Biking, finally!

Last week was another great spring weather week. We got to go for some nice walks in the park and botanical gardens after work. And, now that we have set our clocks ahead (spring ahead, 1 hour), it's light until 8 o'clock!
On Friday after work, we rode our bikes to the BMX course near our apartment and found some sweet mountain biking trails behind it. The trails go through all sorts of terrain, hills, mud, boardwalks, trees, bushes, and lots of hairpin turns. Seems like you could go forever back there. One section of the trail is used for racing. It's definitely a good challenge for us. We both did a little walking on the steep uphill hairpins, myself more than Craig, but it is fun fun fun! And, after we were done, we took a spin through the BMX course which was also fun.
Saturday, SURPRISE! We did not go to the Farmers Market. We were turned off by the pouring down rain and the lack of apples. Instead we had a relaxing, chill morning at home and then took a little walk when it cleared up in the afternoon. That night, we were debating whether we should make pancakes or go out for dinner when our friends Dan and Emily invited us to meet them at a great little Japanese restaurant called Jizo. So, we took them up on the offer. We had a little bit of difficulty meeting up with them because we are technologically impaired. We were supposed to text them when we were leaving our house so they would know when to meet us. Being the brilliant people we are, we could not figure out how to text them from our new cell phone or from our skype account. We did finally manage but after waiting at the restaurant for about 15 minutes, we figured something was up. Apparently they never received our texts so Craig had to run to their place to get them while I stayed at the restaurant. Anyway, when we finally got to eat, the food was delicious. Vegetable rolls, chicken katsu, beef bowl, and japanese curry, along with a nice bottle of wine made for a great meal.
After dinner, we headed out the The Craft, a cool little bar in the Octagon (city center) for some beer. We all tried some new bev's. Some were better than others. All in all, it was a fun night out.
As a result of our fun night out, Sunday morning started a little slow, especially with the loss of an hour of sleep from turning the clocks ahead. We eventually ventured out for some more biking. I spent more time in the bushes and walking than on my bike on the track. Craig was more successful.
So that was our weekend. Today we took a ride out to a new area of town called St. Clair to check out some possible flats for rent. It seems like a really nice area, pretty, and really close to the beach, but further from work. We stopped and watched some surfers for awhile, braving the cold water to catch some waves. It needs to warm up a quite a bit before I'm going in but we plan to do some surfing while we are here.
We did learn something very exciting about our Shaggy the past few days. First, Craig found that you can pull the key out of the ignition while the car is running. Even while driving down the road! We thought that was pretty cool until we found out that you can also start the car with any key. For example, this evening Craig started it with his office key! Could come in handy sometime. Except you do still need the actual car key to unlock the doors. A good thing I guess.....
So that was our weekend. No pictures to share this time. We promise to have some more excitement next time!

Happy Days

Friday morning began with the knowledge that it was national nude day. So, we were warned that there would be streakers all over the city, all day long. We didn't really thing too much of it when we left for work at 8am. However, we were, within a block of our walk, quickly reminded by three completely (with the exception of a lone heart rate monitor) naked young men. They came out of their apartment, stood in a huddle for a minute to plan their attack, and then took off running across the street in front of traffic and through some student housing, screaming the whole way. It was a great way to start the morning! Later that evening, we were fortunate enough to witness several more nearly naked men in line for the local student bar. Our friend Lexi also reported seeing a naked man riding a bike. Ouch.......


The Front Page of the Newspaper, Again (seriously)!

