Merry Kiwi Christmas

Dear Family and Friends,

We wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from the bottom of our hearts!
This Christmas season, we have released the fury of Te Puia geyser on the north island of New Zealand, summited the mighty Mt. Luxmore and climbed the ferocious Fox Glacier of the south island for no other reason than to illustrate our utmost desire to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We have thrown ourselves at the doorstep of sheer horror, peril and extremely unpleasant travels to send this festive Christmas wish to you.

Wish you lots of love and hot chocolate this holiday season!

Liz and Warren

New Zealand First Impressions

One full week in New Zealand. How do you find the words to describe a place like this?

So we flew out last Monday to the "city of sails" - Auckland. I heard that getting gear through their biosecurity was pretty tough, but as it turns out, I just got my boots and our tent cleaned by the workers and then we were on our merry way. We got a cab to our hostel, which turned out to be glorious and after six hours of sleep or so, we awoke to our first glimpses of New Zealand in the sunshine. After orienting ourselves, picking up our new home for five weeks (a luxuious 1995 white toyota corolla), picking up some kiwi cash and a cool claw apparatus that hooks up to a gas canister for cooking outdoors...we were off. We only spent a few hours in Auckland, then we were beach-bound.

A few hours later, we found ourselves in Ragland, a gorgeous harbourside town on the west coast of the north island, complete with an organic burger joint and grocers. We found a cozy place to camp with a view of the ocean in Pirongia Forest Park. Then we were set: beautiful view, tent up, new fancy cooking apparatus, corn tortillas/beans/corns/tomatos. Only one problem: on our first night camping out in the wilderness, neither of us college educated idiots remembered to bring a lighter or even matches. Luckily, Warren was able to flex his boyscout muscles and after 15 minutes or so we were seeing flames. We awoke to find ourselves still on the side of a beautiful hill overlooking the ocean and I just had to pinch myself....this place can't be real.

The next few days consisted on getting to know the north island a little better. What I've come to realize is that at any given location of New Zealand, you are likely not further than ten minutes or so from one of the most spectacular things you have ever seen. There was an incredible waterfall (50 meters high) not too far from our camping place near Ragland. We then headed inland from Raglan to Rotorua, which turns out to be awfully touristy, complete with mini-golf. Just outside of Rotorua, however, is a glorious geyser, Te Puia. She goes off about once per hour. You can tell when she's about to blow cause she starts sputtering a bit of water and steaming a lot more and then almost all at once, like fireworks, she's off, shooting 20 meters high!! It was such a beautiful, sulfer-smelling show. I've never seen anything like this. Te Puia is basically the northern most section of what is called "Thermal Explorer Highway." As you drive south of here, there are numerous hot springs, smaller geysers/thermal vents, mud pits, ect. This whole area is basically one big volcano and the signs are everywhere. We visited two amazing hot springs. One just like a regular little creek, running through the woods, except it's a hot water creek, complete with a small hot water water fall....AMAZING. The other which is called hot and cold (by the locals). The hot water spring actually meets up with a cold water creek, so you can move between the two zones until you find the perfect temperature for yourself. The romance of this scenery at second location was somewhat jaded by the old, friendly, naked guy that was there, but still magnificent. After finding a nice holiday park to stay at, we headed out for our Thanksgiving meal. We gorged ourselves on mussels, dory (a local fish), and chicken. The menu was somewhat non-traditional, but the typical spirit of overeating was very much present in our hearts.

The next stop was Taupo, further south. This is a gorgeous lake community, which is a lot like Tahoe. There was another amazing water fall near Taupo and we also managed to catch a dam (Aratiatia) being released. You can watch this show safely from a cliff above while the flood waters rush into the creek, rising the water probably at least 4-5 meters. Once the dam is closed, you can watch the water slowly receed down the creek. COOL! Further south we visited three active volcanoes. Due to inclement weather, we were not able to hike up them as planned, but instead we just camped at the base along a creek for the night.

Inclement weather followed us. Basically, the whole of New Zealand was bathing for a couple of days. We swallowed our losses and headed to Wanganui, found a nice hostel, got some takeaway fish and chips, played cards and drank beer for the night.

