March: Big Month

Hi All,

It’s been an incredible time for Gay and me here. There’s so much going on and so much to look forward to, sometimes it’s hard to step back from it all. Planning our trip has taken up a lot of our time and we’re both spending a lot of time with our noses in borrowed lonely planets and travel books and watching as many travel shows as are available on the 3 channels we get. Gay has been taking copious and detailed notes on all the places we’ve decided not to buy books for. Sometimes a little too detailed in my opinion; I was reviewing her Japan notes and she copied the Japanese translation for sensible things like chopsticks and how to say “I’m a vegetarian” and other not so sensible translations like “No thanks, I don’t need a bag”. No will ever say she’s not thorough.

Gay and I just finished a 10 day stint house sitting for a friend of mine. It was nice to get out of a shared space and into our own even if for a little while. I managed to completely fry a lawn mower motor in the process (sorry Mike). But anyway…

Gay’s new career…moving up in the world
Last week Gay officially had her last day at the café. Tomorrow she starts her brand new career as a fish processor at Sealords, the local fish processing plant. She’ll utilize her vast knowledge of all things culinary to expertly handle such things as crumbed fish, green-lipped mussels, filleted taraki and other New Zealand aquatic delights. Neither of us know what she’ll actually be doing to the fish but I’m sure it’ll be fun. I’m picturing something a long the lines of Laverne and Shirley except that instead of beer passing through the line, its fish parts. Personally, I’m glad she finished at the café because she’s been a lot happier ever since..plus I’m sure Sealords will pay decent money.

Hellllooo Tahiti + Diving adventures
We leave for Tahiti on the 17th of March!! In preparation for the trip to the islands I was able to quickly (about 4 weeks) get through a PADI open water diver course. So as of yesterday I’m officially certified to go scuba diving. Last weekend I got in a total of 4 open water dives in beautiful Okiwi bay about 1.5 hours from Nelson. Not the easiest thing I’ve ever done and I had some moments of panic, even got a little bloody, but all in all I got through it and had some fun in the process. I got to see a beautiful sting-ray, some crayfish (small lobsters) and some interesting terrains. I’m excited to see some proper tropical wildlife in Tahiti. My instructor kept telling me I’m going to be spoiled having my first dives in the islands. We’ll see.

Birthday
After Tahiti is my 30th birthday. Gay has got something planned and amazingly it has been kept a secret all this time. Whatever it is I’m sure it’ll be cool. Gay somehow managed to convince a total of 14 people to come along. It surprises the hell out of me that I actually know that many people here.
Interestingly enough we’re flying back from Tahiti on the 27th (my birthday) and it just so happens that we’re crossing a date line on the way back so technically it’s only going to be my birthday for about 8 hours out of the whole day. Guess I’ll just be 29 and ½ for awhile.

More trip planning
Our big trip plans are pretty much set and we’re nearly ready to buy our tickets this week. Much to the relief of poor Robyn our travel agent I’m sure. We’ve had a lot of revisions to the itinerary since we started on this process. Next step after buying the tickets is sorting out all the visa information.
May 4th is our current official date of departure.

I’ll be sure to get some good pictures in Tahiti and post them.