Friday was also celebration day for one of our coworkers, Gisela. If you remember, she is the one that picked us up from the airport when we first arrived in NZ. Gisela is another lecturer at the University and she recently finished (and passed) her PhD so the department had a little party for her after work. So, our Friday work day ended with some free wine and champagne. Those functions are always nice too because we get to talk to other staff members we don't know very well. By the end of the party, Tony had offered us his kayaks to borrow, Richard planned to crash our wedding, Gisela and her husband Chris gave us some good hiking advice, and Dave tried to talk Craig and I into staying on here so I can do a PhD and Craig can continue to teach. Obviously, some offers were better than others!
After that party, we decided to extend the festivities and went to happy hour with a few people. At the bar, we had the unfortunate opportunity to, for the second time, sample some NZ chicken flavored potato chips. I think we have mentioned the meat flavored chips in the past but have only tried them this week. They taste exactly what you think it would be like to munch on a cube of chicken bouillon. Not tasty and never to be eaten again. Next time maybe we'll try the Lamb and Mint chips......we'll see. So anyway, after the nasty chips and a good beer, we headed out for some chinese food with Dan and Lexie. Nothing special to report here, chinese food is the same everywhere.
Saturday morning we headed to Central Otago for some final, end of season skiing but not before, you guessed it, the Farmers Market! And, I am happy to report, the taiwanese wheel cakes were back in action. They were just as good as the first time, only half of the chocolate custard ended up on my shirt this time. Oops......Craig decided to branch out from his bacon butte and tried a Euro Dog Deluxe. This was a fair imitation of an american hot dog (which we have yet to find) with bacon, onion, mustard, and ketchup. It was actually pretty good, much better than the lamb kabob. On a sad note, apples are done for the season so we have lost our most affordable food :(
After the market, we drove to Queenstown for the afternoon. Lots of baby sheep (lambs, whatever) on the way. They're so cute and we literally saw hundreds of them. Upon arrival, I got a little flustered because the town roads are very narrow and busy and clustered. So, I couldn't figure out why Craig was yelling at me during my right hand turn. After all, I was in the correct lane for a change. Then he informed me that I had driven over the roundabout instead of around it. Oops! But really, if they want you to drive around it, they should raise it up instead of just painting a circle on the road! In Queenstown, we walked around town and down a trail by the lake where we hung on the beach and skipped rocks for awhile. There was also a craft market going on down by the boardwalk so that was fun to walk through. Following a very yummy meal at our favorite fish and chips restaurant, we drove to our hotel in Wanaka via the Crown Range Route. This scenic, one hour drive goes from Queenstown, up into the mountains, and then along the ridge before dropping back down into Wanaka. We got to our hotel around 7pm, checked in, and went out to enjoy the 2 outdoor heated pools. These pools were awesome! They were surrounded by rock walls, which had about 10 alcoves. In each alcove was a hot tub! So, we hopped back and forth from the warm pool to the hot tub for awhile before retiring for the evening. It was really relaxing and wonderful.




Sunday morning, we woke early to go skiing and were met with some strong (knocked a chair over) winds and rain. Previously, we were able to see Treble Cone on the mountain from our window, but now the mountain was totally obscured. Kind of crappy weather for skiing but the nice lady at the front desk assured us that if it was raining at the hotel, it was definitely snowing up on the mountain. So, we packed up and headed out for some powder action. Unfortunately, when we got to the base of the mountain, we were met with a sign stating, "Mountain Status: Closed." Basically, this meant we were SOL. The road was open but the mountain was closed. BOO!!! No skiing for us. Turns out, it was indeed snowing up there (20 cm), resulting in poor visibility and wind. So, they shut down for the day. We were very sad but at least we got to stay in a cool hotel and we also saw some pretty new waterfalls formed with the morning's rain. We turned around, headed back into town, chilled in a cafe for a bit with some tasty muffins, a smoothie, and a rare bagel, and then hit the road again. Oh, on the way back into town there was this rabbit on the side of the road that we had almost run over on the way up the mountain. This time, it darted out from the bushes in front of the car and took off down the road. That crazy rabbit ran in front of the car at (and yes, we did clock it) 50 km per hour for about a km until finally running up the side of a cliff off the road. It was the funniest thing, a rabbit outrunning a station wagon!
Anyway, it rained on and off most of the way back to Dunedin where it was sunny and warm. Unfortunately, about an hour after we got home from our non-skiing trip, the rain caught up to us. So, I guess we made the best of a disappointing day and still had fun!

