North Island Skiing

We had a gorgeous sunny day on Mt. Ruapehu today. It was probably the best day skiing I had at Turoa (which isn't saying much honestly, as the conditions are usually so bad). Besides the blue skies, the weather wasn't too cold and the wind wasn't all that bad. There was actually about 2 inches of fresh snow to ski on too. That was over ice but we'll take what we can get.

Here's a view of some gnarly clouds rolling in-- you could see them boiling and swirling as they moved in. About a 1/2 hour later, the clouds would cover the whole sky, and then another 1/2 hour later, totally clear up.

We're staying at a bach in Ohakune with 7 friends-- there's an electric keyboard in house which is sorta odd but also sorta cool-- great for wake up calls! Bryce took an evening nap to get ready for watching the OZ vs. NZ rugby game at 10 pm-- Emma and I tried to bring the keyboard into his room to wake him up but were silently giggling so much we woke him up.

Bryce's new desk

Bryce's office had a reorganization and he was told to take someone else's old desk. So, move he did, to a desk with an amazing view of the City Art Gallery and Wellington Harbour. People have told him that they don't have such a good view, even after working for the Council for 20 years.

Here's his actual view; please note the coffee plunger that I had to get for him so that he could make use of the free office coffee (a common perk here in NZ-- tea, coffee, and Milo (a chocolate mix).

Mystery Solved

This is what Grandma said:

Grandma and Grandpa VanderSanden came to America around 1905, so by the time I was a little girl, they had been here many years. What I remember was called Yankee Dutch, (a cross between Dutch and English). That made me remember I could understand them because they were using both languages. Can't give you the correct spelling on this, but Grandma would make a little fist and shake it at you if you were doing something wrong ("Oh how my hunda taka")meaning she would like to take her hand to you. (She never did though) She did the use the correct Dutch words for butter (boter) cheese (kaas), bread (broodt)and small (klein). Remember her saying Kleina younga often.

Ok then! I'm pretty proud of myself that I remembered oh how my honda taka correctly after all.

Like the telephone game

Well the saga of the Dutch family saying continues. My family is having their family reunion for my maternal grandmother's side of the family (the Dutch side). I wanted my great great uncle Gary to be asked what he thought his mother originally said-- which was eventually passed down to my grandma and then to me (My mom has never used it).

Last night I asked Josien to write down what she thinks my grandma says. While I think my grandma says:

Oh how my honda taka (or a variation of)...

Josien wrote out that it loosely translates into:

Oh hoe mijn handen jeuken/tikken. (Josien said that the idiom usually uses the word "jeuken" but that maybe my family says "tikken," which means tickle).

That's pretty dang close! Funny how the words get watered down through the generations. The idiom roughly translates into how your hands are itching to do something.

Girls Only

I met up with Josien at Spotlight, a shop which she calls "heaven" that I introduced her to.

We spent well over an hour there, and then drove off to meet up with Tiffany at Roller Derby at TSB arena. It was Josien's first Roller Derby match and only my 2nd; the rink was a bit small and cramped but the game was pretty fun to watch. The announcers made sure to note when to take a drink (when the game was tied).


Afterwards we walked over to the Alice Bar off Courtenay Place. The bar is small and super cool, the whole place was decorated to reflect an Alice in Wonderland vibe. Some drinks there are served out of teapots.

Boys' Weekend

Home sick today but made myself get ready to drop Bryce off at Doug's house in the evening-- they're taking Friday off to have a long boys' skiing weekend at Mt. Ruapehu with some other guys.

Forecast looks a bit grim for the weekend so Bryce was a little worried that Turoa wouldn't even be open--

Food tidbits

We're in a little bit of a food rut. I'm trying to bust out of it and buy new and interesting things:

Berry Flavoured Porridge (yuck)

Exotic yogurt (yum)

I HIGHLY suggest the vanilla and hazelnut yogurt should you ever come across it.

I tried some lemon cookies that looked cheap but ok-- in fact they were salty. (Not the best for dipping in tea).

Chicken flavoured crackers:


One of my most favourite finds is Kiwi Habanero Sauce-- a fruity, spicy concoction that our friend Emma introduced to us:

I found out from the Irish and British girls we skiied with last that NZ has awful tea, and that Bell tea was the only tea they'd drink. (The English girl also mentioned that American restaurants did not know how to serve tea, that you don't serve tea by giving a customer a pot of hot water and a tea bag; you put the teabag in the teacup and pour the water over the bag and then present the cup to the customer).

Kiwis (known as kiwifruit here), are incredibly cheap; I can get a kilo for $1.79, which works out to about 10 cents US per kiwi. They are delicious and I try to eat as much as I can, because they were always my favourite fruit.

Most of our produce comes from Australia; NZ oranges are pretty tasteless and some recipes actually call for an Australian or American orange, as opposed to a New Zealand one.

A Sunday not spent on the slopes

Since we were at the All Blacks game last night, we couldn't go skiing for the weekend. Bryce still managed to fit in some snowboarding related activity:

Out in the shed waxing his board with his music going.

The mountain that we ski on (Mt. Ruapehu) is so rocky that there are tons of huge gouges in his board. He found a couple of rocks that are wedged in so badly that he can't even take them out. ahh, North Island skiing.


