Greetings Everyone,
I’m back with another update! We have had a blast the past
few weeks and we have also been learning a lot. Since the last update, we have
moved on from Muriwai to Piha and United North. We had a lot of fun at Piha and
we also got to fool around on the numerous rock formations they have. We got to
swim through some more caves, jump off a few more things and we got the
experience of sitting in what they call “The Barber’s Chair”. One of the rocks
seemed to form a perfect chair that allowed you to sit in it while waves break
over you, pretty rad. The waves were thumping the first few days we were there,
so we got some quality surfing and body-surfing time in. The beach in Piha is
placed directly between two sets of cliffs called Lion and Camel Rock, which in
turn makes the currents there insane! I haven’t been tossed around so much in
quite awhile. The regional guards there had some fun things planned for us as
we went hiking through rivers and canyons, and we experienced what they call
“jug night”. I’ll leave it to you to use your imagination for what “jug night”
is. The most fun thing at Piha is of course “The Nun,” and they wouldn't let us
escape without visiting her.
We were fortunate enough to have a casual meeting over lunch
with everyone that helped make our exchange possible from the New Zealand end.
They were basically just curious about how we lifeguard back home compared to
here, what we think of the lifeguarding culture in New Zealand and what we have
learned along the way. It was a great opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes
look at what goes on to make lifeguarding in the Northern Region possible. As
surf lifesaving in Northern Region is a charitable organization and not
government-run like it is back home, it was quite a change from what we were
used to. Along with that, it really was great to see such a group of dedicated
people make lifeguarding happen over so many different beaches. After our
meeting, we got a look around at the communication room, the Coast Guard boats
and the Westpac rescue helicopter. It was all amazing stuff and it was really
cool to see various organizations working together in the same building.
After that, Rob Pidgeon took us out to his club, United North
Piha. We had a barbecue the first night and got to patrol a bit before we did
some IRB training. It was our most extensive training yet and it was great to
have Rob critiquing us while we were driving. We practiced everything from
parallel running, pickups and solo driving. It was incredibly helpful and we
noticed our skills improving immediately to the point where we may even try to
get certified as drivers. We just arrived at Raglan last night and we are both
pretty stoked on it. We can’t wait to see what we have in store here and I’ll
let you know as soon as I can! That’s it for another update from down unda!
Cheers,