A kelp carwash & Coastguard to the Rescue!


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Oceania » New Zealand » North Island
December 14th 2010
Published: December 14th 2010
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Photo 2Photo 2Photo 2

An awesome car we saw on the way to MUFTI day in Auckland. In it was a little old man and his wife, looking totally content!
So last I talked to you all it was the 15th of November. Well, so much for updating once a week, or at least attempting to do so. As always, every night before bed I have tried to write down what happened that day, but some nights I was just SO tired, and now the job of sitting down attempting to write this (months?) entry is going to be like stepping back in time. So much has happened since I last talked to you on November 15th. I went diving at the Poor Knight Islands, the pontoon on the boat burst and we had to get rescued by Coast Guard, we had almost non-stop Orca action (breaching, feeding, socializing) and I found out that my younger brother Alex is coming to visit me! He will be here from December 22nd through until January 10th. To prepare, I bought Leonie’s little van, Gramps and have planned a grand adventure for Alex and I.

Also, the most important part! If any of you have facebook, check out the Orca Research Trust. Leonie and I have been put in charge of updating the page with everything we have done out on the water
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The truck was from New Hampshire and had a list of all of the places the truck, it's driver and passenger had been :)
with the animals. There you can see all of the pictures that I can't post on here of the animals (and many with me looking at the animals). If you don't have facebook, you can still check it out at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Orca-Research-Trust/209672764495?v=wall

For those of you who are none users: Click on the link for 'Wall' and scroll down to see different postings of pictures and stories. If you click either the pictures or the name of the posting then you can see everything on one page. Hope you are able to get on and enjoy! If anyone can't see it - email me and I can help you out 😊

Well now for the good (totally winded however) account of the past month starting on November 16th. Hope you enjoy and don’t get too sick of my rambling!

For the next few days, Leonie and I switched between sorting pictures for the photo ID and painting and doing other odd chores. On the 17th we took some time off and went into town in the afternoon to get some errands done. Leonie and I both set up little Christmas packages for home, so we did our last minute shopping before sending them off. We ended up finding some really quaint shops along the waterfront in Whangarei where we wandered and looked at all of the crafty things for sale. Although most of it was of course touristy junk, some of it, including kouri wood carving work was quite impressive.

On the 18th, Ingrid had set up for Leonie and I to go out with Dive Tutukaka on a diving trip. We woke up at 6 to Ingrid running down the hall screaming. It took me a minute to realize that no, we did not have orca, yet the sunrise was one that cannot be missed. I grabbed my camera, snapped a few shots, and as it was my dad’s birthday, I called him up as a surprise! It was nice to hear his voice (even though he didn’t recognize me at first. Smooth move, dad!).

Leonie and I headed out in Gramps, here little van, and within a half hour were being geared up by the Dive Tutukaka crew. Soon enough we were on the boat and on our way out to the Poor Knight Islands. On the ride over I overheard some of the fellow passengers talking and realized that we had a fellow American on board. Now I realize why Leonie gets annoyed seeing Germans everywhere she goes! I don’t come to NZ to see other Americans! The worst part? He is the ‘typical’ American that is stereotyped here in NZ; loud, obnoxious and always monopolizing conversations. I couldn’t help but sigh and shake my head.

The swell was huge that day, so I laid back and watched the water. Luckily for us, it was a gorgeous day and soon enough we were at the islands. On the way over, the crew had explained that we could either dive with a guide or by ourselves, as long as we had a buddy. Upon heading that, I knocked Leonie overboard so as to not be stuck with being her dive buddy. Well, not really, but I wish 😉 This was her first time diving in the ocean and she was SOO excited. Well it was my first time diving in sub-tropical waters, so I was just about as excited as her. We decided that we would dive with the guide and a group for the first dive, after which we could decided what we wanted to do for the second dive. We arrived at this spot called the Labrid channel, (named for all of the Labrid fish) and in a very efficient manner, most of the passengers were in the water within a half hour. I was feeling great, not a bit cold thanks to the amazing wetsuits we had. Leonie was getting reacquainted with dive equipment and after everyone was ready we ducked underwater. The dive was amazing, everything I hoped and more. The water was very clear (except some selp particles) and the flora and fauna was amazing. We saw huge sting rays, fluorescent (slugs?), thick kelp beds and an unlimited number of sea urchins. I was instantly having a blast and was looking in and around every rock. The kelp was amazing and while on the boat, the crew told us to feel free swimming into the kelp to look for hidden critters. It was great! Just like being in a giant car wash, as the kelp would float past and slowly wipe itself across my mask. I was just waiting for the whiring noise and to see soap suds! Around half a tank we turned back for the boat
Blue Whale's from the house!Blue Whale's from the house!Blue Whale's from the house!

