John and Lilly

Our neighbours to the South are John and Lilly. John is a Kiwi through and through; having grown up on Dairy farms up by Rotorua. Lilly is a Canadian who grew up in Alberta. John and Lilly met in Japan and have quite a few interesting stories from the various places they have lived.

Well we were invited over for a BBQ on Saturday. Having quite the experience with Kiwi BBQ's I was sure I was up to the task. So I purchased a few steaks, Avocado's and Corn chips. I marinated them in Lime Juice and Garlic (Carne Asada!) and made the Guacamole. The time came closer and we walked next store with the above and a bottle of wine. Only to find that we were at a dinner party for us two families not a BBQ.

How embarrassing for both families. We were welcome but the food was not. So after an hour or so of chatting over appetizers in the lounge it was time to fire up the grill. John and I went for it (the same everywhere) and while in the kitchen I informed him of all the other BBQ's that I have been at and that bringing meat was the norm. (First one I attended I did not know this and felt a bit out of place so I make up for it now!) John told me it was nothing personal just they had planned the meal. I said no as I would rather have the New York strip steak he was preparing anyway. So we laughed and started the grill.

I ran our food back to our house just as the rain started. So when I went back we were standing out under the eve watching the water bead on the griddle as the steaks and sausages were cooking.

The rest of the evening was a great success. Dennis ate a piece of bread and went and watched a movie and the adults had a wonderful conversation. Their stories about life in Japan, Korea and the various parts of New Zealand were delightful to hear. Chris and Dennis left around 10:30pm I left around 12:30am. Wow a wonderful evening it was.

Next morning I ran into John and he was all smiles saying we will have to do it again but this time earlier so Dennis doesn't cut our time short.

I really like my neighbors.

Sunday night

Today we went to another BBQ. Once again in the Kiwi tradition there was say too much meat for the number of people. I suppose there was a salad or two didn't have any myself. Just steak, sausages, and grissles (hamburgers.) I had a great time grilling food in the rain eating chips and dip. Seems a BBQ is the same on both sides of the Pacific. In fact we were commenting on that this afternoon. The host has been at BBQ's in India, I have been at them in Europe and it is al the same. Man has a wonderful fasination with cooking outside. In every case it was the men who were out playing with the fire. Details may be a bit different, like that Kiwi's will fry sausages on a griddle built into the BBQ! I still don't understand that when you can have them frame broiled. Oh well.

As I type this I am sitting in what can only be described as a breakfast nook. For those in New Zealand who are reading that is a room right off the kitchen that generally holds a small table which is intended for ... yes you guessed ... breakfast. We are not using it as a breakfast nook we have a small lounge set up. For those in the USA reading this that would be a living room. Our lounge has a futon sofa which I will have to take apart to get in our guest bedroom. At this time Dennis is sleeping here. Chris is off at a church group. And I am typing away on the computer sitting in a chair next to Dennis. I promised to keep him company and see no reason to leave right yet.

I opened the window at Dennis' request and boy does the air smell fresh! I suppose fresh smelling air is not anything new here. Wellington has the best air quality of any inhabited place in the world. I don't know that for a fact but would be willing to put it to the test. Today's southerly means that the air was over the south pole about a week ago. And has only made its way over the South Pacific and Tasman Sea. Where it dropped any particles of polution that were carried from that barren place. Go ahead try to beat that!

It is just like being on a Sail Boat in the middle of Lake Michigan. You breath deep the air just because you can, your body knows it is good and wants to have more. For those who have not sailed I would describe it like this:

When I was growing up in sparcely populated Western Chicago fall nights after a heavy rain would have the sweetest smelling air in the world. It was clean, fresh, and cool. I loved it! I would open my window and sleep with that air blowing on me all night.

With the exception of the rain smell that is a typical Wellington day. However the nights are special.

Rotorua

We got to Rotorua on Tuesday evening and checked into the Sudima Hotel. It is right along the lake and we could smell the sulphur smell quite well. Lake Rotorua is a big thermal area. One can see steam vapors in many places. The hotel is close to the central business area so we walked to dinner every night. We stocked the mini fridge with snacks and breakfast foods. In the mornings it was handy to eat breakfast in our room.

On Wednesday, Tom headed to his 3-day work conference. Dennis and I headed to the gondola and luge at Skyline Skyrides (top left). The gondola took us to the top of the hill. We put on our helmets and were given instructions on how to stop the luge cars. They are low to the ground with bicycle handlebars. First we took the scenic path that was about 2 km long. It was fun! Dennis was eager to go again. We had to ride a chair lift to get back to the top of the hill. In all we made three trips; twice on the scenic path and once on the 1.6 km intermediate path. We finished up with an early lunch at the cafe on top the hill where we got to see the panoramic view of Rotorua and the lake.

In the afternoon we soaked in the hotel's bath-water temperature pool. Dennis and I had it all to ourselves. The pool was semi-enclosed so we heard the noisy seagulls along the lake shore. The sulphur smell was strong. Dennis called it "pong," a British term he picked up from a library book about a stinky dog.

On Thursday, Dennis and I did more tourist must-dos. In the morning we checked out the Agrodome and saw the sheep show (bottom left). Dennis got to pet the sheep and dogs. I learned about sheep in a short time. In the afternoon we went to the Polynesian Spa and soaked in the pools there. We went to the Family Spa and Dennis found some kids to play with.

On Friday, we drove by one of the Maori style churches (top right). Tom got off early so all three of us went to the Redwoods in the Whakarewarewa Forest. The forest has 15 acres of Californian Redwoods that were planted in 1901 as part of an experiment to find out what trees could be grown for timber in the area. We followed the red path and admired the Redwoods for half and hour in the rain (bottom right).

