Our Quote

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Kiwi Flag

Kiwi Flag

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Nailed by the Rail Trail

Anyone who know us knows that we are always up for adventure and exploration. Our time in New Zealand has only intensified our spirit to get out and see and do.

So maybe that is what inspired me to do one of the dumbest things that we have tried in a long time.
I had heard about the Central Otago Rail Trail from lots of Kiwi's. It is a spectacular old railway that was constructed between Middlemarch to Clyde back in the 1890's. It was abandoned as a rail line and in 2000 opened as a trail open to the public...150 kilometers of land dedicated to cycling, walking or horseback riding.

That's where the stupid comes in. What in the hell made me think that we could get on cycles, and ride almost 100 miles? Well, one is that EVERYONE told us it was beautiful and we talked to several people including some not-so-in-shape people who had done it. I even met a 60+ year old grandma who had done it with her grandson! So of course, I thought that I could jump on a bike and pedal like its 1978! NOT!
I have to admit, I didn't do my due dilligence research like I usually do for things. I may have even lied a little.
When I booked our trip and our bikes for the rail trail the lady asked me if we had been cycling before.
I may have said yes. In my defense, I thought that the fact that we both exercise and run that a little cycling over a flat rail trail would be easy. Old people had done this for God's sake! Plus, we were crushed for time.
We had a 3 day weekend and with the 2.5 hour drive to the start we didn't have much time to lose. I didn't want to risk someone telling us "no". We had a great weather forecast with nothing but clear skies and temps in the mid 70's...It was going to be perfect. I wasn't going to let some minor issues ruin a great weekend. Minor issues like I have about as much balance on a bike as a one year old with a bottle full of tequila.
Oh, and I almost died...like twice the last time I was on a bike. Bruce calls it the "Copenhagen Incident"
I figured that we would be fine...

My first time on a bike in 20 years...the Copenhagen Incident

One thing I forgot to ask all of the fine Kiwi folk that had done this trail is how long they took to do it. We only had 2 days to cram in almost 100 miles (150km). I didn't know that that was a BAD idea. What I didn't know is that most people do the trail over a leisurely 4-6 days! I wish someone told my butt!!!!

It was all smiles at the beginning....before the pain started...

The first day started out great. We got to Clyde, picked up our bikes, got a crash course in "mountain biking 101" and were off on the Rail Trail! Oh, it was all smiles and fun for the first 10k. We took picutres, we stopped, we smiled. It was great. Then, outside of Alexandra I almost went over a ravine. Was going downhill a little too fast and forgot how to brake. Should be reason number 1 that I should NOT have been on a bike. After my near death experience, we continued on another back breaking 30km.

I almost died!!!!

I'm laughing and looking at the bike like it did something wrong!

The beautiful day started to seem hot and oppresive but the scenery was amazing. We finally came upon a beautiful little cafe near a creek and decided to treat ourselves (and our butts) to a little rest.


Me and my bum, happy for a break!

Bruce at the Chatto Creek Post Office

We also decided that we deserved a little vino for a good journey. That was another bad idea. Who ever thought it was good to give me, Miss Weeble Wobble some liquor and THEN let me back on a bike was not thinking! Bruce was safe, he kept a good distance from me to keep himself from getting killed by my wild wobbling. After our little lunch with a lot of drink, we climbed back on our bikes to do another 15 grueling kilometers to our B&B for the evening.

One of the scary, old bridges along the trail...pretty, but scary!



Beautiful scenery

Long way to go...


When we finally arrived we were dusty, tipsy and dog tired. We did get the chance to meet some great Kiwis who were traveling ahead of us. I have to admit, they were so helpful, but so not. When we walked in the first thing they enquired about was how our trip was and how are butts felt. God knows that is not common or appropriate conversation but on the Rail Trail it is:

"Hi, how's the bum?
"Sore, how's yours?"
"My arse is killing me, see you down the road!"

They also took one look at our gear and told us that we didn't have the right pants, bags, water bottles, or anything. Overall, we were not well prepared. By the end of our first day, 5-1/2 hours after riding 44 kilometers, I knew they were right.

