new zealand top 5 so far

Top 5 highlights so far, in no particular order:

1. the moment before we dropped into a mile long zip line across two huge, green mountains with a stunning view of the bright blue coastline and emerald farmlands. Four of us strapped into a crazy cylinder swing in the open air, our quiet, mischievous tour guide counted to 3 and then we were speeding out into the middle of nothing, at 77kph, the views unreal, the views like nothing you can compare to anything. My face bright with cold and painful from the smiling and screaming. Our shadow on the tree tops grew smaller the farther we went on the zipline and the realization of certain death should we fall mixed with the shear amazing ness of the surroundings created a tight, pounding pit in my stomach. We giggled the entire way.

2. Speeding through the same zipline mountains on a 4 wheeler, mud splashing all over from the puddles and rivers we crossed, feeling the vehicle i am on pull me back and forth around the twists and turns, feeling the tom boy i was when i was little surge in me and scream with excitement and joy. Passing crowds of sheep and ducks in the green rolling shire setting, seeing the sweet black and white sheep dog chasing us through the water and barking like we were his. Around and around and around, we did this forever and it was just right.

3. Riding a jet boat out into the sea, we headed for Abel Tasman national park for a 3 day hike/kayak. I listened to Milosh, some obscure techno/ambient band from goodness knows where, supplied by a person with far better musical taste than i, and we saw a few dolphins cruising in our wake. I was happy for this, as we had missed our whale watching trip a couple days earlier, due to bad weather. Suddenly, though, the boat guides turned directions and headed off our course and we saw what seemed to be tiny waves and tiny fins grow and grow until we were in and among hundreds and hundreds of dolphins. The music swelled, as if perfectly sound tracked for this moment. Piano played perfectly in time with the dolphins leaping all around and no one on the boat could talk, its all too beautiful to say anything. And i just listened, the voice to the music sang to me “oh, i love it here, i hope it goes my way, i'm trying to do something beautiful,” and to every side of me, the dolphns, they leaped, close, close, you can almost touch. 2, 5, 10, 17, 23, i gave up counting, and they swam in perfect time with us and almost knew, yes yes, we are beautiful, we are right here, we are here for you. It did not last moments, a full 10-12 minutes, we just raced with them and they let us have their beauty.

4. After a long and satisfying day of boating and hiking in the Abel Tasman and then waiting on a shore where the tide came in about 2 inches a minute toward us and then walking into the freezing water to a boat waiting to take us across this approaching water, we found ourselves on the opposite shore, climbing toward green and a warm light, the lodge we would stay in that night. When it all came into focus, it was the most perfect, ideal house i have seen in so long, done in the style of victorian era, maybe, but it was all new and just perfect. The warm light it gave just piercing me after such cold and everything inside it just so perfect, huge coaches, clean kitchen, simple bedrooms, cozy nooks, family pictures of the owners, a jack Russell terrier skipping around with a red bandanna on his neck. I kept saying, this place is perfect, this place is perfect. The yard went right to the edge of a small cliff that jutted down into the beach, green grass, perfectly enclosed, with a wrap around porch, and paths leading to perfect reading spots and a view of the perfect skyline, ocean, mountains, sky, forever.

5. Day 2 of Abel Tasman, the 2nd lodge, sitting in front of the fire, taking in “What is the What”, my sister leaning against me, reading “People”, my brother to the other side, reading “Popular Mechanics.” Everyone else scattered on the coaches, everything quiet and peaceful, us warm to the frosty outside, seriously resting, seriously contented.

There is more, just you wait.