Abel Tasman Birthday Hike



Last weekend Blaine and I took a hiking trip up to the north end of the island. Although we drove through snow to get there, it was sunny and warm for the most part! We even got to see our first penguin. The area, Golden Bay, is known for its turquoise waters, orange beaches and tropical weather. Here are most of our pics from the long weekend.

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IN 3 days I will be home!!! Hopefully I will be able to see lots of you while I am home!!!!

Happy Father's Day





Once again we are missing a holiday/celebration that we wish we were home for!!! Happy Father's Day to DB and Paw-Paw! We miss you! What would we do without our Dads??? Love you!

Peel Forest






Blaine and I decided we would take a drive and a day hike down to Peel Forest last Saturday. It was a beautiful drive through the Rakaia Gorge past snow-capped mountains to an area where several scenes of Lord of the Rings was filmed. Peel Forest is an "off the beaten path" forest with some great hikes. We stopped at the visitor's center/post office/grocery store/coffee shop (we WERE in the middle of no where) to get info/suggestions on a good day hike. They suggested Emily Falls which was only 1 1/2 hours. We had lunch by a little stream and then made the ascent through the forest, stopping for some beautiful overlooks. It is so nice to get out of the city and noise into the quiet wilderness with bellbirds chirping and clean air. We also took a short hike to a 1,000 year Totara tree (pic above). We plan on going back to do some longer hikes and camp out as well. We came back that night for a birthday party for our British friend Andy; we had steaks and went and danced to an Irish band--such fun!

sidenote: 3 weeks until I come home!!!!

WILD FOOD PARTY!!!!



CCU NURSES AND SPOUSES/FIANCES


KRIS WITH THE STUFFED HOG HEAD


SITTING AROUND THE BONFIRE, ARE WE IN MISSISSIPPI?


We were invited to a Wild Food Party on Saturday night by one of the women I work with in CCU who lives out in Kaipoi. We weren't sure what to expect but I prepared some beer biscuits (mom's recipie) and some banana pudding (with green food coloring) and drove 1/2 hour out of town to her place. We could hear the party before we could see it. It was quite a shin-dig (sp?)! Several big white tents were set up in the field behind her house right on the river. They had a band playing and several bonfires. A maori traditional dinner is called a hangi; see Wikipedia definition:
Hāngi (pronounced /hɑːŋi/) is a New Zealand Māori word for a method of cooking in an outdoor pit oven. It is done in New Zealand as an alternative to the barbecue, but often saved for special occasions due to the large amount of time and preparatory work involved.

To "lay a hāngi" or "put down a hāngi" involves digging a pit in the ground, heating stones in the pit with a large fire, placing wire baskets of food on top of the stones, and covering everything with earth for several hours before uncovering (or lifting) the hāngi. There are many variations and details that can be altered, but a hāngi produces rich, succulent food with a flavour quite unlike anything else.

Several strange things happened that night: Marion (S.African friend) caught a field mouse in a jar and decided to take him home as a pet...Petra had her first roasted marshmellow(she is 24 years old)...at the end of the party a guy played the bagpipes (Amazing Grace I think). It was fun but weird. The pulled pork was good, but the weirdest thing I had was a chocolate eclair that was labelled "cow dung" (even though I knew it was not dung, the label some how spoiled it for me).

Hiking in the Port Hills


view of Lyttleton Harbor from the top


The Rock Cliff we hiked to the top of


Jonny, Blaine and me (terrible pic of me) at the top


We had a fun Saturday hike in the Port Hills (sort of in our backyard) with Tyler, Amber, and Jonny. It was so beautiful from the top, very windy! Blaine led us "astray" on the way down but it wasn't really much longer. The saddleback trail led up a ridge where we could see the Canterbury Plains/Southern Alps and the Pacific Ocean/Harbor on the other. There was an unobstructed 360 degree view at the top. Blaine was practicing his new photography skills. We just ordered a DSLR camera (don't ask me what it stands for), some fancy new electronic that Blaine has researched. I will bring it back from the States after I visit. I think Blaine will be more excited about getting the camera than he will be to see me!