Our accomodation the first night, an old school house

Getting on the road again

I did not want to put my butt on that bike seat the next day. What made it worse was that we had to do 66 kilometers the next day! No use in whining, it was my idea to do the damn trail. After a lovely night at a B&B in Lauder which had been an old schoolhouse in the 1800's, we got up with the sole purpose of nailin the rail trail! I got up on Saturday morning ready to take a full 10 hours to bike 66 kilometers. The first couple of kilometers was hard, harder than I liked to admit and then after about 2 hours we stopped for lunch (without the wine this time!). We met Gramme, the wonderful proprieter of a cheery little pub in Oturehua. We had a quick little 1 hour rest, took picutres of his awesome 1972 Corvette and then pushed on. The weather stayed beautiful and the scenery became more breathtaking. Then an amazing thing happened, after the climb up, it started to go downhill!!! We were racing away at 20-30km an hour it was awesome. We were able to save our butts a lot of pressure too! We got to our B&B in Kokonga in a record 5 hours! (Record for us, that is!)


Beautiful bridge, aka "Rest Stop! Thank God!"

The two most important things in Life! Bar and Toilet!!!


 
About to go through a tunnel..a dark, long tunnel
You First!!!!!
Another rest break in Oturehua, complete with a 72 Stingray Corvette!

I think that the Kokonga Lodge was our present for doing such a great job. The hosts, Dorothy and Malcolm welcomed us and literally made us feel like we came home. Their house was cozy and relaxing and they treated us to the best dinner that we'd had in days! It was heaven. Probably a little too much like heaven... Two bottles of wine and a 3 course meal later, it was time to head in for the evening. We still had one more day of 40kilometers to get to the end of the Rail Trail in Middlemarch. It was hard to leave the Lodge, my butt really didn't want to go but when I woke up, everything in me made me want to get back on the trail. The day was crisp and clear and the scenery looked like something from a Disney picture. We talked and laughed and made a quick detour by the beautiful Taieri River. It was a perfectly beautiful day.

Awesome sunrise, greeting us for the last day


Walk in the Woods


Stopping to get a drink..yes, it was safe!


At 45 degrees South and at the height of butt pain!

The Kokonga Lodge, Our home away from home!

Next thing we knew it was over. Just like that, the beauty, the ride, the cool people and beautiful B&B's...it was all over, just like that. We had nailed the rail trail!

And my butt still hurts.

Check out all of the pictures from our Butt breaking trail ride! Click here.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

I'm a Farmer...Almost

I had the best weekend. I was feeling a little down because we are stuck in the hell of waiting to move into a bigger place, Bruce was working and all my friends were going on weekend trips. I was planning on spending the day, doing nothing and watching TV.

I was saved when my friend, Amanda called me and asked me if I wanted to help her feed her lambs!

Now, I had made a promise to myself to not get close to food. Don't pet it, don't love on it and definitely don't look into its eyes...

Feeding baby #1

I broke my promise to myself!!!!

Amanda's daughter, Emma with the tiniest baby!!!


me and my new baby...


I went to Amanda's and ended up helping her feed her 4 baby lambs.
OMG!!! How cute!!!!


Dinner time...for the lambs, not us!

Perfect spring day under the cherry blossoms!

I'm in love! Thank God these are ewes for breeding, not for eating. The "tasty" lambs were far off in a paddock and I didn't see them!

I did see her pig and believe me, he still looks like bacon to me!!!!

Pork-the other white meat!

Thanks Amanda for saving my weekend!!!

Friday, October 8, 2010

I have a confession

I have a little confession to make...
I am a little homesick...
I am not ready to jump on a plane but I would probably pay $1000 for some imported contraband!!

What do I miss?

