Merry Christmas!

People at work have asked me if I'm missing home around the holidays; and although yes I wish we could hang out with the people we love; Christmas isn't necessarily making me feel all wistful. It doesn't feel like Christmas at all here, and frankly I feel like it was coming 'round a bit too often. I don't think I mind this Christmas-every-other-year type of thing. Our goal for the holiday-- find a nice beach to relax on. That may be a difficult goal as the weather hasn't been too nice lately. But we're heading north to warmer temperatures so we're doing all the right things.





Hope everyone is doing well; have some nog and grogg for me! ~jx





NOTE: this picture is actually in full colour. eek huh?

Another month gone by

I need to try to post a bit more regularly I think.
Well since our last post was Halloween I've got a lot to catch up on.

The weekend after Halloween we went sking/snowboarding. Our newest 'home' mountain of Turoa had the last closing day of the season November 7th. We went and took part in their "Snovember", not much snow left, but we still had a good time of it. I think they had to truck this snow down to the base area for people to put their gear on before they loaded the lifts.
We got the clearest views yet of Mt Ruapehu, the large active volcano we ski on.






The following week contained my Birthday and one of our new friends, Dervla, as well. We celebrated at our new favorite haunt, The Southern Cross. It's large, has outdoors(including fireplaces) and almost always busy). Our group included 4 Americans, 1 Irish(wo)man, 2 Spaniards, and 1 Kiwi. Plenty of beer was enjoyed and we took advantage of the public transportation of greater Wellington.

The next weekend(11/22-23) we went to go walk down to the nearest lighthouses. There are two of them, one on the short line and one about 300ft above it on a bluff. It's about a 2 hour walk each way, but when we got there I noticed the bike stand and jokingly said, 'we should rent bikes'. Julie took me serious and I'm glad. It was a windy day(like most), the bikes made it much more fun despite occasionally feeling like we were standing still. You haven't experienced NZ until you've seen Sheep on the Beach. Man do they scamper when they see me barrelling down the dirt road trying to bunny hop mud puddles. (can you tell someone likes biking?).

Finally Thanksgiving. We decided to celebrate on Friday so we could share the day with you Americans who are a day behind us. Turkeys weren't too hard to find, but at 5-7$ a pound, they weren't cheap. We decided to enjoy the day just the two us partially due to space limitations but partially just to have it to ourselves.
I whipped up the following while Julie worked:

• 6lb Turkey
• Mashed potatoes
• Mixed Mushroom and Brioche stuffing
• Real Turkey gravy
• Hand whipped cream to go on

The real Pumpkin Pie made from real whole pumpkin which Julie made the night before

It was quite a feast. I think we managed to stretch if for barely three days though(my voracious appetite certainly helped.)

Since then it's been a bit more low key, we've gone a few short walks on the beaches. Attended our first Net-ball game(like basketball, but completely different) to support a friend.
I'm prepping up for our first 'tramping' trip, which is like backpacking, but you stay in enclosed huts(imagine a super rudimentary cabin in the woods). Not carrying a tent and the sleep pads(leaving 10lbs of ... stuff... behind), sounds like an activity we can both get behind.

Halloween, down under-er

So in our discussions with our Kiwi friends, we established that Halloween is known, but not heartily celebrated.
We, the Kiwis as well, decided that we need to have a little get together to share the joys of Halloween. Plus Jules and I are always looking for an excuse to host and have fun.
First the joys of pumpkin procurement. For most the world pumpkins are like any other vegetable, they're produce, they're for eating. Not just pumpkin pie, roast pumpkin is quite good and pumpkin soup is something the Kiwis are especially fond of. (though neither Jules or I care for it).
As a result of this recognition of produce as... produce, the pumpkins are small, thick, meaty and mostly available pre-quartered for ease of consumption. They would never be found in mounds beach ball sized orange squash outside of a store. The best ones are right by the kumara(sweet potato), around the corner from the onions.
After selecting three greenish/orangish beauts from the produce section I proceed to the check out. While in line I hear, "a little bit of pumpkins soup, eh? Good stuff" "nothing wrong with pumpkin soup.
I offered back a muffled, 'yis' (fake kiwi accent).
This elderly man , possibly even looking for an invite for the massive amount of soup I'd be able to make from three large pumpkins, added. "good ole pumpkin soup"
I didn't want to break his heart and let him know that wasteful Americans actually bought pumpkins simply to hack to pieces and let rot on the front step. That be like telling me that in China they use beer to clean drains and not to drink.
So I gave him a smile back and quickly and quietly checked out.

As our party neared we prepared for our night by decorating our pumpkins.
Julie opted for the easier drawn pumpkin.









I meanwhile carved an apple as part of an odd tradition I started with Ryan and Amy. It's a bit trickier than a pumpkin, but it's still fun. Plus you can eat most of what you carve out.



