Red Dozer

2009-11-14T14:20:00.003+12:00

We have decided to move to the beach in time for summer.
So the house is on the market, and our bags are packed. Here are some extra photos, you can check out the listing on, http://www.harcourts.co.nz, the listing number is NB2253. The entrance photos are for you mom!

2009-07-18T10:21:00.002+12:00

Our Kitchen reno in progress....

2009-04-18T19:14:00.004+12:00

Well, here I was thinking that I had nothing to write home about, but after looking through the camera, I came up with some stuff to share. These first few pics are from the Ellerslie Flower Show, which was held here in Christchurch a month or so ago. I had a good time checking out all the exhibits and plants, and am totally inspired to come up with some crazy garden plants for the garden over the winter, grow the plants from seed and watch it all come to life next summer. The globe in the picture below is covered in readylawn and rotates, so you can hide away inside it.
In March, went to observe some sites around Lake Ellesmere, which is a "shallow brackish coastal lake. It is Canterbury’s largest and New Zealand’s fifth largest lake - about 20,000 ha - with approximately 75 kilometres of shoreline." It is located just South of Christchurch and Banks Penninsula. I work with the folks that open the lake to the sea to moderate the lake levels and drain farmland. The lake levels have been managed for a really long time, there are photos of horse drawn carts doing the work, somehow, and before that the Tangata Whenua (people of the land) were out there digging the cut in the beach by hand. Nowadays, the guys get out there with bull dozers! During this visit, I was out there with Ngai Tahu folks observing specific locations for impacts that the management of the lake may be having on the sites. The following pics are from this trip to the lake.

Around the house, I have been working on sanding and painting the trim of the windows on the outside and Darrel has been fixing up the garage, he has made a cool entry way over the door and has replaced all the trim, he just started painting today, so after hours and hours of work, the end is almost near for the garage! I have cleaned out the summer garden in the raised bed, and planted winter veggies (celery, peas, broccoli, brussel sprouts, leeks and beets). Not sure how much they will grow, the night temperatures have seriously dropped this week, but they will put on a bit of growth before the dark depths of winter. Part of the clean up included cutting back the New Zealand Spinach that is growing out of control. It is just like regular spinach but it is perrenial and grows long leafy stems. Jen, our fellow flattie, is picking the leaves off of the haul for dinner.
And here we are sporting the Birds Eye Building Co hats that they sent us last December. These wooly caps are going to be great this winter and we will think of the folks in the barn in Vermont when we wear them. Thanks!

2009-01-22T21:11:00.003+12:00

2009-01-06T19:54:00.003+12:00

Rhubarb Trifle

One day about a few weeks before Christmas, I was thinking about the yummy food of the upcoming season, and also about how not eating wheat and possibly cutting out processed sugar was really going to put a damper on things. It's not really a big deal, because I have become a master at replacing the nasties with good stuff. And I think that this dish is my crowning achievement. Like most of my cooking, it always turns out a bit different, but if you use the right ingredients- it always turns out great!

So hears the deal, the basic idea is that you make three different parts and layer them together, kind of like a sweet Lasagne. The three layers are the spongy cake part, the fruit part, and the goupy yum part!

For the sponge...
Ingredients
3 eggs
pinch of salt
3/4 cup of honey
1 cup spelt flour (or use any flour you like!)
1 tsp baking powder
50 g butter or oil

Beat together the eggs and salt, add the honey and beat together, mix together the flour and baking powder and add to egg mixture. Finally add the butter/oil. Put into a greased cake tin or two and bake in a hot oven for 25 to 30 min (not sure how hot, because our oven has no temperatures on it, but I think it'd be about 185 degrees Celsius) You know how to tell when its done!

Let it cool and set aside for the final step.

While that is cooking, put 3 cups of chopped rhubarb and 3/4 cup of honey in a saucepan and simmer away for 20 minutes (if you get a 500 g honey container you can just put half of it in the cake and half in with the rhubarb). It will turn a bit soupy, never fear, this is good.

Finally, make your sweet goupy stuff:
Option 1- yoghurt mixed with honey (about 2 cups)
Option 2- the traditional custard (mix 1/4 cup of milk with 4 tablespoons of custard powder and 3 tablespoons of honey over low heat, add 1 and 3/4 cups of milk and simmer stirring constantly 'till thick)
Option 3-Make both and put on each layer

Now for the assembly:

Get a nice big clear bowl (clear is very important, so you can admire all the layers!)
Put half of the cake in the bottom of the dish
Sprinkle with Sherry
Pour half of the rhubarb mixture on
Pour on half of the custard or yoghurt mixture
Lay out the rest of the sponge, and sprinkle with sherry again
Pour on the rest of the rhubarb mixture and then the rest of the custard or yoghurt mixture
Then whip up some heavy cream with a splash of vanilla and a bit more honey
Top with thin slices of strawberry or any other berry you have handy in the garden.

Alternatives:

Cut the cake pieces in half and slather with raspberry jam
Put fresh or frozen strawberries over the rhubarb mixture
Leave off the cream, but always top with some type of fresh berry

Refidgerate it until you are ready to serve. Make this at least 8 hours before you plan on eating it, and make sure you have enough for lefovers because it is always better the next day.

Hope you enjoy! I am not sure what is in custard, so if you know how to make it from scratch, please let me know.

A bit about the rhubarb I have been using: when I was brainstorming about my christImas desert, I was thinking about how back home everyone seems to have more rhubarb than they know what to do with in late spring, and since it was December (ie late spring/early summer in NZ), I figured that someone out there in Christchurch would have it coming out their ears. So I sent an email to my favourite list serve ever, Freecycle, and put the shout out that I was in need of some rhubarb. I got 10 responses in the same day, and they kept trickling in. I contacted the first person that emailed and scooted over to pick up the goods after work that day. When I arrived my friendly benefactor had a grocery back full of stalks all ready to go and three plants all potted up and ready for transplanting! Yeah for Freecycle!!!! You should check out freecycle in your neck of the woods, its a great way to get rid of stuff and get stuff! www.freecycle.org

2009-01-03T20:13:00.009+12:00

Our Christmas day was followed with a mad dash down south toTe Anau. We drove down to meet up with our friends Matt and Amanda who are visiting from the Northeastern United States. We had a fabulous time together tramping (ie backpacking), sightseeing, eating and drinking.

Photo of Aoraki/Mt Cook and Lake Pukaki from their flight to Queenstown

Sunset at Milford Sound

Sheep in the road (photo taken by tourists!)

We chose one of the great walks for our tramping adventure. The tramp started with a walk around Lake Te Anau, a hike up through a beech forest and above the bushline to the Luxmore Hut.

We made ourselves at home in the hut shared with 48 other trampers, including some olympic gold medalists, who gave us their leftover milk and bananas!

The weather was a bit unsettled on our second day of walking, we broke out the camera in between the bits of sideways rain. It was windy walking along the ridge line and the wet weather gear came in handy, but it all made for a great adventure and an authentic Fiordland experience.

Before the end of hiking on the second day, we went down... it was a bit painful, but well worth it to get out of the crazy weather for the night.

Back into the Beech forest!

A well deserved rest on the beach of Lake Manpouri before the final 1.5 hour push to the end of the hike.

And then we went to Wanaka. We ate, rested and the enjoyed the scenery of Lake Wanaka and the mountains of Mt Aspiring National Park for two days!!

Our camp at the Lake Outlet Holiday Park (Home Sweet Home)

We enjoyed New Years Eve with some new friends at the Holiday Park!

And then we drove home to Christchurch...

and visited Lord of the Rings filming sites along the way.

Aoraki/Mt Cook and Lake Poukaki from the ground.

While chilling in Wanaka, Amanda and Matt went canyoning, from these pics, it looks like they had a good time!

2008-12-25T13:51:00.000+12:00

2008-12-25T13:50:00.001+12:00

Hello ho ho! Happy Christmas everyone out there. What a great holiday! Thanks to all you family and friends for being so generous! We have been doing pretty well down here in NZ despite all the economic turmoil. Darrel and I have had some big changes lately on the jobs front, I just starteda new one and Darrel is exploring some entreprenurial ideas, including mushroom farming! We have been blessed with some amazing folks for flatmates over the last few months, Jen is off cruisng the north island for her summer holidays and her German friends, Connie and Christian, are staying here in her place. The last few days we have been cooking for each other, it's a great way to experience and share cultures. Better get packing we are heading to do some tramping and camping down south!

2008-11-03T20:49:00.005+12:00

Hi there, you may remember our old fence, as seen below from the inside of the yard...

and here is the new one!!!!

and I chopped down the ivy monster!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-06T14:40:00.000+12:00

Just thought I'd share a bit about my site visit to a dairy farm, I met up with the ladies on my way.

