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

Snow covered mountains!

hi all!
i have a million pics to post, don't think that i have forgotten about you! the winter is here. my feet are numb as are my hands in a childish attempt to acclimate myself to the winter temperatures. today is 45 celsius and 8 farhenheight. yesterday it hit 4 degrees. i'm not sure if this will help, but in order to steel myself against the cold, i leave the doors open and windows too! typing becomes a "drunken" challenge as my fingers respond slower to my brain! my toes too, i think they are there!!

i just wanted to say hi, and that pics are posting soon. also, i will start hitting up the restaurants again just as soon as they open!! what i mean, is that may is the slooooow time. so slow in fact, that most restaurants, big or small, will shut it's doors for about a month which conveniently makes for a perfect vacation time for all its staff.

love to everyone!!
stay warm.
shana

Autumn almost gone, it's time for WINTER!!

There are some places in the world where the changes of season is a spectacle unto it's own right. Here is one of them. The trees turn into proud and shameless exhibitionists showcasing and shaking what their mother (nature) gave them. The only other thing that tops these earth colors are the spendiferous colors of spring. But we'll save that for another time.

Headed to Arrowtown for the Autumn festival. There was a fun parade and a food court. I ate a belgium waffle amongst many other delicious munchies and felt way too full by the end.

Amongst the fun activities, there was a ActionFlight performance using an old propeller air-o-plane~! The pilot zoomed straight up into the air and came to a stand still. in the air. and then he started spinning on the plane's axis. then the plane started falling and had black smoke everywhere like it had engine problems at which point the pilot swooped out of the dead-man's fall in a big arc just over the crowd. it was amazing. i had no idea that they could do that. he must be the red baron.

eel hunting with aggie

on the corner of church street right in front of lake wakatipu, there is a tiny hut, and it serves the best fish and chips in town. or so i have heard. i have tried the homemade paua (abalone) pattie which was delish. basically a minced abalone pattie in a crispy fried batter. just a sprinkling of salt and it was great!

while i was there i got talking to the owner, aggie. he's this old dutch guy, about your grandpa's age. we got talking about eels. i told him they were ugly, he said not if you get to know them. turns out that aggie used to fish for eels. commercially. curiosity got the better of me and turned out that he was going eel hunting that coming weekend. i politely invited myself and he politely accepted.

saturday we meet at the local gas station. he with his sturdy aluminum boat, me with my camera. we head down to the river and jump in the boat. inside the boat are oars, and nets. lots of nets. they are all piles at the front of the boat. there were also wraught? iron rods cut up into about 3 foot lengths. we decide to set a net right near the dock.... to be continued with photos!!

AJ HACKETT BUNGY!!!

today i threw myself off a total of over 250 meters. ... and it was fantastic. the great guys over at aj hacket bungy offered a few fine select to experience all three of their queenstown jumps. this trip is also known as the thrillogy. as i had only done two of them before, i was quite excited to do them all at once. i was not prepared for what my body was put through. let me explain!! :)

we all met, about 20 of us, at the station in queenstown. if you've ever been to queenstown, you know that practically every adventure begins at the station.

suited up and ready to go we boarded the bus to the kawarua bridge jumping station. as the first commercial bungy jump ever, this place goes down in the history books!!

we go and watch a movie about how hackett and his good friend henry van asch started the whole bungy phenomenon back in the 80's. they are all wearing bright neon colored body suits and their mulletts are flying in the wind. classic.

finally we go and get to jump. we all line up and wait. and wait. and wait some more. it's a great view from the bridge and as it's the easiest bungy to get to, most people who don't want to jump but just expericce the jump go there too. mind you, this is about 10 am? one by one we all get locked in and harnessed up.

