2010 Wrap-up

After visiting Becci and Mike in Utah we went to Golden, Colorado, to visit an old colleague of Marlène's. From there we went to visit Rik and Ginger in Santa Fe. Santa Fe has to be one of our favourite cities in the whole world. We got to eat a lot of great New Mexican food and had a chance to do some hiking and sight-seeing in the area. It was really great getting to know Rik and Ginger better, their really kindred spirits.

After Santa Fe we went down to Dallas to visit Thomas and Susan and the kids. It was a good time for firsts: first time seeing Stockton, first time seeing Whitney and Brad and their kids, and first time meeting Paige. We also ate a ton of delicious Mexican and Texan food. Plus we went to see the JFK museum in downtown dallas. Joel and Thomas got a chance to really nerd-out with their camera stuff, so now they have even more to email each other about everyday!

After Dallas we made our last stop of the trip: Hobbs. I finally got to see Hobbs. While not a favourite city, it was really neat to see all the places that were part of Joel's childhood. We got to eat at all his favourite places and smoked a brisket in the back yard one day. The weather was really delightful: mid to high 20's while the rest of North America was being dumped with snow. I also finally got to meet Sadie, Joel's dog. She's so cute and fuzzy, and she slept with us in our room most of the trip. Wish we could have taken her down here with us. We also made two trips out to the Guadelupe mountains and hiked Guadelupe Peak and McKittrick Canyon. Both hikes were really beautiful and it was great to get our hearts pumping a little! And it wouldn't be a trip to Hobbs without a Texas Tech football game! TT won, by a long shot, so everyone was quite pleased. Towards the end of our trip we had a huge Peters' Thanksgiving at Pete and Helen's house. We were 37, just about everyone from the family was there. It was great seeing everyone together and I think I've just about met the whole Peters clan now. Finally, heading home we stopped off in Santa Fe to see Rik and Ginger one last time and eat at Harry's Roadhouse (yum!). Then we took off from Albuquerque to start our new adventure in Christchurch!

Once we got to Christchurch Marlène started working that very day, and we had a little bit of time to get things in order before settling the purchase of our new house! We took possession on December 7, and moved in on December 10th. The entire house is wallpapered but we managed to pull it down in the kitchen, lounge and laundry room and getting the walls painted before the furniture arrived. Now we have to work on the rest of the house a little bit at a time. We really love our house and our neighbourhood and Marlène is very much enjoying her new job. Our garden is very full of flowers, which gives Joel no end in subjects to take pictures of.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb/5281115601/in/photostream/

We have managed to get a little bit of rock climbing done out at Castle Hill. The first time we went we had no sunscreen and Marlène got a really really bad sunburn. Tsk tsk. Needless to say, we went out and bought sunscreen the very next day and it now sits on our bathroom counter, ready to use whenever we go outside. We haven't done too much going out on the town since most of our efforts have been towards getting the house settled, but it's worth it because it's really starting to feel like home. One of the greatest parts is having all of our belongings back after 1.5 years. It's especially nice having the espresso machine again...

Christmas is a little different this year since it's summer, but we've managed to pull together some of our favourite traditions from home, while still keeping with the summer theme. Marlène did some baking: Linzer torte, espresso cookies, hello dollies, caramel corn and cheese tartlets. Joel also surprised her with a new electric skillet and a batch of her mom's doughnut dough ready to make! We spent Christmas eve making doughnuts and since there are only two of us, it's going to end up being a year's supply of doughnuts!

For Christmas eve dinner we stuck with Peters tradition: hotdogs (on the BBQ!) with homemade buns, cheese ball, vegies and dip, chips and queso, pineapple salsa and guacamole. To that we added cheese tartlets and Mexican relish. We matched it with a nice riesling and it was a splendid, and filling meal! We finished it off with croquignoles (the cut ends of the doughnut dough, Martin tradition) and some scotch for Joel.