Finally the moment had come. Time to take the knife to my green-orange veggie.

I scooped and scooped. Guts, pumpkin meat, IT ALL MUST GO!







After a warm up beer, it's finally time for the carving. Equal parts determination to saw through the thick skin and determination not to saw off a digit in the process...
Tada.







But of course I've done this before. We had to have some rookies give it a try.

Dervla, representing Ireland.









Laua, representing the UK.





Amy, also from the UK, and on her way to Australia




We enjoyed a good night of our guests company over a few beverages and tons of snacks.
Saturday, beginning a bit late in the Wood household, is mostly spent relaxing.
At 5:30, as I open the door to get a stronger cell signal for a text,. I see what appears to be a trident reaching across our door-step to poke my prized pumpkin. I'm perplexed until the owner of the red pitchfork appears decked out as a devil with three costumed accomplices.
TRICK OR TREAT!
'Oh, of course. Um, uh. We don't have any candy. I don't know what we have for treats.'
Thankfully my quick thinking wife called from her relaxed position of reading a book.
'Give them popsicles'
'Yes, um I hope there's enough unopened ones'(I hate pineapple popsicles and they package each popsicle in opaque packaging to confound me).
Luckily there were exactly 4.
I heard the children brag from accross the street as they opened their popsicles.
'I got red'
'I got green'
(drat those could have been mine, now I only have opened pineapple).

Well Julie sent me to the store after to take care of our candy shortage.
Now we've got a stock pot filled with mini-chocolates and a properly decorated house.

Happy Halloween

It's been a while now.

So I'd say we're pretty situated. Julie's weeding and ask I try to catch everyone up. It's been 6 weeks in Wellington. A lots happened so I’ll try to keep it a little organized.
Wellington is very lush, we have 6-8ft fern trees in our yard and Tuis which make an amazing set of warbles that sounds a little like R2D2. We're about 1 hour from wine country which is a nice bonus we didn't count on too much. I've been indoor climbing in some of my free time, took Julie on Thursday night and I think we both had a blast. Julie is working a lot and getting into the swing of things, lots of of little differences in the structure of the job. I’ve been playing house husband, lots of cooking and cleaning.
We've had our first guest, thanks Ryan, and took him around a little bit. We tried skiing with Ryan (our first trip to N Island ski fields), but got rained off. Then I got one weekday with Ryan while Julie worked. We visited one of the in city nature preserve with Ryan and saw more birds, giant bugs and dinosaur descendants, the tuarara. All native. We also saw some more seals up close with Ryan along the beach. They stink for the record. We went up to Rotorua(also stinky) too and Taupo . We did see a whale which along the coast, it was quite far away though.
We've made friends! It's cheesy but it's been nice. One of Julie's co-worker recognized how cool Jules is and invited us on the above ski weekend with some other friends. We got rained off the mountain, again. Possibly the worst weather I've skied in. I don't think I've been that wet since my first season in non water proof clothes. Made an excellent roast and played games all day. We lucked out on the second day with them and got light clouds clearing to blue skies for an intense half day of riding. I know we all had the biggest grins after some good exploring. I get along awesome with co-workers' husband so it's been awesome. He's invited me surfing and kite-boarding(I'll have to man up about being such a wuss in cold water). We've also talked about going to the top of our ski field(more on that) and some other hiking or tramping.
So New Zealand geography/geology is a bit crazy. The North Island is very different that the South Island. Very, very volcanic. Our ski field is on an active volcano (Mt Ruapehu), it erupted in 1996(?) and has had lahars (mudflows triggered by volcanic activity) since. There’s a volcanic crater lake that stays unfrozen year round but is surrounded by snow year road, that’s the source of the lahars... There's two ski fields on it that are both at risk technically. North of there is Lake Taupo in a giant volcanic 'super caldera', like Yellowstone valley. Further north is Rotorua(which Ryan and I visited), known as 'sulfur city'. The whole city smells like sulfur, strong. There's boiling pools in the city park. There's boiling puddles right by the lake shore. Between Rotorua and Taupo are a series of volcanic parks, feature geysers, boiling lakes(most small), boiling rivers, hot streams that smell like kerosene, etc. There’s a village buried in ash, a mountain that’s split from volcanic activity, etc. We did visit one of the parks and we can share the pictures if you missed them. Further north is a heated beach and even further North is White Island, pretty much just a volcano in the ocean, which you can visit.
So that’s my attempt at summing up the last few weeks. There have also been cable type ‘swing’ bridges and weird pinnacles, and unsuccessful attempts at spotting penguins. Lots of homemade Mexican and Indian food. Even some good Mexican food out with margaritas. So much cool stuff, but it is feeling like normal life too. Pretty awesome stuff.