i decided to do my jump backwards. cause i rock.. actually i had done it once before and wanted to step it up a notch. which i did. so i'm standing there heels hanging off the platform and the guy is hangin on to my harness from the front. i'm holding on to him. tightly. and i am nervous. he tells me that he can't come with me and i'm like, you're right!! i stop freaking out and this calm comes over me. the switch in my brain was calm acceptance. i took a breath, counted to three and jumped. it was beautiful. then i hit the water and as i am choking back the air and water i am pulled back up. wet hair swinging everywhere, shirt sopping wet. i felt like i had just been pulled backwards through waves in the ocean. but it was great and exhillirating!!

next stop, the nevis. this monster of a jump is the (i believe) second longest jump in the southern hemisphere. at least that is what i tell all of my guests. sucks. anyways i do believe it is true. the nevis is 134 meters and 8.5 seconds of fall time. the jumping metal box is suspended between MOUNTAINS by CABLE wires. you have to get there via a separate small gondola. it is awesome. inside the jumping box it's like a german kraftwerk party. the speakers are blaring, you feel elated and exhausted. you can feel the adrenalin in the air and it is palatable and raw. one minute you are grovving in the frenetic enegry and the next you are tired and almost meditative retreating inwards. i actually felt nauseas. i hoped i wouldn't yak on my way down. finally they call my number. sitting in a metal stirrup chair not unlike a birthing chair (!??) but with your feet together, they bound you in. harness around your body and harness around your feet. you are not going anywhere. smile for the camera. and off to waddle to the ledge.



i'm standing on the ledge and i can feel the weight of the heavy elastic woven cords pulling pulling pulling on me. the jumpmaster is holding me from the back as he twists and untwists the cords so i can have a straight fall. as he is twisting and etcering, he let's go of me. i feel this sensation of complete and total vertigo. even though i know i am strapped in and have the bungy attached to me, i just want to jump. i also want to yell, grab on to me!! but i don't and i just wait. finally things are ready for my jump.

i'm gonna do it like a penguin.

i grab my harness at my legs and get ready to rumble!
there's a beautiful moment at which you go from panic to a peaceful calm. that calm happens when you decide to jump. it's like a switch in the brain and i actually find that to be the coolest part of the experience. with my hands at my legs, i jump. soaring through the air i feel like keanu reeves bulletting after patrick swayze in the coolest skydiving chase scene ever from point break and i'm flying! eight seconds of freefall, the wind rushing past my ears with the ground rushing towards me as i feel the gentle slowing down of the bungy cord take effect. bounce once, bounce twice and on the rebound, i tug at a cord at my legs to maneuvered to a sitting position to enjoy the ride.




as the static cord is being lowered down to me to attach to the harness, i sometimes feel that this is the scariest part. though each cord is used to 1/20th if it's capabilities, it is at this point that you sometimes think that holy sh*# "i'm hanging here by only a bunch of elastic!"

anyways, i get pulled back up to the cheers of my friends and loud dance music that you almost forget about. after a few more people jump, we head back on the black moving box back to the mainland and off back to queenstown.

next we are off to the jump the ledge.




the ledge is a special jump as bungy cord is attached to your waist leaving your legs free. what this really means is that you can run off!!

to be honest, i never cared to do the ledge. it wasn't the original bungy like the k-bridge nor was did it have such prestige as the nevis. i was somewhat ambivilent about doing the ledge. but boy, was i really really wrong. turns out, the ledge is cooler that it seemed!

people actually brought costumes to jump off the ledge, this one girl brought a leopard outfit to look like pebbles from the flintstones!

ok, this blog post is getting toooooo long. basically i thought that of all the bungies, the ledge is by far the most fun. i ran off the platform and as i jumped reached back and grabbed my ankles doing what is fondly known as the flying squirrel and flew flew flew and screamed this high pitched "eeeee!"

the others are great and scary, even scawy!! but the ledge was fun!!!

www.freerice.com

just found out about this great site that increases your vocabulary while doing good stuff.

basically every word you get right donates 20 grains of free rice to the united nations world food program. it's free and wonderful.

it's fun and it makes you feel better about playing on the internet when you should be doing other things!!!