2008-10-02T21:21:00.002+12:00

The door project begins with a new few new tools, some beautifu recycled rimu from the building recycler and an old door

Some shots of my handy work, this project went on for a few weeks, and I had sawdust in my hair the whole entire time.

Darrel rocks the new table saw and makes a sill for the door frame

Ready for install, if only there was a hole in the wall for it to go...

2008-10-02T21:20:00.001+12:00

The first step was to take out the window, and the door fits right inside the window cavity, minus a few bricks

2008-10-02T21:17:00.001+12:00

Darrel described this tool as a chainsaw with a circular blade, um, I am pretty glad that we had to take it back to the rental place

Now for the fun part!

2008-10-02T21:16:00.001+12:00

Zoe immediatly discovered her new favorite spot in the house, and forgave us for another chaotic weekend of moving her bed around, moving her kennel, standing on it and growling at her for barking at the people walking by...

Then we were ready for the deck, Darrel took the Friday off work to start it with his friend Jamie (who just sold his decking company after four years)

This is what they accomplished on day one! They built the frame and letthe concrete set overnight.

2008-10-02T21:15:00.001+12:00

The Deck Weekend: End of Day 2

The Deck Weekend: Begining of Day 3

The Deck Weekend: End of Day 3
All done!!!!

2008-10-02T20:38:00.001+12:00

Hey there! These pics are from a fabulouse weeken of fun with cousin Sean, he has been strolling around NZ for the past month and we got two days of skiing in while he was visiting. Good spring conditions!

2008-10-02T20:36:00.001+12:00

um... yes Darrel tried skiing, and I think he likes it

2008-10-02T20:35:00.001+12:00

We visited the Hokitika Gorge on the Westcoast, it was just down the road from the farm we stayed at. Sean worked in California and Hawaii with New Zealanders, so he has heaps of contacts.

2008-10-02T20:21:00.001+12:00

The swing bridge over the HokitikaGorge

On the drive to the West Coast from Christchurch

2008-10-02T20:18:00.001+12:00

Ha, those curious Kea's

"Yum, Darrel's dirty shoes for lunch, this is better than the windshield wipers that I ate off your car last week" -screeched the Kea

2008-09-19T15:50:00.003+12:00

Darrel and I have been super busy since mum and dad left the nest. We have working on putting in a new door, and today Darrel is building a deck to walk out on through the door! I will pitch in tomorrow, luckily they are slugging all the concrete today without me, hee hee...

Other exciting news is that we have a flatmate. Her name is Jen and she is lovely to live with. We have all been getting along really well for two weeks now. My thoughts are with her today, because she had to have surgery on her knee. Hopefully she will be as good as new tomorrow when she gets home. I will post some pics soon of the door/deck work, I will have to show the whole projects from start to finish. Darrel is probably too busy today to take Pics. Our friend Jamie is helping because he owned a decking business. The project should take 2 full on days, if it was just Darrel and I scratching our heads over it, the timeline would have been measured in months- not days.

Other news, the gardens are bursting with fresh energy from some warm spring days! The daffodils are still blooming, and the magnolias, camellias and various fruit trees have burst for beautiful flowers. Ah, rebirth and renewal! Spring is here!!!! The deck is being built just in time!

2008-08-20T22:11:00.011+12:00

Here are some pics from our trip up to the North Island

Wellington from the Botanic Gardens at the Cable Car landing

The flat I lived in while studying at Victoria University back in 2000

"Do you like ice cream?"
"yes"
"Do you like chocolate?"
"oh, yes"
"Then you should order the Iced Chocolate"
I think mom made the right choice- this drink looked Yum!

Dad and Brian on the waterfront walkway in New Plymouth, we took off on a walk to the beach and ended up going on a 6 mile circuit along the beach, through the city and up through Pukekura Park, gorgeous way to spend the day.

Joy, mom and I

The wind wand in New Plymouth

Stone carvings on the waterfront

Dad's birthday Fish 'n Chips

and finally Mt Taranaki shows itself through the clouds

On the walk up to the ski field on Mt Taranaki

The path up to the ski field starts off as a nice wide path, then narrows to a goat track with railings and an avalanche path in the middle, this section is called the Manganui Gorge

Dad and I made it to the ski field, you can just barely see mom and Joy in this photo, they turned around when the path got snowy and are heading back to the parking lot

How many ski fields have such a warning on the walk from the car park to the lodge?

Sadly, the bottom lift (T-Bar) was lacking a bit of snow, the upper lift looked fantastic, we saw some skiers heading up the T-Bar, gliding over the grasses and dodging the rocks, the snowboarders we saw didn't have such an easy time

Some sweet runs further up the mountain

Some keen riders giving us the lowdown on the Ski Club, lifts, runs and the snowboarder run/hop up the hill

A coffee at the visitors centre after the mornings expedition

We checked out our New Plymouth relatives' farms

This photo was taken south of New Plymouth looking north at the Paratutu Rock and the two other remnant of volcanoes that were once as tall as Mt Taranaki

Dad and I, just before our hike up Paratutu Rock

While my folks were visiting, Zoe was well taken care of, Dad took her on heaps of walks around the neighbourhood

Fresh snow on the hills in southern Christchurch, it was sunny so we went up for a walk and a peek over the other side to the harbour

Zoe likes the snow!!!

The City from the Port Hills

And of course it wouldn't be New Zealand with out the sheep!

I had a fantastic time with my folks while they were here. Now they will know what the heck I am talking about when i call home. I hear they are still recovering from the Jet lag and 24 hours of traveling back home. Things have returned to normal around the house and I have returned to work. I think Zoe really misses them, I know I do.

2008-08-06T21:17:00.003+12:00

Ahoy from New Plymouth, New Zealand. Mom, dad and I traveled north on Monday, we flew to Wellington to check out the city I lived in when I came to New Zealand to study. We flew into Welly and went to visit our lovely friends Odie and Joel. They have a 180 degree view of the city from their house, which is perched high upon a hill above the city. We stayed in a backpackers in the city and the next day did a walking tour of the city, saw where I used to live and the university where I studied.

Then we drove north to visit with Craig (Darrel's Brother), Trudy, Kelsey and their wee kittens. Then we took off for New Plymouth to see Darrel's parents in New Plymouth.

The North Island was hit with a "Weather Bomb" last week, luckily we were far south and totally missed any effects of the storm, but we have seen some of the destruction that it left behind in our travels. Lots of slips (land slides), water logged fields and uprooted trees.

Today, we took off for a walk and saw the sites of the city. It was dad's day, since its his birthday, so we were at the whim of what he wanted to do and see. We saw the black sandy beach, and the beautiful ocean walkway. We had coffee at the museum and walked to Pukekura Park, found Tui birds in the trees and admired the large silver fern filled forest.

Then we had fish 'n chips for dinner!! That's what dad wanted and that's what he got. I even found the Beatles song "When I'm 64" on the iPod, since dad is now 64. More soon, going to check out Mt Taranaki tomorrow. Hopefully we get a clear view of it tomorrow. Going to see the ski area, but we didn't bring our skis north, so just going up for a nosey.

2008-08-03T21:34:00.009+12:00

Lots of photos of the last two weeks of hanging out in Canterbury and our tiki tour of the lower South Island

New Brighton Beach, just 15 min from the house and big fun for Zoe

and of course I had to put mom and dad to work...

they took a train trip over to the West Coast, had to pick a day that it was raining in Christchurch and sunny on the other side of the divide.

Trip to Mt Hutt for big day of skiing and fun on the access road...

You just never know what the weather is going to do, one minute it was sunny and beautiful, the next minute we couldn't see the tips of our skis and boards, it got so socked in you couldn't tell which way was down the hill, made for an uneasy feeling when your board started sliding the opposite direction than you thought it should be going

Lake Tekapo, on our way south to Queenstown, that is a famous stone chapel with a magnificent view of Mt Cook, New Zealand's tallest mountain and the training ground for Sir Edmund Hillary. We waited to the last minute to decide to go up to the Mt Cook village and the Alpine Centre and museum, it was well worth the extra time in the car, I had no idea how magnificent the view from the village would be and we didn't even see Mt Cook, it was hidden by clouds

The view from our apartment in Queenstown, that is a paraglider enjoying the morning sunshine!

Dad made sure we had a good lunch for our trip to the Remarkables ski field

and another fun access road, which was a bit sketchy on the way down, it was snowing by the end of the day

The road to Milford Sound, pictures do not do it justice...