Any type of Southern Food
I have been on a wild goose chase trying to find collard greens, mustard greens or turnip greens. We did find Turnip greens...sort of. It was tragic.
I walked into the local farmers market and found turnips. Where there are turnips there should be greens, right? I was so excited. I grabbed a turnip, took it up to the farmer:

Me: "Where is the top?"
Farmer: "Topo what deear?"
Me: "The top of the turnip, the greens"
Farmer: "Why woulda want that? I cut if off..use it for compost and to feed the goats"
Me: "We eat that!"
Farmer, looking confused: "Well, I guess i could save ya some from the rubbish"

So, at least I know that I can find Turnip Greens. Not my first choice (I'd rather collards but I'm despearate)

All of the Americans here have a Thanksgiving dinner together. Pretty much any American is welcome...we really don't have to know you. It has been a tradition here for years. This will be my first year but since i'm the gal from the South, the pressure is on me. I have promised to make candied yams, cornbread dressing, collard greens (oops, turnip greens) and green beans. I have been on a hunt to find all of the ingredients that I will need. The mythical colllard was my last ingredient that I couldn't find. Oh well. We will have to make do.
I'm still desperately seeing cornmeal too.

Football
I didn't realize how sick I was. I LOVE football. NOT soccer! Real NFL/NCAA football! I didn't realize how bad it would feel to have to read about the highlights from games on ESPN.com
Oh, it hurts.
I am a NCAA person. I have a favorite team in each division. My favorite will always be UGA (go Dawgs!) and UT (hookem horns!!!).



Two of my NCAA Loves....

I LOVE the SEC and could learn to love PAC-10. I have even devised a plan for my nephew to play for USC! The way I figured if he becomes a QB he can play for USC cause EVERYONE knows that the PAC-10 schools get more national air time therefore increasing his chances of being seen by an NFL scout! DUH!
I have missed crucial games and missed great upsets. It is so hard!!! I am like a crack fiend!! I cannot leave the computer screen on Sundays (Saturday your time) because I get updated stats and scores on the computer. How sad is that?! I used to watch HOURS of football on our beautiful 42 inch HDTV....oh well...

Don't let me start on the NFL! Poor Bruce has been sick not being able to see his beloved Redskins play! He even missed the epic game where Donovan beat his ex-team and smashed Michael Vick!!!! Oh the injustice!!!

Delicious, Stupid TV
Ok, I'll admit it. I was a bit of a TV junkie. I didn't think I had a problem and I'm not really going through withdrawl but I so miss Fall Sweeps! I would LOVE to see the season premiers of ANYTHING!!! I would love to watch the new fall shows. We are just a tad behind here. Only by about 2-3 months but still!!!
I am planning on paying MONEY for anyone willing to tape and send me the season premiers or new episodes of the following:
-Gray's Anatomy
-The Mentalist
-CSI Miami
-Heroes
-The Sarah Connor Chronicles
-Flashforward
-Numb3rs

Megastores
Please forgive me for this. This is not really a complaint, more of just a "ah, that was nice when I had it" kind of thing. I really dislike mega shopping malls and stores. I have a special place in my heart for Target, though.
I LOVE Target (pronounced Tar-Jay...sounds more upper crusty). Something awesome about walking into a store and being able to buy cereal, cheese, napkins, ziplock bags, asprin, potting soil and a BBQ grill. How can you NOT love Tar-Jay?!
We dont have Target here. In fact, the closest thing is the "Warehouse" which is such a sad excuse for a Target it makes me depressed.
Bruce and I went to load up on items for the house last week. We had about 6 items but it requiered about 3 different stores to get everything on the list. Now in the defense of our town, NOTHING is more than 5 minutes apart, so its not like you are driving in rush hour traffic from one side of the city to the other. You can either walk or ride your bike from one store to another. I have to admit, it is pretty awesome. But my old American self is still fiending for a little Super Target action.

Ethnic Food
This is a weird one. Since I have been here there has been no shortage of Filipino, Thai or Indian Food. (Most of our favorites). So can someone explain why I am desperate for the most RANDOM things?
I miss Mexican so much. Tamales, Burros, Chimis, oh my!!!! I guess its all my time spent in the Southwest US. I didn't even eat that much Tex-Mex when I lived in Phoenix or Houston!!!! I guess the saying is true-"you don't know what you got til its gone".
I have been missing other random types of food:
-Dominican mofongo-OMG, so good and SOOOO Bad for you!!! Its made with pork cracklins! Need I say more?!
-Vietnamese sandwiches
-Jamacian beef patties
-Buffalo wings-ok that isn't ethnic but I still miss them!

