Certified!

We spent 4 hours in the pool on day 1, then did 2 dives from the shore the next day, and 2 dives from the boat yesterday to complete the SCUBA course. We dove to a max depth of 60 feet and the water was so clear we could easily see the bottom from the surface. We saw squid, a sting ray, an octopus, parrot fish, a moray eel, and many schools of snapper, small kingfish, and wrasses.

We dove in Matauri Bay (pictured) and then Deep Water Cove, both in the Bay of Islands in Northern New Zealand. We had a private instructor (Steve) who dives all summer, snowboards all winter, and owns an adventure tourism company. His favorite expressions for describing our excellent retention of his directions were "sweet as" and "choice."

And . . . We sun burned our hands. It has been hot and sunny every day of the trip so far and we're starting to get some color.

We embraced the hostel lifestyle the past few days, making peanut butter and jelly for breakfast and lunch, and pasta for dinner, though we needed to elbow ourselves some space in the communal kitchen. Tonight we are near Henderson Bay in a much less crowded guesthouse 3 hours north of our previous accommodation.

In comparison to some of the other itineraries we've heard about, ours is tame. A Belgian that we roomed with is doing 15 months around the world, and the Canadian we met a few days ago is on an indefinite trip that started 3 months ago, will take him through Asia next, and will end when his money runs out. A woman from Holland that we played cards with last night is doing 6 months in New Zealand, with limited English.