Conkers, anyone?

Yesterday I had one of the most fun days in my research job (which says a lot about my job). One of my co-workers from North England brought a bag of chestnuts with holes drilled through them for us to play a game called Conkers. You tie a shoestring through the chestnut and then take turns trying to hit your opponents chestnut which they hold dangling in the air. There is not much strategy and not a lot of rules but it is a very addictive game. The goal is to crack your opponent's conker and send it flying off the string. There are definitely different techniques of how to catapult your conker towards the 'enemy' and it takes a good deal of hand-to-eye coordination (which I have very little of). Duncan (the guy who taught us the game) wants me to be the 'pin-up model' for Conkers (just like Anna Kournikova is for tennis) and introduce America to the game.

So here is the rules of Conkers and the history behind the game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conkers

Quiz:

1. If your chestnut which is a 'twoer' beats another chestnut which is a 'twoer' what is your chestnut called?

2. What is the other name for a chestnut in America?

3. Who was the first lady to win the World Conker Championship?

Congrats, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Wesley Jackson!!!

Summer Fun!

Mississippi Girls--Kellye and Laurel visit us!!!
This is a cricket bowler (pitcher), batter and umpire
It was Sam's birthday!!! We had a fun 7 hours celebrating at the cricket game

We have had such a great summer in Christchurch...great weather and lots of activities. Kellye (Chi-O friend) and her friend Laurel (who I've known through Kellye) came to visit NZ for 2 weeks and travelled around the South Island for a week and visited Auckland. I taught them how to drive on the left side of the road for a total of 1 1/2 hours before unleashing them to drive on their own! They did well but I do admit I felt very nervous for them and the people they would be with on the road. There are just so many different traffic rules, lots of round-abouts (even 2 lane round-abouts), the blinker is on the opposite side, etc. They had a good time and for the most part good weather. We loved showing them around Christchurch and having Southern accents in our house!!!!

I went to my first cricket game (Blaine's second game) on Sam's birthday last Saturday. It was a One Day test match and got rained out after 7 hours (would have lasted around 9)!!! I do like sports for the most part but 7 hours of any type of athletics is too much!! New Zealand ended up being declared the winner over England so that was the good news!

We have several trips planned for March. We hike the Routeburn Track (one of the Great Walks of NZ) over Easter weekend then the next weekend go to Austalia (Melbourne/Sydney/Great Ocean Road) for a wedding/vacation! We are very excited about our adventures upcoming!

Today one of our very best friends, Wesley Jackson married Audrey Gole!!! We were so sad to have missed it! They are off to Cabo for their honeymoon! Yea!

Inside Cave Stream

sorry I am just now posting pics of the inside of the cave we went exploring like a month ago. they are pretty self-explanatory!

Don't we look so hard-core?

Weekend in Wellington

Cable Car and Sea/City View

Parliament Building

Cool 'floating' ball in Civic Square

Rare 'Stich Bird' we sighted in the Karori Bird Sanctuary

We had a great time in Wellington this past weekend to celebrate my birthday! We caught a flight up after work on Friday afternoon (only a 45 minute flight) and stayed at a hotel downtown. Saturday morning we took a cable car up to an overlook and walked back down to the city through the botanical gardens and city cemetery (Blaine loves cemeteries...I know it's weird). We had lunch on Lambton Quay (pronounced 'key') and toured the Parliament to learn more about NZ government. In the afternoon, after a nap of course, we took a bus out to the Karori Bird Sanctuary just 10 minutes from the city. It was such a great experience, we felt like we were going too late in the day but it ended up being the best time for bird activity. We saw many rare birds that are only on off shore islands and native to New Zealand. Blaine and I enjoyed the challenge of photographing these birds with our zoom lens; it gave us a much greater respect for wildlife photographers. We had a lovely dinner at a tiny Italian restaurant. Sunday we had brunch at Mother's Kitchen and headed to the Te Papa Museum (another thing Blaine likes is museums...not as weird as cemeteries). This is a world-recognized museum of New Zealand history and culture...very well done, interactive and diverse. We pretty much spent all day there, with a break to have lunch with my friend Emilie (my French friend who used to work in CCU with me) and her husband and 2 kids at a nearby French bistro then toured their home with a seaview. All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend!

Castle Hill/Cave Stream

It has really been awhile since we posted last. We have been busy at work and have only taken 1 weekend trip since we've been back. These are a few of the photos from our weekend away...only a day trip to Arthur's Pass to go to Cave Stream. Hard to explain but you dress in warm clothes (wetsuit optional) and put a headlamp on your head...you wade into the icey river and spelunk your way against the current through the cave. There are waterfalls you climb up, gorgeous rock formations, beautiful calm pools, and side hallways to explore...really different and neat. The water was crystal clear and very tempting to drink! At the end (well actually the beginning of the cave) there is a big waterfall and you climb up metal rungs (man-made, ha) and shimmy under a rock overhang holding onto a chain to get out. Out into the bright sunshine after being in a pitch black dark cave for an hour!
Afterwards we drove about 1 mile and went to Castle Hill...a hill with lots of random, enormous boulders. I think we were 4 of the only people not going to rock climb/go bouldering (which is actually a sport).
I will post some more pictures...we didn't take our camera in the cave so I will have to get Jonny or Cat's pictures of inside.

