Company Fishing Trip

Here's a few pics of Dave's company fishing trip last weekend up in Moeraki. The fishermen were a bit on the gruff side (I guess that should be expected for sailors) and certainly a bit lacking in their safety briefing (i.e. none). The first thing they said to us was "big sea today, gonna be bugger all fishing" . Translation: "The sea has large swells today and it's going to make the fishing quite difficult."

They weren't kidding about the fishing. We were out from about 7:30 to about 1 and we brought in about 35 fish between the 10 of us. I caught four, but threw 2 little ones back. But I'm at least happy to report that I've finally caught fish in New Zealand. Sorry I didn't take any pictures of the fish, but believe me, they were enormous!!! Enormous and damn expensive. But I caught em. Yay to that. The other good thing of the trip was my success at not getting sick. Big sea, you betcha! Thanks to Andrea for teaching me the wrist pressure points to combat nausea. Hopefully the dents in my wrist go away soon.

Here's the pics

On the way to new fishing territory

Watching the Albatross
Our not exactly loquacious captain
The fishing crew!

Dave

puff is missing

Hi all,

So Puff, our wonderful white chook, has been missing since the day before Andrea got back from her Dublin trip. We have searched everywhere around the neighborhood and can't seem to find her anywhere. We've made fliers and blanketed the area and everyone at this point must think we're quite daft. But we've both become very attached to our little Puff and were hoping to get her back. We haven't given up hope but we were starting to worry about Coco because since Puff left she's been looking rather lonely. So we decided to go and get Coco some new friends.

The Stooges

Coco overseeing the new arrivals.

On Wed. Drea took the afternoon off work, and went to adopt some chickens from the SPCA. They had 3 chooks (hens) and a rooster that they wanted to keep together. The chooks are large birds - pretty tall, and the rooster was this dinky little colorful bantam (little breed of chicken). It was so funny to see them together. The chooks would all herd around the rooster - as if to protect him, but he still looked quite proud.

Bantam Rooster, temporary name - Shemp

We still cant' get over the rooster - he had huge feathers off of his feet, so it looked like he had big slippers on. Drea had a conversation with the woman who worked at the SPCA and she said that she'd never heard this rooster crowing - unlike some other roosters that they had there. So on that advice and since he was so very cute Drea took all 4 of them home. The SPCA woman also said that she thought that roosters fertilized eggs by sitting on them... not the most knowledgeable in chicken procreation apparently. Drea took them home, and Coco did not like her new friends. She was TERRIFIED of them. She got along with the rooster well (but not *too* well if you know what i mean) but the largest chicken with a black top, chased Coco around the coop and pulled 4 feathers out until Drea had enough, and took her out again. Later we, and all our neighbors, found out that the little rooster does indeed crow, and his clock is way off. So we got out of bed around 5:30 and put him back in a dark box which stopped his crowing for a while and included him in the "to return" box with the large aggressive chook, Moe.

Dave read on the internet that you introduce new birds to a flock by putting them in the roost at night when they're sleeping, and then when they wake up in the morning, they're best buds. We took out the big aggressive one, and replaced her with Coco on the roost. When they woke up, Coco was still terrified. Coco is probably 1/3 the size of the chicken she replaced. The three chickens that we had had varying degrees of 'poof' on their heads, so Dave thought we should name them Larry, Moe, Curly and Shemp. Now that we've returned two, we're exploring other naming avenues. For the name we want to fully work, we need our Puff back, though.

Meanwhile, since Puff has been gone, Drea has missed her quality chicken time, so she's chased down Coco and has been keeping her closer.

Yes, this close.

She is now much less afraid of being picked up - not quite as easy as Puff still, but much more so than before.

So this weekend we plan on making sure Coco and the two new ones get along before we leave them outside in the coop. We didn't want to leave them all together without being able to supervise them. Also, we finally got some straw for the coop and it looks a lot better.

We have a bunch of green tomatoes that we salvaged off the plant, although it's really not dead yet at all. We made some Green tomato chutney which came out pretty well. Next step is to try to do a fried green tomato recipe.

We went to a huge used book sale tonight, and then Dave has an ocean fishing trip with some people from work on Sunday. Drea couldn't go because she just can't kill a fish. She can eat it, but she just can't kill it. So we'll see how that goes. Hopefully a little more successful than the fly fishing.