Once again, feel free to let me know if there is anyway you can get some to me!

Cable TV Channels
"Inside every skinny girl is a fat girl dying to get out".
That should be the official name of the Food Channel. Oh, how I miss you, Food Channel. I miss Paula Deen, I miss Alton Brown, I REALLY miss Giada de Laurentis and my favorite food porn-"The Best Think I EVER Ate".
I challenge ANYONE to watch that show and not drool!
Bruce and I would watch that show and make travel plans just to go to those restauraunts. We have actually made it to two places featured on the show! (ok, one was 30 minutes from our house :))
I miss Food Channel. If you loved me, you would lay a couple thousand miles of cable between your TV and my TV here.

I also miss HGTV, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and History Channel (yes, I'm a nerd)
The worst? TRAVEL CHANNEL!
We have the Travel Channel here but it is tailored for this region. I kinda miss seeing our Travel Channel. Especially the cool episodes about the best theme parks and the national BBQ cook-offs!
I used to watch Anthony Bourdain's 'No Reservations' religously. Could someone tell him I'm here and to put his show on air here?

Ok, enough about the things we miss. What about the new loves?

I LOVE THE SPRING IN NZ!
Between lambing season with the little cuties (loud little cuties) running around in the flowers and the AWESOMELY long days, I am in love!
How can you not love a day where the sun comes up at 630 and goes down at 830? Its not even fully dark then. You still have a nice twilight going until about 9! And they are getting longer!!!! I have been told that by summertime, the sun will not set until around 10pm!!! I have NO excuse as to why I can't get out and run!

No Traffic, EVER!
I know it may be different in a "big city" like Auckland, but here, nothing takes you more than 10 minutes. It is so nice to get in the car and drive all the way across town and only 8 minutes elapse. A traffic jam is one car in front of you at a light. I know that my blood pressure has dropped several points since being here.

The Veggies
I have no idea why anyone would need a carrot that grows to 1 foot or a 2 foot celery but it happens here. And people eat them. Many of these people here are healthy. Not because they go to LA Fitness 3 times a week but because they work on a farm and grow their own food and work the land. One of my friends was telling me about how her daughter walks around munching on a cucumber after school. Who does that?!
That is an awesome thing.

My mom, stunned by our 2 foot celery plants...who eats that much celery?!



U Talkin to Me?
I'm actually getting used to the weird friendliness of people here. People actually seem to want to hear more about how you are doing. It is not a rhetorical question that we do out of politeness back home.
I got to work last Monday and one of the women in my office asked me how I was doing. I answered the obligatory "fine" and went on to prepare for my day but she just stood there, waiting for me to give a full dissertation about everything I had done over the weekend. She really was interested! It's so sad that I still meet honest, innocent questions with serious caution. I can't shake the feeling that everyone is out to get you. I am learning to open up more and to stop being so suspicious. I'm working on it.

Southern Food Condiments
Yes, they don't really have "Southern Food"  but they do have all of the things that you need to make some good Southern comfort food.
I was feeling a little down, after searching the grocery store, I couldn't find bacon. They have bacon here but they use some weird part of the pig and it doesn't look like bacon. In fact, what they call bacon we call ham.
You can't make certain foods from back home without bacon grease. It is like the first ingredient for most things. A sweet clerk at the store watched me standing in front of the meat area with a long face. She asked me what I was looking for. When I told her bacon, she pointed to the ham-bacon stuff that they use. I shook my head and looked more down. When she asked me what I needed the bacon for, I told her "bacon drippings". Then she uttered the sweetest words I've ever heard-"We sell bacon drippings"
and then she pointed to a HUGE pint sized carton of rendered bacon fat!!!! WHOOO-HOO!!!!
Not only did she show me the bacon drippins, but she had lard and smoked hamhocks!!!! Looks like Thanksgiving is back on!!!!!
Check your cholesterol at the door!

All and all, I'm a little homesick but I'm sure I will be able to get through...

I'm not kidding about the Grey's Anatomy Season premier, though....