bookshelves. And I liked how the lantern and the stove were on thingies that rocked so they were always level no matter how the boat was rocking around.

Both Dave and I took turns at the steering thingy. Dave swiveled around back and forth, and I almost ran over a windsurfer, so Brunnen-G took the controls back.

The weather was not ideal, but that made it more fun. The morning was beautiful, but by the time we got out on the water, it was cloudy, and we were dodging pockets of rain. We sailed right through one, and it poured. That RULED. Another time some unexpected gusts of wind messed things up, and Brunnen-G and Puck climbed all over the boat, whipping ropes and sails around, while the rest of us cowered in corners, trying not to get in the way or die. All I could think about were action movies where wind and water and splashing and tipping makes ropes break and things swing around, causing sails to rip and people to fall overboard. That ALSO ruled.

Un-Tree Hill

Brunnen-G told the story of One Tree Hill here before. One Tree Hill is a landmark in Auckland -- a mound of green in a sea of buildings. It has a monument on it that looks something like what the Washington Monument might have looked like before it grew up. (Except it has an EVIL RED EYE on each of its four faces at the top. Red eyes are indicators of demonic possession, so I did not go near this monument.) It also had a very large tree on it, which is why it was called One Tree Hill. It could be seen from almost anywhere in Auckland, and so when a lunatic political activist vandalized the tree in protest of something or other, a great many people wanted to be flayed alive. The tree could not be spared. Its stump remains. Now the hill is informally called Un-Tree Hill. From the top, there is a 360 degree view. We could see both the Pacific Ocean on one side of Auckland and the Tasman Sea (the body of water between New Zealand and Australia) on the other side. In the distance, we could see the marina, where Brunnen-G's boat is moored, and everywhere we sailed.

The hill is interesting, because almost its entire surface is sculpted. It was once the stronghold of a Maori tribe and had pallisades all over it. The pallisades are gone, but the sculpted contours remain. There are rock walls lining the road that winds up to the top, so naturally I had to climb all over them. Everyone got into the spirit of climbing stuff, of course, and it was fun. Puck and I wanted to walk the rock wall the whole way down, which was more of a challenge than I thought it would be, because the wall got narrower and bumper as it went. But it was safe enough, because it wasn't very high. Fall to the right, and you land unharmed in the road. Fall to the left, and you tumble down the entire hill. But the landing would have been soft and grassy, so that was ok.

We got about half way down the hill, and then we piled into the car with the rest and rode the rest of the way down. At the bottom, we decided we hadn't climbed enough things, so we stopped at a huge Moreton Fig Tree.

The Moreton Fig Tree

We need to have fig trees in New Hampshire, because they are the best climbing trees ever. This one was huge. The base of the trunk was probably four feet in diameter one way and seven feet in diameter the other way, and it was a mess of huge, thick limbs that spread out in all directions. The outer tier of branches went horizontally, hovering above the ground a mere four feet or so and stretching outward for thirty in all directions. You could get on the tree from the trunk or from any of these lower branches. All the limbs were sturdy because they were THICK -- and curiously shaped, too. They were taller than they were wide, so a cross section of one would be elliptical.

Anyway, we all climbed around on the thing, and for a birdwatching bonus we got a very good view of a New Zealand Pigeon, or Wood Pigeon -- these birds are much larger than the dirty gray city pigeons (rock doves) and much more beautiful, too. They have white fronts, brown backs, and green heads, wings, and tails.

Macaroni and Cheese

That night, Dave made homemade macaroni and cheese (with the "tasty" cheddar cheese, if you'll remember -- what we would call sharp cheddar) with the toast on top, which is the important part.

The Goodies

The Goodies is one of the zaniest British comedies ever. When they're talking, it's like Monty Python, and when they aren't, it's like Benny Hill, only more surreal and less off-color. It's best when they aren't talking. Anyway, Dave and I were introduced to this oddity of British humoUr; Leen was exhausted and went to bed early.

Birds

11 total: Song Thrush, Silvereye, unidentified Shag, House Sparrow, Red-Billed Gull, White-Fronted Tern, Black-Backed Gull, Myna, Variable Oystercatcher, Blackbird, New Zealand Pigeon.