The fires we've been getting going in the evenings make such a difference. Life is better when your house is warmer. Drea's been busy studying for her board exams in August. There's a lot of stuff to review, but she's hitting the books pretty hard.

Well I hope all is well with everyone. Till next time.

Dave and Andrea

who turned off the sun

Hey All,

So Drea finally came back from her conference to Dublin (and surprise trip to Boston). Yay! It's nice to have her back. Before leaving on her trip she had been conspiring with her brother to make a week-long stopover in Boston to surprise her parents. I think they must have been in discussion about the best way to do it for about a month or so. The final surprise went something like this...

Drea arrives in Boston on Friday afternoon. Friday just so happens to be her nephew Luke's birthday. The plan was for Mark and Molly (Drea's brother, and sister in law) to take the kids and Tom and Marianne (Drea's parents) to a childrens museum followed by dinner. Drea was to arrive in Boston and call Mark. Mark then would pretend to recieve an emergency call from work and leave the group to pick up Drea at the airport. Drea would don her disguise: sunglasses and sunhat, and wander past her unsuspecting parents at the museum, then ask Mark if he would like her to take a picture of the family. With camera in hand she would instead take a video of them all as she slowly gave hints that they might actually know her. I could say that the surprise was total but here's the video so you can decide yourself (what kind of weirdo tells someone to say "hamburger" when posing for a picture)....



It's been wonderful having Drea back in the house. I have someone to talk to, someone to share meals with, someone to enjoy Dunedin with and most of all, someone to steal heat from (and steal I do!). Somehow the lightswitch (aka sun) got turned off in Dunedin and the temperature dropped from the mid-teens (that 50's - 60's for most of you) to right around 0 (yup, that'd be freezing). It even snowed in Dunedin shortly after I had decided to ride my bike in to work. Oops. To make matters worse, I couldn't get the fireplace working. Which really hurt my pride as I was once a boy scout. But luckily I can blame the family of birds that took residence in our chimney for my lack of progress. I called up the landlord who climbed up on the roof to take a look and proceeded to dislodge our flue. Again, oops. He promptly called up a chimney sweep to fix it last week and so when we got home we lit up a roaring fire to great success. Two cold nights and two roaring fires later we recieve a call from our landlord. He asks me, "How's it going?". I say, "great, we've got a roaring fire going and..." which was quickly interrupted with "Nooooo!" Apparently our flue did not get attached and we've been venting our smoke into the attic. Can I get a little oops oops? So you might imagine that an abrupt cold snap might make the local chimney sweep (and repairman) a popular guy. Sure enough, the earliest he was able to schedule us in to fix our flue is this coming Tuesday (over a week from when we called up and a month from when we discovered it broke). So in the meantime Drea and I have moved the bed into the living room (next to our currently defunct fireplace) developed an intense appreciation of hot water bottles and wool, and started to understand what makes tea so popular around here (psst...it's hot).

So this weekend was looking like an especially cold one and we decided it was probably best if we got out of dodge. Luckily Drea had discovered the Slow Food Otago group was having a winery tour and luncheon/bbq out in Cromwell on Sunday. We needed no better excuse so we booked ourselves a nice little place to stay Saturday night, packed up our food and some warm clothes and got out of town.

It was a lovely drive up to Cromwell as it's Autumn here and the trees are only just past their peak color. We got in to town with enough time to do a little wine tasting. For anyone heading up to Cromwell, may I recommend the Wooing Tree winery for a very tasty Pinot Noir.

Sunday turned out to be beautiful with snow across the tops of the nearby mountains. We hit one more winery on our way to the Slow Food event. The event was at the home of a couple who used to be the New Zealand ambassador to Tonga and then Iran and are now trying their hand at winemaking.

During our tour of the winery (under the netting to keep the birds out)

The winery and snow capped mountains in the background

They hosted about 20 of us at their home and everyone brought something to share. I think the highlights were the avocado dip (avocado, pickled garlic, pickled garlic juice and lemon juice), lots of homemade breads and cheeses, some walnut-garlic pate, some fantastic desserts and lots of wine. We brought prawns, mushrooms and capsicum (peppers) marinated in a sesame soy ginger sauce. It was delicious. We also brought a fruit salad that we threw together when we remembered that morning that we were supposed to bring a dessert.