So big, even though they look tiny. This was about 900m from shore.
and the first people started to go up, while I and a few others stayed down to finish our tanks off. I came face to face with little critters, went deeper into the kelp, and was even handed a sea urchin that someone had picked up! The poor thing must have been terrified (if it has feelings that is), because the second it was put into my hand all of the little feet stuck to me, and when I went to put it down it took a bit of rigorous shaking on my part to break it loose.

When I worked at The Lloyd Center in North Dartmouth, we had a tank of sea water critters. In this tank we had a little sea urchin that would pick things up around the tank and carry them around with her. I figured that it was just because she/he/it was bored due to the tank, but I saw many other sea urchins while diving that were carrying things. I figure it must be some failed attempt at camoflauge and defense, but it looked kinda cute. At the end of my tank I surfaced and after everyone was on bored, the skipper Luke (a good friend of Ingrid’s) pulled up anchor and took us on a short tour around the islands. He took us through some natural tunnels (one must have been as big as the Ted Williams Tunnel) in the rock, explained the island history and took us in a cave that happens to be the largest sea cave in the world. Once inside, we cut the engines and all screamed the cave’s name and listened to the echo. The history of the island is actually quite interesting and the story is as follows. A tribe of Maori lived on the island for a few hundred years. They had got old of some pigs and were the only ones in NZ that had pigs. People from all over the two islands would canoe out to the islands in order to buy pigs from them (they only sold them dead so as to disable competition). At one time, a man from the west coast walked across the island then canoed to the Poor Knights. Once their, the chief on the islands dismissed this man and sent him back to where he came from. Instantly, there poor man hated this chief and he vowed revenge. Many years later, a big war called the chief and many of the men from the islands onto the main land. The poor traveler heard that the island was all but deserted and he attacked, killing and burning almost everything on the island. The few survivors moved to the mainland and still have ancestors to this day. As it is a national heritage park it is forbidden that humans or any other non-native animal touch soil on the islands, so the settlements are preserved (supposedly) to this day.

After our little history lesson we stopped at another dive spot called Nursery Cove, where Leonie and I opted to dive ourselves. We were told of a good course and path to follow and were in the water pretty quickly. We dropped to depth, landing on a sandy patch of sea floor before heading out along a rocky wall. Soon enough we came across a huge underwater tunnel. There were hundreds of fish swimming in the middle and I saw a few huge stingrays lying on the bottom. As per the instructions we went up and through the tunnel and then cut sharp to the right. There was another huge kelp bed and we spent some time investigating all of the critters there. At this point, a handstand seemed the perfect thing to do. I grabbed Leonie’s arm and told her to watch me. After watching my handstand, she rolled her eyes as to say, ‘Yes, dumbass, I can do the same thing’. I laughed so hard I actually flooded my mask and had to take it off and clean it out. It may not seem funny, but seeing her face and how utterly bored she was with my little acrobatics is just the perfect definition of our relationship. Needless to say, a bit later Leonie put on a show of her own, busting a dance move in the middle of a kelp bed, once again causing me to flood our mask. It was just so great to be thoroughly enjoying ourselves, loving the view and seeing some many great things. I honestly didn’t want that dive to ever end. We continued our way back to the boat, following the rock wall into the shallows of the cove. At one point I spotted a crawfish (their version of lobster) that was larger than any lobster I have ever seen in person. The thing was HUGE! I was pretty impressed and for the rest of the dive we saw tons of scorpion fish, crawfish, urchins, brightly colored fish and gorgeous kelp beds. I have never been diving in kelp before, and although coral is gorgeous, I think the kelp is just magnificent. At one point I stopped and floated along with the kelp. The waves were pushing me back and forth and I got a bit dizzy because for a moment I thought the rocks were moving and everything else was staying the same, it was such a crazy feeling! Too soon the dive was over and we were back on the boat, heading home. The sun had come out and warmed us up a bit and both Leonie and I napped a bit.