Happy Mother's Day





Hoping both of our mother's have a special day! We are so blessed to have wonderful, loving moms. We miss you!

Our Weekend Hike


Amber and Tyler (Our California friends)


View from Taylor's Mistake Beach (where Amber/Tyler live)


Our View (again)



We had a fun half day hike around the Port Hills right outside Christchurch. The fall weather has been gorgeous lately. We sat and had a picnic and watched the sailboats coming through Lyttleton Harbor. It was such a fun day and ended by going to Amber/Tyler's favorite Mexican restaurant in Sumner. Cheese dip, beans and rice and enchiladas!!! So good. Then we had a slumber party at our house and watched movies. They will be moving back to the States in August so we have to pack in as much fun as possible!

Fall Has Fallen


Sunset seen from our living room


view of Cashmere in color


Our first dinner at a Turkish restaurant with friends

Life has been hectic but good lately. My grandmother fell in her kitchen around a month ago and was in and out of the hospital. They discovered after many diagnostic tests that she had a fracture of her T12 and now after the operation is improving at home. Praise God! It was so hard to be away from home during a stressful time for my family.
Blaine has been traveling a lot with work as usual. With my crazy work schedule, we really appreciate our weekends off together. It gets dark around 5:30 now that it is turning into winter...so we have had a lot more dinner parties, watched a lot more movies, and joined the gym (5 minutes from our house).
Only 2 more months (from tomorrow) and I will be flying home!

"Not Your Ordinary Easter"


Our crazy teeth lollipops


Blaine with the "family" Easter basket


Luscious Lips

Haven't posted too much lately because not too much has been going on. Work and more work. A girl,Robina, from Germany that Melissa, Michelle and I met on our trip has been staying with us for the past 1 1/2 weeks. We got her hooked on our favorite Thai restaurant and introduced her to bubble tea. I worked Easter weekend and the boys played a lot of video games. It is strange to have Easter as the weather turns into fall and the leaves are turning colors...no Easter lillies here.

MELISSA AND MICHELLE'S TRIP TO SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC

We had a great trip around the Southern Scenic Highway to Milford Sound then to Queenstown. On the way back to Christchurch we stopped at Mt. Cook for a short hike up to Mt. Sebastopol at a summit height of 4000 feet! Highlights from the trip include: staying at the Kaka Point campground and meeting our new German friend Robina, our St. Paddy's day trip to Milford, joining the parade and celebrations, the cruise out to Milford where we experienced a huge pod of dolphins up close and personal, helicoptering up to a glacier with amazing views, pigging out on pizza at Winnies in Queenstown and our suprise birthday party for Michelle, our arduous hike where we ended up on top of the world! Lots of laughs, lots of "wow, beautiful", lots of deep, meaningful conversations, lots of driving on the left side of the road, lots of memories and fun.

To view some of our pics from the trip:

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Just wanted to let everyone know that Blaine's parents and grandmother made it home safely. And Melissa and Michelle made it here safely!!! We had a fun 1st day in spite of the rainy weather. Just touring around the Port Hills of Christchurch and eating lunch at the cafe on the corner behind our house. We will be on a trip of the southernmost part of the South Island from Friday to Monday! More pics to come!

Swimming with Dolphins


Beaming because I had just been surrounded with dolphins!


Can you spot the dolphins?

I finally got to swim with dolphins! Blaine's parents and grandmother and I went to Akaroa (1 1/2 hours away from Christchurch) for the day last week. We went out on a jetboat and I got to swim with the rarest type of dolphin...the dusky dolphin. There are only 3000 of them left (all in NZ) and 2000 of them live in the bay at Akaroa. They are very small (around 1 meter~1 yard) and so cute! At one time I had three of them encircling me. They like clicking noises and singing, so imagine me in the freezing cold water...trying to sing "skip to my Lou" (the only song I could think of)through my snorkel and click this instrument thing the skipper gave me, plus swim in gigantic waves. It was quite exhausting but very memorable! Everyone should try and swim with dolphins in the wild one day!