Back to Work


Kate faking a phone call…she changed out of her nursing hat and clunky white shoes for this photo.

Me slaving away after 5pm (overtime)…and no that isn’t the gamecast of the LSU vs. Ohio State game on the screen.

I don't know why everyone has a problem with me liking Doritos.


After 3 weeks off and copious (clap…clap) amounts of fried food, fast food, rich southern cooking, grease, wild game, and Doritos, we finally had to come back to do our jobs before things fell apart. After all, neither of our jobs can handle us being away too long. So, now that we are back into a routine lifestyle; we would like to thank everyone for the adventure we like to call, “A Holiday with Family and Friends”. We got to see almost everyone on our list, and the rest we got to talk to over the phone. Thank y’all for making time available for us and sitting through multiple repetitive stories about how “different” the Kiwi way of life is. Christmas and New Year’s felt like it was supposed to feel with decorations, cold weather, and entirely too much shopping; and, not too much has changed since we have been gone – others may argue this. So, thanks.

We thought we would post a picture or two of us working, because no one believes that we do work based on blog photos. So, one post of our workplace should suffice, and now the rest of the pictures will most likely go back to our weekend trips. And, if anyone still wants to try a holiday away from home, our door is always open…..seriously….any holiday, even Confederate Memorial Day - I still have a few friends who get that one off.

Hello! We are back home safe and sound (with our luggage thankfully). As I type Blaine is out on our deck pruning our grapevine b/c it is overgrowing our bedroom window! It is about 80 degrees here, so strange to come from winter to summer. Our flights were o.k. The only real hardship was sitting on the runway for 5 hours in L.A. before beginning our 13 hour overseas leg. With all the bad weather in California, L.A. airport was very crowded and we had to sit in line to take off for many hours.
We arrived to some very bad news: Jonny's dad had a stroke 2 days before and is in ICU. The good news is that he is making some good recovery and is now able to walk with some assistance. Please pray for him and his family, for a speedy recover.
We will post some pictures from our trip to Mississippi when we get over our jetlag. Thanks to all our family and friends for all the visits, meals, gifts, and time you invested in us while we were home. It was my favorite Christmas and I have many treasured memories!

We will see everyone soon! Our last post because we fly out tomorrow!!! Merry Christmas!!!

Last Saturday Blaine and I decided to join a group of resident doctors that I work at the hospital with to go on a hike in Arthur's Pass. I read up about the hike, Avalanche Peak, and discovered the night before embarking that it would include a 1000 meter climb (to me this classifies it as a mountain climb not a "hike") but the book labelled it as 'moderate' so we decided to go ahead.

note: 1000 meters=3,300 feet

Well, lets just say that our group left us within 15 minutes of starting the hike. Blaine and I spent the next hour discussing what could be making it extra hard for us: is it the altitude? did we not eat the right breakfast? maybe we need new insoles for our boots? if we only had a walking stick...

Finally we came to the inevitable answer: we are out of shape for this type climb.

Both of us wondered at different points if we were going to make it. But persevere we did.

I think what did it for Blaine was seeing a 70 year old man on his way down, telling us it wasn't much farther.

I will say it was worth it, once we got above the tree line you could see forever...waterfalls, the valley and river below, snow-capped peaks 360 degrees around us and even a glacier tucked in behind. At the top we encountered Keas (one of the few recorded alpine parrots, known for their curiousity and intellect to survive the harsh climate--only found on the S.Island of NZ). They proved their reputation by stealing a banana out of one of the hiker's backpacks and flying away with it in their beak.

To give you a hint as to how long the 'climb' was...it took us a little over 4 hours to get up and 3 hours to get down. When we got home, Jonny asked us if we would go back and do the hike another time with him at some point and Blaine and I answered simultaneously "NO".

We come home in 8 days!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is anyone excited???!!!!!

I know we are.

Petra and Tim's wedding

I flew up alone to attend the beautiful wedding of Petra and Tim, two dear friends of ours in Christchurch. Several of us CCU girls stayed together and got to see some of Gisbourne, where Tim's parents live on the North Island. The weather was warm and we got to go to the beach...I swam in the ocean for the first time since we've lived in NZ (without a wetsuit on). We had a girls dinner Friday night at Fettuccine Brothers; then on Saturday got to help Petra get ready and dressed--she looked stunningl! The wedding was at the EcoLodge, a gorgeous Bed and Breakfast surrounded by hills, overlooking a lake and pastures. The ceremony was held underneath a canopy of trees by the lake. At the end we all released the white balloons that were tied to our chairs and toasted the new couple! They are now on their way to Germany (where Petra is from) to have their church wedding with all of her family! Then a honeymoon in Mexico!

