I Feel Like a Toasted Sandwich

Oh bother, my apologies for not blogging in a while. Hope December has been treating you all well and that your holidays were merry.

Lake Rotoroa

We’ve been doing some easy tramps (tramp = hike) in our time off, gearing up for some bigger tramps in the future. There are some nice walks around Murchison and we also ventured to Nelson Lakes – Lake Rotoroa and Lake Rotoiti. Hello beautiful. New Zealand has a lifetime of tramping tracks that are amazingly well maintained and marked – thanks Department of Conservation. There is also a huge network of backcountry huts, but we have yet to stay in one. Soon!

Becky and I decorated the lodge Christmas tree…Charlie Brown style. We were of the mind that less is more, but the tree was promptly redecorated with the mind that the more is more. Ah well. Christmas is not about the tree now is it (perhaps I am not the one to say what Christmas is about - Happy Hanukkah). By the way, they do grow normal Christmas trees here...the one pictured below is not one of them. Instead of getting a tree of our own for our little house, we decided to collect some tree trimmings from the one in the lodge and put them in a bowl. So easy and smells great. And then you can hide the presents among the trimmings and then it’s like a scavenger hunt.

Two great events in our social life! 1) A last-minute visit from Amanda and Shannon! They were in the area buying Shannon’s new sweet as van, and stopped by for the night. Shared some beers, old nachos, and some laughs. It was fun to be the hosts for once. 2) Kade’s 4^th Birthday Party – robot themed! Parachutes, balloon helicopters, rocket launcher, pass the parcel, and freeze dance. And adorable Kiwi children. 

Amanda and the Christmas Bowl

Happy Birthday Kade!

This Christmas could not have been more different than last year. Christmas 2010 = VVR in Colorado, 2010 inches of snow. Christmas 2011 = New Zealand summer, 2011 degrees. We spent Christmas Eve Day at Tahuna Beach in Nelson, and made Christmas cookies for our friends that evening. Father Christmas did not come down our chimney this year, but that’s ok because being here is enough! We worked for a bit Christmas morning, and came back to the lodge later for dinner with the guests. There were two very interesting couples – a couple from the Australian Outback, and an American doctor (from Knoxville!) and his Korean wife who currently live in Papua New Guinea. The dinner table conversation was quite interesting and worldly, but Becky and I found ourselves unable to keep up and I think we were silent for at least an hour. I guess that’s what happens when you spend the last year and a half working on ranches. Sometimes I feel like I know nothing about the world, and it all seems so vast and unattainable.

 

Lady Zahra

Please don't catch the eels

So, we’ve made a big change of plans. Becky and I decided to no longer work at the lodge. Without going into too much detail, we wanted more time to travel and explore, and the job was just tying us down to one place for too long. We may never be here in NZ again, and so we're going to experience as much of it as possible. We are sad to leave our friends here in the Owen River Valley, but excited for the adventures to come. We are in the process of figuring things out. I see a lot of hostels, camping, peanut butter, box wine, and Budget Brand in our future. Capsy is going to be our mobile home. Becky has already warned me that the car is going to be messy and unorganized…deep breaths. We will probably be headed to Christchurch for a little while, to gather camping supplies and to welcome our 4UR friends to the country. We could not be more excited to get on the road, meet some fellow backpackers and friendly Kiwis, see the sights and walk the walks. Think of all the roads we have yet to travel on. There is so much of the South Island we have yet to explore – so here we go (until we run out of money)!

Lake Rotoiti

Home Sweet Home for the past two months

Still trying to figure out New Years plans, weird that we will be in 2012 almost a day before everyone back home. I'll let you know how it is. 

How does your garden grow?

Thanks to my new waterproof camera for the pictures!

should we be insulted that people keep asking if we're canadian?

Been a while since I've updated. Since then, we've worked some, traveled some, had some really hot sunny summer days, and some cool rainy days too. Here's a little day-by-day breakdown of events:

November 19: Drove to Diamond Harbor (in Banks Peninsula, south of Christchurch) to have a girls night with Amanda. Ate some lovely potato bake and lots of cheese per usual. Used Amanda's internet - thanks! - and shower with great water pressure. Watched Amanda bottle feed the lambs (who are now in the freezer!) and "burp" them interestingly…

Amanda and her lambies

November 20: Had an early Thanksgiving dinner with Rick, Lynn and a lot of their friends. Yum. I was Indian #2 in the Thanksgiving play. Actually a good refresher course on American history. Sometimes I think I need to relearn everything I learned in elementary school.