Back at the shop, we helped the crew bring the gear up and grabbed our stuff and headed home. Both of us were exhausted, so after quick showers we collapsed into bed.

The next day we worked on updating the Orca Research Trust facebook page for Ingrid, then cleaned the garage. Nothing special. However, the next morning, on the 20th we were up early and working on computer stuff. We got a call real early for Orca. Gines Pastor, a local cameraman, has been asking Ingrid to take him out since seeing her work at the Spirits Bay Pilot Whale Stranding a few months back. She called him up and an hour later we were on our way out of the Tutukaka harbor. The water was really choppy, with both Ingrid and I feeling sea sick really quickly. It took us a while to find the animals in that surf and we played phone tag with the people on land that had spotted the animals. Just under an hour later we were with about 15 animals including Miracle, Magic, Merlin, Dian, Digit, Nibble and a scattering of others. They were really social at first, with one juvenile female breaching at least 7 times in a row! During one breach she let go a loud ‘PTHBTTT’, blowing raspberries from her blowhole! Nibble had a great time cutting through the surf and after letting the little female breach for a bit, he showed her how it was done with a huge crack of a side flop. After a bit of hunting, the group split in two with miracle Merlin and Nibble staying close to shore while the rest went into deeper waters. We followed them for about 5 hours while they hunted. A few times they ran into some other people, at one point scaring the shit out of a few free divers. We sat back and watched as the orca came around the rock towards the divers and were all in tears as we watched one diver nearly walk on water to get away from the orca! Only a few minutes later the animals cut near a group of children that had swum out from a beach onto some rocks. They were pretty funny, screaming to younger children to ‘Get back, get out of the water! Runnnn!!! Get out of the water’. We calmed them down and told them that everything was ok, and that the orca probably didn’t even give a second thought to them being there! Soon enough
We were back at Tutukaka heads and met up with the rest of the animals. All of the Dive Tutukaka boats were out, along with a few other commercial and personal boats and we stayed with them north up until we were below the OREC (Orca Research and Education Center aka home) before heading home. At this point we were all exhausted and the waves had picked up significantly into a decent sized swell. I had been driving for the past hour or so and I was definitely ready for warm clothes, a warm bed and a soft pillow.

Unfortunately for us, the day wasn’t over and back at home we noticed that there was a large hole in the boat engine. An unchartered rock that we had hit thanks to a perfectly timed swell had left us with a nice souvenir and the engine was leaking oil pretty rapidly. Normally, we think that when orca go through small openings between the rocks, that we too will be able to fit. Turns out this time we were far from right, and we had something to show for it. As tomorrow is Sunday, we have to wait until Monday to head into town to get it fixed.

The next day (the 21st) we ended up having to stay in due to the boat. For me, it was a blessing in disguise because although we were really unfortunate hitting that rock, I was able to get the rest of the pictures sorted of the pilot whales we saw in Tutukaka. The was a huge job and I was really proud of that. While I was working on all of that, Leonie spent the day scanning pictures into the computer, after which I spent a few hours scanning in slides of Ingrid’s negatives from the 90’s.

On the morning of the 22nd, mission was to get into town and get the boat fixed. Ingrid wanted to be at the shop just as they opened so that she could talk to the owner and try and get the boat looked at as soon as possible. As usual around here, we ended up having a million thngs to do before we left, so we didn’t get out of the house until around 8. We had to bring the recycling down to the street, so while Ingrid worked in the office, Leonie and I got the boat and truck packed and ready with all of the gear and the recycling in the back. Off we went soon after and when we got down to the driveway there were two school age girls waiting for their bus. We said our hello’s and they mentioned that they must have missed the bus. Well we weren’t going to let them be late to school, so we emptied out the back seat and thye jumped in with me. Once the girls found out who was driving them to school they asked a million questions and we chatted all the way into Whangarei. It turns out one of the girls had a national exam that morning and if she missed it that meant she wouldn’t be able to continue on with that subject next year. Also, both of them were bio geeks, so we had a good time into town. Soon enough we were dropping them off, then we headed to the mechanics shop, dropped off the boat and Leonie and I set off to get some errands done. We met up with Ingrid a little while later and spent the next few hours driving around like mad men, trying to get as many errands done in the shortest amount of time. We got a call that they had fixed the boat and we went to go pick it up to find a spot weld. The boys said it was the cheapest and that although tye weren’t sure if it would hold, it was worth a shot. The latest Harry Potter movie came out the other day, so our next stop was to check out times for that seeing that it seemed that we wouldn’t be getting a call for orca after all. After that we got some quick lunch before the movie. Now that we had picked up the boat we had to find a secure spot to park for the movie, and after pulling into an old parking lot what happened, but the phone rang with orca in the Bay of Islands.