Congratulations Tim and Petra!

The Lake Sumner Weekend

Across the river from our campsite

A few rocks

My blue truck and getting ready to scare some trout

Lake Taylor

Lake Sumner with a couple of hills as a backdrop

So the weekend went pretty well apart from some sandflies and a bit of sunburn....and no trout, at least on my hook. Unfortunately, we weren't able to drive all the way up to the campsite, but the walk wasn't too bad. At one point though, we had to use Jonny as a scout (why he likes to run so much I will never know); he ran ahead to see how much further the hut was - way too much energy. We didn't end up staying at the hut; instead, we camped beside the river, which was nice. We do plan on going back; next time I might have a better plan for fishing. The pictures really speak for themselves.

Auckland
Where our journey began...

The Sky Tower...and a man jumping off (from a freefall platform at the top), no Dad I didn't do it.

Some interesting teenagers that wanted to charge us for a photo of their mowhawks, uh no.

Matt still smiling at his halfway mark of the marathon!

The Celebration at the finish line...he completed in his goal time--4 minutes under 4 hours!

Our next to last or second (should I say) stop was Rotorura. It reminds me of Yellowstone National Park and the Old Faithful area, with the smell of rotten eggs preceding the city limit sign. Nonetheless, it is a very unique place with steaming, bubbling mud pits wherever you turn. We went on a "cultural tour" that included a bus ride and bus driver that we will never forget...he could speak greetings in over 30 languages (from years of talking to tourists and imitating). We went to a Maori village and were entertained with song/dance then had a hangi--a dinner that is cooked in a pit, yum. It was a really fun night, very touristy. Our drive toward Rotorura was along the Coromandel Peninsuala, gorgeous coastline, the pictures speak for themselves.

The day before Napier we spent adventuring. We woke up first thing in the morning and went to the Zorbing spot (see here for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorb) for a roll down a hill in a big plastic ball with water in it...a bit hard to explain. But nonetheless an absolute blast!
We then made the drive to Lake Taupo, stopping at Huka Falls to do a walk. We had lunch in Lake Taupo but then drove around to the other side of the lake to do a hike with a gorgeous overlook of the lake, past a waterfall, all sorts of birds and native forest. We stopped on a "beach" and relaxed afterwards, soaking in the warm weather. Then made the short drive to Napier!

Before heading to Windy Wellington, we landed in Napier (aka home to Jonny, Megs and Sammy Clark). We got treated to dinner by Mr. and Mrs. Clark at an Indian restaurant...and had homemade kiwi muffins back at their casa. Lovely to meet the lineage of our best friends in New Zealand! We toured Napier (the city was built in Art Deco fashion, so quite unique) on bicycles and afterwards went for a wine tasting and lunch at Mission Estate Winery, one of the oldest wineries in NZ. We felt like movie stars eating under white umbrellas on the manicured lawn with grapevines hanging overhead. We then drove up to Tamata Peak of a 360 degree overlook to see mountains, rivers, ocean and city. The North Island has a warmer climate than the South, so orchards of avocadoes, apples, asparagus,berries, etc abound.

Continuing on...Our Wednesday/Thursday were spent in Wellington (the windy city...and boy was it windy). Matt has been to Chicago several times and said it was a lot windier than Chicago. But we had fun anyway. We were exhausted when we got to the hostel Wed. night but our roomates from Canada, Holland, and Germany all insisted that we go to the Halloween Party that was downstairs. They ripped a sheet off the bunk bed and wrapped it around me as a toga, then they "found" some toilet paper and wrapped 5 rolls around Matt to make him into a mummy! We had a fun time. The next morning we woke up and hiked up Mt. Victoria to an awesome look-out over the city, then walked down to Oriental Beach and had to head to the airport to fly back to Christchurch. We grabbed breakfast at Mama's Cafe near our hostel...interesting place, the waitstaff were wearing wrestling masks (like off Nacho Libre)...the food was delicious!

Until tomorrow!

Going backwards...Saturday I had to work so Matt and Blaine went for a hike out on Castle Rock and then we went out with a group of our friends to Santorini's, a Greek restaurant that gets you up and dances you through the kitchen! Also had a fun night out at Lichfield Lanes (sorry no pics from then). On Friday, Matt met me after I finished work and we went for a walk through the botanical gardens (where the swinging pic was taken). I had mapped Matt out a course through central city, so he took lots of artsy photos with our camera while I was at work. Check back tomorrow, as the story continues...