Finding adventure in everyday life

I want to start this blog post with a little ramble that attempts to capture a feeling I’ve been struggling with over the month of December. With so much left to see in NZ and lots of our hostel friends moving on in the last few weeks…I’ve been feeling a bit restless lately. I sometimes feel like this trip isn’t THE BIG ADVENTURE that I thought it should be. But this truth is…that it IS. Everyday’s little adventures plus some big events really do add up to a BIG ADVENTURE. The trouble lies in taking note of all the little things that add up to something big….

I always forget how quickly time can pass if you forget to pay attention to life’s beautiful details, so carefully hidden in mundane occurrences of everyday life. For example, while walking, biking or driving to work at Milk & Honey it is so easy to let the sea, ever present on my path, go unnoticed. I had a week or two in early December where I did just this…everyday I would walk with my headphones on, occasionally glancing at the ocean but not really taking it in. I was not really appreciating the gorgeous shades of blue and green or listening to the rhythmic sounds of the waves or the melody of the wind. I think I was distracted by being tired after a long shift or in anticipation of the shift to come. Of course, the feelings of homesickness and worrying about whether or not I should just be back in the states…you know taking a more traditional post-college path...didn’t help either. It was especially hard during Bill’s time of sickness and his quick decline. Or perhaps it was just the restless feelings. The little voice in my head was saying: hell if I’m here I should be off skydiving and bungee jumping or seeing new towns and new parks everyday. But then I had a wake up call. One day in December (actually the same day as Bill’s funeral) I was on my to work when I saw a pod of orca whales (maybe 4 or 5) swimming along the beach in front of Milk & Honey. I had never seen anything like that before and it reminded me that even though Stu and I have settled for a little while in Napier—a not-too-exciting town, far away from all that we have known prior to Sept 2010-- it doesn’t mean that noteworthy occurrences and adventures have to be a thing of the past. You just have to be willing to notice these things and let yourself get caught up in the daily opportunities for adventure. There are endless things to see and do and experience in any given place, and as long as you use your leisure time toget out there and see new things you will find it’s “worth it” to be wherever you are.

Adventures in December include: a wine tour (for Maggie) with Jo, day hikes with new friends, lots of surfing (for Stu) with Justin, LOTS of trips to the waterfalls near Ocean Beach, lots of trips to the beach (Waiputiki and OceanBeach), culinary experiments (Christmas cookies, broccoli soup), going to the Thirsty Whale…and just walking around Napier. Just seeing the flowers bloom and the waves roll in and the gorgeous birds that are everywhere around here. EVERY DAY is an adventure if you will just let it be.

In other news: Christma s happened. It felt like someone was playing a joke on us because the weather was HOT and SUNNY and it felt like summer. (Actually..it is summer). I did make Christmas cookies with a German friend in an effort to get in the “Christmas spirit” but ultimately we all decided not to try and recreate something that would feel empty and forced….instead everyone at the hostel celebrated in their own way. Stu & I started with a big breakfast (NZ style—complete with their weird Canadian-ham-type bacon and bakes beans on top). Next, a stop at the waterfalls where we both jumped heaps and Stu did a back flip off the waterfall bit in a santa hat!!! Check out facebook for more photos of this. Next stop was Ocean Beach where we napped and snacked and made snowmen out of sand. It was so funny to see little Christmas trees and santa hats all over the beach….We finished up the day with some sausages on the grill (complete with German style fried onions on top) and salad and guacamole on the side. Probably not a day that we’ll ever be able to recreate and not what I would have imagined for a Christmas celebration but an AWESOME day nonetheless.

For now I am working lots at Milk & Honey as things just keep getting busier there. Stu is on a bit of a break from the kiwis and is using the time to get back into the swing of things at the pottery studio. He is teaching a wheel throwing workshop (!!!) there in January so he’s focusing on that for the time being. And of course in all the time that we’re not at work, we’re busying getting caught up in adventures.