The Milford Sound is on the West Coast of the South Island, we learned heaps about this magnificent place on our trip down to check it out. The region is a tropical rainforest, getting as much as 7 metres of rain per year. Th sound is actually a fiord, because it was carved by glaciation and not by rain and erosion. Mitre peak is a mile high from it's peak down to the water, it is the highest point in this region and greets you at the entrance to fiord. We took a boat trip to check out the fiord.

Milford Sound is a very unique place, the freshwater that flows of the mountains picks up tannins from the matt of tree roots and leaves that cling vicariously to the steep rocks without soil. The tannins darken the fresh water layer that sits on top of the salt water in the sound, this creates an environment just 10 metres deep that can support deep sea life like black coral and horse mussels, to check it out you visit the deep sea observatory, which is all totally floating, and walk down a spiral staircase to a viewing platform.

In the afternoon we took a hike through the rainforest...

tree ferns, so cool

From Milford, we drove up to Wanaka and spent two nights, it was rainy in the village, but snowing on the peaks. The best day of skiing yet, Treble Cone is fabulous, heaps of fresh snow and steep chutes, I think dad and I were in heaven- mom probably could have done without her trip down the blue square trail called "Cloud Nine", which would have been considered a black diamond in Vermont, but she made it down and found some great runs to finish off the day.

We were thinking of you Uncle Peter!

We all had a great time. Sadly Darrel will be going back to work tomorrow, but mom, dad and I will be heading up North to Wellington and New Plymouth tomorrow.

2008-07-29T08:53:00.002+12:00

Spent yesterday skiing/snowboarding at the Remarkables! It was great. Queenstown has been gorgeous. We have been staying at Darrel's friends apartment right downtown. Very fancy! Heading down to Milford today and the weather is fabulous. It is the rainiest part of this rainy country, but I think we are in luck. The only minor setbacks have been that I came down with a fluey/cold thing and dad lost his credit card for 24 hours. On the mend now!!! We will be coming back through Queenstown after we check out Fiordland. Mom might even take the opportunity to sky dive!

2008-07-26T22:07:00.003+12:00

Just a quick update... too tired to post photos... too much snow...

We went to Mt Hutt today, they got 90 cm of snow in 48 hours and couldn't open up until this morning, it was a mission to get to, but it was worth it. I even saw my new workmate in the parking lot that you stop at to put chains on your vehicle, we gave him a ride up the hill. Yes we have an All wheel drive vehicle, we had to put chains on, and we actually did really need them. The access road is a bit scary, I did the driving and by the time we got to the top I was all pumped up with adrenaline and ready to hit the slopes. The road has no guardrails and drops away on both sides at some points of the road. You just don't look down!

Tomorrow we head to Queenstown and then on to Milford Sound. Hopefully the weather is good for the trip.

Mom and dad have been here for over a week now, we have spent some time sightseeing around Christchurch, but I have also put them to work. Dad has been painting trim and Mom has been helping me make curtains, and of course I have not made it easy for her since all of my planning and measurements are in metric!!!! Regardless, the trim and the curtains look gorgeous!!!

Must get some sleep, long day driving and sightseeing tomorrow!! Will post pics when we get back!

-Josie

2008-07-20T18:53:00.005+12:00

Well all week I have felt like I was on some home renovation reality show counting down to the big reveal when my Mom and Dad arrived in Christchurch from Vermont. The pressure was on because last weekend our spare bedroom was still being plastered and wasn't dry enough to be sanded smooth until tuesday! But we pulled through, like they always do on the show, and after a few late nights it was all painted and ready for guests, well almost. Rachel and Ted arrived at 8:30 AM on Friday, after leaving JFK 30 hours beforehand. - Josie

Dad and I at the cathedral in the heart of Christchurch

Paradise ducks near the Avon River

The Chalice in Cathedral Square

We had a great trip. The people at JFK thought we were crazy with our boots and skis but.... everything made it safe and sound. As we raced from the international terminal to the domestic terminal in Auckland, the only thing Ted could think of was the Amazing Race. But!!! we made it and arrived in Christchurch and Josie!!!! The house is great-- very comfortable. Josie and Darrel have done alot of work. Christchurch is a neat city. We have been here less then 3 days and Josie made sure that I visited a quilt shop. Today, Sunday, Josie, Darrel, Ted and I went skiing at Porters. It is the beginning of skiing here. So July is our January. It was a great day! - Rachel

Check out www.skiporters.co.nz

Tomorrow we plan on visiting my workplace, eating lunch at a culinary school/cafe and touring wineries and market gardens. Lots to plan, so much to do, but we are going to make time for a bit of curtain making and trim painting. We promise to keep you posted on all the happenings!!! -Josie

2008-07-08T21:48:00.004+12:00

This post is for you Jodie!! Thanks for all the encouragement, thought you New Englanders out there would be missing all that snow you had last winter. This is as snowy as it gets around here. My friend lives on the hills to the south of the city and her road closes when it gets icy! She almost got stuck in the flats down here with us little people.

(Do you think we should fix up our letter box?)

This photo was taken for my mom, she celebrated a big birthday this year. I missed the celebration, but am looking forward to seeing her and my dad in less than two weeks!!!

2008-04-21T14:40:00.004+12:00

I found it! It is the almost perfect secondhand kitchen! After months and months of looking. There are so many pieces, we will have extra cupboards to fit out the laundry! So far Darrel Demo'd part of the old kitchen leaving the sink and old cupboard in place, then we set up a temporary kitchen with the old bench top to make do while we fix up the walls, do some painting and get read for the big install! I installed the pics in reverse order so believe it or not the first few pictures are of our temporary set up (we still need to put away all the dishes and food)!

Darrel is in the middle of the demo at in this pic:

Some bits of the "new" kitchen, it will need to be painted and we are going to replace the handles, but all in all it is in prett good condition!

Demo done, for now:

Now, we just have to figure out remove the stuff that is under the lino to reveal the wooden floor. Any suggestions??!!

2008-04-14T22:34:00.004+12:00

2008-04-14T22:24:00.003+12:00

2008-04-14T22:21:00.000+12:00

Zoe would like to say that we have been enjoying some great weather here in Christchurch. The last few months have been beautiful- plenty of sun and warm weather- much different from our first NZ summer. I am really glad that we cleared some of the old veggie garden and planted some seedlings back in December. The garden was/is filled with Twitch Grass, which is a terrible weed; the tiniest bit of root will sprout and start growing. The above ground part is miniscule in comparison to the miles of roots threading through the soil. I wish that I have counted the hours of abstracting these roots from the soil, because it would be shocking. I have been given encouragement by the lovely neighbours that see how we are fixing up the place, especially from the few who were here when the original owners were before everything got out of control. Besides the twitch grass, we have had heaps of silverbeet (swiss chard), potatoes and pumpkins sprouting up voluntarily in every garden that we clear.

Besides the veggie garden, we have built a raised bed, weeded and mulched the perimeter gardens and around the edge of the house, removed/moved trees and shrubs, taken 5 huge trailer loads of green waste to the dump, sanded-painted-covered-planted the greenhouse. (I have spent almost every weekend in the gardens and there is still heaps to do!) At least we are starting to see some serious improvements. I am a bit late planting my winter garden, I plan on doing it tomorrow (finally filled the new raised bed with soil today). Hopefully the weather will stay warm for the plants to get established. I will be growing broccoli, peas, beets, spinach… and silverbeet of course (I can’t help it, it comes up everywhere!)

Other than working away in the garden, we have taken a few trips over to Banks Peninsula, just south of Christchurch (check out the monument camping trip photos), we refinished half of the wood floors in the house, Darrel started a new job as principle designer and manager of ArchitectureDM Christchurch, I have started biking to my job in Kaiapoi (it is 18 kms) and we have been playing weekly with our band DYDIMO. Please check our Myspace page…

Well that pretty much sums up the last few months, hope you enjoy the pictures!

2007-12-28T09:02:00.001+12:00

Hello, Here are some recent pictures. I am on holiday for 2 weeks just because its Christmas- so I get the time to bless you all with photos and news of our lives. We have been pretty busy around the house, as usual. Lots of projects sprucing up the yard and getting rid of old school concrete paths. We really needed a home for the crazy grape vines, so our friend Jamie helped us build a pergola. It has become very handy for dining outdoors on the hot, sunny days:

Here is Zoe enjoying one of her Christmas treats in the shade of the grape laden pergola. And yes, we will be able to lay in the hammock and bite grapes off of the vine!

Zoe being protective of her new squirrel!

We wanted to have a christmas tree, but didn't have the heart to cut one down, so we bought a fejoa tree and will be plating in the yard soon. It came complete with decorations (I mean the flowers) Here it is with our new Snowflake Bentley ornament from Jericho, VT (thanks mom!).

