kosarupa: Dolphins & Koalas

Bay of Islands

Four hours north of Auckland is the famous Bay of Islands, with the warmest weather and water you’ll find in New Zealand.
Many of the residents of New Zealand’s Northland, both historically and present day, are of Maori descent. In the evening we went to a cultural presentation on the history of the Maori people presented by Maori youth and young adults in story, dance and song.

Amongst the 144 islands dotting this bay there are dolphins, whales, penguins, and other varieties of sea life. Wanting to swim with the dolphins, we went out on a half day excursion around the bay. There are many eco guidelines in place to protect the dolphins, so we didn’t end up getting to swim with them, but we did enjoy some wonderful exchanges off the bow of the boat. All the dolphin pods we came upon had young calfs, so to protect them, no swimmers are allowed.

Gaura took these dolphin photos from the boat
(not easy to get!)

We were invited to lead an evening program about one hour south of the Bay of Islands.
Vidyapati’s parents, Marleen and Bill, live near Whangarei, and host programs at their home from time to time. The bramacharis from Auckland stay with them sometimes to distribute books in the area, and invite the people they meet to these programs. It’s an informal get-together: teaching people how to sing kirtan, explaining why to chant and touching upon our basic philosophy, and of course, serving a wonderful dinner. Many of the guests stayed around for casual conversation and to ask questions ‘till after 10 pm. Can this simple format, with brand new people, be duplicated anywhere?

Fast Forward

We’ve got about 3 weeks of blogging to catch up on, so we’re going to fast forward so we’re current, and fill in the missing weeks’ photos here and there.

Melbourne, Australia
On the 2nd day of the retreat at Nandagram, 2 hours from Melbourne, Kaushal prabhu took us out to see the coast on Great Ocean Road and wild koala bears.