People have told us there is an occasional pod of orcas in the harbor, but its not easy to see them, and killer whales travel pretty damn fast. We kept our fingers crossed the drive down to the beach Two minutes after looking out to sea with binoculars, we spotted  a rush of water shooting into the sky. Then we saw the fin, a big black fin, much bigger than the dolphin fins we are used to seeing. It was pretty close to shore, most likely feeding on stingrays, according to some locals..

We have been told that orcas travel alongside Raglan towards the harbor on the incoming tide to feed on the many stingrays that lurk below. There is a famous photograph posted all around town of an orca surfing a wave in the middle of a lineup full of surfers. I am not sure how stoked I’d be sitting on my small surfboard watching a killer whale ride the same wave I was, but I am sure it’d be a memorable moment.

Orcas are fascinating animals. Their brains weight up to 15 lbs and they can eat up to 220 lbs a day. What I found most interesting is a fact I heard on the radio the other day,

Killer whales use echolocation to communicate and hunt. According to National Geographic, orcas “make sounds that travel underwater until they encounter objects, then bounce back, revealing their location, size, and shape. They can even identify species of fish by their echo.” They are truly impressive animals, and I am lucky we had a chance to see them in their natural element. #Waybetterthanseaworld.

A few hours later , the storm passed, the seas calmed, the waves became perfectly glassy and there was another spectacular double rainbow. Johnny grabbed me and made me run outside to take a picture. I am so glad he did.

Okay, I have to go back to writing stories, but I wanted to share these magical images.

This morning, it was raining, with 18-knot winds.

I went running. It was all I could do. Running has been my response to doing anything that’s ever been difficult in my life. I ran when my dad died. I ran out of vanity when I lost for ASB president as a senior in high school. In fact, I entered a race that afternoon. Even though I wasn’t on the track team at the time, the coach let me enter the 400-meter individual race. I won. After the race, I ran home and felt better about everything. I realized it was stupid anyway and I didn’t even deserve or want to be the President, I just liked the title.

Since I was 11, I ran when I was sad, confused, angry, depressed or just had too much energy. I’ve run a fair amount of times for pure procrastination reasons. I competed as a runner through college. Running now serves as the perfect elixir to cure a looming deadline that feels impossible to finish. Running is also the best recipe for patching a broken heart.

When I heard about the runners who had their limbs ripped off at the finish line yesterday, like any sane human, it made me feel sick. Not because it could have been me, but because it was me. I am a runner. These are my people. These are “our” people. This wasn’t some crazy desert village in Afghanistan. This was Boston.

On my run this morning, I got pelted by sand and rain in my face and it felt good, like maybe the pain would take out some of the sadness. in the air. After 30 minutes of seeing no one else, I stopped and looked up. A man on a black horse galloped past the sand dunes near the entrance to the harbor from the beach. I waved and he and his horse kept going.  I’m not sure why, but I kind of hoped the horse to stop and look at me and move its hoof and wave, but it just kept running, and so I did too. Like a lot of my runner friends, all I could do today was run. I ran further than I have in months. I was just so sad and mad and felt so helpless and sorry. I couldn’t sleep last night. We all know people who were injured. I don’t know where this is going but it made me feel better writing it.

Someone just sent me this.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/173851/boston-marathon-all-my-tears-all-my-love#

It sums up what Boston was all about, and let’s people know that next year despite how awful it will feel, the race will have to go on. For those of you in Boston, my heart and thoughts are with you.

This place is like a surf cliché with corduroy lines to the horizon.

There’s a perfect beach break below our house. People ride their horses on it in the morning, and there’s plenty of hard sand that makes it a great beach for running. To the south of the beach,  lies point break after another point break, after another even more perfect pointbreak, and they are all left-handed, which is great for goofy-footers like me. There is also an outer sandbar off the beach with loads of barrels, and mushy waves on the inside for those days I just don’t feel like eating sand.

The other day, I think I surfed the longest wave of my life. It was the first wave I have ever surfed where my legs started to burn. I am sure someone thought Michael Jackson was resurrected with all the hooting and hollering coming from my ecstatic state.

Besides boasting some of the best surf in the world, as well as some of the greatest running trails, New Zealand is also home to some of the nicest people I have ever met.

