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