We are currently in Wellington. We arrived yesterday and did an awesome oceanside hike along a neat boulder/pebble beach. We are staying with some friends of Ms. Trista. They are incredibly friendly and welcoming and they happen to be outdoors/adventure enthusiasts. I don't think there is a single place/thing to be seen/done in New Zealand that they haven't explored. They are full of endless information and they are going to be very helpful in mapping out the next four weeks of our stay here.

All in all, my first impressions drastically exceed my expectations (which were unbelievably high). Every view, from every angle, in every place is amazing. The typical view from the car window includes huge rolling, grassy hills complete with sheep and/or cows roaming and beautiful trees/flowers and maybe the rare quaint cottage. This place is remote! The cities are small and dense and once you get out of them, within 10 minutes or less, you are back into this picturesque countryside scenery. It is incredibly traveler friendly. There are affordable hostels and what they call "holiday parks" everywhere, which are heaps nicer than any other budget accommodations I've ever seen. You can camp for next to nothing. The Department of Conservation has campsites all over the country that cost $3 to $8 dollars per night. You can also stay in hundreds of their back country huts throughout the country for these same prices.

Already, five weeks doesn't seem like nearly enough time to see all this place has to offer. New Zealand and I are getting along really well. I think we'll be best friends.

freedom looks like this

THE GAME: new zealand adventure extravaganza
THE PLAYERS: Olive Oil and Chuck Norris
THE STRATEGY: arrive in New Zealand Nov 23; random-unplanned-excursions on north and south islands: caving, diving, hiking, swimming, thermal area exploration (hot springs! and volcanos!), meadow meditation, yoga on random mountain tops, hangin' on glaciers, farming, etc; Warren's bday in Akaroa; Christmas in Christcurch (incredibly fitting); depart New Zealand Dec 26



I am currently prepping for one of my biggest adventures to date. to do list includes:

-make random food concoctions that will use up all remaining ingredients in fridge and cabinet.
resulting in dinners such as carrot cake and homemade onion rings ;)

-spend time at those crossroads, where dear friends say hello and goodbye

-CLEAN all gear. I've learned that New Zealand has very strict requirements that camping boots, tents, etc. are cleaned thoroughly, especially if coming from Australia. There is nothing that can kill you in New Zee and they have to prevent that any critters catch a free ride on my camping gear

-finish work! yay yay! it's time for me to say goodbye. i'll get that last free cup of delicious coffee today

-polish my dancing shoes and perfect sweet moves. dance recital the day before we leave.

-kiss Coogee goodbye for the summer

evil cafe owner

my boss has been slowing sucking the life out of me. one particularly frustrating day, I was trying to find a way to rid myself of his evil energy. the first thought was a voodoo doll. now, i'm not too superstitious, but this seemed a bit risky. instead, i decided to figure out what sort of animal he resembles. that way, when he's being annyoing and rude, i can imagine his little animal self talking to me and smile inside. so i figured out....he IS a leemur (conveniently his name is Lee) and he does strickingly resemble this little guy below. after a brief therapy session of looking up goofy leemur photos and writing the silly poem below - i was free.




lurking leemur on arden st.

sad little creature (harbours)

only fake smiles and resentment

Hitler's faithful friend

residing to pick out our eyebrow hairs

one. by. one. by two!

until each former happy self

flees to safety and serenity

lemurs bite - you know?

not one rough chomp through

but tiny teeth gnawing into forever

little drops of leemur poison

slowly taking control of

Health and Happy Baristas

flee all ye weary workers!

nasty leemur--do your worst!

queen of coogee

beautiful birthday bonanza. It went something like this.....

tranformed into a flamingo, partied with friends at the Argyle in the Rocks, brunch on Sunday with a Louisiana flare: shrimp po'boys-fruit salad-mimosas!!!, afternoon on the sunny/windy beach, Thai food take out and vino, skyped with momma, received Aboriginal poetry book and tickets to Wicked the musical!, slept in, brunch #2 with my best mates, cupcake-candle-and a song, sweet friends and sweet cards, minor case of birthday blues, cure: tea and recap of my year, smoothie and a New Zealand adventure plan, dance rehearsal and a boy who spies, leftover thai-champagne-wine and San Pellegrino, hour long massage.

i was the queen of Coogee. it was all his fault.