Slow Food Otago

It was a lovely time and we met some very nice folks. Looking forward to the next event.

This is a random bicycle fence we passed on the way home - old bicycles left to decorate a fence. They like their themed fences here - we've also seen a shoe fence and even a bra fence!

Warm thoughts and love to all,
Dave and Andrea

Tiki Tour (day 5-7)

The final saga...

Day 5 - Wanaka to Glentanner
We woke up to beautiful skies and not even a hint of wind in the air. So I excitedly called the pilot for mom and dad's flight to Milford to verify that he would be picking up the folks to take them to the airport (I was going to stay in Wanaka and do some of the work I had brought with me). I was surprised when the pilot said they weren't going to fly that day. Apparently the weather was beautiful in Wanaka but just over the mountains in Milford it was cloudy, windy and rainy. Bummer. So with flightseeing cancelled the folks took off into town to do another run of shopping and for their ritual cuppa while I stayed in the campervan and worked. When they got back we decided to check out one of the wineries in town that had a golf course. Not an ordinary golf course mind you. A cross-golf course. I had mentioned the cross golf in one of my earlier blog postings and since then dad's been very excited to try it out. So we made our way to the winery, rented a set of clubs and bought three sets of oval shaped golf balls (they kind of look like miniature rugby balls, my thought is they were invented as a joke gift by some wacky kiwi who then found out that they would actually fly) and gave it a crack. The game is similar to golf, except that instead of a hole, you're aiming for a net to land the ball into. And you get to tee up every shot. It was a lot of fun even though mom continued her dominance by trouncing dad and I. I think it was 39 to 52 to 59. I shot the 59. yikes. I couldn't figure out how to chip the darn thing.Did I mention that the course doubled as a sheep pasture? Watchout!!

Lake Wanaka in the background.

After wrapping up crossgolf and having a nice post match wine tasting we hit the road for Mt. Cook. We stopped at a little salmon farm on the way that I'd been to when Drea and I came through last year. We fed the fish and bought ourselves a very very fresh salmon fillet for dinner. Delicious.

Just before getting to our campground we stopped off at a viewpoint to catch our picture of Mt. Cook while it was slightly visible. You never know with Mount Cook if you'll be able to see it the next day so it often pays to take the picture when you've got the chance. Here's dad taking his picture and showing off his camera to the Japanese tourists waiting for the perfect shot at the same vista.

Day 6 - Mt. Cook to Ashburton

The next morning we woke up to yet another gorgeous day. Not a cloud in the sky!!! We jumped in the campa and took off for the entrance to the Mount Cook National park. I decided to take the folks on a bit of a hike up to the Hooker glacier. Dad said that since the surgery he's supposed to be walking at least 10,000 steps a day. So why not a four hour round trip hike with a couple of swing bridges along the way. Excellent!!! I loaned the folks my trekking poles and we started on our way. I'll let the photo's tell the rest...
Sunrise next to the lost climbers monument.

A nice view to reflect on .
That's mom's real face when crossing the swing bridge.

That's not her real face.

Mount Cook in the background

Iceburgs at the Hooker Glacier

We left Mount cook thoroughly exhausted and started off on our way back to Christchurch. We made a quick stop at this cute little church for a photo op before continuing.
I had a place in mind to camp along the Rakaia river about an hour out of Christchurch but we were a little late getting there so we decided to stop in Ashburton instead. We found a nice little place to have dinner and dad ordered the most ridiculous thing on the menu. A massive hamburger with 2 patties, lettuce, tomato, onions, bacon, pineapple and an egg on a bun with fries and a salad. Totally Ginormous! He put a really good dent in it but had to give up after a while. We rolled into one of the local holiday parks, had a good hot shower, played some Cribbage (I finally won this time!) and went to bed.

Day 7 - Ashburton to Christchurch to Dunedin

Our last day was a bit of a marathon of driving. After breakfast we drove up to Christchurch and dropped off the campa. Bye campa! We gave a thought to exploring Christchurch a bit more but with the 5 hour drive to Dunedin ahead of us we decided to just hit the road. We made a couple stops along the way at a giant knitting emporium and a Salmon cafe (with requisite giant salmon out front) for a cuppa but for the most part we just barreled down the highway.

We got home exhausted and stayed in the rest of the evening unpacking and repacking for the folks trip home. We had one more game of cribbage in us however and Dad took this round.