Today is Christmas day and Joel is busy making cinnamon rolls, with we will have for breakfast along with doughnuts, baked treats, Roger's egg nog, and some bubbly wine. For dinner we are making chicken drumsticks on the BBQ, ceviche, cheesy potatoes and a repeat of the accompaniments from yesterday. We'll finish that off with linzer torte, and maybe some doughnuts! The weather today is lovely, low twenties, sunny, no wind. The birds are singing and the bees are buzzing and I think we'll spend a good chunk of the day outside. I must say, I like this idea of combining summer and Christmas!

The Great North American Adventure Update

Well, we are more than halfway through our trip in North America.

We spent a fantastic week in Calgary at the end of September. The weather was splendid and we got to spend some quality time with the Pugh's. We went on a great hike in Kanaskis, where we saw a bear from the car, went to the Calgary zoo and finally went to Drumheller. It was great to see Calgary again and get to do some of the things we never got a chance to do when we lived there.
Check out photos on Flikr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb/page7/

After Calgary we flew cross-country to St. John's to visit Maureen and Justin. The weather was mostly cooperative and Joel got to see a dramatic part of Canada that he'd never seen before. Joel definitely got some great photo-ops:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb/page6/

We went to my parents for Thanksgiving where my mom made us tourtière! What a treat! We also finally got to meet the beautiful Ellena. We were certainly dazzled by her! We visited Steph and John at their new house in Montpelier Vermont. It was very exciting to see them settled in their new home and to visit their new town. Montpelier is really very pretty and the state of Vermont is truly fantastic.

We took a whirlwind trip to Québec City since Joel had only been there once and really wanted to go back. We arrived just in time for some twilight photos of the city and walked around in the early evening playing photo nerd and enjoying the historic houses and buildings dating to as far back as 1611! We found a really neat restaurant for dinner where we both had the most amazing boeuf tartare. yummy! We also took lots of pictures in the daytime as we walked around town before heading back to Ottawa.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb/page3/

We had just enough time to catch our breath in Ottawa when we took off again for Chicoutimi to see my family there. The drive up was a bit hairy with a snow storm in "the parc", although that's par for the course for this part of the world. We stayed at Céline's cottage on Lac Sébastien, which was very beautiful in the fresh snow. We had a wonderful time at the cottage and also took some time to visit my grandpa, Andrée and Pierre and Esther. It was great to catch up with everyone. On the way back to Ottawa we took the long way home along the Saguenay fjord and down the St. Lawrence through the region called Charlevoix. I had never been that way before and it was really beautiful. No it's such a popular tourist destination.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb

Again we had a couple of quiet days in Ottawa then headed to Kingston so Joel and I could attend convocation at Queen's... two and three years later! I got to meet with Mark for an afternoon, and we went to dinner with Mark and Jean. It was really great to see them again. Convocation was really emotional. Mark and Jean were there too, and Kathy convocated at the same time as us! Mom and Dad were there and I think they were really pleased to have been part of the event. We went to Kathy's house for breakfast the next day and got to see the famous Sheldon in action! How quickly they grow and become very active!

We spent our last few days in Canada relaxing at my parents house enjoying the country air and the time with the family. We met up with Steph in Montreal on our last day and had Montreal smoked meat. Yum! It was Joel's first tie in Montreal and I'm pretty sure we're going to want to go back on a future visit. On the way home we made a quick stop at Lise's house.

Leaving Ottawa was really tough. We had a really great visit and it was well worth taking the time between work to come home to visit family.

On our way to the US we made a quick pit stop in Calgary and stayed with Kirsten and David again. Thanks guys!

We're now finishing up our visit with Becci and Mike in Salt Lake City. This is one of the first times we've actually taken the time to go visit the mountains and stuff. We did a few good hikes in the Wasatch mountains and got some good views of the city and waterfalls and rocks... etc.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb


Lots of visiting done in the past more than a month. It's been great seeing everyone and sightseeing old places and new places. More to come in the next month!

First Day of Work

Well, one and a half weeks later than initially planned, I started my first day of work today. I was super nervous but once I got there we had a staff meeting to get things figured out for the rest of the term now that we've lost two weeks due to the earthquake. Speaking of earthquakes, we got two aftershocks over 4 today, which feel really different in the 3rd floor of a big building compared to the second floor of a small hotel. Much less rattle, much more swaying. Interesting. I have no office to myself yet, since I'm still officially just a visitor, but I get to use the department head's office in his absence. Sweet! I'm all plugged in, working on lectures and tutorials for next week. I don't think I'll do much that's research related until I come back in December.