Ingrid asked us if we wanted to stay or go, but really in that situation there is no option. On our way up we got calls from the normal crowd letting us know where, when how many, etc. We arrived pretty quickly and were wth the animals around 3ish. It turned out to be the same crew again, plus a few more. Nibble, Mircale, Merlin and other animals including Diane, Digit, Anzac, TJ and his mother and brother. We ended up meeting up with John and his fiancé who were out in the Manawhanui. After following the animals into and out of small bays for a few hours, they decided to put on a good show and we watched for a while as the big males socialized. At one point, one male was nose down rubbing his tail along the dorsal fin of another male who was floating as if dead on the surface. They must have decided to get us in on the fun, as one male came up to the boat, angled his blowhole directly into my camera lense and blew a huge bit of whale snot right onto my camera lense! He surfaced a minute or so later, looked at me as if to say ‘HA! Gotcha!’ before kicking off and disappearing around some rocks with the rest. They were deep inside the Bay of Islands at this point and we ended up following them all the way out around Albert Passage where they stopped for some crazy hunting. At one point I was driving in an area maybe 10 feet wide, with a huge swell and 4 orcas, nose down against the rocks. They had a ray pinned and there was just enough light that we could see the poor ray. He had basically
Pahutkawa Tree Pahutkawa Tree Pahutkawa Tree

Better known as the New Zealand Christmas tree for the bright red flowers that bloom in December.
saran-wrapped himself to the underside of a rock in hopes of getting away from the pod. No luck for him though and after seeing some chunks float to the surface we were off following another bunch. At this point the water cleared up dramatically, the sun was setting and the view was just gorgeous. We could see straight down to the animals below us. Luckily Ingrid was able to get into the water to get some footage of them hunting. I could see perfectly from the surface as a whole group of them were nose down in the crystal clear water. They were definitely going after a ray. The story Ingrid told on the way home goes as follows: “There were a group of 5 animals head down towards a rock crevase trying to get at an eagle ray. As the adults were working, there was one juvenile female (the one that breached in Tutukaka the other day) who was just so persistant that she join the hunt. When she couldn’t squeeze in amongst the adults she would squeal and shake her head until they parted and let her in. Unfortunately for her she could not hold her breath as long as the adults and upon every breath she would swim up to me, blow bubbles in my face in frusteration, take a quick breath and resume her ‘hunting’ activities. At the same time that this was happening, a large adult male was lying on the thick kelp on his side with his pectoral fins almost touching each other. Apparently he thought he had the best seat in the house as he was just lying waiting for the others to get the ray."

It was truly an AMAZING time with the animals and we all basically had to tear ourselves away that night. Around 8 we all said our goodbyes and started towards the boat ramp. On the way back Ingrid saw a boat with 4-5 divers in the water. They were all waving and as it was pretty late we drove over to see what was up. Turns out the poor guys had lost their engine earlier on in the day. They were out diving for some food for a funeral and had lost hope of someone coming to get them. Right after the engine died, they sent a friend off in a canoe, back to the boat ramp. His plan was to drive the truck and trailer to a beach nearby in hopes of being able to get the boat there. In the meanwhile, the remaining crew were in the water swimming the boat to shore. We couldn’t let them continue on, and we piled most of them in our boat, attached their boat to ours and towed them home. Good thing we did too, because it started to get cold out and the ride back took a good amount of time. We dropped the boat and most of the crew while one other man came out with us as we went looking for the guy in the canoe. We found him within 20 or so minutes, and MAN was he relieved to see us. The poor guy looked utterly exhausted and it turns out his canoe trip had taken maybe 4-5 hours. There was little chance he would have been able to find the boat with the truck and trailer at that time of night, so everyone was pretty excited to have been rescued by a bunch of girls doing Orca research in a bright red boat!

