Mary mary quite contrary...how does your garden grow?

Well, I ain't no Mary but i do have a garden! It is one of my little dreams to have edible plants growing around hippo lodge. i've used some of the seeds that i have propogated and put them in pots on the staff balcony. (pssst. let me tell you a secret... the balcony is one of the most amazing balconies in queenstown. it is just a little pocket of warmth all the time and gets the most sun!!) nevertheless, the plants are growing fast. i am so proud.

spring is here!

oh i love this time of year, the weather is warming up and you don't see your breath as always in front of you... in your HOUSE!! this year, my super intense hobby is gardening!! i am propogating seeds, like a madwoman! i have corn growing, baby tomatoes, sugar snap peas, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and jalapeno peppers (so i can have a jalapeno popper)... garlic (of which you can just chuck in the ground!!) and spring onions!! and potatoes. and i am composting. they are all growing around my hostel outside the staff house. soon just after the last frost, i will put them in the ground. i am so excited. we are using horse poop as in ground fertilizer and i bought gloves.
i will let you know how things turn out.

dunedin

oh, this weekend, angela, aude and i went to dunedin, the otago university town. it was fabulous. we went to the smallest bar in the world. (maybe not the world) but it could only fit about 7 people and aude could touch both walls with her hands. we went to my new favorite restaurant. izakaya yuki which means izakaya snow!! an izakaya is a traditional japanese drinking and snack place. kinda like a spanish tapas bar. typically men used to frequent these places but then the women gots kinda crazy and started going. thank goodness cause the food in this restaurant was delish! and cheap... about 3-7 dollars per plate! we ordered a 1/2 pitcher of beer and shochu (rice vodka) cocktail. i never wanted to leave.

the asian in dunedin

ok, so i am not talking about myself, but rather another fabulous restaurant in dunedin. the asian. recommended by a couple german longtermers, they said it was actually the cheapest and most delicious. i concur. we went there and it was filled with lots and lots of asian families and uni students. i think of my favorite thing, was the deep fried milk. don't ask me how they do it, but it was like a marshmallow-y consistency in panko type crust. delicious. i think there was a hint of coconut milk. and it was just warm from the deep fryer.
here's a recipe from "angie's recipes"

* 50 g Cornstarch
* 250 ml Milk
* 20 g Granulated Sugar

Batter:

* 75 ml Water
* 100 g Flour
* 1/5 tsp Salt
* 1 tsp Baking powder

1. Mix granulated sugar, and cornstarch in a saucepan. Gradually stir in milk. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Spread evenly in ungreased square dish. Refrigerate uncovered at least 3 hours until firm.
2. To prepare the batter, you mix water, flour and salt first and add baking powder at the time you start frying the milk.
3. Heat oil to 180C/355F, fry 2 or 3 squares at a time in oil 1 to 2 minutes or until light brown; drain on paper towels. Dripping with some vanilla syrup or sprinkle with powdered sugar.

try it. it is worth it.
xx

i am the hip-hop-pop-potomous!

ok, so you all know that i work at a lovely lodge called Hippo Lodge! that's me!

this is one of the reasons why i am still in new zealand. the work is lovely: i meet lots of wonderful travellers from all over the world which makes me feel like i myself am travelling and i get to do a LOT of activities which i get to write about here!

Hippo was named after the original owners dog, named by their young (at the time) daughter. This little pup grew and grew to enormous proportions till it was as big as a Hippo! just kidding, it was cute though! Here is Robin, he was working here before i got here... good times... and he is walking the original little Hippo.


in order to continue the hippo legacy, we've adopted two stuffed hippos which our guests and i take on activity trips. if anyone has a question regarding activities in queenstown, we say, "Ask Hippo! He's done it all!!!"

I bet you didn't know but there was a fourth book written by Tolkien that Peter Jackson is working on... it is going to be made into a movie soon and will be called "Hippo of the Rings". teasing... here he is imitating his idol...


here's one of lil'ole'hippo doing a canyonning trip. basically it you climb through waterfalls, jump into lakes, trek through rivers, you know, fun stuff!! i haven't yet done one, but i can't wait to do one this summer!!!!

snowboarding!

so, i went to cardrona today for the first time! it was great! i am not as bad as i remembered nor as good either... funnily. i went with geoff and andy and we did a few runs. the snow was light and powdery and it felt great to be flying down the mountain.
geoff was going slow to keep up with me and so he was doing 360s and tricks all the way down the mountain. he was being really cute.
i hope to go again soon!!

Finally some pics!!!

Pics... anyone want a pic?? Here a pic, there a pic, everywhere a pic pic!! Well, it's not a million, but i do have some finally! it's hard, you know when you don't have internet all the time!!

anywho, one glorious beautiful day at work it began to snow. a flurry of white milkshake crystaline flakes dropped dropped and dropped from the sky. we stared up at the sky not caring that we were aquiring a new cold skin, but looking up at the white and millions and millions of little particles that appeared to materialized out of thin air. just appearing and falling. town was muffled. it was magical.

unlike most of the snow that lands in town, these did not melt, but began to coat and cleanse the beautiful wakatipu bay and Hippo in white. it SNOWED!! with some of the staff that i have who live on site, we began to make a snow-goddess, complete with wine and rose. it was a bacchalean feast. it's me and my frenchies, jb and aude.



here is a pic where i am trying to be artsy fartsy. i know, i will have to try harder.



another attempt at art...


usually we have a gorgeous view of town, but today, all we could see is this!!


and this is what work looked like.


the funny thing is this, well it's not sooo funny. we are located at the top of a slight hill. not this hill, but another hill down the road. it sucks to walk up sometimes, but it gives great views as its reward. a couple of years ago, a water main burst and covered that hill in ice!! someone had to tie a rope to the bottom of a tree to help people climb up slipping and sliding across the street to get up the hill!!! oh i wish i could have seen it!!

xx