Melancholy day

Sorry I haven’t written in ages! I have been consumed with…well, reading, sleeping, and hanging out with mom! Today it is raining raining raining.

It is nice not to be frantic on vacation. Mostly when people are on vacation they zoom around madly trying to make the most, as it were, of each little moment by cramming it as full as possible with distracting, entertaining, or culturally-enriching events. There is something about being on a boat that just forces you to slow down a bit. Before I left most people were so impressed I was going to New Zealand and asked about all the stuff I was going to do. My general response was that, yes I was excited, but mostly I was going to see mom.

That said, most of what I’ve been doing isn’t really “reportable”. Although I do think it’s funny now what Kara said before I left when she just laughed at the thought that I would get work done while I was away! I have been chanting over an hour each day tho, which is lovely. I have a little chart that I drew up and put just above my bunk (to be nautical!) so that I can mark off my hour each day. There are also places for tracking studying Buddhism and writing as well. All along the left side is a long column of the things and people that I am chanting for. I made this chart after Kara made mention that she hoped I was able to chant, since it is so hard to keep to one’s personal practice up while on vacation.

Well, let’s see. Today is Tuesday. Chanted, read, hung out, had a scrummy breakfast - it is amazing what mom can cook in a kitchen that is literally 3x3 feet.

Monday Mom wasn’t feeling at all well, so we laid low. I read TONS which was of course fantastic (but probably is part of why I am feeling a big down now). Oh, and I also worked very hard at encouraging a very dear friend of mine who has just had a major death in her family and also G who was having a down day. Thank goodness for Skype! Makes it so that I can call for very cheap, tho I have to be on the boat and the computer has to be avaliable. And there is very little privacy on a boat!!

A marina is a busy place to be - tons of ships coming in and out, all lined up in a row, and boy does sound carry over water! Not only do you have no privacy actually ON the boat (the interior of which is maybe 15’x7’), you have no privacy ANYWHERE. Not on the dock, not in the marina bathrooms, etc. To really and truly be alone is something that I don’t think of myself as needing, but when you don’t have it…can drive you mad!!

Let’s see, Sunday was a blast. We went into the local town of Paihia, did a bit of shopping - I bought some VERY expensive fancy batteries for my digital camera that are supposed to last forever. Oh, and Paihia has a Hut of Evil too!! Or should that be Hut of Evil 2. Yummy yummy white chocolate espresso shake. Mmmmm. Then on to Waipoua Kauri Forest. Now to get there we had to go over VERY windy roads. VERY. And New Zealanders drive VERY fast. VERY. And the car we have is a little rinky dinky little rental car. AND all of this on very steep, very windy, very ON THE LEFT HAND SIDE roads. It is wrong, I tell you, wrong. I haven't felt car sick like this since I was eight!

Anyway, on the way to Waipoua Kauri Forest, we stopped off at a gorgeous little no-particular-name beach access near Omapere. That was my first glimpse of the Tasman Sea, across which is Australia. We started up high on cliffs and never really got down to the water, which was pounding against a very rocky and extremely treacherous shore. It was a gorgeous walk. And the sandstone had the most amazing patterns and colors and if you crouched down at the right angle, then it looked like the froth-like patterns were just an extension of the froth of the sea.

Waipoua Kauri Forest was suggested by a dear friend and what a wonderful suggestion it was! There are ENORMOUS Kauri trees there, which are sacred to the Maori. It is quite understandable why as you are before one. The largest was considered to be nearly 2000 years old. Mazin. Part of what I loved about being there was the mix of people, very uppity English, stand-offish Germans, relaxed Kiwis, and a few bikers thrown in for good measure. I could tell the bikers we just as curious about me as I was about them (in my own way, I was just as unique looking as them compared to the garden variety tourists), but we never actually talked. One of those energy things you know, when you can feel the pull but aren’t sure why. But it was fun to take pictures of them in full leather, helmet in hand, in this very primordial feeling forest.

Sunday night I got to have dinner with some SGI members!! Sunita and her daughter are members and she invited me over to chant and eat. She also invited some others who used to be members but still chant. We had a lovely evening gongyo together and then Sunita laid out an enormous, gorgeous, unbelievable home made Indian feast. She is from India and has lived here for about two years now. She was very sweet and it was a fun fun long evening filled with talk, fantastic food, and laughter - my favorite kind! In fact, I was so busy having such a great time that I forgot to take a single picture! Ah, well. I have the strong feeling that we will all stay in touch, expanding that global network of harmony and friendship that is the hallmark of the SGI.

Saturday we went to a book swap in the am down at the Opua Yacht Club - I got several new books (which accounts for the massive amount of reading in subsequent days), including a very interesting fictional account of the author of “The Tale of Genji”, Murasaki, called “The Tale of Murasaki”. Its great, and based off her diaries and her Genji work, but Japanese literature tends to be very intensely…hard to find the right word. Sad is too simple. Melancholy is closer. With a bit of nostalgia and wistfulness thrown in with a good dose of ennui.

Anyway, after that we eventually went up to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Apparently the Maori have it better than any other permanently colonized group, in large part because this treaty was actually upheld. The treaty is with the Queen of England, and they go to English courts when they feel the treaty is being violated by New Zealand. “The Maori”, like “the Native Americans” is not accurate, as there are many many distinct cultures subsumed under this simplistic heading. Waitangi was gorgeous and is largely run by Maori people. We saw a very interesting live…show is what they called it, but I hesitate to use that word - it is so commodifying. Anyway, beautiful language, beautiful songs. We saw handmade boats, like the one used in whale rider, and an amazing Meeting House (Whare Runanga), which was build for all the tribes in New Zealand (apparently they are very seperate and don't all really care for each other) and the whites to be able to come together to talk and create community. People had largely forgotten where the treaty was signed when a group wanted to have the government buy the land and set up a moment or something. They tried to convince Lord and Lady Bledsoe, who were very involved with the Maori in what seems to be a positive way, to use their weight with the government (at the time, the Crown of England) but instead they bought it and gave it to “the people of New Zealand”, a radical idea in its day. The Governor’s house where the treaty was signed was restored and the Meeting House was built by and at the suggestion of many Maori tribes. Still not all tribes today have signed this treaty.

Later that day I spent quite a bit of time on line researching what kind of batteries my camera could take. I found out all kinds of super spiffy things about my camera that I didn’t know!!

I’ve left out all the cruising we did, the Ashtanga yoga class with Ujai(sp?) breathing (he he, teaser for Kara!), and lots of other stuff, but it’s a start!

Writing this has helped my mood enormously. As did the super sweet email I got from Kara. Mum and I are now going to run into town and mess about.

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