Spring time memories

Thank you, Monica, for suggesting making use of my memories when my imagination is out to lunch.

Do other Facebook users enjoy the "You have memories to look back on" function?  I only hooked into it recently and am loving it.  Seems this is usually a very busy time of year for me.  But perhaps re-living my trip to UK and Europe around this time of year 6 years ago has left me feeling a bit sad thinking about how the world has changed since then.  

Instead I decided to dwell on how thankful I am that I made that trip when I did and the pleasures that remain the same. I'm surrounded by the signs of spring, new life, so the beauty of the changing seasons came to mind

Then I remembered the dolphins. 

During the autumn and winter of 2009 I ran a backpackers at surfside Mangawhai.  Most of the time during winter it was very quiet, many nights there was just 21 year old Aiden, a permanent guest during the week, and me.  Looking after the backpackers wasn't a fulltime job, I had three other part-time jobs, so I was kept busy.  It was a really happy time of my life.  I enjoyed meeting the backpackers from all over the world, I was pretty much in my element having new people to chat with all the time.

But the very best thing that happened during that time was the dolphins that visited at the surf beach.   A guest who was there for the surfing came in one evening hardly able to talk he was so excited.  He'd been riding a wave and saw a dark shape in the water beside him, on the side closest to the rocks.  At first he thought it was a rock, then he fell off his board as the "rock" shot out the front of the wave, flipped in the air over the crest of the wave.  He got back on his board and sat there, stunned, looking around and sure enough the dolphin came back, along with 5 or 6 mates.  He said they were obviously showing off, showing him how to really ride a wave.

After that, I started to take my regular walks along the surf beach rather than along the estuary closer to home. I saw them a number of times playing in the waves, sometimes only one or two, sometimes quite a gathering of them. They were small, were they children?

One day when I had with me 5 Finnish backpackers we all rolled up our trousers and waded into the surf with them. It was September, around this time of year, the water was freezing but we got quite carried away with the excitement of being there in the water with the dolphins. The taller guys could spread their legs wide enough for these darling little creatures to swim through. Obviously they were enjoying the fun as much as we were.

It was a remarkable, unforgettable experience. Just to see the delight in the eyes of the tourists would have been enough but I know that delight was also reflected in mine.

That was the last time I saw the dolphins. I figured that as the water warmed up they moved on.

But I will never forget the excitement and sheer joy of that day.

Magical Mangawhai where the dolphins played 

Today I believe summer really is coming.  I'm not going to get too excited about it, because I know what a witch Lady Spring is.  She lures you into tossing aside you winter woolies then hit you with a wintery blast, she may not be ready to roll over and make way for summer just yet.

And then, there's the good news for the day.  We in the north, along with the rest of the country outside Auckland, will have our Covid restrictions lifted from mid-night tomorrow night. 

 

Ta da!