On the morning of the 23rd, we were all really tired, but when the call for Orca came in, we were in the truck in a heartbeat. The orca were out of Oakura, coming south, so we launched from Tutukaka and drove north. The ride was really long, as the area we were headed to was half way to the Bay of Islands. On the way, we passed a large reef called Elizabeth reef, something that on clear days we can see from the house as break water. Once with the animals we noticed that the water was really murky and the animals were very spread out, with their surfaces being sporadic. We noted some baby hammerheads in the area and after seeing some rapid surfaces and huge splashes, Ingrid assumed that the orca may have been hunting them along with the rays. After following them for a few hours, we noted a boat approaching and talked to some Maori from a local tribe. They had been watching the orca for a while, and before leaving to head back to shore for work they asked us for our pictures! Kind of a weird feeling, but I guess Ingrid must be really used to it. We ended up staying with them until 1, when it got really choppy. At that point we strapped all of the gear down and prepared for a wet bumpy ride back home. Every since taking the pontoon into get fixed it had been losing air, so we made sure to pump it nice and firm before we left.

That apparently wasn’t good enough, for about an hour later, after jumping some HUGE waves we pulled into a sheltered cove to pump the now flat pontoon up again. As Ingrid was pumping I noticed that just as quickly air was bubbling up from under the boat. After some heavy debates we decided to call Coast Guard and see what they said. It figures that about a minute later, the radio was abuzz with a sever weather warning, saying all vessels should get off the water or pull into sheltered shallow waters. After that, coast guard said to anchor and that they would come and get us. While waiting for them (at least an hour and a half) Leonie and I went snorkeling in the gorgeous water. I saw tons of stuff, including huge fish, kelp, tons of sea urchin and even a huge octopus!
Rico Rico CaveRico Rico CaveRico Rico Cave

The view from inside Rico Rico Cave, the largest sea cave in the world! Out at the Poor Knights.
I tried to point it out to Leonie, but it was just so well camouflaged that she had a hard time seeing anything but it’s siphons. Soon enough our rescuers arrived, and it was decided that Leonie and I would pile into the Coast Guard boat along with all of the gear. Ingrid would then head north as we followed, anchoring at Oakura beach in another sheltered shallow water. She was to wait until we could get back o shore, where we would meet Luke, the skipper for Dive Tutukaka who would take us up in Ingrid’s truck. The plan worked pretty well, except Mother Nature decided to toss around quite a bit. I nearly lost my stomach on the way home, with even some of the Coast Guard guys getting queasy. They were real great guys though, and as the system works on a purely volunteer basis I was utterly impressed (and thanking God) that they came to our ‘rescue’. Ingrid had said worst case scenario we would have just pulled the boat up on a beach and slept on the floor for the night. As it was raining when we left her, I was pretty excited that we didn’t have to do that.

Well back at shore, Luke and Jake, a boy working with Dive Tutukaka met us at the boat ramp, we piled the gear into Ingrid’s truck then headed to her place quick. We dumped the gear with Leonie as she opted to stay behing to clean while the boys and I headed north with the trailer. We got to Oakura 7 hours after leaving Ingrid. The poor thing was nearly hypothermic as it had apparently been raining every since we left here. A local met us there with a tractor and we pulled the boat out and quickly jumped in and headed home. After dropping the boys off to their respective trucks, Ingrid and I didn’t get home until nearly 11. All three of us were so drained that we went to bed right away, leaving everything as is.