The Adventures of Flat Savannah

Savannah's second grade class did a project where they created "flat selves" and sent them to friends and family living in other places. Flat Savannah and I hung out for a week or so and we were best pals all around Coogee and Sydney. We chilled at the beach, visited the Opera House and the Harbour bridge. We even saw a street performer pretending to be an aboriginal (with the help of a little brown face paint) and actually playing a didgeridoo. Flat Savannah doesn't hold a candle to the real little lady, but it was neat to pretend. This type of education really gives me energy to teach and always learn.

sunburns and sting rays - i live on the ocean

this week in my life i:

-snorkeled with two girls and two sting rays at gordon's bay
-watched a bad, but sad movie
-began to understand selflessness
-shared wine, hearts, creamy pasta dishes (and matching belly aches) with two dear friends
-got a sunburn on the back of my legs from too much beachin'
-decided to be a flamingo for halloween
-learned how to make heart designs with milk froth on coffee **love**
-introduced the left side of my brain to the right (see inspiration below)


http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

measuring success?

"My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?" -Charles Shulz

This week I:

-was inspired by a one-legged pigeon
-wore red lipstick and a mask
-had a temporary octopus tattoo drawn on my hip
-sun and wind bathed
-planned a trip to Indonesia
-learned a new dance
-prepared a special meal for a loved one
-skyped with family
-saw the sunrise (twice)
-sleep until noon (twice)
-won a staring contest with a bird
-ate food from a farmer's market
-wrote a poem and said a prayer

manicured beauty

beauty redefined - reproducing exponentially
we roped off our wilderness
to hike alongside paradise remains

we manicured our beauty away
left our frantic forests full of foreigners
and started our crying too late

late or never? our childrens' tales only to remind our ghosts

the weather report

reasons to like the rain:

1. the smell of fresh, organic air after
2. hot chocolate
3. rainbows!!!
4. looooong baths
5. Cat Power
6. snuggling
7. cheesy romantic movies
8. knee high socks
9. walking in the rain
10. walking out of the rain

i needed a reminder. it's been raining for almost a week. blah.

Tucker (that's Australian for food)

For Sarah and the Late Great Mrs. Edith:

Australia cuisine? It's a lot like American cuisine (a melting pot of sorts), but with many subtle differences.......

-potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce: This is really heaven. It is such a simple combination, but so delicious and abundant. You can't really walk a block without finding some delicious, greasy "take-away" place to serve this to you for a meager $6 bucks or so....worth every single penny. Recently, I made this concoction at home and though it was not nearly as divine, I was relieved to know that I could create some form of this any time, at any place.

-chicken schnitzel: this is also a staple of the greasy, take-out joint, you can get this alone, on a bun, or with the above mentioned wedges for the perfect "slightly better than fast food" treat

-yeeros/kebab: this is the namesake of the cafe that I work at - "Coogee Yeeros." It consists of rotisary meat (beef, chicken, or lamb), salad (which goes into the wrap and is still called "salad") and sauce (tomato, bbq, garlic, hommus, tabouli, etc.) This is exceptionally yummy.

-The Meat Pie: Incredibly abundant here, these are found at many, many take away shops and also at Specialty Pie Shops and usually at each bakery as well.

-Turkish bread: this is something I had never tried before. It's sort of like pita, but thicker. Most places have the option of making your sandwich out of regular white bread, brown bread (also known as wheat or multi-grain bread in the states), foccocia or turkish bread.

-Breakfast: Breaky is big here. Most restaurants have a menu item called "Big Breaky", "Big Aussie" or "Australian Breakfast." This is a classic breakfast with eggs (scrambled, fried, or poached), sausage, bacon, toast (with choice from the above breads usually), a grilled slice of tomato, and coffee/tea. Also popular are eggs benedict and pancakes. There is a place called "Pancakes on the Rocks" which is really famous here. It's in Sydney right on Sydney Harbour in a sort of posh part of the Harbour called "The Rocks." We waited in line for maybe 20-30 minutes to sit in this packcake house. You can choose from buttermilk or chocolate pancakes with vanilla or chocolate ice cream on top. You can also have nuts or fruit on your pancakes and almost all the pancake options come with chocolate drizzled on top. DELICIOUS!!!!!