Weekend Pictures

Clarification

We are writing this post ahead of schedule due to some apparent confusion about our whereabouts. Craig and I have had a lot of requests recently regarding our location. As you all (hopefully) know, we are in New Zealand, also known as Aotearoa, the Maori term meaning "land of the long white cloud." We live in an apartment (for now) in North Dunedin. Dunedin is a city located on the south east coast of the south island (see circle on map) of New Zealand (there are 2 islands, North and South). Now for details about New Zealand. NZ is located southeast of Australia, below the equator, at the 45th parallel (about halfway between the equator and the South Pole). It's the second most southern country in the world. NZ is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea (North). The water separating the 2 islands of NZ is the Cook Strait.
The terrain is varied from hilly to mountainous with flat areas only in between. It's surprisingly not that forested, almost desert like in some areas. And then you have the beaches which are never too far away.
Because it is on the opposite side of the equator as the USA, NZ's seasons are opposite. So, when it's Fall in the states, it's spring here. And when it's summer here, you guys are enjoying snow and cold!
There are no snakes here and all animals except birds and fish are not native to NZ. They were brought here by immigrants, even the sheep, which, by the way, far outnumber people here. There are spiders, and one, the katipo, is venomous and nearly extinct.
So, that's all for tonight's lesson. Hope this clears things up for some of you!





Oh, while we're at it, a lot of you have been wanting to know wedding details :) The wedding will be July 31, 2010 (less than 2 years, yay!) in Elliottville, NY at Holiday Valley. It's a ski resort and the ceremony will be outside with the reception inside Yodeler Lodge. It's really pretty there and we think it will be a lot of fun!

On Monday night, Craig and I decided to do the Hidden Waterfall hike, now that we knew where it was (see last post) and it was still warm enough for shorts! We found the waterfall and it was awesome. It was nestled in a ravine, surrounded by moss and ferns. Really green and lush. Also, on the hike we found glow worms, which are only found in NZ. We waited until dark and could see them on the sides of the creek bed. Pretty cool and well worth the hike in. We're definitely going back there for more exploring!



Hope you're all having a great week. Check back in a few days for pics of this weekend's ski adventure!

Sushi, Rugby, and Forest Meandering

Good news, Craig finally found a bike that may accommodate his freakishly tall frame. We can't wait for it to arrive so we can finally do some mountain biking! That was the best news of the week. Otherwise, the week was fairly uneventful. Craig was participating in a study who's inclusion criteria included "people who can eat as much as they want without gaining weight." Of course Craig fits right in with that one. Needless to say, I did not. So, for 4 days Craig had to weigh and record everything he ate. This was an annoyingly time consuming project. Dinner was the worst. Every vegetable and tidbit of butter had to be weighed. This week, he has to go in for testing early in the morning for 2 days and they give him a free buffet breakfast afterward. I wonder if they know what they're getting into? Anyway, it will be interesting to see what the nutrition experts have to say about Craig's eating habits. We'll keep you posted.

Work is going fine for both of us. I am working on writing an article on business planning for physiotherapy professionals that will hopefully be published in a journal. I've also gotten started on a new project. I now have to research all kinds of statistics about NZ, specifically Dunedin to figure out what kind of physiotherapy clinic the University should open. They have a lot of good ideas and want me to basically tell them which one will work, based on the community's needs and what other services are already out there. So, it's kind of interesting but stats are not easy to find.

Craig continues to work on writing some grants. And he was just awarded a grant for Proprioception Testing. Other than that, things are pretty much status quo with his job.

Oh! Some very important news regarding Craig's facial hair. November is called "Movember" here and all men are supposed to grow a mustache to raise money for charity. Not only is Craig planning to participate, but has upped the ante by telling my dad that he will grow a mustache if my day shaves his. Now, my father has had his mustache since he was like, twelve, so this will be huge. The bet is currently under consideration by the elder(ly) party. Be sure to check the blog at the end of November for results and pics of this!