Vknow has a nose for VINO

oh my gosh, alert the press, this is the find of the century. i am so excited to find Vknow, a wine bar and restaurant, up in fernhill and actually a few minutes walk from my house. i've driven by it numerous times, but for some reason never stopped in. now, i vknow better.

not so much a mom and pop operation as a husband and wife (and best mates) team each contributes equally and harmoniously to make Vknow the delightful restaurant that it is. though modest from the outside and located next to the only corner store in fernhill, upon entering you are transported from queenstown and kerplunked to north beach in san francisco or to little italy of new york. with one of the rooms covered in corked walls, there are beautiful bold paintings from local painters and lovely old posters celebrating wine and food.

it's a charming bistro that serves fresh, seasonal and quite varied menus all created by lizzie complementing her husbands palate pleasing choice of vinos. in fact, and i find this as delightful as the couple themselves, their wedding vows included lizzie promising to always complement danny's wines with her food and danny promising to always maintain a full cellar. how adorable.

the restaurant clearly showcases the passion that these two have for their respective expertises. danny has worked as a wine rep for numerous years before owning his own distribution business while lizzie has always had a nose and a hand in hers and other kitchens. danny even offers a "sunday school" where you can go and learn about and taste wines in an informal and fun setting. brilliant. i love it.

not limiting themselves to be only an italian restaurant, (although it's named after the italian word for wine, with a punny twist adding knowledge to the name), you will find some delicious pastas or a great thai green curry and even some venison.

i feel that the best way to judge an italian restaurant is by the pizza. thin crust and simple toppings make or break it. this is where i fault. i was so entranced and was enjoying the company of danny and lizzie so much that i completely forgot to take a picture of the food that they so graciously proffered. nonetheless, i will have to go back and dine there again, poor me.

about the pizza. i ordered the thin lizzie putanesca pizza - which interestingly enough, translates to mean "harlot's pizza" for various though debatable reasons - and it was "molto bueno". the crust was thin and crunchy on the outer rim while the center crust had been softened by the chunky though not overbearing tomato sauce all while still supporting the toppings.

pizzas should not be smothered in toppings. it is a delicate balance that Vknow got just right. each slice had the perfect amount of chili, tomato, pitted kalamata olives, capers and fresh basil mixed with the melted (i think it was) mozzarella cheese. spicy enough to warm a harlots heart, i finished half of the pie and sat contentedly talking with the lovely couple.

as dessert, though eaten first, i was given a "yukkie". though it looks a bit like a chocolate "dropping" and is served chilled, a "yukkie" is anything but. basically a chocolate shell encases a truffle like center of velvety chocolaty cherry and pinot noir goodness. it was about the size of a golf ball and oh so good. lizzie graciously offered the recipe so we can all try to make it!

yukkies
2/3 cup cream
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean

*bring all these to a boil stirring constantly.
*stir in 200 grams of chocolate.
*cream 300 grams of butter and add to the chocolate mix.
*add flavours (which in this case consist of 30 milliliters of central otago pinot noir and 200 grams central otago cherries)(though open to variation)
*refrigerate until hard
*roll into small balls. - refrigerate
*chocolate coat when ready to use then refrigerate.
*enjoy!! --- (you will i promise)

just to give you an idea of the type of guy danny is, while i was there, a youngish gentleman flicked a cigarette butt from his fingers just in front of his restaurant. danny walked outside and told the guy, not unkindly, that there was an ashtray just in the corner. and you know what? the guy said "oh sorry", went and picked up the butt and put it in its correct spot. his "green" perspective can be seen through his choice of beers; additive and preservative free, locally brewed and quite delicious, danny is proudly trying to leave a small eco-footprint in his wake.

they are open everyday except tuesday from 3pm till about midnight. they have quite an affordable takeaway menu and their mains never cost more than $30. i will probably see you there.

