Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A New Day Has Come


New Year's Eve is not something I get overly excited about each year. In fact, I can really only remember 2 past New Year's Eves: 1990, the year I was a Senior in high school and had a party at my house and Y2K with all the hype of the new millennium and having our friends, Matt & April, join us in our little house in Capac. So, it's about time to have another memorable experience and what better place than the East coast of New Zealand?
I had a few brief moments considering the idea of driving 1 1/4 hrs. up to Gisbon to celebrate the New Year, as it is the first city in the world to see the sun of the new year. (This could be argued as there are a few cities in some of the Islands that are closer to the international dateline, but due to the earth's tilt on its axis on New Year's Day, Gisbon wins.) I quickly dismissed those thoughts as the idea of being on the beach in a crowd of noisy, drunken people was not really how I was envisioning welcoming my New Year. Good friends and a deserted beach was a bit more what I had in mind.
New Year's Eve our friends, Ruth, Russell and Suzzelle, came over. None of us are big on the New Year's Eve thing so we popped in a movie figuring we would call it an early night. We enjoyed an evening watching the movie and eating Key Lime Pie. The movie ended at 11:30, we were so close to the new year that we sort of hung around until midnight entertaining ourselves with YouTube videos. Uneventfully, midnight came, we said our cheers and headed to bed.
The alarm rang at a sparrow's fart (4:30 am). We got dressed, snuck out of the house - leaving the kids sleeping, picked up Ruth and Russell and headed to the beach 5 min. away. The sky was already beginning to lighten with a deep orange band of light. We found a large washed up tree to sit on, cuddled up to our mate and sipped our coffee. We were alone. Not another soul was on the beach. The ocean was calm with small waves rolling ashore. The sky was clear with a smattering of clouds. The show of color that unfolded before us in the next hour was breathtaking. We spoke in a hush, respecting the serenity of the moment. Color exploded before us like fireworks, lighting up the sky and then silently morphed into other hues and intensity. We felt an electricity of anticipation watching for the sun to burst over the horizon. We finally breathed a deep breath as she quickly emerged bringing a new day.
Not quiet ready to let go of the moment and jump into the new day, Ruth and Russell came over. We pulled egg casserole and cinnamon rolls out of the oven, squeezed some fresh orange juice made coffee drinks, sat outside and enjoyed one anothers company for the next few hours.
I may have been 5 min. behind those in Gisbon seeing the new year, but nothing can compare to the deserted beach and spectacular light show I shared with those close to me this morning.
May each of you enjoy the electricity of the New Year.

No Worries - Kris

1 comment:

  1. Sounds beautiful! And so peaceful. And warm. We have a foot of snow here and more on the way.
    Happy New Year!

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