I have even managed to do plenty of work from here. I recently covered a Women’s WQS Surf contest in Taranaki for SurferMag.com and just interviewed the World SUP champ who happens to be a Kiwi. That story will some out in a few months.

Beyond that, Johnny and found an organic farm that overlooks the sea, and have met plenty of people who grow their own food and live off off their land.

Oh yeah, we also discovered this waterfall only 30 minutes away from our house.

I am not sure why we would ever leave…

While most people were wearing 3.2 wetsuits or jacket tops, Johnny and I skinned it twice today. After a long winter grinding out stories in California and wearing only my 4.3 wetsuit, my skin loved soaking up all that Vitamin D.

The best part, we not only ditched our suits but we ditched our car to boot.

The locals warned us walking with our boards would be a bit of a “chore,” but we live over one of the most pristine trails that goes about two miles down to the water. Every twist and turn is something new – a creek, giant ferns, a lookout point that gives us a small taste of what we are about to jump into in the ocean, and enough stairs to let us know that we are very lucky to be healthy and young.

It was definitely a bit of a workout walking four miles for a surf, but there was something incredibly refreshing about walking out the door with nothing but sandals and our surfboards.

It’s not always possible to do so, but going with less, walking instead of driving, packing less shit, eating less junk food… these are all things that usually make me feel fuller about life.

Whenever I am sad or on deadline or overwhelmed about life, I have found that I often go shopping for stuff I don’t need. I am not talking about going out and buying Louis Vuitton bags (puleease!) or a new wardrobe, it’s usually simple stuff like bottled water or gum or a Kombucha or an extra coffee. Regardless of what it is, those impulse purchases never add to greater happiness.

Part of moving to New Zealand was to attempt to live more simply. Johnny and I found a place where we can get veggies pretty much straight from the farm. We haven’t eaten out except for the first day we arrived. We get up with the sun. And since we don’t have a phone, and don’t watch TV, every day just feels fuller.

Johnny loves his veggies

Waking with this sun. Live shot from this morning.

Don’t get me wrong. At first it was weird not to have my phone ring incessantly, friends dropping by throughout the day, editors calling me every few hours. I actually felt lonely which then made me feel like I was crazy because we are pretty much living in what I consider to be paradise.

I realize most of the world lives with much less and we are fortunate to have so much. It’s easy for me to write about how living with less feels so good because I have all my essential needs and so much more. I truly am lucky.

But the point of what I am trying to say is every time I have shed a little of the excess (what one close friend calls the “La Jolla” in me), it always feels just as good as shedding my wetsuit.

Hopefully, I won’t be adding any more layers any time soon.

We met Blair early in the morning for a “flat white” (café au lait) then headed to the country and stopped in the middle of a nowhere at a sheep and cow farm. We  grabbed some headlamps and each wore a beanie on our heads, and watched as Blair stuck a note on the car before heading out.

“ETA – 3pm.”  He wrote his cell number right below.

Johnny and I both looked at each other. We kind of thought we signed up for an hour cave tour, and it was only 9:30am.

“All right, guys, you ready?” he asked in a thick Kiwi accent.

Then he began to mess with us right then and there.

“Awww man, watch out for those birds. They love to fly down on your head and it can hurt quite a bit,” he said, then laughed when I covered my hands over my head.

As we passed the cows and sheep I asked what happened if we saw a bull.

“Aww yeah, well, I guess you just’ pray,” he said. “Or run.”

“But really it’s the babies that get pissed and will chase after ya’,” he said looking straight at a baby calf headed toward our way.
I ran straight to the cave and Blair and Johnny just laughed at me.

There’s a stereotype that Americans are gullible and I epitomize that description well.

Kiwis, most people, love to mess with Americans and Johnny and me (mostly me) provided ample entertainment the entire cave tour.

The actual cave was massive. Every turn and corner took us to another entrance, and room with some passages much tighter than others. One passage was called “the birthing womb,” a hole that looked narrower than a normal human should ever fit through.

There were dozens of other fun obstacles to climb over, around and through the entire way — a rockslide, a rock ladder, the wall, a stack of stalagmites that looked like a birthday cake, and we exchanged lots of phallic jokes in between.

My favorite besides Blair telling us to drink suspect water from a stalactite straws was seeing a colony of glowworms. They are clear looking centipede-like creatures that literally illuminate the cave inside.