pidgin island party time

christmas in the middle of summer. hot hot hot. a bit strange, but not that different as i am from los angeles and have gone for a swim christmas morning. i digress.

yesterday we left for pidgin island to attend gd's belated work christmas party. his boss had set up an elaborate array of activities and food for his respective work group. we were all treated to his toys, ie, his jet boat, wake board, knee board, biscuit, amongst other things.
we slept in tents or in the cabin on the island. dining under the stars, a little break from our daily routine. it was great.

today we went wake boarding!!! it was great fun. renting a boat costs a bit of money and none of us have a wake board... so it was a luxurious treat.

it was a bit of a struggle for most of us as it was the first or second time that we all have gone. i have been once before but it was a long time ago and i wasn't sure i would be able to get up. however, i got up!!! and i was cruising around lake wakatipu like i owned it!!! gd did too and so did a lot of our friends.

it was good good fun fun.


:) till next time!!

Gimped out with Shotover Canyon Swing!!

smiles, i was all smiles. we, in fact, were all smiles. let me explain. today i did a "shotover canyon swing".

imagine the biggest swing you have ever seen. bigger. bigger than the tall swings we had as a kid because back in the 70s we had cooler metal playgrounds. it's much bigger than that.


how about 109 meters big? high above the river below there is a platform off which from you will walk the plank, matey. there are a number of ways to get off the platform which i'll get into later. once off the platform, you free fall over 60 meters reaching up to speeds of 150 kph and soaring into a 200 meter arc.


ok, that's the technical stuff. amazing. the crazy part involves getting off the platform. there are a number of tried and true ways to commence operation swing including but not limited to: the superman, doing flips, the elvis cutaway, the gimp, the chair, and finally the bin laden. each of these is an elaborate and heart stopping way to do the deed.


i let them choose for me. wise choice? you'll see.

even more of a mind f*$% are the two guys, pat and will, getting you ready to jump. yeah, the ones that are strapping you into, in my case, a chair and a gimp mask. yesh. i just said gimp mask. (how often do you get to say that at a sunday dinner??!)

walking blindly onto the platform, i was afraid that the next step would be my last as my brain forgot the details of my now yellow gimpy world. being tugged and pulled by my harness the boys questioned the strength of my straps and whether certain things were buckled or not. as i had a yellow mask over my face, i could not see and myself absurdly questioned the safety of my harnessed body.

see, though i knew that these guys were masters of their craft, this was part of their shtick. with high safety regulations, they would never ever endanger anybody but it was a part of their evil plan to scare me. and well, they done good.



lulling me into a distracting conversation about my life in queenstown, they pretended to release me a few times before pulling off the mask and letting me and the chair fly.


watch my face, it's funny :)

i screamed like the girlie that i am, soared like a monkey through the trees as the wind and raindrops (yes it was raining) fell on my grinning face. after being pulled back up, i felt an amazing bond with will and pat, (something probably like the bond that kidnapees feel with their kidnappers) the two that graciously helped my departure off the platform, hugged them both and grinned some more.


i stayed and watched the other people in my group as they each flew off in their own particular way and shared in their beautiful frightened and fantastically enjoyed swings.



it was a great day.

Frisbee golf and Speight's Ale House

tucked away in the queenstown gardens is the best activity we have. it is free, outdoors and lasts about an hours time! what can this be, you might wonder? frisbee golf of course!!



played exactly like golf, but with a frisbee instead, there are 18 "holes" which are either chain baskets (sounds kinky) or trees which are somehow marked. scored like rego golf, and with the same objective, one tries to get the frisbee in the basket with the least amount of throws. the first time i played i got a 31. over. i wasn't very good. gd got a 9. it was his first time under double digits.



last night, my friends, t, m, and k and i played round. it was near 7 pm but the sun was still shining. the wind was strong and kept us cool, but we had to counter the wind with our throws. good times. good times. this time i got a 21 but we had to skip a few holes due to the twilight movies in the park. so, i guess it doesn't really count...



