Christmas in the deep south

Here we are recovering from Christmas with several firsts. We had our first experience of midnight mass and our first lying on the sand sleeping on Christmas day. Our first musical quartet with Sax, Flute, Clarinet and Chanter! Also we had most excellent stuffing for the turkey with Cranberries - seriously yummy.

We opened our presents to find amongst other thing a Glory Year edition of the Oor Wullie & The Broons and a Maori cookery book.

I am currently cooking my way through it but having to hunt for

karakawa, herpito and turnip tops today was a challenge.

End product was delicious. January is coming and the diet is scheduled for the three weeks before we go to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.

Four Nations

********************************A trip of at least 4 Nations - looked like Norway, Switzerland, Spain & New Zealand - was a great 3 days as Dougie & Marianne arranged everything to take us up to Milford Sound Fiords then Queenstown before taking us back to Dunedin through Central Otago. Lots of "WOW!" moments.

We took a boat trip out to the sea from deep in the fiord but thankfully turned back before the swell got to us. We went up Ben Lomand on the gondola and took luges back down.Next we swam and the boys staged a university boat race, thankfully Edinburgh beat Glasgow so honour was mantained. We had a most excellent villa for $50 a head with more home comforts than home so all was good, and we saw the sun go down through a haze of Spanish bubbly. Nice.

Heading Sooth...

We are heading Sooth and it feels like driving North as it gets cooler and more like the A9 the further we go. First stop was Anne & David at Wellington where we had two nights and several hours of yarning time. Then next day we crossed the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands. Four hours of great scenery and good food on a flat calm sea. We drove down the coast and enjoyed the sites of fat sea lions and fur seals basking on the beach. We texted Alison on the way down for information and visited the other sister from Cott in Papay George & Wilma who were two weeks into a new house.

The scenery in the South is totally different and the roads are in better shape so the driving is so easy it gets boring. We made it to Kaiapoi where the Burgons lived for 6 months - they are not forgotten and we had some nice visits to the Church and the house that James built. We stayed on a very posh pig farm and got great bacon for breakfast.

We had fun with the boulders at the beach at near to Moeraki and although we got slightly damp it was worth it. Twenty minutes later we arrived at Dunedin - tell you more soon as...

Christmas trees and all that Jazz

Today Fiona had to meet her Maori ladies' project team to decorate a Christmas Tree at the Meteor Centre - fund raising for Christian conservation charity 'A Roche' in Portugal using recycled trash. Our tree used a rainbow theme with milk bottle tops although the angel did smell a bit funny as we didn't wash them all. Then we had to (very sadly) decline spare tickets to see the Proclaimers in Auckland as Les was playing his sax in the Hamilton Jazz Club and we were taking our Columbian friends along - the food was great however and the dancing was far better than than at the Proclaimers gig so we had a great night. In the morning we set off to visit Anne & David in Wellington, Paul & Lesley near Christchurch and finally Douglas & Marian in Dunedin, by which time it will be Christmas Day and we will discover if our tree won the $1000 prize. What a daft upside down world we live in - mince pies in Summer - Christmas on the beach Santa Hats on stage and our tree being sold on 'Trade Me' the NZ ebay! What fun.

What a GREAT Barrier Island

Just to keep you up to date we returned last night from spending a week on Great Barrier Island staying in a friend's "Bach" or to us luxury beach front haven! We saw a dog passing most days but that was about it. Hot sunny weather and cloudless skies - so unlike Hamilton. We sat in the hot springs, swam in the sea and slept. We even had time to get caught up on some class reading which we had to finish. We played scrabble and didn't fight (Not sure about the word 'clipe' mind you!) The cool thing is that they have no mains electricity so you pretty much have to go to bed when it gets dark. They also have very few tarmacadam roads so we were really grateful to have the 4 wheel drive to reach the various beauty spots, including a visit to a couple who live on the very top of the hill. We met them at Church and she was of an original settling family from the 1800s and he was a Mouat fae Shetland so we had a great visit there. We left just in time as they are having a Bike Ride today so the ferry was mobbed last night and it really reminded us of the fever pitch on Westray the night before the regatta. We were highly entertained by the local birds and their raucous calls although not so entertained by the local variant of oyster catcher which is worse than a picky terno at dobbing you on the heid - they are vicious and unkind to rainbow hats. Th seagulls were friendly and the stingrays too frendly. We saw whales on the way there and dolphins on the way back and when you swam in the sea fishes of some variety came all round your legs, hence the stingrays maybe but there were none of them on our own beach thankfully.

Arachnoiditis!

A white tailed spider carries a potent punch! We think that was what bit Les last week but the Doctor was taking no chances as his hand swelled up like an udder needing milked... He got his Doctor's fee partially covered by the accident claim scheme but had to pay for his steroids, anti-inflammatories, antibiotics and anti-histamines - the only thing he didn't get was anti-ants.
The next day Fiona's Practical Duty was cleaning cobwebs so she went looking for the one that bit her man.. (Old woman old woman old woman quoth I.Whither oh whither oh whither so high? To clean the cobwebs off the sky etc.. funny what comes into your mind on a boring job!) After that we all clean the whole campus ready for Graduation of the 2nd years on Saturday then that is the end of the academic year.

We have ants, flies, mosquitos, moths and spiders to clean up after. Every car has its own resident spiders one at the front one at the back - they spin every night no matter how often you wash the lights. Even the big BMWs have them (Big Monster Webs) good job they are not as big as this moth!

A Land of Milk, Honey, Chocolate & Kim Bob

Well we are well fed. Milk arrives daily courtesy of the dairy, Bread arrives every second Saturday at no cost and includes everything from Cream Cookies to Garlic Bread and Buns with enough to live on and to fill the freezer. Kim Chi, or Kim Bob or Korean Curry arrives every time our Korean neighbours cook (You need to lock the door sometimes...) and yet we still fancied a square of cholcolate. Les bought a bar of dairy milk (as you do) and inside was a ticket for a free bar which they gave us. Once back home we noticed we had won another bar... and then another... to save petrol we just opened them up outside the shop, but having won 5 bars in a row we had to change shops. To use the glutt Sarah kindly gave up a skype cookery demonstration for Chocolate cheesecake which went down really well at the College Christmas Party. Then, at another Christmas party on Friday we met a Columbian refugee who keeps bees for Waikato Honey so now we have something to spread on our free Malt Loaf. He and his friends are Spanish speakers so we get to have free lessons as well. Jehovah Jireh!