Those Frogs showed us up again on our respective Christmas dinners. They had sauteed chicken breasts and shrimp to put into a sauce made of fresh tomatoes, leeks, garlic, mushrooms, and capers. It was served over a bed or rice and smelled and looked delicious.
And then they started showing off. While doing the moon-walk, a successive line of attractive young males and females filled desert mugs with slices of fresh fruit, yoghurt, and topping it with can after can of whipped cream. They had black turtlenecks on and smoked cigarettes afterwards as well. Well, actually there was no moon-walking and they didn't ALL have black turtlenecks.
And the Americans? What did they have? Campbell's Thick and Chunky soup. We did not impress those French. I had planned to eat mine directly out of the can, but was intimidated by the French into heating it in a pan and eating out of a large mug. But to spice our meal up over the presentation the night before, we had apple slices WITH carrot slices.
Perin and I did a 3-hour hike around Lake Alexandria and it was beautiful and just the right amount of exercise. It turns out that we weren't looking at Mt. Cook at Lake Tekapo. Mt. Cook was the next lake over (Lake Pukaki) and it did look about as awesome as with my parents last time.
Tonight we're in Te Anau and grilled up some fajitas with all kinds of fresh ingredients. Total show-off meal. And there's no-one to show it off to. We're in the equivalent of a KOA campsite and we have no one near us. Oh well. It tasted spectacular and we get leftovers tomorrow morning.
And speaking of tomorrow, we're off to the Milford Track. We'll update again in another few days. Hopefully we'll get the pictures up soon too.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Lake Tekapo
It's pronounced Lake Tek-a-poh. Not Take-a-poo. Even though we know that, Perin and I still mis-pronounce it all the time. We made in pretty good time on 24 Dec: it was still light out when we got there. The view of Mt. Cook was great, but last time we were here with family there was more snow at tht etop making the view even more spectacular.
The best was making our dinner in the communcal kitchen that evening. The camp site wasn't all the way full, but there were quite a few Froggies there. And the French know how to do communal meals. They had grilled chicken kabobs with oven baked potatoes and a huge salad. They also had numerous spreads of crackers and cheeses, lots of olives, hard boiled eggs, lox, cottage cheese, salamis, pan-fried garlic bread, and numerous bottle of NZ Bubbles (Champagne).
Actually what I think impressed me the most was that they were a group of young 20-somethings traveling together putting such a fine meal together. They looked like a snowbaording crew I would have hung out with at college. And while my crew and theirs shared backwards hats and hooded sweatshirts, that meal was finer than anyting we would have put together.
There were some senior British tourists as well who had toast with a selection of margarines (from what I can tell) for their dinner. They were engaged in a not-so-fascinating discussion of the history of pattern recognition in architectural arch-types from the 20th century to the present. It sounded to me a like a boorish way of saying that architects copy each other.
And what about your dear American bloggers? What did they have for dinner? Hamburgers. Damn straight we had hamburgers. And we split a can of corn between us for a side dish. Nobody spoke a single word of French to us. English all the way.
The best was making our dinner in the communcal kitchen that evening. The camp site wasn't all the way full, but there were quite a few Froggies there. And the French know how to do communal meals. They had grilled chicken kabobs with oven baked potatoes and a huge salad. They also had numerous spreads of crackers and cheeses, lots of olives, hard boiled eggs, lox, cottage cheese, salamis, pan-fried garlic bread, and numerous bottle of NZ Bubbles (Champagne).
Actually what I think impressed me the most was that they were a group of young 20-somethings traveling together putting such a fine meal together. They looked like a snowbaording crew I would have hung out with at college. And while my crew and theirs shared backwards hats and hooded sweatshirts, that meal was finer than anyting we would have put together.
There were some senior British tourists as well who had toast with a selection of margarines (from what I can tell) for their dinner. They were engaged in a not-so-fascinating discussion of the history of pattern recognition in architectural arch-types from the 20th century to the present. It sounded to me a like a boorish way of saying that architects copy each other.
And what about your dear American bloggers? What did they have for dinner? Hamburgers. Damn straight we had hamburgers. And we split a can of corn between us for a side dish. Nobody spoke a single word of French to us. English all the way.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Just six months ago...
...We did some activities and have pictures to post. Editing and choosing which photos to post is a massive effort for Perin and myself. However, sometimes we can get the ball rolling and take care of several of them at the same time. Here are four fantastic photo opps we had:
1) We joined our friends Nicole and Andy in the Northland of New Zealand and had a great time:
2) Slightly more recently, we joined Antonia, James, and Max (Lorna hadn't been born yet) in Kaipapa Bay. The sea was brisk and the sunsets spectacular:
3) Several weeks ago, we participated in the Wellington Zoo's Cheetah Encounter. They're huge - sitting up, one is nearly chest-high on me. And cheetahs are at the smaller end of the large cat spectrum. Feeling the cheetah's purr was a like a little chainsaw. It was awesome:
4) And most recently, we joined the neighbors on a trip to Somes Island. It was first-time voyage for all of us, and Lauren's first time on a boat. Great weather and calm seas:
1) We joined our friends Nicole and Andy in the Northland of New Zealand and had a great time:
 |
| Northland |
2) Slightly more recently, we joined Antonia, James, and Max (Lorna hadn't been born yet) in Kaipapa Bay. The sea was brisk and the sunsets spectacular:
 |
| Kaipapa Bay |
3) Several weeks ago, we participated in the Wellington Zoo's Cheetah Encounter. They're huge - sitting up, one is nearly chest-high on me. And cheetahs are at the smaller end of the large cat spectrum. Feeling the cheetah's purr was a like a little chainsaw. It was awesome:
 |
| Cheetah Encounter |
4) And most recently, we joined the neighbors on a trip to Somes Island. It was first-time voyage for all of us, and Lauren's first time on a boat. Great weather and calm seas:
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| Somes Island |
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