So long Raglan

We only have 2 more days left in New Zealand before we head home. Although we are excited to see friends back in Colorado, we are sad to be leaving. In particular, we are really going to miss Raglan, the small town where we have been living for the past 5 months. Here are the top 6 things we are going to miss about Raglan

#1: The ocean. (No surprises here). It has been really nice to spend so much time by the ocean - playing in the sand, surfing, watching the waves, and syncing with tidal rhythms (groove-tastic!).

#2: Friends. We have made a number of good friends here in Raglan that we will miss when we leave. In particular, Luna is going to miss her friend Maia. They have already promised to send each other birthday cards every year as they share the same birthday.

#3: Dance parties. Raglan has a local radio station (The Tractor) that is essentially ad-free and plays an eclectic mix - about 60% techno, 10% hip hop, 10% punk, 10% god-knows-what, and 10% Johnny Cash. After dinner, we'll often turn on the radio so Luna can work on her moves.

#4: Whitey: the sweetest goat on the planet.

#5: Cruising 'downtown' to get coffee/hot chocolate, buy bread, or just do some laundry.

#6: The view from our house: it never ceases to amaze.

Tonga

We just got back from 7 days in Tonga. We had a great time - to call it relaxing would be an understatement. We stayed at a beach 'resort' that was pretty basic and not very resort-y but an awesome place - great people, beautiful scenery, and awesome snorkeling. The food was incredible - huge family-style feasts every night complete with yellowtail tuna hauled out of the ocean every morning.

The view from our little cabin.

Yummy breakfasts.

The Tongan family that runs the place had a 3-year old daughter, Hadassah, that spent a lot of time playing with Luna. They both loved watching Frozen when the tide was too low to go swimming in the lagoon. Of course they had to watch it while dressed up as Elsa.

The movie was followed by a dance routine to "Let it Go". Evidently even a trip to a tiny island in the middle of the South Pacific is insufficient to escape that godforsaken song.

We spent a day touring around the island with a guide, Vai, who had an endless supply of hilarious stories (about 50% of which likely had some basis in reality).

The 'blowholes' - not a great place to go swimming. The king of Tonga was right around the corner from this spot doing some shooting but he didn't invite us over to hang out.

Pigs wading in the ocean 'snorkeling' for shellfish. Luna thought it was hilarious that the pigs kept pooping in the ocean. Another reason not to eat shellfish...

A Tongan calendar from the 10th century.

An exhausted girl.

Fisherman with the daily catch. This wahoo was served up 2 hours later with a lemon, butter, and caper sauce. Tasty.

Nothing to see here - just another view from our cabin.

Noah did some surfing there but the waves were very powerful and scary as they broke right onto the reef. We spent a lot of time with a South African family that was also staying at the resort - they had a 3-year old boy that worshipped Luna. Here is the dad showing off his surf skills.