Joy and Brian getting ready for stockings!

Zoe, very keen on getting into her stocking.

Brian tending to Christmas dinner, Salmon marinated in soy sauce and maple syrup and grilled on the BBQ. BBQs on Christmas are a Kiwi tradition.

My firs trifle ever! Yum, it was good on christmas and even better the next day.

I hope that your holidays are restful and fun. I have to go weed my veggie patch, then I will post pictures of it! Enjoy the sunshine and/or the snow!

2007-11-01T16:07:00.000+12:00

Well it has been so long since I have written a real update, so I will just have to start by thanking everyone who helped me along my way during my travels last August. I got so many rides to and from airports, meals, places to sleep, clothes, coffees and kindness from all of the wonderful people in the world, so THANK YOU!!!!

It was so wonderful to return to New England and see all the beautiful people I know there. It was too short of a visit to stay in one place for more than a few days, but I managed to get some quality time in with friends and family. I was totally pulled in by the lush summer beauty of it all.

And on either end of the voyage, I got to catch up with friends and family in Australia.

I wont bore you with all the details (although I had planned on it, I just don’t have time) Here are some pictures to tell the story for me:

I wish that I could show every part of the voyage, but I lost a lot of great photos along the way. These are some good ones though.

2007-11-01T14:46:00.000+12:00

I know it has been a while, so it's time for an update. It would be daunting to write about all of the goings on since I last wrote, so I will just summarize a bit here. I did a world tour, went to 2.5 weddings, Darrel and I both got new jobs and our band had a crazy fun halloween party- oh and we are in a band of architects (I am the only non-architect)!

More to come... I promise!!!

2007-08-10T15:15:00.000+12:00

Well, I am on the move again. Just waiting in anticipation for my ride to the airport. I am off to Sydney for a night and then on to NYC/Connecticut, Vermont, then Maine and finally New Hampshire. I am feeling a bit sad leaving my family here (darrel and zoe), but they will be here when I get back. I hope Zoe doesn't think that I am totally abandoning her. She was just rehomed here only 6 weeks ago, I think she is familiar with the packing of bags and general flurry before departure. I think this is the most prepared that I have ever, EVER been for a major trip. I am sitting here relaxing and drinking a cup of tea. This is a good sign, although flying by the seat of my pants has never failed me before! I suppose I could unpack my bag and then pack it again, just to be sure I have a list of all the items that need to be declared at customs and that everything I am taking ACTUALLY needs to come with me, but I am over it. What is packed is going at this point. I am a bit worried about the 20 kg limit for luggage on my first flight, just because I am not really sure how much that is- I just don't think in metric for weight yet. My rides here!

2007-07-16T22:46:00.000+12:00

Hello!!! Family and Friends- I must apologize for my absence on the web. We have been in the depths of winter, which is not so motivating- especially since our internet connection is in the hallway- the unheated- uninsulated hallway- I am shivering just thinking about it. Despite all this- I thought it was about time to fill you in on the running commentary going in my head. Yes, I constantly think about updating my blog, but lately the words have not been making to cyber space. Since the days are getting longer and it’s not pitch black when I leave for work in the morning and come home in the evening, I have a bit more spring in my step and a bit more energy to share with you all.

One of the highlights of the last month was when I realized my Keniston baking gene. One of my work mates organized “The Great Choccy Bake-off” between some of the teams in the office. It was a competition to see which team could bring in the best chocolate cake. I stepped up to represent my team. I had just discovered a recipe on http://www.celiac.com for a wheat-free chocolate cake called Black Magic. I was advised that the judges liked dark chocolate; the recipe seemed perfect because one of the ingredients is coffee. Everybody loves coffee- especially Darrel. I actually made two cakes, since Darrel was complaining that I make sweets and then give them away. I made one with Wheat flour for the competition and another one with a rice flour mix for the gluten-free people at work and to keep heaps at home, so Darrel wouldn’t feel left out. Darrel helped by teaching me how to make the frosting. I layered it with raspberry jam. It wasn’t the prettiest cake, but it WON! I got heaps of compliments and my cake got devoured.

For Queen’s birthday weekend, Joy and Brian came to visit. We enjoyed showing them our house and the neighborhood. And, of course, we put them to work! Joy and Brian totally cleared out some nasty ivy that was threatening the grapes and just looking messy all over the back fence. Joy and I checked over the roses and smushed caterpillars from my broccoli plants. Darrel and Brian moved a citrus tree, a rose and another shrub that were all super close to the house. They were all growing in the same place while blocking light in to two rooms of the house.

As you can imagine over the last few weeks most of our free time was spent working on the house. It’s rewarding to see the results, but the cold and lack of sunlight has slowed us down a bit- just not the most motivating conditions. We have made some time to have a little house warming and we went to a “good and evil” party (Darrel went as a “dirt devil” he brought the vacuum hose and wore his VT style- insulated carhart overalls).

Day to day, we are both biking to work- even in the below freezing temps. It usually only gets to freezing at night, but when your house has barely any insulation and the teeniest wood stove- biking to work is quite a feat.

And finally, I was tagged a while back by Karole-Ann. So here are the 7 things that I would like to share about my self.

I love to knit.
I love the movie Amelie, I have seen it 6 times and could probably see it again and again and again.
I am secretly writing a book, well, it is still a secret, because no one on earth knows what it is about- except for me.
I am actually enjoying working in an office- who would have guessed?!
I want to go to Antartica.
I like biking to work, especially when I am going faster than the cars stuck in traffic. It makes me laugh out loud and yell- “see ya suckers!”
And the big news is I love spending time with ZOE! We have a new member of the Hannon Family Tree. She is a very well-behave 5 ½ year old dog. A workmate was heading overseas, so we took her in. Can you guess what breed(s) she is?

About the tag: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves.

People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

So, I am tagging:
Danny, Shelby, Bonnie, Richard, Erin, Amanda, James
(most of these folks don't have blogs, so I am using it as an excuse to get them started)

Take Care,
Josie

2007-05-04T19:24:00.000+12:00

Hi, so I Darrel and I have been really busy around the house. Here are some pics of the progress we have been making. So far we have really just made a bigger mess of the yard, but I think we are starting to see some results.

This is what the greenhouse looked like before I began to dig it out from the clutches of the grape vines. I did pull the vines out without damaging them too much.

Ta Da! It still needs a bit of work, like removing all the paint, painting the frame, cleaning the glass and then replacing all of it. I was pretty happy to realize how big it is. Instead of aiming for winter greens, I am just going to try to get it ready for spring propagation and a jump start on the veggie garden.

Ah, the grape harvest! This is just a fraction of the full bounty, and of course I can't let anything go to waste, so I squeezed the grapes into juice and froze it in ice cube trays. The cubes go great in mixed drinks!

Free wheel barrow with house! Woohoo! Just needed a bit of oil- check out the metal wheel.

Darrel going down into the crawl space for the first time to start planning the bathroom project. He was not so happy when he came up for fresh air. It is definitely meant for crawling- no basements in NZ.

This is the early days of the bathroom project. It has been going on for a few weeks now, so far we have put in a shower head and replumbed the tub filler, and removed this pedestal sink. After adding the shower, there was not really enough water pressure to have a proper shower (pretty disapointing after all of that work) so Darrel added a pressure reducing valve and cut out the header tank in the roof... and now we have the best shower in the world! Thanks Joy and Brian for all of the plumbing advise!

Here is the sneak preview of the bathroom vanity. We have made the box out of shelves from one of the bedrooms. The wood is Rimu, the floors through out the house are the same wood. We hope to uncover them someday soon.

This is one of the hundred of roses on the property, most are in need of love and attention to restore their glory. There are tons of beautiful plants hidden behind overgrown bushes and under grass.

Darrel has drawn the whole house up on the computer, he even created 3-d movies of the place. These are some sketches that he has drawn to brainstorm ideas.

I hope you enjoyed the show!

2007-04-26T22:13:00.000+12:00

Hello!!!!! Well we have been without internet for ages - but we are back online now- in our new house! So much has happened since we moved in, parts of walls have come down and showers have gone up. I have planted winter veggies, saved plants from the clutches of the evil weed twitch grass and cleared the greenhouse from a vigorous grapevine. I saved the vine by untangling it and proping it up, so some day it can wind and twine around a pergola. I am dreaming of the day that I can hang up my hamock and laze away the day with a good book while picking grapes off the vine. (The grapes are very delicous and abundant at the moment) I have pics to share, but I just thought I would write to let you all know that contrary to the rumors, I did not buzz off the Antartica- although it seems to call my name every once in a while- the house is way too cool to leave behind for a cold, dark holiday on the south pole. More soon...

