The other morning a text woke me up with the message: "Good morning! Wondering if you would like to go fishing and diving around noon? We can take the sailboat out after lunch... let me know."

Um, yeah, sure, I guess that would be okay... I mean, I'm not too busy or anything. Actually, I have no plans at all for the day (or the week. or the year. or, wait, my whole life...). You should have seen my smile. I mean, what?!? It was like he was worried we wouldn't want to go... little did he know Megan is obsessed with fishing and I can't get enough of sailing.. but then he threw in the spear fishing element... and i just started laughing, kind of wondering if i was still dreaming.

thus embarked our sail/snorkel/spearfish adventure with our skipper, Rich, and our two new mates, Aimee and Josh. sunny skies and perfect wind set us racing out of the harbour resulting in one of the best sails i've had in a while. we anchored off of Leisure Island and josh gave us a 30 second spear fish lesson. literally. 'here's the safety, when you want to shoot a fish, take it off.' The end. And off we went! It was actually the first time Lauren, Meg, and I had ever free dove... so even the weight belts took an adjustment, let alone having a gun in hand... but we caught on and i ended up shooting at anything that resembled a fish. it was an unfruitful mission; however, i'm convinced we can do it. my goal is to catch a fish by the end of the nz adventure.



Josh, our spear fishing coach and our cooking partner for two amazing dinners... taught him how to make spaghetti with meat AND vegetables, instead of just 2123 pounds of beef. He was pretty excited about it and we were secretly excited for the excuse to put 'mince' in our sauce.

We anchored the boat off of Leisure Island, started diving in the sunshine and got out of the water in pouring down rain and thunder... typical NZ weather.

This was definitely the winning picture of the day. :)