we had post game drinks and dinner at a lovely pub slash restaurant called Speight's Ale House. one of the oldest buildings in town, (or so it seems)(scholars still debating...) the building is unmistakable in its stony glory. they've got an outdoor seating area with cool built in metal swivel seats and regular ole wooden benches. we got there just before closing and they graciously seated us and provided us quickly with vittles and brewed beverages.



i had the famous Chicken Parcels. famous in that everyone tells me that they are good, and true to their word(s), the parcels were delish. wrapped in flared filo dough pastry was an interesting medley of chicken, creamy melted cheese, chunks of peach and bacon. it was a slightly sweet and savory combination that still lingers in my salival memory tastebuds. the filo dough was flaky and light and golden. there were large chunks of both chicken and peach which indicates to me that they actually care about feeding people. all in all, it was a parcel that i would hesitate to send around to you but i can't so boo.

normally it comes with crispy potatoes which would have been nice, but as i am trying to watch my figure, i got a large salad. and to their credit, they didn't skimp, but i got a rather hefty salad which i couldn't finish. possibly because i ordered kumura fries too. the kumura is similar to a sweet potato and came with sweet chili sauce and sour cream. yum.

the beer, oh yes, let's not forget the beer, was a distinction ale. it is a 5.0% ale that is smooth and on the darker side of an ale. though not as dark as let's say a newcastle brown. not as nutty either. but it was good, easy going down, and complimented the dinner nicely.

Monty's, oh dear!

happy new years everyone!!! if you're in new zealand, you probably want to be in queenstown for NYE!! people from all over the world come to partake in the numerous bars walking distance from each other, the festivities and the fireworks. it gets a bit too crowded for my taste (can you believe, this coming from a los angeles native)(oh the irony). our hostel is full, activities such as skydiving and bungy jumping are booked solid, the phone is ringing off the hook and you have to turn away boatloads of people looking for accommodation. it's frustrating and fatiguing, but fun all the same.

picture this, the permanent /semi-permanent population of Queenstown is about 10,000 people. i'd say at least 1/2 of these folks are long term travelers (like me). during the high seasons, ie. winter and summer, the town has enough beds to bump the population to about 35,000 people!! new years is one of these times! ok, enough ranting, at least for now...

my bf, gd, runs an adventure tour group, called adventure junkies. they do 10-day adventure tours starting in christchurch and ending in queenstown. full accommodation is included along with all the exciting activities you can imagine. we had dinner on the eve of the new years at a pub/restaurant called Monty's. now, i've eaten there a few times, nothing huge, but pub food, fish and chips, some bread and Mediterranean dips, their mushroom soup was good, so i couldn't wait to meet the new group and eat some good vittles.

i ordered the "oh deer" which was pan seared venison butterflied layered with pate stacked on grilled veggies tossed in a berry vinagarete sauce. sounds delicious. i ordered it medium rare rare. so, more rare than medium.



looks good right??

horror of horrors it comes to me just about as well done as it could be. grey/brown all the way through, with not a pink portion in sight. i was very disappointed.and due to the fact that most everyone at the table were chowing down, i ordered a calamari salad so it would be faster.

before they took my "oh dear" away, i nibbled on the veggies (just to try) and the sauce was aaaallright, but looked like a chunkier version of "international house of pancakes" blueberry syrup all over my veggies. the venison was dry and just unpalatable. i understand that Monty's was busy, it was new years, but that's what made it worse.

in the end, the calamari salad came quickly. yay. and was a simple salad with sauted calamari rings in a vinegary dressing. it was an anticlimactic culinary experience that began on such a different note. i ate quickly and was glad to leave.

it was a most disappointing dinner. to be fair, about their fare, their lunches are quite good, and reasonable, but i will review one in detail at a later date to give them a chance to redeem themselves.

the beer, as always was good. try the summer ale.

anyways, everyone else's food was good, and the adventures continued well into the New Year 2008!!!