2007-03-17T15:22:00.000+12:00

Hi, well I forgot to mention that a few weeks ago we were blessed with a visit from Jessica. Here we are together going for a swim on a crisp evening. She was only here from Sunday morning to Saturday morning, so we made the most of a few evenings together. She was here for a conference with her Grad School advisor from the University of Vermont, Cully. Cully is now at Virginia Tech, so one of his new Grad Student's came for the trip as well, her name is also Jessica and it turns out that we had a class together at Penn State back in 2001. Here are the two Jessicas:

One evening the Jessica's, Darrel and I went to Sumner, were supposed to go for a swim, but some crazy kelp/seaweed stuff was clogging up the shore, we all chickend out and just enjoyed the view.
Super early on Saturday morning, before Jess got on her flight home, we took a trip to the Botanical Gardens in Christchurch. We took these pics of tree ferms. I quite like the blurry one, but to get a better idea of what the picture is off, just look at the pic below it, they are identical, by the second one I used the flash. The brown bit in the middle is a new frond unfurling, just like a fiddlehead, but as big as your fist!

Thanks Jessica for sharing all of your photos with me and my fans, um I mean friends and family!

2007-03-17T14:47:00.000+12:00

So here is an update on the house situation. We take possession on the 27th- so yes, If any of you know my sister she is going to beat us out because they take possession of their first house on the 20th. We are going to do a load or two after work each day, just so we can unpack and get settled over the following weekend. We can't really start packing yet, because our place is so small. The van is proving to be very handy these days. I picked up some free lounge chairs and a kitchen table last weekend (2 of the 3 items were injured in the process, but hey they were free and they needed some work anyways) so we just left the stuff in the van because there is nowhere else to put it.

And today we went to look at a second hand bike for Darrel and ended up at this big smelly guy's house. His entire yard is covered with bikes and other things, but mostly bikes stacked on top of each other. Most of them were locked together, so no one would steal them, but D and I figured that they were better off stolen than sitting in his yard for eternity because he couldn't find the key for half of them. Out of the whole deal, we spent $75 on a commuter bike for D, a hand push lawnmower, and a stepping stool.

The guy said that he moved to the house 17 years ago so he could take walks on the beach, which is literally 7 houses away, but he actually had not made it to the beach in 2 years. He was very interesting to say the least.

Then we hightailed it across town and bought a $140 Fisher and Paykal fridge off of an Indian dude, who I guessed to be an engineer. He had some great fridge advice and he was pretty clever at helping us fit the fridge in the van with all the other stuff we have been collecting.

We had been considering buying a new fridge and getting some deal where you have 12 months to pay it off interest free, but we decided the weekly mortgage payments were probably going to be hard enough to handle. I just hope the fridge is not an energy hog because it is 10 years old. At least it's a Fisher & Paykel, they are well known for energy conservation.

Not much else going on here. Oh, we had some viscous weather this past week. Three days of driving rain and a cold wind. It snowed down to 1000 metres. It's all mostly gone now, or else we would have been hiking this weekend to catch the first run of the season!

2007-03-07T12:37:00.000+12:00

Hello! Darrel and I caught some great music over the weekend. If you are looking for some new tunes, then google Fat Freddy's Drop, Shapeshifter and Kora. They are all New Zealand bands that we saw perform at the "Cheap as Chips" concert. Chips are big french fries and they are really cheap. So that means the concert was pretty reasonably priced for 3 bands. It was a beautiful day, we really lucked out because this summer has been the coldest on record.

I think we are moving into fall now, or so I am told. I don't see much difference in the weather or the foliage though.

We have 12 sleeps till we move into our new house!

2007-03-02T18:25:00.000+12:00

Guess what?!!! They accepted our offer!!!!!

2007-02-10T06:55:00.000+12:00

This is the house we just put an offer on! I will keep you posted!

2007-01-14T20:31:00.000+12:00

Hello! I bet you have been wondering what Darrel and I have been up to for the last month or so. I have posted some pictures from our holiday over Christmas and New Years. We went up North to New Plymouth to celebrate with Darrel's parents, Joy and Brian, and his sister, Sharleen.

I had been having problems getting into the holiday spirit, because the days were getting longer and the weather was relatively warm. Being from New England, I associate cozying up around the fire and crisp winter weather with Christmas; Kiwis associate BBQs and going to the beach with the holidays. But after a very rough 4 hour ferry ride to Wellington, on the North Island, we were greeted with these lovely Pohutakawa blossoms. Like you can see in the picture below. Pohutakawa is known as the New Zealand Christmas tree and it helped me get into the christmas spirit.

Our holiday was filled with yummy deserts like this mound of merengue , turkish chocolate, and raspberries surrounded by brandy snaps. mmmm.... This desert is a reincarnation of Pavlova a standard at holiday parties here.Here is Darrel with his dad!

Sharleen and Brian with our drink of choice- champagne and strawberries!Here I am with my new Christmas goodies including a hand made hoody from Sharleen and a made with love apron from mom.Here is Joy with bags made by Darrel and I (left) and Sharleen (right).

Brian with a Vermont cutting board.
Darrel had fun putting his new toys to good use, including this icecream maker. You fill it up with cream and sugar on one end and stuff the other end with ice and salt. You roll the ball around for half an hour and voila- yummy icecream!
So, after some serious relaxing at Joy and Brians. We ran away to camp at the beach just south of New Plymouth in Oakura. This was our view at the campsite. We have kitted out the van with a bed, so our our boogie boards, food and stuff can fit underneath the platform. It's sweet for traveling in this land of unpredictable weather.While we were camping we had to try out another new toy Darrel got at Christmas. It is a stealth camping grill- all the bits and pieces fit into one of the tubes. It works great! We put it to the test at a campfire ring on the edge of the beach.

The next day Darrel and I hiked to the top of Paritutu rock. The rock is an ancient remnant of a volcano that is much older than the current Mt. Taranaki cinder cone volcano that towers over the landscape of New Plymouth. The weather has been a bit wild here lately, heaps of rain and much cooler than normal. Actually, we were kicking ourselves for not bringing our snowboards to New Plymouth because Mt. Taranaki had just gotten a fresh dump of snow!

Here are Darrel and I at the top of Paritutu rock looking out at the other bits of volcano remnants.Here is Darrel trying out his new skateboard at his old stomping grounds in Taranaki. We gave each other long boards for Christmas. We bought them from our friend Jaime who has a business making them. So I am learning by skating to work and taking baby steps towards riding in the halfpipe.

After a fun New Years in Wellington with our friends Odie and Joel, we hopped back on the ferry to travel to the South Island. This journey was just as choppy as the first one, but I managed to keep my breakfast in my body! Yippee! Which is very fortunate because even the veteran ferry goers said that it was the roughest they had ever seen it. It's pretty amazing when a boat the size of a small cruise ship is slapping waves. For our trip from Picton to Christchurch on the South Island, we traveled down the seal covered coast through Kaikora, which is a very cool seaside town where the mountains meet the sea.

2006-12-05T18:43:00.000+12:00

Hey! Darrel wanted to share this movie he made of some preliminary drawing that he has done for a new client. Check it out!

2006-12-05T18:37:00.000+12:00

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

2006-12-02T18:47:00.000+12:00

I just started a new job, and yes it is in an office. Top secret stuff though, so can't say much about it. I think I will be improving the plant life inside of the building as soon as I get the feel for the place. The picture above is kind of like a first day of school picture, since I am in training for the next two months. The biggest thing that I have learned from my new work experience is that girly shoes give you blisters, so don't walk 45 minutes to and from work in them (bring walking shoes!). I have since learned how the bus system works and have also been riding my bike from time to time. I am really enjoying not depending on a car, but it's nice to have one so we can get away to places like Godley head (pics below). See if you can spot the sheep in this one, I think that if you click on the picture it will be enlarged for you.

Godley Head is a penninsula that divides Taylors Mistake from Lyttelton Harbour (just to the South of Christchurch). There are a number of mountain bike tracks and walkways throughout the area. Truly intriguing are the concrete bunkers and narrow tunnels running down the hillside, constructed during the Second World War to secure the harbour against a potential attack.

These sheep were visiting the Christchurch Art Gallery in some nice woolen sweater. teehee

later skaters!

2006-11-04T18:52:00.000+12:00

Day at the Beach
Darrel and I spent most of the day at the beach today, Taylors Mistake. It is just over the hill from the beach town of Sumner on the outskirts of Chch. It is called Taylors Mistake because the original surveyors thought it was an island. Not quite sure how they thought that, must a have been a foggy day. Supposedly the Taylors are still a well known Chch family. There is this thing here about "what ship you came to NZ on". I have yet to be asked which ship I came over on due to my accent, but I think it's one of the first questions some people ask you when you meet them. Well, some people, probably just the ones that can trace their lineage to the first four boats that landed in Christchurch.

