Island Rescue

It was a harrowing day. Right after posting the last entry, my house mate, Gardener, suggested we all go swim to the island. Eight of us went down to the beach. Once you're down their it looks quite a bit more daunting. In actuality, the distance is about 250 meters (800 ft.). Me, Gardener, Kris, Jim and Kristin decided to go for it. Kris and Jim immediately realized they weren't up for it after waiting in, but the rest of us kept up.



Kristin is an excellent swimmer. She made it to the island and immediately swam back just for the exercise. I on the other hand, am a terrible swimmer. I had no business trying to swim that far, but it's so hard to judge distance with no frame of reference. I got my frame of reference when I was utterly exhausted half way across and I could see the little dots of Gardener's and Kristin's heads in the distance. I was loosing my breath and had swallowed a bit of water, so I started to panic a bit. But really I knew that I could just float on my back and wait for rescue if worst came to worst.

I decided to press on by slowly back-stroking. By this time, Kristin had swam back to shore, but Gardener was waiting for me. I landed on the island only to discover I had to make my way across another 10 meters field of crustacean encrusted rocks. I was too exhausted to do it standing, so I crawled ashore.

Once there, we had a great time. The island is often visited by boaters, and has picnic tables, a porta-john, and electricity. It's basically a forest and beach camp ground. Beautiful flowers, native flora, and screeching pied ostercatchers. Deserted at the time we were there.

After quite a bit of tramping around the island, we went back to shore to swim back. But it was getting very cold and windy, and the tide had risen, as well as the size of the swell. I thought about it for a while and decided I couldn't make it back. We debated if Gardener would swim back alone and get help. But instead we went out to the pier and waved at passing boats like the stranded fools we were. We weren't sure if we would be noticed for for hours. But pretty quickly some friendly kiwis motored up to find out what our situation was. Gardener and I hugged each other as if we had been rescued after weeks of foraging for food and water. They dropped us ashore at the yacht club down the road from where we started the adventure three hours earlier.

Views from the Collective House

The Sun Sets Over Nelson, originally uploaded by mattthew.

Here are some photos of the view from the back deck of the CouchSurfing Collective house. Every evening brings a spectacular sunset, always unlike the previous evening's sunset. The long shadows and orange glow lighting lasts for about an hour because the sun sets so slowly. The sun finally disappears at around 9:00pm.

Compare these two photos from sunset and dawn. Both show the little island just off shore from the beach below the house. Some of the CouchSurfers have swam out to the island, and sail boats often lay about there.

My internal clock doesn't quite know what to do with these long days. When it's 9pm, it feels like 6pm, then it's midnight before I've noticed it's evening. This photo was taken one night that I stayed up until dawn. It was the first time I saw the moon in New Zealand.

Craters on the Moon, Taupo, New Zealand

Craters on the Moon, Taupo, New Zealand, originally uploaded by mattthew.

While on my way to Nelson, I stopped in Taupo for the night. I was hosted by Diane through CouchSurfing who showed me some of Taupo's natural beauty. She also let me know that Taupo, a Maori word, does not rhyme with cow-toe. It rhymes with Poe-awe.

Diane was awesome and knew lots of great spots in Taupo, but Craters on the Moon was my favorite.

Panorama of Cable Bay

Panorama of Cable Bay, New Zealand, originally uploaded by mattthew.

On Sunday I went on a hike around Cable Bay, just outside of Nelson. The first telegraph cable connecting New Zealand to the outside world landed there. Before that it was named Schroeders Mistake, but I can't find any explanation for why. In any case, the views - like everywhere in New Zealand - are stunning. This composite panorama gives some sense of that.

On this same hike we saw baby lambs literally bouncing along rock faces too steep for us to climb, then we walked down into a forest of fern and palm trees before ascending to views of our house in Nelson from a great distance.

What makes these views even more incomprehensible in person is that they change massively by the minute. The rapidly moving cloud masses change the sky, the reflection and shadows on the water, and the way that sunlight reflects off of everything. Every minute brings a totally unique vista that stretches out in unblemished clarity to beyond where the eye can make out.

My First Video

I've been in New Zealand for a week, and I have many stories to tell. Right now I'm staying at the CouchSurfing Collective in Nelson. For those of you who don't know what that is or why I'm here, the other volunteers here have created web pages to explain what the Collective is all about.

This past Saturday, some of my housemates and I went on a trip to Nelson's city center to visit the outdoor market. Since part of my job here is to create media for CouchSurfing members, I created this video. I've got a bunch of stories and pictures that will tell you about New Zealand, but for now, meet some of the people I live with:

By the way, here's the address where I can receive mail:

22 The Cliffs
Brittania Heights
Nelson 7010
New Zealand