-Thai food: Thai food may be the most popular food in Sydney. I would say about one third of all the restaurants around here are Thai. There appears to be some sort of contest amongst the Thai Restaurants to see who can come up with the most ridiculously catchy restaurant name. The contestants include: Thai-riffic, Thai Time, Thai Me Up, Tongue-Thaied, to name a few. So far, all the Thai food I've had has been great.

-Healthier Options: Muesli (also known in the US as granola) is really popular and can be served as a cereal with milk, as an accompaniment to yogurt and fruit salad (which are also extremely popular), or in cookies. Banana bread and other fruit breads are also found in abundance at little cafes and coffee shops. I have been on a quest to find the most delicious slice. There are so many to choose from.

-Last but not least, the Coffee: Coffee here is quite different from coffee in the U.S. For starters, there is no traditional "drip" coffee. All coffee drinks are made from espresso (concentrated coffee). My latest addiction is the "flat white." This is unique to Australia and it consists of espresso and steamed milk (without any of that pretentious froth). It's good. It's addictive. Everyone drinks coffee here. Coffee shops are on every corner and it is also an art here. You are likely to get some sort of interesting floral design on the top of your cup o' joe each time you buy one.

Organic/local food has been a bit of a challenge here, especially outside of the city. Sydney proper has many more accessible local food markets and shops. I have found one great market about a ten minute bus ride from here at Fox Studios. You can buy fresh lamb, pork, chickens (and their eggs), and even kangaroo all raised on green grass pastures without chemicals not too far from the market. This place also has great bread/pastries, veggies (including to-die-for hydropondic tomatos, which is 99% of the time pronounce toe-maw-toe), homemade cheeses, pasta, sauces, and COFFEE!

My favorite part of Australia cuisine culture are the specialty shops. There are so many speciality shops including bakeries, butchers, veggie/fruit stands, etc. My favorite has to be the bakery. I usually buy the chocolate-filled croissant while Warren's bakery-splurge-of-choice is usually the apple/cheese danish. Chain restaurants are so rare here. Unforntunately the most abundant chain restaurants are from the US (McDonalds, KFC, Dominos, and Hungry Jack's-which is Burger King in disguise). You can really feel good about handing over your hard-earned money to the person who will benefit from the transaction, the person who made your bread or cut your slice of meat. I like that. There is also a really great Asian Market in Sydney's Central Business District on Friday nights where you can get green tea, chocolate, custard, or red bean pancakes; octopus, prawn, or crab balls and octopus-on-a-stick. The octopus balls are made by chefs use miniature pitch forks to rotate the balls to the beat of techno music. The balls are made in round cupcake tray-like grills. I would say that about eight of these techno-chefs were making about 500 ball at once. Also cool, is that most grocery stores will put things on sale before they go bad. You can get rotissary chicken for half price about four hours after it hits the heat shelves. It is possible to shop entirely for these discounted items and get several meals worth. It's a good practice that benefits all.

The biggest downfall I have noticed so far is that there is NO mexican food here. This is really unfortunate because as of the last couple of years, this has become my favorite food. Also, it costs an outrageous $4 AUD to get a simple can of black beans (which had become a staple to our mainly burrito diet in Orlando). There are quite a few tapas restaurant if you need a spanish-style fix, but Mexican is no where to be found. Another great downfall is that the beer costs your first born child here. It costs about $18 AUD to buy a six pack of beer...any beer, even the cheap stuff. Wine, on the other hand, is perfectly affordable and that is really lucky for me. You can buy "white label" wines at discount prices. These are literally from "the bottom of the barrel" and in most cases they are quite tasty. These are usually $5 - $6 AUD. Also (Sarah) there does not appear to be any/much fondu here....tear. However, sushi can be readily found. I'm in a bit of a sushi funk, so I can provide no insight on how it tastes, but based on proximity I'd say it's at least as good as the US sushi and probably better.

it's time to eat. go figure.

birthday girls

i miss them. and you. and my sewing machine.

peculiar day

Warren and I woke up this morning to an interesting orange hue out of our window. When we left the house there was orange dust all over the parked cars and several bus drivers were wearing dust masks. Our friend, Tommy, took this pic at 8 AM this morning at Coogee Beach. The BBC journalist in this link did a proper job of overdramatizing this event, but the accent and footage are good. Apparently, this is quite a rare event and it really did feel like a scene out a movie, a really eery but beautiful movie.