It was great to take a dip in sea. I think it has been over 5 years since I was in the ocean. I lathered myself in sunblock and then soaked up the rays. (Hopefully only the good rays were getting through to my skin.) The beach sand has some iron in it, so it's hot on the feet!

We watched Paragliders hover on the updrafts on the hills surrounding the little bay of the beach we were at. We also watched our friend David's kids run about and get sand everywhere. It was pretty funny when they got hungry, because every bite of their crunchy snack was a bit crunchier due to the sand that covered their hands and faces. There was just no way to get it off!

2006-10-29T09:51:00.000+12:00

Darrel and I went to Hanmer Springs for the long weekend and his birthday. Darrel had monday off from work due to Labour day. We left on Saturday night after I had a busy spring day at the Garden Centre. I think it was one of the busiest weekends of the year. We grabbed fish and chips on the way out of town- you know you have to load up on grease and carbs when heading off on a kiwi vacation.

We started by heading North out of Chch. At this point Darrel still didn't know where we were going. His only clues were the mountain bikes in the back of the van and the camping gear. There are very few roads in New Zealand, and it became pretty obvious where we were heading after we turned Left, and headed away from the coast and into the mountains.

Unfortunately, the weather report did not sound so good for the weekend, and it became quite noticeable as the winds started to pick up and push the van around while driving. Luckily the 120 K winds never materialized.

We stayed at the Alpine Apartments Campground. My original plan had been to rent one of their Kitchen cabins, but I decided that camping would be more fun (and cheaper). The cabins are pretty cute and cozy, so if anyone wants to come and visit, we will have to rent one because they come with free mountian bikes! The overall experience was great, there were nice clean bathrooms, a kitchen, a bbq, picnic tables and worm composting!

On Sunday, the weather was a bit cold and drizzly, so we went to the hot springs to soak in the minerals of Hanmer (pronounced Hamner by everyone). It is a pretty big complex with 10 pools ranging from 35c to 41c. There are also waterslides for the kids. We started in the coolest pool and gradually worked our way up to the hottest ones.

Monday morning brought sunshine and a bit of warmth, so we headed off into the plantation forests to rip up the logging roads and mountain bike tracks. Here are some pics:

(There was supposed to be a snow capped mountian in the background of this picture, but you will just have to use your imagination.)

It is not the most beautiful setting, but definitley challenging climbs and steep downhills. I am glad that the tracks were in the plantation, I would hate to interfere with the native bush. I want to get a dog, but I would be so horrified if the dog ever disturbed any ground dwelling native birds. There are just so few of them, and their habitat is so precious.

It was great to get out of the city and into the woods. It made me miss being surrounded by trees in the treehouse. But, Christchurch has heaps of gardens and pockets of natural areas, and now that I have my weekends free we will have time to do more exploring of the national parks and reserves. (I have finished up at the Garden Centre and I am looking for new work, maybe something officey- who knows what I will find!)

2006-10-16T10:28:00.000+12:00

Thanks to all those who have expressed concern over our confrontation two weeks ago. I have not seen the guys since, and I am feeling confident that we are pretty safe here.

Spring is in full swing, we had our first hot day the other day 27 celsius! I was pretty tired at the end of it. I was on the move all day stocking the bedding plants at the garden centre, and I am not used to the heat after experiencing two winters back to back. I hear that next weekend is our second busiest weekend of the year; it is Labour Weekend.

Darrel is enjoying his job working for a small architecture company right down town. His office is on a cute, cobble stone street with cafes, restaraunts, and beauty spas. His desk is right in front of the store front window. People are forever looking in on him and his coworkers. I think he has taken to making fish faces at them because he feels like he is in a fish bowl sometimes. Darrel is getting to know his boss, Darren, pretty well because his first project it to draught Darren's own house.

We went to see a really good kiwi reggae band the other night- Katchafire - it was really nice, they did a few Bob Marley covers along with their own stuff. It was fun to get out and dance. It kind of made me a bit homesick though. A crowd like that in Burlington would have been full of familiar faces to me. At least I know I am likely to find some good friends here.

I am currently planning a getaway for next weekend. Darrel and I both have Sunday and Monday off. I can't divulge any details though. It is a surprise for Darrel's birthday. I will fill you all in next week with some good pics.

2006-10-08T10:41:00.000+12:00

These are some photos I took one morning at work. Every year a wild duck raises some ducklings in the Japanese garden at Oderings. It's a peaceful place even on the busiest of days at the Garden Centre (even if it's just a glance as I walk by).

Just thought I would share some good stuff. We have not had any more trouble with our neighbors, so we are feeling pretty safe right now, which is also due to the new deadbolt in the door! Most people we tell about the incident think that it was totally out of the ordinary for Christchurch, let's hope they are right.

Peace,
Josie

2006-10-01T17:21:00.000+12:00

Well, Darrel and I had a bit of a scare last night. I am not sure if I should post this, because it's not such a good thing and I don't want anyone to worry about us, but I just have to write about it because it was just so weird.

Last night after work, Saturday night, Darrel and I went out for dinner- not the usual cheap thai food that we eat all the time, but a really nice meal at a Japanese place where you sit around the cook top and watch the chef clink his knives and flip the condiment bottles and light things on fire. We had scallops, mussels and a big plate of melt in your mouth sashimi. Then we wandered around and found a place called The Honey Pot, where we ordered cheese cake and white chocolate cake drizzled in some dark chocolate. (yes, we went from light and healthy to decadent in just an hour) Then we found the COOLEST video store on earth! Known as Alice in Videoland, it is over 20 years old, has funky flair including a weird mirrored passageway called "the looking glass", sections of foreign films from heaps of different countries and a large selection of NZ and Australian films (yes, the regular video stores here mainly stock hollywood films). This find is going to help us make it through NWS (Netflix Withdrawel Syndrome). We picked out a film called "He died with a Felafel in his hand" signed up for a lifetime membership (just $10) and bought a consessions card.

Then we wandered home, the city had been a buzz of activity, being Saturday night and all. And we were definitly feeling good after sushi and cheesecake. We walked out of the main part of the city towards our neighborhood. We were just about home, when we passed three very drunk men (who the police refered to as skinheads). One of then fake-kicked me as I was passing. it was like a round house kick- his foot contacted my stomach, but there was no force behind it. So naturally Darrel stood up for me, and we kept walking towards our house just two buildings away. But the drunkards had not satiated their violent tendencies for the night, so they kept calling out mean taunts to us because Darrel would not fight them. They saw where we lived and ran over and threw a beer can at the door, then one of them ran up and started kicking in our door!!!!!

I don't think I have ever been scared like that, I called 111 (like calling 911 in the states) but the guy had stopped kicking and had left us alone by the time I got the whole story out to the emergcy people. They said the police were too busy to come over right then since it wasn't an emergency anymore, but they would send someone over the next day. (thanks for caring christchurch police)

The stupid jerk busted the frame of our door (he didn't get in though), so we do have something we could charge him with, but no one saw which one actually did the damage. Some neighbors saw the whole thing, but they were too far away to tell. This guy named Hedgehog said that he was ready to grab a baseball bat and run over to help if the guy had actually gotten in. It was definitely reassurring to know that there are people around that would have helped out. Our closest neighbors (same building) came over to check us out right after the incident and our landlord brought us a bottle of wine today "to calm the nerves".

The guys are well known by the police and their neighbors for being dangerous and causing trouble. The police also said that they would do regular parols to the area. (I have heard that regular patrol thing before at the Intervale- not sure if it changed anything) I am sure they will get caught doing something stupid in time.

"What goes around, comes around"

The neighborhood we live in is not too bad, but this has definitely reafirmed our desire to buy our own house in a nice area very, very soon. I am going to call a mortgage broker tomorrow and start scouring the paper and internet for a good house to fix up. The banks seem to be willing to lend to just about anyone right now, so our chances are good.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this post and don't worry about us, we are fine and we have learned an important lesson-

Don't cross paths with drunken blokes!

2006-09-24T19:51:00.000+12:00

I have changed my blog setup so anyone can leave comments! So- comment away because I definitely read them and it's good to know that someone out there reads this.

I also wanted to let everyone know that if you ever want to go back in time, just come on over for a vist and I'll take you to the ski fields- where the access roads are scarier than the skiing and the lifts are old school! I am talkin' Pomas, T-Bars and Nut Crackers!