After four hours of what felt like 45 minutes, we were back to the cow pasture, alive and covered in mud from head to toe. It was truly one of the most fun, spontaneous adventures I have had. It was especially nice to  go with someone who knows those caves so well, puts safety first, but also ensured we laughed the entire time.

Thanks Blair!

Lake Manu Bay Raglan

“You should have been here yesterday.” That’s the last thing you want to ever hear as a surfer or someone who just spent three months preparing for a trip, but exactly what we heard as we arrived to Raglan, New Zealand.

We picked Raglan of all the towns in New Zealand for a variety of reason. I’d visited once ten years ago and fell in love with the waves, a series of consistent left handed point breaks. Raglan also felt remote. It was deep in the heart of farm and sheep country, but it still had a small town center with cafes where I could connect to the Internet and stay in touch with editors and clients. I also knew there would likely be a place to buy fresh, organic veggies, and house rentals appeared to be priced within our budget.

Like all travel stories, a few things didn’t go as planned at first. Besides missing one of the best swells of the season, there were a few hiccups to start.

The car we planned to rent was manual (I realize I should know to drive stick by now, but learning to drive stick left handed on the other side of the road is not that easy).The real estate agent in charge of the house we planned to rent went missing.  Prices for food were far higher than anything I’d expected ($5 for a coffee, $10 for a beer, $8 for a small pouch of quinoa and $25 for simple salad). We got lost dozens of times. And Internet was pay per usage of gigabyte and incredibly hard to find.

About a day into the trip, we finally started to laugh at ourselves. As soon as we did, it all worked out.

A glimpse of Sunshine!

Some Sunshine between the rain — and waves!

It’s funny to think about how much time I spent packing “stuff” and a making sure I had all the right gear for my trip from ding repair kits to wetsuits, boards, headlamps, trail running shoes, carabiners and more.

I’m glad I brought my “gear,” but what I forgot was that the most important thing to take on a trip is not something you can buy at REI.

All adventures require a positive Go-With-The-Flow attitude. Things never works out exactly as planned. That’s a lesson I’ve struggled with since I was a kid. Whenever I have let go, gone with the flow and just rolled with whatever happens, things usually work out.

While lost en route to a remote surf break, we discovered an incredible hiking trail that took us to a majestic view of the Tasman Sea. We found an organic veggie co-op that a guy runs out of his house and offers affordable food. With a few days of patience, the real estate agent eventually called us back, and we are now living in an amazing home with a huge yard and running trail leading right to the water. I am getting better at directions. We finally got Internet installed. The waves have picked up and are due to be “epic” next week. And we have met some amazing new friends who will most likely stay in our lives a lot longer than we stay in New Zealand.

Best of all, we have stopped taking ourselves too seriously. Every wrong turn leads to an amazing view, and patience and laughter make everything, as the Kiwis say, “Sweet as.”

My favorite part of the running trail that leads to the beach below

We scored on the house. This is our view out the back porch.

I have always been in love with New Zealand

Since I can remember, whenever something didn’t go my way, I’d threaten to move to New Zealand. I’d never been there, but it seemed remote, exotic and since it is a giant island (well two), I figured there would be endless beaches and waves for surfing.

I finally got the chance to visit New Zealand after I graduated from college in 2001. It was a quick two-week trip where I toured the south and north islands, and left a big enough impression on me that I decided I’d return one day. I was most impressed by the varied geographies, the endless coastline and the immense kindness that poured out from every person I’d met. I also liked the fact that unlike neighboring Australia, New Zealand had few deadly animals or critters roaming its vast landscape.

Fast forward ten years later, my boyfriend and I threw everything we owned in storage, picked up and moved here for three months, with the option to stay longer if we fell in love with it.

So stoked to move to New Zealand

AT the Airport all packed up and ready to go

It took a lot of work figure out how we could work remotely from here, to gain clients that didn’t mind that I worked from the other side of the world, and to put all my bills and banking on auto pay should we run into any problems.

For the next few months I’ll be blogging about our journey. I’ll share more about why we picked up to come here, how it’s going and the many incredible adventures we have along the way.

I’ve always thought this place was magical and so far it has proved to be.

Here’s a shot from one of our first hikes.

Mt. Kairoi from the Te Toto Gorge

It was truly the trip of a lifetime. Thanks to Sunshine for this hilarious video slide show of the adventure.

Fiji 2012 Surf Diva Adventure