It's nice to be back at work. I certainly prefer that to spending all day chasing up houses to visit and real estate agents and mortgage brokers... ugh. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just go to Target and pick out the house you want and put it in the neighbourhood you like? Sheesh.

We had a nice afternoon here. It was really sunny and warm, and then at 4ish the wind changed and the cold antarctic air swept in and cooled us right down. Brrr. I keep forgetting that it's winter here. Or should I say "winter". Cold and rain is the order of the day and sunny and warm is just a random bonus.

Should be a fun couple of days as I get set up at work before we head on a field trip to the south and west parts of the island. We're really looking forward to that! Should be lots of great pictures then!

What Marlene Forgot to Mention

Marlene forgot to mention some of the greatest tragedies of the quake... Two of the mexican restaurants in Christchurch (probably the only 2) were destroyed in the earthquake. In fact one of the most famous pictures from the quake is of one of the restaurants completely void of its external walls. This far from Mexico though, one can't expect the Mexican food in restaurants to be that great, so we'll probably make our own Mexican food....maybe... So far we've been to 1 Asian grocery store, 1 international grocery store (the largest in NZ), and several regular grocery stores, and we haven't found a single chile aside from bell peppers. No thai chiles, no jalapenos, no nothing. No heat at all.... There is a specialty store that sells such things, but it too has been damaged in the quake. Hmph!

Shaketown

So for those of you who haven't heard Christchurch was rocked by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake last Saturday morning at 4:35.

http://maps.google.co.nz/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=114215793670404019839.00048f8b8d6da4188d66e&ll=-43.520672%2C172.265625&spn=0.697066%2C1.167297&z=9&source=embed

Luckily no-one died and only a few people were injured. Most houses, although some are very damaged, made it through the quake and protected the occupants while they slept.

We took the risk and flew out here and arrived Sunday morning to a city still in shock. For the most part, the town is functioning, except that the CBD (downtown) is still cordoned off because of the brick historic buildings that did not do so well in the quake. We didn't actually feel a shake until Monday evening, but since then we have been feeling them every few hours. Luckily we weren't around for the main quake so we aren't nearly as nervous when an aftershock hits as the locals are. Everyone here is pretty much on tender-hooks, scared of the next shake.

We spent Tuesday driving up and down the rural roads west of CHCH mapping the fault rupture. Joel took a picture of a church that got knocked down in Hororata: http://flickr.com/photos/jpeterb/ We'll put some more photos of shifted roads and hedgerows soon. Pretty impressive stuff!

Our hotel suffered no damage so we feel very safe here even during the aftershocks. The University is closed so we have been spending our time getting to know CHCH, looking for a house to buy and getting important immigrant stuff taken care of. Pretty busy times.

We are looking forward to having the CBD opened up, although it will be a sad sight all those demolished historic buildings.

SFO-CHCH... via YVR?

The passport has been obtained. I have to say, all the people at the Canadian Consulate in SFO and the passport office in Vancouver did a great job at getting me my urgent passport replacement. I am now at YVR waiting for my return flight to SFO so we can take off for CHCH tomorrow. Four days later than expected, but all in all, we will have made relatively good time. It was fun hanging out in Vancouver yesterday and I managed to pick up a pair of my favourite sunglasses at MEC, the original of which I broke some time ago in Brisbane. Two pairs later and I still wasn't satisfied, but the second I put on the pair from MEC, tadaaa! I also had a chance to re-appreciate what a great city Vancouver is. Definitely on the list of cities I would live in.

Well, we look forward to updating the blog once we arrive in CHCH!

Take off! Or not.

I wonder if the universe is trying to tell me something: When I tried to cross the border to the US for my job in San Francisco over two years ago I was rejected. On Monday when I was packing up to take my flight to my new job in New Zealand I lost my passport. Maybe I'm not meant to work and live internationally? Hum. I hope not, cause I really think this New Zealand thing is going to be good.