Here are some pics I took around town the other day on a bike ride:

2006-09-07T19:38:00.000+12:00

Hey there, just checking in. It's finally spring, again this year!

I enjoyed chatting with all of the Kenistons last weekend when I called the Camp (Songo Pond in Maine). Sounds like they have had "wicked" hot summer.

I thought I would fill you in on some of our projects, Darrel is making us some beside cabinets that just fit together without nails or screws. They are made out of the plywood box that our stuff was shipped over to NZ in.

Some of the plywood is pretty crappy so this picture is just a prototype out of the worst stuff, he is working on the final version right now, I can hear the jig saw wirring away in the backyard right now.

Here I am with my knitting project! It's a shawl thing, with arms, I will hold you in suspense as to the full design until it's
finsished. Not much time to knit these days! Without a TV, I just don't pick up my knitting as much. I have also been starting veggie seeds, which reminds me, I need to bring them in for the night! So far I have started: onions, peas, silver beet (chard for the americans out there), lettuces and parsley.

This is the Avon River, it runs right through the City, one of many urban streams. Its not uncommon to see rowers and kayakers and even canal boats, complete with the pole for pushing! There is a bike path that follows the river all the way to the sea, we can jump on at the end of our road.

Later skater

2006-08-20T10:57:00.000+12:00

Driving towards the Kahurangi National Forest on the South Island

The Mini Graveyard

At Makara with Odie and Joel (near Wellington on the North Island)

Joel, Odie and Darrel at Makara

2006-08-06T11:08:00.000+12:00

We have finally found a home, Darrel and I signed 6 month lease on a 1 bedroom flat. We have been shopping for furniture and setting up house. We have also been looking for work, and as is his style, Darrel has gotten the first job he applied for.

Here is a summary of our trip to Christchurch:
We have crossed the Cook Strait (Wellington to Picton), smooth sailing from island to island. I was pretty worried about getting seasick. The day we flew in to Wellington had been a bumpy ride and the newspaper showed the Interislander ferry was tipping on its side in the massive waves that rocked through the passageway. But our voyage was beautiful calm and sunny! No dolphins though. I have been told that some day I will have my own nz dolphin story. Supposedly they are quite common, for now I will continue to relive the time a fellow traveler rented a kayak in the Milford sound and had them swimming along with her as she traveled through the fjords. The ferry docks in Picton on the South Island, we took the Queen Charlotte Sound Road to Nelson. It wove around the edge of the sound, we took it pretty slow, there were a few small slips here and there (gravel in the road). It was just so dazzling it was hard to fly past it all.

That night we attempted a roadside camp in the van, we ended up driving to campground in Nelson for reasons that I can’t reveal. Nelson is a beautiful place, I think it gets the most sunny days out of all regions of NZ. As I was told yesterday, “it’s easy to live life there, your whole life could just pass you by”.

After leaving Nelson, we traveled through the Kahurangi National forest down the center of the south island. There was a sign at the beginning of the drive warning that there were no service stations for the next 100 K and they were right, sheep, cows, plantation forests and native bush were all that that could be seen, with the odd house tucked in along the valley here and there. We followed the river valley, and the hills got bigger and bigger until their jagged peaks were snowcapped and the frost/snow line from the night before was well below treeline into the native bush.

We were heading for Muruia Hot Springs, so we pulled off into a rest area just north of it and found free camping signs. Thank you DOC! (DOC= Department of Conservation). In the morning we saw signs for a faultline fence, meaning we were sleeping directly on the fault and the fence in the meadow shows how much movement there has been since the fence was erected. We didn’t check it out though. The mist was pretty heavy, well you could call it rain, but the scenery was gorgeous.

At Muruia, we were greeted by the familiar smell of sulpher. There are four boulder lined pools, each of various temps- Bath tub temp, hot but not too hot, really hot and freezing cold. It was so nice, Darrel and lounged around in the “hot but not too hot pool”, the boulders create different seats for you to perch upon. We had just seen a few people, but mainly had the pool to ourselves. Near the end of our dip we were joined by two people, one from Sydney and the other from Christchurch- Jenny. After calling a UN session and trying to solve the world’s problems, we discovered that Jenny had a flat for rent in Christchurch.

So we exchanged contact details and headed for the plains of Canterbury. Feeling refreshed and relaxed, we followed the aqua-blue braided river out of the mountains towards the sea.

In Christchurch, we met up with Jaime and Melissa, and their two kids Kya and Azlan. We stayed at Melissa’s parent’s house where they were house-sitting. The house is on the hills South of the city, our first day in the city was snow/hail/rain. But the second day was clear and blue, and we were rewarded with an amazing view. Snowy peaks to the north and west, a wonderful playground to behold.

Darrel and I spent two full days driving around looking at apartments for rent, but none could really compare to what Jenny had to offer. And that is how we found our new home!

2006-07-14T11:52:00.000+12:00

One of Darrel's hip hopity hats for sale

Josie at the Wind Farm

Josie, Joy and Brian at the Oakura Beach, South of New Plymouth

2006-07-14T11:45:00.000+12:00

July 8th
Darrel and I set of on a new adventure yesterday!

We have spent the past two weeks looking for a vehicle and exploring other options for our trip to the South Island (where we plan on settling). We almost settled on a fire engine red station wagon, which would have done the job for the trip, but might not have suited our needs once we got to wherever it is we are going to settle. Then Darrel’s dad offered us a van that was about to be sold from their Plumbing Business. The plan is to sell it for them when we are done using it. It’s big enough to sleep in the back while we are tiki touring south and also big enough to pick up our shipment from the port when it arrives. The only catch is that we had to clean out the van. It was not pretty, but 6 hours later, we knew that at least the remaining dirt and grime was relatively clean.

So, yesterday we said goodbye to Joy and Brian and drove towards Palmerston North to visit with Craig, Trudy and Kelsey. About 45 minutes from our destination we hit a roadblock, heavy rains and tidal rivers make for flooding and closed roads. New Zealand really needs some riparian buffers!

We thought that we were stuck in Wanganui for the night so we treated ourselves to an amazing Thai dinner and a movie. (It seemed that most of the other stranded people had the same idea) While in the theatre we overheard that the road was now open to one lane and that cars where being allowed through. So we made a run for it, and rolled into P.N. late at night, just in time to watch a parade of boy racers exiting town.

Kiwi Definition #1 Boy Racer= Young person (usually male) who spends a lot of money on their car, fitting it out with loud exhaust systems, loud stereos and speakers, fancy rims, low rider kits, airbrush paint jobs and big stickers. Boy Racers are known for driving up and down the main street of their home towns for hours on end with no real purpose or destination.

Today, we have been playing with Kelsey (Darrel’s neice who is a lively 2 years old), visiting a wind farm and starting to pimp out the van with tinted windows (we are not envious of the boy racers, we are just trying to protect all of our possessions.)

The wind farm is located on a farm just South of the city. The towers dot the ridgeline, but are hardly visible on overcast or cloudy days. The closer we got the more awed I became. They are beautiful graceful towers. The clouds were low and heavy with moisture, the blades looked like they had streamers attached to them, but it was the condensation from the air streaming off. The cool part of the wind farm, is that they are farming electricity as well as cows and sheep. And what’s encouraging is that they are now powering 35,000 homes and are just about to double their capacity and a whole new wind farm is being constructed just south of here near Wellington (the countries 2nd largest city) and will power all of Wellington and neighboring suburbs.

Yeah! a country that is into its renewable energy and actually doing something about it! I would so much rather be surrounded by Windmills than even the remotest threat of a nuclear melt down!

July 12, 2006

We are now in Wellington, a very blustery place in winter. I can understand why so many New Zealanders have dreadlocks. (Darrel and I met in Wellington while studying at Victoria University.) I went to the campus yesterday to meet with a professor. He coordinates an Ecological Restoration Masters program. I am very interested in it, but need to get to the South Island and snowboard for a few years before I am ready to go back to Uni. It is about 3.5 hours to snowboardable mountains from Welly- not quite out the back door like we had in VT.

Right now we are staying at Odie, Joel and Adam’s house. Welly is surrounded by hills and we are right up on top of one of them- great view of the city.

I just started a new knitting project (kind of like a shawl, but an annoying 1-ply yarn that is taking a bit to get used to) and Darrel is working on decorating some hats to sell while we are unemployed and rambling around the country.

2006-07-02T13:33:00.000+12:00

Darrel and I have spent the last week getting reacquainted with New Zealand. We flew into Wellington, Sharleen (Darrel’s Sister) picked us up at the airport. We made one stop on our way to Sharleen’s house; Darrel got out of the car and took two steps before we heard someone exclaim “Darrel, what are you doing here.” It was his good friend Kate. Small world down here!

