Beaches

Woke up to a gorgeous morning. Here's the view outside my front door, I took this picture to send to Grandma after she sent me a picture of the snow she woke up to at her place.


Met Josien in Porirua at Spotlight. I had to buy some tea towels of course; I got the cutest campervan ones, perfect for summer. You wouldn't believe how big those campers are inside that the kiwis camp in. Huge and roomy. Anyways.
I made sure to buy a journal while I was near the Porirua mall; I'm on my 3rd journal now. I like writing in it as I just don't feel comfortable being too open over the internet in this blog.
We stopped to say goodbye to friends before they left on their road trip up north (everyone seems to be going up to the northlands for the holiday). Then finally we were off to "shell beach." That's not it's real name, just the name I gave it.

Josien did great walking the very steep trail down to the tide pools despite being almost 6 months pregnant and wearing sandals. We found lots of pretty paua shells for her. We found live crabs, and even a starfish.
Josien told a great story about how when she was camping in France (I can't get over when my friends talk about "camping in France") she found a ton of starfish on the beach. Before she went to bed she laid them out to dry, but in the middle of the night she heard tons of cats. The cats ate all of them except for a tiny starfish that she saved for years. I like starfish story.

After the beach and a few other random chores (it's fun to be with a pregnant woman when she buys 4-5 bottles of wine-- for guests) we went to her house. Their house is amazing, right on the beach.

When her husband Marc came home, we all went out for a swim. The water was waist deep for several dozen yards out to sea. I jokingly asked Josien if there were sharks in the water, and she said "yes." Then she said that they were great white sharks. (!!) She said not to worry though, that the sharks keep to the island across the way (The island that was clearly visible-- maybe 5 kms away). Naturally I promptly got out of the water. When I got home I researched whether the area really has Great White Sharks and apparently it's true, one was even spotted this time last year on the same part of the beach I was swimming in, in waist-deep water. aaaaagh