March 12

It is Friday morning, the sun is out and the breezes gentle, which is nothing at all like yesterday. Ed and I (Colleen) drove out the Otago Peninsula yesterday to do some exploring and hiking. For lunch, we stopped at a pretty little cafe at the town of Portobello, and Colleen finally got the Fish and Chips meal she was coveting. After cruising some of the windy gravel roads, we decided to take the Pyramids Trail to the beach, and took a hike in the wind and horizontal rain. The interesting thing is that, here in New Zealand, we were not the only ones out. In California, in even a little rain, we can go outdoors and usually count on being alone. Not so with these hardy New Zealand folks. As we headed out from the car park, with our backs to the wind, we met several people coming back from the beach. One kind lady stopped to talk with us, expressing that the trip back was considerably more challenging than the trip out and telling us where she had seen a Sea Lion. A couple headed out ahead of us had two small children with them and they stayed out nearly as long as we did. We took a little detour to climb a volcanic rock formation for a superb view from the top. I had to hang on to keep from being blown over. But for a good time, we had the entire beach, which stretched on for miles, entirely to ourselves. Perhaps this was due to the 80 MPH winds blowing sand. Colleen had the foresight to wear her full rainproof gear. Ed neglected to bring the rain pants, so by the return to the car, his boots were soaked from the water running down the legs. We successfully navigated back to Villa Rosa with Colleen as navigator (which is a rather risky situation) and showed up rather wet but with big smiles about a fabulous day.