Well, now I'm cooling my heels in Vancouver. It could be worse. Vancouver is nice. Pretty soon I'm going to head out and walk along the waterfront or something. I had a poutine at New York fries for brunch today. So fatty. So salty. So good. All the same, I think I can go another 10 years + without needing another one of those.

Joel is busy trying to make himself useful at Rick and Rosalind's in Berkeley while I'm here. They've been kind enough to let us continue to stay at their place until my passport woes are over and we are good and gone, flying over the Pacific to our new home.


Fingers crossed the next post is one about passport success!

Tasmania

Everyone refers to Tasmania as "Tas" I think they should start calling it "Mania." It would be a good for marketing. So the dust has settled a little bit. Marlene is about done with her first week of work, and I'm about done with my first week of post vacation vacation. We had some internet issues, but I think it's resolved. I'll start working on drafting up a summary of our trip, but until then here are some photos to tide your appetite.

-Joel

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb/

Peregian Beach

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

We finally went and did something distinctly Australian this weekend, and went to a Koala Preserve. I, Joel, was a little bit disappointed that koala preserves weren't available for purchase, but in the long run, I'm not really sure that koala would spread well on toast. (It would, however, be better than vegemite). Where was I?

It was a beautiful day that started with about an hour long bus ride. In the bus terminal we met a Korean fellow who needed help with the bus signage. It soon came out that he, like us, was headed for the Koala Preserve. He then sat with us on the bus and chatted and chatted and chatted for the entire bus ride. If my eyes would wander to look at something out the window, he would make sure that I understood what he was saying, apologize for his 'poor English skills,' and draw my 'attention' back. The bus ride required a little more attention than I had hoped. Once we got to the Koala preserve our new friend immediately set out on organizing the trip for us, often stopping, and asking for us to take his picture, and often grabbing my camera and taking our picture. He would say, "Okaaaaaay, everyone say Kim-chi." He was very fond of us. He was very kind hearted and friendly, but after awhile (few hours) we very politely told him we would venture on our own while he went to the sheep dog show... I hope he's not still looking for us.

About the preserve: It was FANTASTIC!, not just fantastic, or even FANTASTIC, but FANTASTIC! I had no idea that there would be a large field where you could walk around with kangaroos and emus. I had no idea that the kangaroos would be so friendly. It was great to give the 'roos a good scratch on the head and put your arm around them as if you were old pals. Two kangaroos were even so thoughtful as to think about the educational aspects of visiting the zoo, and demonstrated mating habits of their species. Well, actually, there was a male kangaroo attempting to demonstrate the mating habits, but the female "had a headache."

There was an ample collection of koalas too. Koalas appear to sleep very well. They have evolved to be good sleepers the way that cheetahs have evolved to be fast runners over a short distance, or the way the Inland Taipan (more on him later) evolved to be more deadly than necessary. A lot of koalas use a fantastic stance of sleeping with their forehead propped against a branch, and then they slump and sleep. I think we saw a grand total of 2 koalas that were actually awake. Awake used very loosely here. Awake in koala terms would be the amount of awake your average human is when answering the call of nature at 3:30 in the morning.

In addition to the kangaroos and koalas, there was a plethora of other Australian critters. One of the best was the display of some of the friendly reptiles that call the island continent home. We got to see the Eastern Brown Snake, which is the second most venomous land snake in the world. One shouldn't worry too much about the eastern brown snake though, because they can also come in "light tan through dark brown, russet or almost black." So really it can come in any variety of earth tones for those not completely on board with plain ol' brown. Not to be out done, in the next stall over was the Inland Taipan which has the distinction of being the most venomous land snake in the world. I particularly enjoyed what the sign on the inland taipan's cage had to say:

Also known as the 'fierce snake' or 'small-scaled snake,' this species is considered to be the most venomous land snake in the world. Fortunately, it does not share its distribution with a large human population, and has a quiet, shy temperament

Apparently 'fierce' and 'shy' are synonyms in Australian English. The sign continues:

The closely related 'coastal taipan' is a far more nervous animal. It is found in northern Australia and along the coast of Queensland where it is more likely to be encountered by humans

The 'coastal taipan' was on display opposite of its friendly cousin, the fierce-snake. It's also nice to know that I also live along the coast of Queensland.