We are currently staying in New Plymouth at Darrel’s parents place. We have been walking on the beaches, exploring art galleries and gazing at the huge snow covered volcano just to the East. Darrel and I couldn’t bring our snowboards with us (they are coming with our shipment in a month or two), so it is a bit bittersweet that NZ has more snow from last weeks storm than it received for the entire 2005 winter season- and they are forecasting more to come. Despite the snowy mountain, New Plymouth is quite warm, not T-shirt weather or sunbathing on the beach, but sunny and nice for walking, biking and knitting on the deck.

As you may have guessed, our roughly laid plans are changing fast. Our dreams of owning a trustworthy diesel have been shattered and our interest in living in a city has blossomed.

Our current destination is Christchurch; we just have to get there somehow. Christchurch is the third largest city in NZ. It is on the South Island and is an hour or so from ski areas and the Southern Alps.

We are in the process of finding a car to drive south, and it is not really all that fun. The problem with cars here, especially in our price range, is that they are imported used from Japan and likely “clocked” during the import process. Also, the manuals are in Japanese and it's harder or more expensive to find parts. So we are on the lookout for a NZ new hatchback or station wagon for our Tiki Tour to the South Island. We are chillin’ in New Plymouth till we sort it all out. We hope to be in Wellington by next weekend.

2006-07-02T12:38:00.000+12:00

We spotted a Swamp Wallaby while on a bush walk. Despite the tiny picture, we were actually quite close to him. He was munching away on ferns, and keeping an eye on us while we gawked at him for a while.
Darrel, Josie and Simon on our Bush walk, just north of Sydney.
We had brunch with some NZ relatives visiting Sydney.

Pieta and Jennifer, Darrel's Cousin and Auntie, are in the center. Deborah, Darrel's Sister is on the right.

2006-06-29T11:28:00.000+12:00

The Three sisters from Echo Point, Blue Mountains
Start of waterfall on Canyon Trek.

Josie and Darrel on the Blue Mountains Canyon walk

2006-06-16T13:56:00.000+12:00

June 15, 2006

Josie and I arrived safely in Sydney. Our Business class standby seats treated us well aloowing for sleep on the long flight. We slept most of our first day here and had an afternoon wander around town and the rocks district. Yesterday my sister Deborah was able to take the day off work and she took us to the Blue Mountains, very beautiful indeed!! We had lunch in katoomba (sp) and took a leisurely nature walk along the enormously high cliff tops and above a waterfall. (pics to follow) Today we awoke dreamily still a little jet-lagged and made our way into town, which is only 10mins from Deb's and Simons apartment. We found the Public Library, which has the free Wifi that I am communicating this message on right now. This afternoon I think we will do some wandering maybe see the botanical gardens? Tonight we are going out for dinner with Debs, Simon and friends. Josie is currently booking our flight to New Zealand to arrive in Wellington on Thursday the 22nd at 10:00pm ish. It is weird being back in a country where the power outlets look the same as home and have switches on them and the people are driving on the left and the water is swirling down the toilet clockwise, but yet I am somewhere foreign, the accent though familiar is slightly different aye. We have not yet seen any Koala's or Kangaroos yet, but yesterday we saw a lyer bird in the bush (like a peacock) and some colourful noisy birds.
Well better get moving back outside, it was the coldest day in Sydney yesterday and for us Vermont hardend souls it was almost balmy. There is alot to do in Sydney and it is very pedestrain friendly, fun just to walkabout.

2006-06-16T13:25:00.000+12:00

Saying goodbye at the Burlington airport

**********************

First day in California with Denny and Kellie at the Golden Gate Bridge

*********************

Mojow and The Vibration Army at the Harmony Festival

********************

Darrel and a Totem Pole on Denny and Kellies driveway

*********************

Reservoir near Denny and Kellies

**************

2006-06-16T13:18:00.000+12:00

June 08 2006

Josie and I say sad farewells to Ted and Raechel after some shipping complications (do not use Euro-Transport International!!!!) and embarked on our Journey. Our standby United airlines tickets are all successful and we hope we may be over our bad luck. First class seats out of Burlington, Vermont treats us to a nice breakfast and comfortable ride to Chicago. Economy class from Chicago to San Francisco in the biggest plane I have ever been in, with a second floor!! We are glad to not be stuck in Chicago our only stop with no friends. Denny and Kelly, Josie’s friends from Penn State University, pick us up from the airport and take us on a “tiki”(scenic) tour of San Francisco an amazing place, where New Zealand trees grow and everything else on the planet also. Our tour checks in at the Haight district. The Haight district is a place best known for the Musicians that have lived there. Including the Greatful dead, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane. The district is alive with colourful people and stores. Very impressive “op” (thrift) stores and Sensual bling. I picture Brian Malley loving this place and it’s furry g-strings. We find a 2$ happy hour and sample local brews then head for the Coast. The Golden Gate bridge is very impressive and the winding road to the coast makes you queasy. The coast line is stunning and made me feel right at home. We drive North up the coast to our friends home not far from Santa Rosa. The drive reminds me of the importance of invasive species control and that darn “olds mans beard” (tree killing moss) Nevertheless the landscape is gorgeous, with enormous trees and rolling hills. An albino deer runs across the road in front of our car a good omen, hopefully our luck has turned.

June 09 2006

Today we head off to the Harmony festival where Denny and Kelly have stands, it is warming up and looks to be a fun day.

June 12, 2006

The Health and Harmony festival in Santa Rosa was a blast. Denny and Kelly had side by side booth’s which we used as a home base. We saw some great music the Finale with Michael Franti and spearhead was a very appropriate final act a conscious message and good vibes. Other Festival highlights include “Mojow and the Vibration Army” (see picture) a Duo consisting of a very tall red head guy with a saxophone and a music pedal strapped to each hip, a battery powered amp in a cart that dragged along behind. He was accompanied by a dancing woman the music a very repetitive beat mixed with du-wops, they traveled the fairgrounds grooving to the diners and shoppers. A culinary Showcase, an area full of free food samples, a goddess area filled with spiritual and cosmic crystals and magicians, a world bazaar area of ethnic wares, eco-village with alternative’s for living and conservation, 7or 8 stages and a lot of Fun people. Zero, Sol Horizon, Serendipity project and others rocked the stage. A lot of fun.
Today Josie and I are going for a wander through some Redwoods and then tonight we fly out for Sydney to stay with Deborah, hope I don’t get lashed with Jet lag we have some homeopathic tablets for that. The pollen has affected me pretty badly here, but homeopathies have helped a lot.

2006-03-01T09:39:00.000+12:00

Darrel and I are back in Vermont from our trip to Colorado. We spent some days skiing (pics to come out later) and touring the land, we even took a trip to Santa Fe. It was great to catch up with family and friends.

Below: Kwali and Kiwi; Left: Darrel and I at the Denver Botanic Gardens; Below: Erin's house in Santa Fe

2006-02-01T07:01:00.000+12:00

Share Video at DropShots.com

Wayne and Evan on our favorite hill 1.28.2006

2006-01-16T03:15:00.000+12:00

Today is a blustery day in the woods near Saxon Hill. The creaking of the treehouse beams awoke me early this morning. It is a little unsettling, but we have gotten used to it. All of the trees can move independently of each other. When it's windy the brackets that are attached to the trees slide along the beams supporting the treehouse, creaking and groaning as they go. The treehouse just stays in the same place.

Here are some pictures from last weekend
at the Keniston Family Christmas in Maine!

2006-01-12T06:30:00.000+12:00

Christmas Day with New Family! For Chistmas this year Darrel, Mom, Dad and I went to Connecticut to Celebrate with Shelby, Danny, Kay, Kathleen and Tony (Danny's Grandmother, Mom and Dad). It was very festive with a TON of food.

Above: Mom showing Kay the Family Christmas stockings. Mom's is the oldest (made by Grandma Keniston when mom was a wee little girl). Mom made Kay, Danny and Kathleen stockings for the event.

Above: Shelby in her fancy school "12 Days of Christmas" assembly outfit. I think she was supposed to be a french hen, but her only relevant prop was a rubber chicken.

Below: Danny showing off his new stocking.

2005-12-08T03:54:00.000+12:00

This is our treehouse. We built it over a year or so, starting in June of 2003, and spent ~$5,000 dollars. It is warm and cozy and the winter. In the summer, all of the windows make it feel like you are sleeping outside. It is ~160 sq.feet. with insulated walls and double pane windows. Most of the materials were salvaged or bought from the Recycle North Building Materials Center (they take down buildings and resell the parts- they rock!).