Blaine's mom and grandmother made it away today. Blaine talked to his dad today and he made it home safely. (they travelled seperately) I am ferviously washing sheets and towels to get ready for our next round of visitors!

Mom sent us a webcam so for everyone we talk to on Skype, you will be able to see us now! It is a lot of fun. I got to see my dad for the first time in 7 months over the internet the other day!!!

The Journey with the Totty's


The sheep shearing show


Family Foto at Fox Glacier


The Dart River Jetboating adventure


Milford Sound with Mitre Peak

I am finally posting some pictures of our journey with the Totty's and grandmother around the South Island. We rented a van and left last Saturday and travelled for 8 days. We took the counter-clockwise route...Nelson, down the West Coast to Fox Glacier, then through Haast Pass to Queenstown, over to Milford Sound and then up past Lake Tekapo to Christchurch. 2700 kilometers later we were home. It was a lot of fun! Highlights of the trip: staying in a bed & breakfast in Nelson with a pastor that we had met in Christchurch, hiking with grandmother up to Fox Glacier, beautiful weather as we drove through the valleys and mountains, staying in our luxurious apartment in Queenstown overlooking Lake Wakitipu, jetboat riding through Dart Valley (one of the prettiest places I've ever been), the drive to Milford Sound, staying in a hostel where the bathroom was quite a ways away, the helicopter ride up to a remote glacier. We didn't waste a moments time! Since we have been back home we have played golf and Blaine and I have gone back to work but the family continues to tour around the Christchurch area. Mrs. Totty cooked a Huge portion of spaghetti and chocolate cake and we had 8 friends over last night for dinner. Blaine's dad leaves Saturday and his mom and grandmother fly out Monday. Then Melissa and Michelle arrive on Wednesday!!!! Yea. We have decided to run a bed & breakfast out of our house now, so come on over!

Settling In

Just a few photos of our new place and of our first rugby game experience. I recorded a video of the house but I had the camera turned the wrong way and didn't think everyone would want to watch it sideways. I will redo when I get a chance and post it because we have lots of furniture now.

Blaine's parents and grandmother made it here safely from Mississippi/Tennessee yesterday. We are so thrilled to have family in our new house!!! They will be here for 2 1/2 weeks. We start our journey around the South Island on Saturday morning in a minivan we rented. Should be lots of pictures and fun stories to share when we return. I made a traditional Kiwi roast dinner last night...roast leg of lamb, potatoes and pavlova (a meriange type dessert) for their first meal.
We will keep everyone updated on all the fun we're having! Blaine and I are excited to be off work for the next 10 days!

Birthday Celebration






A lot has happened since our last post. #1--we moved into a new townhouse up in the Cashmere Hills! We love it! Very different from our last apartment. It is much more like a home, situated down a cobblestone drive with a view of the valley and mountains. We moved from a furnished apartment to an unfurnished, so we have had to get all the furniture (minus a bed we already had) plus all the little things like kitchen pots/pans, cleaning supplies, an iron, vacuum, etc. But it has been fun. Blaine's parents and grandmother arrive in 1 week!!!! So we are trying to get everything "homey" before they arrive. We hit up quite a few garage sales last weekend and scored a $25 dresser! Blaine and I both really got into searching for deals and bargaining people down from $1 ice trays! The problem is that we will be living here for 2 years but when we leave we will just give everything away; so why buy new/nice things just for a few years. #2--We went to our first rugby game (will post pictures later) with a few friends from work...it was lots of fun and my learning curve was very steep since I virtually know nothing about rugby. One of the strange things that happened was that the crowd cheered as the opposing team ran out onto the field. I think Blaine and I were the only ones who let a boo slip out of our mouth and then realized that Our team was cheering for them. Oh well. #3 I had a birthday, turning 26...so close to 30! I actually worked night shift the eve of my birthday, so we partied at midnight!! We had cake and ice cream, chips/dip, and wore party hats! I called my parents too because it was like 5 a.m. and they are very early risers. Good thing all of our patients were sleeping and feeling pretty well because we had a birthday party to tend to. Ha. I slept on the actual day of my birthday until Blaine came home for lunch with flowers as a suprise. We went to dinner at a restaurant named Indochine that was a fusion of Indonesian and Chinese food and afterwards met our friends from Australia, NZ, England and new US friends. Our new US friends are from California, Tyler and Amber, who came to look at our old apt. and ended up living with us for a few days until we had moved out. They are a lot of fun and we can talk Americanize to them.
Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day! Most people know it is one of my favorite holidays, wonder why?