We had another nice, relaxing weekend. Just hung out Friday, Farmers Market Saturday morning where we branched out and sampled some new treats. First was the Lamb Kebab. It was nasty. I had one bite and it was pure fat. Craig finished it but was unimpressed. I had to run over and buy an apple turnover to get the taste out of my mouth (good excuse, eh?). The turnover was yummy. Hot out of the frier. Healthy too. We are slightly concerned that there may no longer be any apples for sale at the market. Pickings were slim this time and we think they may be done for the season. Time will tell but if that's the case, I don't know what we'll do. We can't afford apples at the grocery store! It will be a major budgetary setback.
Saturday evening, we were very excited when we received a phone call from Taryn, our long lost friend from Pittsburgh. We got to chat with her for awhile and caught up on the Pitt goings on. We love to hear from our friends and don't get to chat often enough.

After that, we headed to the Octagon for dinner, at a Japanese restaurant called Jizo. We had some awesome fresh sushi and Craig had his beloved japanese curry. Thank goodness we didn't have to weigh his food that day! After we ate our fill, we bar hopped (all right, we only went to 2 bars) to watch the All Blacks game. We can't afford more than 2 beers each thought so we walked home at halftime. Before we left the second bar (The Bog), we watched a hammered girl fall into some other people's table, spilling all of their drinks on them. So that was entertaining. Anyway, the All Blacks beat The Wallabies (Australia) to win the Tri-Nation Cup, a pretty big deal in the rugby world. All in all, it was a good night.

Sunday brought with it our warmest temps yet. I even wore shorts! This is the first time we have gone out of the house not wearing long sleeves (3 layers of them) and pants. So, we took advantage of the sunny skies and hiked up to Mt. Cargill, the hike we didn't complete last weekend due to cloud cover. This time we made it to the top and were rewarded with some phenomenal views of the city, peninsula, and pacific ocean.





On the way back down, we took a side trail up to Butter's Peak for some rock scrambling and more views.



After that hike, we hadn't had enough so we found another hike to a "hidden waterfall" that we wanted to do. So, we attempted to find the trail but ended up on some other random trail through some really green, lush, jungly forest. We did actually find a waterfall, but not the one we thought we were going to find. It was a really cool hike though. And, driving back down the road toward home, we spotted a very large sign, right on the road, that stated "Hidden Waterfall" with a big fat arrow pointing the way. So, that's for next time.




Mt. Cargill and Waterfall Hike

Relaxed Style

For those of you with limited time, you can skim this blog as this was a relatively uneventful week. We have remained in the clear weatherwise over the last week. It hasn't been as warm, but considering this is the end of winter, I'm not complaining. The days have been around 10 degrees with nights dropping to 4 or 5. We had some rain but not constant like most of winter. Plus, daylight has lasted until 6:30 or later if it is clear!!

We had our first workweek happy hour on Tuesday. Tracey, the woman we are subletting from, lives in Christchurch (about a 3.5 hour drive). She teaches in the law school and commutes here for half the week, every week. She has been staying with friends when she comes but doesn't know many other people so we met her out for a drink. It was fun and nice to get out.

Thursday, wednesday US time, Mark and Michel had a baby boy named Drew Michel Conklin! See the link to their blog below for pics. They are all home now and everyone is doing well. Congrats to them. Thursday also saw Katie give her first lecture. One of her projects at work had her making a business plan on how to open a PT clinic so the students had an example and some idea of what was involved. From initial reports most of the 120 students were awake most of the time, better than my lectures.

This weekend we didn't have any set plans and decided to not decide on doing anything. Saturday we went the Farmer's Market as always. With the warmer weather, there are many more vendors than in the middle of winter and crowds are picking up. From what I read, the most popular market day is Christmas Eve with everyone stock piling for the family parties. After that, we checked out the Chinese Gardens. These just opened a few weeks ago and are pretty close to downtown. The gardens consist of one large pond with a bridge style walkway across, a waterfall on boulders feeding the pond, and a few pagodas surrounding with the usual Chinese ornamental woodwork. It would have been be a nice relaxing atmosphere, but it was busy. Most folks thought like us and wanted to enjoy the gardens in the decent weather. We plan to head back sometime and have a cup of tea.