November 21: Heading back to Murchison, we encountered a flood of biblical proportions. Well a flood big enough to close Lewis Pass and make all the rivers look like a raging current of chocolate milk. We had to take a detour through Kaikoura and Blenheim. Beautiful detour! Windy roads, beautiful scenery per usual. Had to get back to work, so didn’t have time to explore much, but we will be back! Apparently there is some whale watching in Kaikoura. Can they guarantee you will see a whale? Lots of vineyards and beaches and sounds to explore in that area too.

Flood

November 24: Happy Thanksgiving America! Lots and lots to be thankful for this year. 

November 26: Becky and I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at our neighbors house (ours is too small). People in attendance: me, Becky, Robyn, Braden, Ryan (ORL head chef), his wife Nicola and their two adorable children Kade (almost 4) and Zahra (18 months). “Mummy, my bum itches.” Ahh babies with Kiwi accents are too cute, I want to bring some home with me. Becky and I made mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and brownies. Ryan brought the turkey and stuffing and Robyn made pumpkin pie. All turned out very well, the Kiwis liked Thanksgiving so much they might have one of their own next year.  Attempted to explain the meaning of the holiday, the Mayflower, Pilgrims, Indians, football and overeating.

Thanksgiving

November 27 - December 1: Lots of things happened, like watching all 3 Back to the Future movies. How had I never seen these before? Great Scott! Where we’re going we don’t need roads! Had some bug incidents around the house. Discovered a large spider with a nest of millions of baby spiders (!!) in the bathroom. Big spider decided to play hide and seek for a few days. Finally, Becky stabbed it with a knife while wearing a headlamp after spraying the babies to death with bug spray. Good times. Becky’s bed had a bug problem, but not bedbugs. Discovered they were somehow coming in through the window. Sprayed entire room with bug spray, how are they not all dead? Planted a garden. When I say planted, I mean sprinkled seeds. Planting seeds is very anticlimactic. Still waiting for growth of any sort, besides weeds. Planted green beans, capsicum, zucchini, and lots of flowers. Fingers crossed. Some time in here my computer battery died, now it must be plugged in to work. Lovely. Camera is also broken somehow. Photos in this post courtesy of Becky. New camera soon - Christmas sales.

December 2: Visited New Zealand’s longest swingbridge, located in the Buller Gorge. Buller is the 2^nd longest river in NZ, longest in the South Island. We were able to get into this little park for free, thanks to our boss and the perks of the hospitality industry. And it was a perfectly beautiful day to be outside! Rode on a jet boat!! So fun. Lots of spins and fast jetting through rapids. Will be doing this again. Ran and jumped off a platform superman/flying fox style. Very fun to "fly" across this beautiful river! Pretty amateur, but possibly the first step towards skydiving? That night we went out the Commerical Bar in Murch. Made a German friend our age! She told us that most of the young people in town are in fact very young, ages 16-20. Where are all the mid-20s people? Learned of a Kiwi tradition called Crate Day – drink 27 beers? Not sure I understand.

Buller River Swingbridge

December 4: Rain rain go away.

December 5: Day trip to Westport to escape rainy weather, but it was also rainy in Westport (came back to Murchison to find sunny skies). Went out to Cape Foulwind and Tauranga Bay – seal colony! At first glance, you don’t see any because seals look almost exactly like rocks. Then you realize some of the rocks have flippers. Watched seals swim and be fat and blubbery and lounge on rocks and seal pups play. Big big fan of the seals. Lots of birds around here too. Beautiful! Came home to Robyn mowing our yard, so nice. Cutting the grass = swarms of sandflies.

Tauranga Bay

Today, December 6: Worked this morning. Raining pretty hard again. No need to water the garden! December showers bring January flowers hopefully.

So that's that. All is well, better than well. It's been an adjustment in some ways, more staying in one place and less traveling than I expected at first. Living here, not just traveling. Both are good. The grass is always greener, some say and I agree. But the grass is very green here and after all, green is my favorite color. The lodge is going to be pretty busy the week before Christmas, then a bit slow again, and then pretty busy for most of January and February. Got some friends from 4UR coming to NZ in January to fish, it will be nice to see some familiar faces. Have lots of things we want to do on our days off, so much to see! Abel Tasman sea kayaking next! 

Diamond Harbor

Jet Boat!

I spy seals

Owen Valley East Road - home!

Owen River