Surfing!!!!

J and I got to go surfing today!!! Yay! Our friends Anna and Ollie invited us to go up to Opunake with them to surf. Of course, given my rather unsatisfactory week and my love of water sports, I was instantly ready to go. J, on the other hand, worked all week, and has to get up at 4:15 tomorrow morning for work, so he was looking forward to a quiet Saturday at home. Lucky for me, though, he was up for it, and off we went. It ended up being us, Anna and Ollie, and three of their friends from work, all of whom were very nice. It is about an hour and forty minute drive to Opunake, Taranaki. The views from the car were lovely, but I restrained myself from taking tons of pictures.

We got to Opunake and picked up lunch at a cute little café there, then went and rented our wet suits and surf boards from Dream Time surf shop. The people there were very nice and helpful. 

We went down to the beach, which was beautiful, and had a picnic lunch before we started surfing.

J and I almost look like we know what we're doing, hey? Wrong! I have never been surfing before, although I did go body boarding once in the Galapagos. J has been body boarding lots of times in Florida, but never surfing. Anna and Ollie very kindly showed us how to get on the board, and explained how to catch a wave and stand up, and then we just went for it!

This is me riding a wave (if you click on the picture, it gets bigger). I found it challenging to figure out which waves were good ones to try to catch, but J had a pretty good sense of it, as did Anna and Ollie, so I depended on them.

This is me STANDING UP on the surf board!! I was so proud of myself! I did it a bunch of times, although I fell before the end of the wave all but one time. You can see in this picture that I am getting rather off-balance. 

I didn't get any pictures of J surfing (because I didn't get out of the water for hours), but he was SO GOOD! He stood up loads of times, and had such good balance! I didn't know that I was married to a good surfer!

I really loved surfing. I love how fast you go when you catch a good wave, and the challenge of trying to stand up without losing your balance or the getting behind the wave. I also just love being in the water, and the feeling of floating and moving with the waves is wonderful. And it was nice that Anna and Ollie were experienced and skillful and could show us the ropes, and then since J picked it up so fast, he could help me along, too, and then I got comfortable quickly enough to have a lot of fun! What a success!

When we were all tired out from surfing, J and I decided to explore around the bend of the cliffs on the side of the beach, which involved a lot of rock-hopping, which I love. I think the different layers of rock are beautiful as well.

J rock-hopping away.

I love the ocean!!

This was the view a bit further around the bend. We went on quite a nice walk, and then came back to the beach and had some yummy ice cream cones to cool off. J had chocolate banana and I had passion fruit. I think it's so odd that we don't have much passion fruit food in the States - I think it is delicious!

On the way home, we got a wonderful view of Mount Taranaki. I was surprised that it still had snow on the top in summer, but it sure is beautiful. We will have to go and explore it some day.

I have mostly gotten over my disappointment at not getting that one particular job, but have been struggling this week to feel positively about my prospects for getting a job soon, and about my ability to be happy without one. I realize that surfing has nothing to do with that at all, but getting out and just having a really fun, adventurous time with J and some friends did me a lot of good, and I am feeling much more positive, even in my post-surfing exhaustion.

I am looking forward to going surfing again sometime soon! We already have plans for a trip between Christmas and New Year's (more on that later), and then J gets to choose our next day trip, so that will be something new. But sometime this summer, more surfing will be on the schedule!