So after educating ourselves on the snakes that could kill us on a whim, we moved on to look at birds. We saw lots of cute things like cockatoos (that talk) and kuckoburras (or however you spell it) lorikeets and so forth. The nice thing about birds is that they aren't deadly..... unless they are cassowaries, then they are deadly. Fitting with the theme of the continent, these birds are found (although in dwindling numbers) in Queensland, as are my wife and I. Cassowaries look like a cross between an emu and archaeopteryx. They have a bright blue head, a bone 'helmet' and a slashing claw that it can use in leaping attacks. The cassowary will jump in a slashing attack with both feet. Don't believe me? Look it up on youtube. I don't think they've killed anyone in awhile, but it's nice to know that birds aren't left out of the deadly category.

I think that's about it. If you want to see more pictures go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb/

Castle Hill

CHCH

Breakfast (by Joel)

Now we're having sourdough crepes for breakfast. It got me to thinking that I should start a crepe restaurant. I've been tossing around some ideas for names. Here are a few:

Holy Crepe
This is Some Crepe
I Don't Believe This Crepe
Full of Crepe
Tastes Like Crepe (could also use the other senses here too)
Ah Crepe!
Eat Crepe
What Is This Crepe?
Load of Crepe
Bunch of Crepe


I had so many more, I can't remember them all. I think the primary dish would be a beef dish called "Bull Crepe"

Time to eat...

The feast!

What a beautiful and delicious feast! Cooked to perfection, seasoned delightfully! It was a wonderful meal and a great way to celebrate our anniversary in the same way we celebrate our life together every day. And we finished it off with a sweet honey-date-ananas polenta that was fried in butter. Yummy!

In the meantime...

We had some delicious fresh kale and silverbeat to whet our appetites while the roast roasted, and prepped some lovely mini squashes for the side dish.

Preparations for the roast feast!

Here are a few photos showing the progression of the prime rib roast (although it hasn't got a "rib" like in NA, but let's just say it's similar). It was seasoned with juniper berries, rosemary salt and pepper. After browning it in it's roasting pan on the BBQ we covered it in onions and root vegies, then doused the whole thing in red wine to roast in the oven.

Happy Anniversary!

We just got a really wonderful heartfelt message from dad (Roger) to celebrate our anniversary and he suggested we post to share the day with everyone. What a fantastic idea. We're celebrating a day early (or actually two if you think about the time change!) because we just can't wait until tomorrow! In typical Marlene and Joel fashion, Joel has been researching the fantastic "mystery" anniversary dinner and planning a menu, which he only revealed to me this morning. Very early (2 am) this morning we were entertained with a real live soap opera outside our window of a girl weeping about some ordeal with her boyfriend. It was so intense that Joel and I actually stood looking out the window watching the excitement! Thank god those days are over! Sooo... we slept in until 8:30, but I think it was worth it. We then got up and had a few mugs of Yerba Mate tea (my first few real cups!) and sourdough bread french toast tower with honey, passion fruit and roasted bananas (all made by Joel while I hunted up a farmer's market).

The farmer's market was necessary because the venison Joel bought on Wednesday at the farmer's market went bad because the vacuum pack was punctured. dang. All the same, we found another (a third!) farmer's market to shop at. Here we found a butcher stall that sells grass fed - grass finished beef where we bought a prime rib roast. Fancy! We also bought two pineapples (ananas!) for 4$ and some seafood antipasti to accompany Joel's olive antipasti.

So the menu that was posted for me this morning went as follows:
1. antipasti
2. wilted greens
3. roast venison (or prime rib) and root vegetables
4. date, honey and pineapple (added later) polenta for dessert.

So the antipasti were had for lunch with a sparkling Shiraz (who knew!) on the balcony after our swim while sitting in the lovely sun. Now Joeli is making the polenta and has prepared the rub for the prime rib roast. I am writing this blog with aromas of cooking honey in the air (and sounds of David Grisman and Bill Monroe filling my ears) while drinking a juniper berry - rosemary maritini, with an olive. Here are a few early pictures.

Profiteroles

Bread Baking