Symphony in the Park






We had a great night listening to the Chistchurch Symphony, a NZ singer Dave Dobbins, and watching a great fireworks show all to celebrate Waitangi Day! You might be asking, "what is Waitangi Day?". Just think of it as New Zealand's 4th of July. Also, if you had looked closely at the picture of Blaine and me you would have noticed that we have fleece jackets on...and we are currently in the hottest month of the summer! Have we ever had an Independence Day where we needed jackets at home...I doubt it!

It has been a good week in Christchurch. Monday was warm and sunny so we decided to have a BBQ with some friends and neighbors. Blaine made burgers and we had spinach-artichoke dip and baked beans and of course sweet tea. I convinced the boys to move the couches out on the back patio so that we had comfy seating...everyone was glad once we did it! Wednesday night we attended the Buskers Festival. Before this day I had no idea what a busker was. For those of you who are ignorant as well, here is the definition from Wikipedia: Busking is the practice of doing live performances in public places to entertain people, usually to solicit donations and tips. Those engaging in this practice are called buskers. Busking is a British term used in many areas of the English-speaking world. In the United States the term busking is almost unknown; buskers in the USA are called street performers or street musicians. What we attended was the Comedy Night portion and it was very entertaining. One man juggled 3 machette knives while riding a 7 foot unicycle and balancing a glass of water on his bald head!
Our Friday night was low-key as it was a rainy, cold night. We ate at our favorite Thai restaurant, Kanniga's and watched a Kiwi movie, The World's Fastest Indian. I would recommend it because it is a feel-good, warm-hearted movie that boys/girls would like. There is not terrible language or a lot of violence which is a nice change every once in awhile. Anthony Hopkins is a great actor. I have been working the rest of the weekend but it was a great week!

M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I





I am happy to announce that I booked my plane ticket to come home for a visit July 2nd to the 18th! Sadly enough, it will be without Blaine but we are planning a trip home together for Christmas next year. So I will be able to celebrate our country's birth over the 4th and go down to the beach for the annual Chi-Omega reunion trip! I can't wait to spend time with all of my family and hope to see as many friends as possible during this short period. It will almost mark our year ago departure. Just a little more than 5 months and I will be home!
aside: Blaine posted a rugby video a few days ago and doesn't want anybody to miss it if you haven't already viewed it! It makes you wish they wore pads or maybe just glad you don't play rugby for a living.

Petra's Fiesta Birthday!




We attended at Birthday Bash Thursday for Petra's party at the Mexican cafe! Friends from CCU and their husbands (except Petra's fiance, Tim, who was working) went downtown for food and drinks to celebrate Petra's 24th birthday. Blaine and I had fajitas for the first time in over 5 months, they were good but didn't hold a candle to Margaritas' version in Jackson! We had to instruct everyone on how to put the sombrero on because they were putting it on sideways...so not only are we spreading American culture but Mexican as well!

Just a gentle video for anyone who thought that rugby hits were softer than football hits.