Sunday was mostly lazy in the morning. For the afternoon, we decided on a tramp to Mt. Cargill. This is the highest peak around Dunedin and overlooks the harbour. I have heard from several people that the view from the top is the best they have ever seen. We hiked up to a point called the organ pipes. These are interesting rock formations that look like organ pipes, that's why they're called that. They look quite similar to the rock formations at Giant's Causeway in N. Ireland. The rock is formed from volcanic lava and when it meets the salt water, the solid state becomes hexagonal columns. Many had fallen but a few standing columns could be seen above the trail. We continued on to the top of Mt. Cargill knowing the view wasn't going to happen today. The entire top of the mountain was cloud covered. We could see the clouds whizzing by with the wind, but could not see more than 15 meters in any direction. After the trail became steep, we decided to hike back down without any great views or pictures to share. We will leave the top for another day.

Spring has Sprung!

This past week was by far the best weather week we have had yet, with lots of sunshine and warm temps. We were able to get outside quite a bit to enjoy it, with runs or walks on our lunch breaks and after work.
The warmth has also apparently brought out some loonie tunes. Last weekend was the annual Undie 500. This is a tradition that is now unofficial due to outlaw last year. It starts with some students in Christchurch who put out a challenge for which you have to buy a car for under $500, decorate it, and drive from Christchurch to Dunedin (about 4 hours). On the way, the caravan of cars stops at pubs and bars where everyone but the supposed sober driver have a drink before heading to the next pub. This all ends in Dunedin. As you can imagine, there are some pretty drunk and rowdy teenagers (drinking age is 18) at this point. Until this past weekend, there has been little history of trouble associated with this event, other than the usual (couch burning is a popular Kiwi pastime). However, on Saturday, drunk students took the Unide 500 to a whole new level, adding riots, fights, and various other forms of stupidity to the usual couch burnings. The end result was the entire Dunedin police force out in riot gear, making over 30 arrests. Fortunately, Craig and I live just far enough up the road from the excitement that our sleep wasn't affected!

Undie 500

That was the most exciting thing that happened this past week. Second runner up is the delivery of my new mountain bike to work. The receptionist that had to sign for it was intrigued by the large box with Craig's name on it.
This weekend, we decided to head to Wanaka for some skiing. We had heard that the best skiing in all of New Zealand is at Treble Cone, so we took advantage before the little snow is gone. Saturday morning, we set out, stopping of course at the Farmers Market. Side note: tried something new at the market-Taiwanese Wheel Cakes. These are little, flattened cupcake looking things made out of pancake-ish batter and filled with custard or mince and onion, or beans. The custard ones were the best, especially chocolate.



Okay, so after those and Craig's now regular bacon butte sandwich, we hit the road. It was a beautiful day for a drive and we made it to Wanaka around 2pm. On the way, we saw lots of sheep, some cows, and a sign announcing "Horse Poo 50 cents." After checking into our hotel, we walked into town. The town is right on the shores of Lake Wanaka, with the mountains surrounding. Most notable is Mount Aspiring. Town consists of a bunch of hotels, bars and restaurants, not much else. But it is absolutely beautiful and I think you could sit on the tiny pebbly beach all day, just taking in the scenery.
After hanging out and eating an ice cream cone, we drove along the lake and found another little beachy area with some big rocks sticking out into the water. We walked out and sat on a rock with our frosty beverages and watched the sun set behind the snow-capped mountains. It was awesome.





Next morning, Sunday, we loaded up Shaggy and drove up a very steep, windy, gravel road to the ski resort, Treble Cone. The first thing we saw when we got out of the car was a large parrot-like bird called a Kea hanging out in the parking lot. As we hiked up to the lodge, we noticed them scattered all about, especially wherever there was likely to be food.

Kea Birds

The skiing was awesome, way better than our last ski experience here. There was a light coating of powder and the temps were just freezing, with lots of sun. Also, the slopes weren't crowded like they are back home. Some of the trails were goodly challenging for us, but there were also a few that were just long cruisers. One thing though, they don't mess around with their black diamonds. Back home, I'd say it might not be pretty, but I could probably get down most black diamonds. Here, I didn't even want to get close to the edge of one! It was like jumping off a cliff to start, and getting scarier from there. So, we stuck to the blues. We had a great day skiing, and a fun weekend in Wanaka.





Wanaka Pictures