Check it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8270125.stm

First Blog Ever

This is my first blog. I like to write. I also like to keep in touch with friends and family, so why not? This is just an easy way for me to keep up with all of you. You can just get onto this address whenever you are thinking of me, want to surf the net, are bored, etc. I will try to update this as often as possible and use this as a way to document our travels/life while I'm here in Australia and to keep you guys in the loop. Warren may insert some entries from time to time as well. This will probably be a good place also to post wedding plans/updates/ideas/pics etc.

KANGAROOS!!!!! It's official, we have seen The Roo. Warren and I were like a couple of little school kids seeing them for the first time. I think Warren may have even shed a tear or two. They are so neat, they bounce!!!!! I know that you see that on TV and hear about the bouncing, pouch, etc. But in real life, to see a bouncing mammal or maybe 10 just bouncing around a field, it's really quite spectacular to say the very least. It will surely be something I will always remember....the first time I saw a roo. We stayed at a little placed in Hunter Valley (the oldest wine valley in Australia), in a house called the Hill Top Inn. It was ran by a nice older lady named Margaret. She was born and raised in this area. She is the owner/operater/cleaner/nighttime 4 wheel drive animal tour guide/cook/you name it. She is a one woman show and she has a wonderful establishment. Her house is, as you might have guessed, on the top of a hill overlooking vineyards with mountain in the distance. After a full day of wine tasting, we would pick a spot on the hillside to try to observe some animals at dusk. The kangaroos prefer this time of the day, from about 4:30 until dark to roam around. We could watch from our perch on the hill as they bounced around in the valley below. We were also lucky enough to see a wombat. These are far more rare and equally as interesting. A wombat is sort of like a pig mixed with bear. It's much like an R.O.U.S. (Rodent Of Unusual Size from the Princess Bride), that's really the best way to explain it. We heard it rustling around in the grass and I was able to get pretty close to it before it scurried away. Also, in first time Australia animal news, we saw an Australian possum. Well, Warren really saw it. I was leaving the tent to use the restroom at a nearby tree and I asked Warren to keep a look out and shine the light around...this is Australia after all, and I am sufficiently paranoid about critters in the wild that may kill me. So as I was doing the deed, a little possum decided to hop onto the nearby trash can. Warren was enthralled with him, but the problem was that I was exposed, trying to use the bathroom, and I didn't have my contacts in to see that it was only a little furry creature. I was terrified! I never did get a good look at the little fellow (Warren says he looks really cute and not at all like our American possums).

The wine was wonderful. I have a true love for wine and nature and wine tasting is the perfect combination of these two wonders. Spring has just begun here, so the vines were just beginning to blossom. Something about row after row after row of grapes on vines really makes my heart sing. Hunter Valley is just about a hour and a half north of Sydney. There are interesting grapes grown here which are not grown in the states...two in particular are the Semillion and Verdehlo. These really thrive in the Hunter Valley and are two of their most popular white wine grapes. I really didn't love either, but I prefered the Verdehlo. It's actually a portugese grape, which grows really well in warmer climates. Warren and I were wondering why it isn't grown in Louisiana. There is also a dessert wine called Muscot, which is some variety of the muscadine, or so some of the wine makers believed it to be. Also, interesting was that they drink a lot of sparkeling red wines, like sparkling Shiraz. These were so yummy and it really suprises me that these aren't more popular in the U.S. They drink these especially around Christmas time because it's so hot here and apparently it is really delicious with gamey meets like Turkey. But the Shiraz is really Hunter Valleys claim to fame. They say you can really taste the Hunter's rich soils and somehow (after a winery or two) you can.

I think this is enough for now. We are back in Coogee. Warren is busy with several projects and has project after project due until the end of the semester to keep him quite busy. One of us will post some pictures of our recent adventure onto Facebook soon. I'm off to bake some bisquits. They are gluten free so they are more like cookies, but that's okay too. Take care all.