Off to have Beef and Guinness pies at a friend's house in Porirua :-)

1 Year and All Blacks

We arrived in New Zealand one year ago today. What a year-- tons of great friends, amazing experiences, new ideas, and beautiful scenery. We celebrated in one of the coolest ways possible: watching the rugby match with the NZ All Blacks vs. South Africa. NZ won. By a lot. Sweet as.

We took the train to CBD, and stopped at a bar opposite the train station to get some beers. The bar was so packed that people were drinking outside on the footpath-- check out this "table" that a couple used for their beers (an electric box for the traffic lights).


We got to go inside Westpac Stadium (also known as the "cake pan") for the first time. Inside, we couldn't find the promised curry shops-- most shops sold just french fries, meat pies, hot dogs, wine and beer. We DID find delicious doughnuts though--yum. (Apparently the standard kiwi lunch is a meat pie and a donut). Bryce laughed at me when I ordered a mini bottle of chardonnay and a meat pie.


We had great seats! The wind from the south blew the rain towards us, but for the most part we were undercover:

The rugby game went FAST-- it was over before we knew it. It was about 90 minutes long, with hardly any lags like in American football or baseball. It was pretty exciting to watch, though we were confused by some of the fouls-- what in the heck was "hand in the ruck"??


I bought a sweet-as ski hat after the game. Sorta wish I bought it before the game, it was nice and warm.

After the game we walked to Black Harp to say hi to some friends we went on a ski trip with last weekend. One girl showed off some Icebreaker ski socks that she had just bought (we had lent her ours because she didn't have any). Ahh yes, spreading the ski culture.

Then off we went to this hide-a-way bar called the Watusi for our American friend's birthday. She's leaving soon :-( But is going with us to Wanaka next month :-) Here she is trying out Bryce's hat.

Friday Unwinding

The end of my 2nd week of work-- I tried to take on clients slowly but it turns out I still took on too much. Needless to say, Friday night drinks were in order. Bryce and I had beers with Marc at the Green Man, then we walked to meet Tiffany for dinner at Roti Chanai; spied along the way:

The waiter was rude to us yet again at Roti Chanai, I really have to stop going there! From now on it's Malysian on Ghuznee street: Satay Village or KK Malaysian.

Winter Sunrise

View from my desk at sunrise, around 7:15-- (we got in super early so that Bryce could have breakfast with colleagues). It's been a gorgeous sunny week.

May I suggest the sesame ice-cream?

Tonight we had our first sushi in well over a year at Arashi on Courtenay Place. We were there for a friend's birthday. The sushi was great! The food made me look forward to our upcoming trip to Japan that much more.

For dessert almost all of us decided to try the sesame ice-cream-- it was actually very good! It tasted a bit like oreo cookie ice-cream.

2nd Bach in Ohakune

Stayed in a nice comfy bach (bach=rental holiday house) this weekend with some great people We had a fire roaring all weekend-- it so warm in fact in the house that we had to open some windows. Turned out that it was one of the coldest weekends in Ohakune and that pipes were bursting in other bach's.

We skiied Turoa again on Mt. Ruapehu:

Gorgeous sunshine but awful hard, icy snow. Here's one of our friends trying to get her skiing legs back:

We had to drop off a girl in Masterton, so we took the long, beautiful way home:

On our fridge

I've had the same pictures on our fridge ever since we've moved to NZ:



We now have some recent additions. Words I'm studying for te reo Maori class:


Kiwi-slang fridge magnets given to me as a going away present by the Porirua team:


One evening I noticed Bryce standing at the fridge for along time. Here are a few of his masterpieces:

1st day

Well it was another 1st day of work for me again today. My new team had decorated my desk with an American flag and McDonald's happy meal toy fries and a toy burger. (Ironic since I made us stop for McD's on Sunday on the way home from the mountain).

I observed a teacher for the deaf do a home visit-- it was really interesting. The child had bilateral cochlear implants; I didn't realize that that was done but apparently it is getting more common (at least in NZ, I have no idea one way or the other in the States).

Since we were gone skiing all weekend, Bryce and I had to have a very hungry trip grocery shopping. We bought things we never usually buy, like juice and fish sticks and canned chilli-- here's our creation that we're awfully proud of-- chilli in a bread bowl! Totally hit the spot.

Sunny skiing weekend

On Sunday morning I was feeling the start of a cold so I read in a cafe while everyone else skiied. Wow that was a bad decision! Turns out it was a great day to ride the mountain; and a lift that had broken down a few weeks ago was repaired that afternoon. (One of the towers actually snapped in half.)

All weekend had been bright and sunny. We could easily spot Mt. Taranaki to the west:


I realized half way through the day that it was the 4th of July!! Pretty crazy way to spend it~

1st skiing weekend

We rented a bach with 6 other people this weekend in Ohakune. We skiied on Mt. Ruapehu, at Turoa ski field. (about 4-5 hours drive from home).

While we were up there we met up with a bunch of other friends that were staying at another bach.


After skiing, we celebrated one of the girl's birthdays by going "downtown" to Ohakune, ordering yummy individual pizzas at a pizza place, and then waiting for the pizzas to be delivered to us at a pub next door. We sat in front of a roaring fire; we were all almost half asleep by around 8:30.

Pavlova

My co-worker taught me to make pavlova today. I totally recommend making this dessert-- it's super easy but looks really fancy and tastes yum. Call it a "pav" if you want to sound cool ;-)




We used the oven in the staff room to bake-- you can see why I love working here!