Chantal flew back home to Germany shortly after the end of our road trip. ‘Normal’ life kicked back in for us, finding little jobs to do around Whangarei and ongoing improvements on Guppy, the car and so on. I have been fortunate enough to do a few more jobs with the Girls High School here, including Sailing lessons, and a 2 day hike at the Whangarei heads. How much better can it get then to go sailing and hiking for a job! Most of the Girls thought very differently about whether the hike was fun or not! and they could not understand that I would do that for fun. – We did get some good views on the first day though and they all agreed that it was pretty awesome. The second day was very rainy – but a tough trip makes coming home even more rewarding. I’m rather sure that they all appreciated the warmth of their own home and their bed very much that night, which makes it a grateful experience for them 🙂
At the moment we are looking after the home from friends of ours who went on a mission trip to Papua New Guinea. The house includes a big white german shepherd who is keeping us active. She is a young dog with much to learn, but a very gentle and loving character. We enjoy looking after her a lot and she gives us many laughs but some headaches as well of course.
We started taking her to Guppy as we didn’t want to lock her up at home all day. It was a bit of a mission getting her into the dinghy the first time. She ended up flopping into it on her belly like a sea-lion. By the third time she already acted as if she had always done it, and gradually seemed to enjoy it more and more.
One thing that she seems to dread, is when Daniel and I go separate ways. She does not know who to stay with. So it had to happen as on that one day, when we three paddled over to the jetty, so that I could go into town. Daniel started to paddle back to Guppy, taking Jazz (the dog) back with him. Jazz was uncertain for a moment as she saw me walk away into another direction. Suddenly she leaped out of the dinghy towards the jetty, managing to get her front paws onto the jetty but slipped back into the water rapidly. We turned our heads towards the splash and saw the whole dog dip under water, where it stayed for a few seconds before popping back up again. Lots of thoughts went through our heads and as far as we knew, she hasn’t been in water before. Frantically she began swimming up and down under the jetty looking for something to grab and making it impossible for us to get hold of her. She was holding onto some lines under the jetty when we finally managed to drag her out from underneath and pull her up onto the Jetty. We expected that she would be afraid of the water, dinghy (and maybe even yachts ;p) from now on but no! she acted like nothing extraordinary had happened and happily jumped back into the dinghy again after I had left out of sight.

We will have Jazz for a few more weeks and planning to go to the states afterwards for the rest of the winter. There are still a few open invitations for presentation that I’d like to follow.

Concerning Guppy: she is still up for sale, but I am talking to a Dutch Trust at the moment that would like to buy her for youth training purposes. I think it would be a lovely place for her! She will be used for a good cause and I would still be able to sail and see her every now and then, when I visit. But… they still need to get the funding for the purchase and for the rest of the campaign together.., so nothing is quiet sure about that yet..
If you would like to know more about the Guppy project please contact the founder of the Trust: Henne Pauli: info@hennepauli.nl

Laura

New wood around the NEW windows 🙂

Jazz getting comfortable on Guppy.

Daniel escaping a “dog-shower”.

Always with a stick.

Cheeky cow trying to crawl as far as she can under the electric fence without being shocked.