Wellington summed up

"Well, it's windy. But it's actually a lovely place, where you're pretty much surrounded by water and the bay. The city itself is quite small, but the surrounding areas are very reminiscent of the hills up in northern California, like Marin County near San Francisco and the Bay Area climate and some of the architecture. Kind of a cross between that and Hawaii."
From Peter Jackson i guess he directed some movie?
Since I'm house husband it's probably one of my responsibilities to communicate more. I'll try to start providing more regular updates. Suffice to say we're both pretty busy and having fun. We had a blast with Ryan visiting, lots of huge home cooked meals and wine to be enjoyed. Even got some skiing in.

In the swing of things

We've now been in Wellington for about 5 days, still waiting for our internet hook-up.
Here's a little recap.

• The ferry ride over was nice. The ship was large which made it pretty smooth(couldn't even feel it pull away from docks). It was sunny and we were able to see dolphins which of course made our day. However we saw evidence for why a 18 y/o drinking age is a bit too young.
• Our place is quite nice. It doesn't however have baseboards, I guess they didn't quite get that done.
• Wellington is smaller looking that I expected. The CBD(downtown) is wedged between steep hills and the harbor and most the housing is hidding in the hills and valleys around the city. It's very green everywhere. Very different than flat Christchurch.
• It is cloudier here, and the windiness, while exaggerated, is still constant.
• I rode the bus and then the train into the city with Julie Monday. A nice efficient system. Hardly any waiting and the walks weren't too far either. It was fun to go with her.
• Tuesday Julie felt very cosmopolitan taking the bus and train herself. She got her pass and was able to assure the agent she didn't mind missing the next train because she knew another was coming in just a few minutes. She really likes her 5th floor view of part of the harbor and the river valley that lies below our home. We both think it's pretty cool to set down in a new place. It's a different feel than our first month(which was felt a bit more like a vacation)
  
• I've taken to lots of walking/driving around being not really lost but not really on task. We'll call it unguided exploration. It feels unproductive, but I totally know my way around now.
• I've found the internet cafe system to use, and I've found that they cluster their stores by type. Outdoors stores, check! Snowboard shops, check!
  
• I'm looking to join a climbing gym shortly to stay in shape and improve my climbing. There's not much traditional climbing here or long hikes. However there are many day hikes and bouldering (unroped, low altitude climbing with a pad for any small falls). The deep outdoors is mostly a day drive away, which works. I think I do miss the south island, but this place could definitely be fun place to call home for 6-9 months.

Well that's my summation, hopefully we'll have home internet soon so we can more easily post pictures and Julie can post as well. Tonight I'm making our tacos. You wouldn't beleive how hard it is to find uncooked black beans. I've been to 4 grocery stores and 4 Asian/Indian markets to find them, success!

Winter spirits are high

Today marked our 9 and 8th days and our return to back to back days at Mt Hutt. My has the weather changed. Where as our arrival was cold with fresh snow it's about the groomers the last two days. Off-piste is a moonscape of wind swept ice with sun cups, sastrugi(wierd ice hooks formed by wind) and other snow-sliding atrocities of ice. Meanwhile the groomers are firm, but with good dust on top from scrapings and groomer chewings. We've been kicking a bit free-style lately with some friend jaunts into the terrrain park. Julies been cleaning up her big air on the park feathures while I've been cleaning up those grabs(still can't nail the tail grab, argh!) and a couple Front-side 180s on the bigger features. Yesterday was a sleep in kind of day and for our mid-afternoon relaxation we finally made it inside the lodge at our home mountain after 5 days there. We enjoyed a couple light flavored Export 33 (I think I need a beer blog), and some onion rings.
Today was all about early starts as we finally got out of the house before 8. Made the ski field by a hair past 9 but decided we had skippped breakfast! That would not stand! So we made a bee-line for our new favorite mtn place, which also served a mean breakfast. We enjoyed our cappuccino and mochaccino(eveything is a damn ccino, and good luck getting normal brewed coffee), with a delicious apple & cinnamon porridge and a ham and cheese croissant. We finally made it on snow at 10(no worse than a morning back home I suppose). There was a warm breeze on the slopes but the snow was similar to yesterday. Fast break-away groomers and moonscape elsewhere. We did explore to find a high angle hard-pack/ice slope which my single edge tool(snowboard) didn't adhere to as well as Julie's Skis(excuses, excuses, it was also some balance issues). Don't report me, but we did some freestyle even though I forgot my helmet. No spins on the big stuff today, but I busted a big Method Grab off a park feature. We left early for lunch a pretty resort place called Terrace Downs. Apparently they were having a private party so all us lowly guests were forced to eat outside in 55 degree weather(no prob) with 30-40Mph winds(problem). We scarfed our garlic bread while trying to keep everything from blowing away. We couldn't help but laugh. the garlic was blowing off the pizza, my wine glass started sliding, my dinner plate even lifted up a little. After that we skedaddled home to a pleasant Christchurch early evening.