Upon waking up the next morning we took a look at the boat to see that it had basically turned into confetti after losing it’s air. The ride home coupled with a weak patch were later found to be the problem, but the next morning it just looked like the end of the world and a whole hell of a lot of problems.
The next few days we were all zombies. On the 24th I worked on sorting tons of Pilot Whale pictures from people all over the country. Ingrid is working on updating her Pilot Whale catalogue and it’s my job to go through all of these pictures and sort them and look for any duplicates or matches that may exist. The boys had invited us diving, but I for one was exhausted and (despite having taken an afternoon nap) I ended up going to bed real early. The 25th was mostly the same, except for the news that we found out the pontoon was flat as hell. After a bit of shuffling we found someone able to get it fixed. We ended up driving into town, ran around and did a bunch of errands, brought the boat to get the pontoon fixed, went to see the new Harry Potter movie (so exciting!) then hit the grocery store and went home. That night there was an anniversary celebration of the sinking of a ship off of Tutukaka (in order to create a huge reef and diving hotspot). We decided to stop in real quick, which resulted in us staying for over an hour and returning home with tons of leftovers!

On the 26th, Ingrid had set up to go to a school in Auckalnd for a visit with her teacher friend Kate. There was a dress down day (called Mufti in New Zealand) where the children were allowed to wear normal clothes instead of uniforms in exchange for a dollar. Well today, they had to wear black and white (or orca costumes) and the dollar goes to the Orca Research Trust.

Right when we got there Ingrid jumped in and started signing postcards for the children of the school. Before leonie and I knew it, the line for autographs was huge! I grabbed my camera and spent the hour walking around taking pictures of the events, costumes and participants. The school was decorated with signs, pictures, blow up orca and so much more. Many of the teachers were wearing orca themed outfits with just as many children wearing full costumes. One cute little girl had on a lab coat with a badge saying Dr. Olivia Visser, Orca Researcher! After the hour lunch break, the children returned to their classes and Ingrid, Leonie and I headed up to Kate’s room after helping to clean. Once up in Kate’s classroom, Ingrid helped organize prizes and signed more memorabilia. It was great seeing the different works of art, stories, costumes and other things entered into the contests. The best part was seeing just how far the teachers had gone to make the day succeed. It was an absolute great show and at the end of the day, almost $4000 was raised for the Orca Research Trust!
After saying a million ‘Thank You’s’ and congratulating all of the children we headed to the road. The next stop was to Massey University in Auckland for Ingrid to have a meeting about a paper she is co-authoring on. A few hours later we were on our way home after a very long, but very fun day!

The next few days were occupied with cleaning the house before it was to be sprayed for spiders. We took soft brooms and buckets of water and scrubbed every inch of the outside of the house. After being sprayed for spiders, the house can’t be washed for 6 months, so we had to make sure we got the piles of cob-webs and spider gunk off. I honestly have never seen spiders build webs so fast in my life. I only washed the windows a few weeks ago, and already they are cloudy and covered over. It’s like spider man visits every night and helps the little critters out!
On the 27th we started washing and after lunch that day we all settled in for a short nap. Well, not long into that and Ingrid was sprinting down the halls screaming. Turns out that three blue whales were right off shore! I have honestly never been so upset for not having a boat. The three whales were going at a steady 8-9 knots and were surfacing rapidly. There was no mistaking them to be blue whales though. We ended up getting Dive Tutukaka on them, and next to the whales, the boats looked like ants! The blows alone were at least three times the size of the boat! We ended up going to the neighbours house and watching the whales from her backyard as she has a better unobstructed view of the coastline. As the blows were so big, we watched the whales all the way until Elizabeth reef which is half way to the Bay of Islands.

On the 28th we continued our house cleaning, and this time after lunch Leonie and I went for a snorkel at the neighbours beach. It was nice and warm and the two of us spent a while looking for shells before going in the water. As we were in a little lagoon it was nice and warm and we didn’t need wetsuits, but there were still plenty of fish, kelp and sea life. It really was gorgeous and I had a hard time getting out of the water when I was cold. We ended up laying in the sun for a bit before returning home.

On the 29th we were up and working on the computers real early. We finished washing the house and did a bit more computer work before bed.