Day 8 - To the airport

So our trip came to an end as I drove the parents off to the airport in the morning. It was so nice having them here and I realized when they walked onto the plane how much I've been missing having them around. I'm so glad I got to spend time exploring some of this country with them. I wish we had more time, there's so much to see. Hopefully we can convince them to come back next summer. Whaddaya say folks?!?

tiki tour (days 3-5)

Hey all,

To continue our journey...

Day 3 - Hokitika to Lake Paeringa (Glacier day!)
We woke up early Saturday morning to check out the lakefront, a steamship from the New Zealand gold era and the wreckage from the party that took place there last night. Luckily we were mostly out of earshot so we all seemed to have slept ok.

Our first stop along the way for our now traditional morning stop for a cuppa (coffee, or more specifically a flat white for mom and a long black for dad) was at the Bushmans cafe. A roadside restaurant cafe specializing in the cooking and eating of roadkill. No joke. Possum was on the menu in more than one place. And the menu also claimed that if you brought it in, they'd cook it up. Add to that a lot of colorfully offcolor gift cards, a bushmans museum, several animal pens, and some rather humorous letters (with responses from the owner) of people who found the cafe to be less than appetizing. Quite an interesting little place, it gave a good idea of what it probably takes to live on the wild wet west coast.One of the captive red deer at the Bushman's cafe.

From the cafe we drove down a particularly windy stretch of road until finally pulling into view of the Franz Josef glacier. Franz Josef was named in the early 1900s after the Austria emporer by an Austrian explorer who was the first European to see it. It is rare in that it is one of the few glaciers that ends in a rain forest. We took a hike in to a couple little overlooks and got up to within about 300 meters of the face of the glacier. From there we got a pretty good look at some of the tour groups exploring the surface of the glacier itself. Maybe we'll have to try that next time we go back. We might also have to try out the indoor ice climbing center in town that looked like a good time.


From Franz Josef we continued on to Fox Glacier. Fox glacier was named by (and I guess after) then Prime Minister of New Zealand, the ever so humble William Fox. It was really interesting hiking to this glacier for me having just been there last year. The outlet river from the glacier appeared to have moved about 100 meters from where it exited the glacier last time. Apparently these glaciers are also some of the fasted moving in the world. A plane that crashed at the top of the glacier was spit out of the bottom only 6-1/2 years later.

From Fox Glacier we drove down the road to the campground at Lake Paeringa. A little lake about an hour north of Haast, where I made a brief, yet unfruitful attempt to catch dinner and then settled in for the night. We played cribbage after dinner and mom beat dad and I again to extend her unbeaten streak from the night before.

Day 4 - Lake Paeringa to Wanaka

I got up early to try again and learned that the problem wasn't lack of fish. They were massive and jumping all over the place. Including right next to my forelorn little fly. I guess it's clear that my technique is a bit lacking. Anyway, after trying my luck for about an hour and a half I packed it up and we hit the road after a fish free breakfast.

We drove East over the Haast pass through lovely native forest before stopping at Thunder Creek falls. Unfortunately two tour buses going in the opposite direction decided to stop at the same falls at the same time. I don't think I've seen this many people in one place in a long time. A bit of jostling later and we were at the overlook to the waterfall. We decided to wait about 15 minutes for the tour groups to leave before we got the place all to ourselves. We took our requisite pictures and were back on our way. We passed through the Gates of Haast where I got this lovely shot of Mom helping Dad take a picture...

From there we stopped at another short little hike to Fantail falls. When we got to the river we were astonished to find hundreds of man made piles of rocks in every direction. Just amazing. We took lots of pictures of all the various rock piles ( almost ignoring the lovely waterfall) before taking the time to build our own pile.


Here's mom putting the final touches on our structure.



We arrived in Wanaka early that afternoon, checked into a holiday park, and took a much enjoyed hot shower. We booked a flightseeing tour for mom and dad for tomorrow morning and then headed in to town to do some shopping and exploring. Wanaka is a cute little town that kind of feels a bit like Tahoe. We had drinks by the fire at one of the little bars in town.
Then we ate an absolutely massive (and massively delicious) dinner right on the waterfront. Here's the view from the restaurant...
We played a little cribbage before going to be and Mom continued her domination.