We ended our time in Rotorua with dinner at a Latin American restaurant called Sabroso. Mexican restaurants are few in NZ, so some familiar chips, salsa, quesadillas and chimichanga were welcome. The salsa was sweet and mild since the restaurant is catering to the Kiwi palate. The chocolate dessert with a dash of cayenne pepper was superb.

We didn't get to a hangi dinner and concert which is a Maori cultural experience. That's something we will have to do some other time.

On Saturday it was time to drive back to Wellington. We left at 8:00 a.m. and got back home at 3:30 p.m. On the way we drove through Palmerston North. Along highway 57 in a town called Tokomaru we stopped for lunch at a cafe off the beaten path. Bent Horseshoe Cafe is a converted small school building. The school slide is still there as well as outdoor seating. We sipped our lattes while we viewed spring green hills with two creeks at the foot of them. What a delightful discovery!

Taupo

On Monday afternoon 13 October, after Dennis and I enjoyed the beach, we picked Tom up and continued our road trip. We drove on highway 1 on the Desert Road and saw Mt Ruapehu (bottom right). You can see in the photo that the desert consists of small scrubby bushes. Mt Ruapehu is a prime ski area and it's an active volcano. We kept driving since our destination was Taupo. This city is on Lake Taupo (bottom left), a lake created by a volcanic eruption in AD 186. It think it's the biggest lake in NZ. Stunning scenery wherever we looked.

We drove on the Thermal Explorer Highway. Along it were some thermal power plants. We appreciated the heat at our hotel swimming pool. We stayed at the Wairekei Resort and the pool was like bath water. This resort is just north of Taupo. Tom and Dennis were a bit disappointed that we weren't staying on Lake Taupo. This was just a one night stop, so we will have to come back.

On Tuesday we went to Huka Falls (top right) and Craters of the Moon thermal walk (top left). Then we headed north to Rotorua.

Vacation First Stop - Wanganui

We made our first road trip a week ago. We drove about 2 1/2 hours on Sunday, 12 October and spent the night in Wanganui. Our hotel was called Burwood Manor. It was a simple, no frills motel. For dinner we ate at Thai Villa in downtown Wanganui. Dennis discovered that he likes prawn crackers; they look like pork rinds but are shrimp flavored. I ate meat and vegetables smothered in a peanut and coconut sauce.


On Monday, Tom went to a business meeting while Dennis and I shopped and explored. First stop was a local cafe for a scrumptuous eggs benedict breakfast. We needed to buy some jandals (flip flops) for our walks from hotel room to swimming pool. After that we headed to the beach. On our way to Kai Iwi beach I had to stop and wait for sheep to cross the road. Dennis greatly enjoyed playing in the black sand and finding pumice stones and other rocks. The playground had an excellent flying fox. The scariest part was getting on it, but once I did it was a blast! It went downhill over a creek/inlet and then came backwards over the creek. Dennis did part of it, but I got tired of pulling him up the hill.

Wanganui is an old city built on the Whanganui River (the wh is pronounced like an f). It reminded us of Dubuque and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We were there for only one day and did not have time to take a riverboat ride. So we will have to visit Wanganui again. It would be a great place for a weekend away.

BBQ Season

We went to a BBQ today. Jeni who works with me at the Ministry of Health sent me an invite on Friday via text messaging (kiwi's use this service on their cell phones almost exclusively.) inviting me to her place in Upper Hutt for an afternoon of feasting with friends.

I have been to a couple of BBQ's already and this was not much different than the others. It does differ from the standard US affair in a two suttle ways. It seems like everyone brings meat, and we are not talking the hot dog kind, in this case we had: Venison Steaks, Pork chops, Lamb chops, Home smoked ham/bacon, Venison Sausages, Tandoori Chicken (our contribution,) and Abalone Fritters (okay not really meat but man were they good!) The second way it differs from a typical US BBQ is the amount of meat we had. Oh my I have never eaten so much meat in my life. This was good stuff.

The Venison Steaks were cut off a huge roast which the host had contributed to the fun. The host also prepared the Abalone Fritters. Basically a crab cake made with Abalone instead. Abalone is called Paua here and is a quite a strong taste which is cut very well by the rest of the fritter.

There were the standards salads, potato, coleslaw, lettuce, and a few others. I used them as dips for the potato crisps (chips) but basically stuck with the meat. Instead of buns the kiwi's put out bread. Just plain white or wheat bread which is buttered. So you grab a piece of meat and throw it on the bread. I personally think the bread is only used to keep your fingers from getting burnt. I adopted the very sensible practice of grabbing the meat with a paper serviette (napkin) instead of the bread so I could eat more meat. I mean given a choice between another piece of fresh venison (did I mention that he shot the animal just last month?) hot off the grill or a piece of bread what would you choose?

There was only one other person from the office, someone I have not spoken with often so it was a great opportunity to catch up. And it turns out that Jeni and I have a mutual friend so it was great to see Pat show up shortly after I did. Wellington is a small world. I have made a few friends and they start popping up in unexpected places, this was typical.

We left when Dennis started to loose it about four hours after we arrived. Quite satiated and looking forward to the next BBQ on the following Sunday. Then before I could even get into the house our neighbors just up the hill from us invited us over to a BBQ on Saturday. We were warned this is the Kiwi way, BBQ's all summer long.

As my father always use to say "When is Rome do as the Romans." I will suffer through this for the honor of my country!

Apologies

My apologies all around. I just checked the blog and noticed that we have not posted in about a month! How rude of us. There you are checking on our life here in NZ and it is silent.

Next time please write or call and let us know!

So now for some postings.

(or as the blog actually puts new postings on top I hope you had to slog through a few to get to the apology!)