30th
This morning we were up, breakfasted, dressed and prepared for the 9 o’clock arrival of Mr. Spiders. We had decided to spend the day cutting flaxes, so after a quick briefing on the fogging process, Leonie and I set to work on the flaxes while Ingrid went off with Mr. Cows to fix some leaky troughs. Now the flaxes are a HUGE project because the plants are huge, line the driveway and need to be trimmed back drastically as they are hanging over the road. The two of us worked on pulling, cutting and hacking until lunch time when Ingrid joined us for a bit more work and then clean up. Even though Ingrid felt as if we had done a lot, I still couldn’t help looking down the driveway and being horrified at how much we have left. Now the reason I am horrified is because the row of flaxes is almost 1 km long and we only did maybe one truck length. After lunch we sat down for a breather and noticed a marine mammal surface way off shore. We grabbed the binoculars and although we didn’t see anything again it was nice to sit on the lawn and stare at the sea. We decided to take naps for a half hour and I spent that time cutting some flax reeds that I had gathered into long thing strips. While in dive tutukaka the other day I noticed some jewelry for sale and the rope was made of flax threads cleaned and dyed. I might just be able to replicate that if I’m good ☺ That didn’t last too long and soon enough we were off on more jobs.

In New Zealand they don’t have septic systems but instead have systems called bio cycles which is basically a personal water treatment system set up into a few tanks in the yard. The process is smell free (believe me I had my head in the tank) and really clean. We had to clean the filter and install and anti-bug spray. After that it was computer work for the rest of the afternoon before finishing up the night with a movie and chocolate!

December 1st
This morning when I woke up, we were supposed to get to work on the flaxes but I was exhausted! Leonie and I did our normal routine of wake up, have breakfast, clean the kitchen and puts around on the computer for a bit. She started to make something, so when I found out she was using the oven (Ingrid likes to conserve power and whenever we need to use the oven we cook as much as possible in there at one time) I got to work finding a simple sugar cookie recipe. I threw on a bit of Christmas music with my all time favorites, Frank and Bing! EEP! After a bit of cooking bliss, Leonie had an amazing loaf of fresh bread and a batch of cookies and I had my sugar cookies. Just about that time, Mr. Cows came and asked us for help moving some of his cows. We had helped him move some younger males to a neighbors paddock the other day. These youngens were mixed with some older well beefed up lads and a passerby saw the older cows and wants to purchase them. Well our job is to drive the group from one paddock, up to another near the house and then separate the young from the old. Then we have to return the young ones to the previous paddock. Sounds a lot simpler than it seems and after an hour or so we were back in the house, thoroughly exhausted. Dave was impressed though and promised he would have to treat us to ice cream some time ☺ Around this point we got to work on the pilot whale catalogue and around lunch time I laid on the couch for a ‘quick’ nap, and about 2 hours later I woke up to Leonie and Ingrid tip-toeing around the kitchen. Well back to work it was and we spent the rest of the afternoon updating facebook, working on the catalogue, working on the humpback document and so much more! As per usually, we finished off the night with popcorn and a movie before heading to bed.

2nd
This morning was no exception to the hectic lifestyle of late. We were up, breakfasted and ready pretty early. I got to work right away on the pilot whale stuff while Leonie got to work on some of her projects. Within an hour or so the phone rang and a man reported a stranded orca…from yesterday. While Ingrid got to who what when where and why, leonie and I rushed around and got our stranding kits updated. Although it turned out to be a false alarm (whatever it was had moved off the beach and was heading out to sea) it was good to get everything ready. We then got a call about a film crew coming at 2, and a past volunteer coming to visit. So while I got some finishing touches on one part of the catalogue Leonie cleaned. By two the house was looking gorgeous, and after the interview and brief visit I finished up my part and we did a bit more cleaning before an early dinner and movie. Afterwards Leonie and I did some exercises outside at sunset which was very nice. Afterwards it was updating some photos onto my hard drive then bed!

3rd
Woke up this morning and was told John was coming over to work on his paper. Spent an hour or two cleaning and doing a bit of pilot whale stuff, then john got here at 9. He wasn’t here for 20 minutes before leonie came running into the office saying Catherine was here. It turns out that a bunch of cows had got loose and we were needed to coral them back into a paddock. The three of us hopped in the blue truck and on the road up we met Guya walking moby. The two of them hoped in the truck as well and we drove to the top of the driveway and drove the cows into a paddock. It seemed as if they were expecting it, and they all ran quickly into the paddock. The head count was at least 30. After that we headed back to the house and John and Ingrid got to work on their paper. I worked on pictures for a while while the two of them worked. Before lunch I joined them and Leonie and I sat and watched as they discussed the paper. Around lunch time we took a much needed break and were quickly back to work. John and Guya left at 3/330 ish and Ingrid Leonie and I were too tired to keep working for much longer. We watched a movie, and it turned out to be HORRIBLE. So we stopped soon enough and put on another one. About 20 minutes into the end of it Mr. Cows came by and asked us to help him move the cows back. We did so, but I didn’t secure a gate properly and they took a little joy run. After this minor detour we were back to our movie with a bit of chocolate. Sunset came and we were off to bed.

On the fourth Leonie and I got up and worked a good deal on cleaning the house before setting to work on photo ID. At 330 I had my first day on the wash crew at Dive Tutukaka. It’s really not that exciting and I help grab the dive gear from the boats when they come in for the day, bring the gear back to the shop and wash and hang everything up. When I got home I heard the awful news that the pontoon on the boat (not he bag) had exploded which basically means the end of the boat. It definitely was a somber evening after that.

The next morning Leonie and I set to weeding the driveway, as a sponsor and his family were set to arrive. They arrived around 11 and spent a good deal of time talking to Ingrid, after which they invited us out on a snorkeling trip with Dive Tutukaka for the previous day!

Leonie and I were up and finished the weeding before heading down to the dive shop at 945. There we were greeted by Luke saying ‘Congrats on your nomination Ingrid!’. We all had no idea what he meant and after scanning the front page of the paper, we were shocked to find that Ingrid had been nominated for New Zealander of the year! It was a nice surprise! Well we were on the boat within the hour and heading out to the Poor Knights with Luke as our skipper. The sponsor, Brent and his wife had brought along their daughter and their daughters friend for a day of snorkeling. We spent most of the day in the water, checking out different tunnels, caves and other cool areas that Ingrid knew about. We saw just about everything; rays, tuna and so much more. After we had our fill of snorkeling around we went in search of marine mammals and found some dolphins that Ingrid and Brent jumped in the water with. On our way back we circled the pinnacles to get a closer look. Back ashore, Brent invited us to dinner, something that was almost called off as we got a (false) call for an orca stranding. After going back and forth on the phone, rushing home and packing the truck we found out it was a false alarm and got ready for dinner. The younger girls were back in the hotel room asleep and the three of us had Brent and his wife Lynn to ourselves. It was a nice dinner with delicious food and we all slept very well that night!

I woke up at 7 the next morning to Ingrid loading into the truck. Not only did the man who originally patch it do an awful job, but the recent guy blew up the pontoon after over inflating it. Ingrid was able to find someone in Auckland who could replace the entire pontoon system on the boat, so she was off to pick it up in Whangarei, and drive it down to Auckland, where she would spend the night and a few days. Leonie and I spent the day doing odd jobs and the next morning headed into Whangarei for some errands. By the time we got home Ingrid still hadn’t returned and I headed off to the dive shop for work while Leonie hopped on the computer. When I got back Ingrid was home with the boat and we all talked for a while before bed. Although the pontoons are exchanged for a different color and name, we now have a boat, so that’s a good thing!

The next morning we woke up, cleaned and got to work on loose ends here and there. A past volunteer and her family are arriving to stay the night in their camper van. Leonie and I worked on flaxes for a few hours and the family (Dani and her husband Dave and young girls Billie and Charlie) arrived with dinner. We sat and talked for a while, were visited by the little hedgehog (who has since been named Spikey) and were off to bed after another long day!

Friday and Saturday we switched between entertaining our guests and working. The family went out with Dive Tutukaka on Friday and Leonie and I worked all day on flaxes and computer work. Saturday they all helped us as we painted the bottom shed, cut down trees and cleared things out. After lunch we all went down snorkeling, after which some sponsors stopped by the house for a quick chat with Ingrid. Meanwhile, the family prepared dinner after which the visitors left and Ingrid took everyone out on the boat while Leonie and I stayed behind and rested. Everyone left early Sunday morning and Sunday through Tuesday (today) has been spent doing flaxes and doing computer work. Orca season is officially over and now we can only pray they will be in the area again soon.


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