After our return from New Zealand we had a jammed packed couple of weeks with wine tasting, Christmas parties, football games, dinners, horse races just to name a few things. With most of our friends leaving Singapore for Christmas vacation the city has gotten quiet. It was fascinating watching the last minute Christmas shopping craze here. I still don’t understand how Christmas works, since about 90% of the population is Buddhist and I can’t help but wonder how much is this sign that the old ways are truly dying in Singapore? Although in a few weeks time Chinese New Year will be here and the flurry of shopping will begin again. Our attempt of going to Christmas Mass failed first by a church that was packed to overflowing, and second by a church where the priest only spoke Chinese. Although at the time I was disappointed John saved the evening by taking me to a pastry shop. We returned home to open one Christmas present and went to bed. Christmas day we got up to more presents, cooked and skyped our families. In the afternoon we headed over to John’s colleague Nick and Sarah were we had a feast! Turkey, ham, sausage, bacon, stuffing, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, shrimp, smoked salmon, chips, cauliflower all while drinking champagne and Pims. And to top it off for dessert Christmas pudding and Christmas cookies! I also can’t forget our Christmas crackers and snow! From the merriment of feasting we moved to meet our friends Chris and David for a Christmas movie and drinks at a boutique little theatre just down from our apartment called the Screening Room which is in the same building as John’s favorite boutique scotch whiskey bar Malt Vault. All in all a lovely day for two people very far away from home. Now as the week winds down and the clock ticks ahead into the next year we look back on how blessed we are and feel very grateful. We are looking forward to 2010 and are excited to see how it unfolds. We are planning to continue living life to the fullest and enjoying all we can out the adventure. We thank all our friends and family for their support and well wishes and wish you all a happy and blessed new year.
Just before Thanksgiving we jetted off to Middle Earth aka New Zealand, for a magical two week vacation. John’s friend Del (they met in their Japan days) along with his wife Hitomi and daughter Amy graciously put us up for two days while we explored Auckland. We did lots of walking around the city checked out the national museum and spent the day on Waiheke (pronounced Why He Key) island –eating beautiful olives and chocolate cakes while drinking local wine and beer. Our adventure really began when we flew to the south island and picked up our bright red “Spaceship” minivan/camper in Christchurch. We then hit the road for a five hour ride to Dunedin. During our drive we were able to see a breath taking triple rainbow and nearly froze while checking out the 4 ft high marble shaped Moreki boulders strewn along the beach. After having safely navigated our first night drive into Dunedin we found ourselves at the home of Jon who is John’s friend Trent’s Appalachian trail hiking buddy. Dunedin was breathtaking and besides good company and food we had an incredible hike to Sandfly Bay where stumbled upon a pack/pack of Sea Lions. It was like we had walked onto a National Geographic special. From Dunedin we headed to Queenstown, Wanaka and Glenorchy. We discovered more breathtaking views, not only by road, but by air and sea via a helicopter and high speed jetboat river tour (the boat speeds at about 45 mph in three inches of water). Both in Wanaka and Gelnorachy we stayed at fantastic lodges with to die for food. In Glenorachy we watched magnificent sunsets, skipped stones, soaked in a hot tub that had sweeping views of the mountains and hiked the first leg of the Routeburn trail. The Routeburn is one of the top ten trails in the world and frankly, it felt a bit five star, with it’s beautiful groomed trails and brand new river bridges. We had spectacular luck the entire time we were on our trip, but the one day that stands out was the day we drove from Queenstown to Milford Sound. It rains pretty much every day in the Milford Sound region, but on the afternoon we arrived the weather was perfect. The drive was so beautiful we found ourselves pulling over just about every 5 miles to take a picture or hike down a nature trail. We camped that night at the Milford Lodge making a huge meal of sausage and Sauer Kraut and I became a huge fan of John’s head lamp. The next morning we awoke to rain and fog which is normal in this region and headed for a boat tour of the Sound. The cruise was perfect because unlike the previous sunny day hundreds of water-falls were streaming down the fjord seemingly straight out of the sky and we even spotted penguins and seals. John braved to the bow of the boat and found himself under a melting glacier waterfall as the captain dipped the front of the boat in the rushing water. We met a lovely couple, Allison and Rob, from California who were staying near us in Te Anau so we ended up eating both lunch and dinner with them. In Te Anau we stayed at an awesome campground called Mountain View that had incredible brand new bathrooms that included: heated marbled floors, flat screen tvs and blow dryers at every vanity station. The next morning was John’s birthday and our big drive up the West coast. Our first pit stop of the day was at a café at Five Rivers Station in the middle of nowhere, but to our surprise had the most incredible freshly baked, raspberry, white chocolate, and coconut muffin! We settled in for a long ten hours of mountain driving, and were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Mount Cook and spent time walking around the famous limestone Pancake rocks of Punakaike where we splurged and got a cabin for the night. That night we celebrated John’s birthday feasting on fried seafood platter and cold beer with the locals. John is however still upset that he didn’t get a fried hotdog and at the waitress who rudely told him, he could get it anywhere in New Zealand just not there because the kitchen was shut. The next morning we were rushed out of campsite by some very unfriendly owners who were adamant that everyone leave the campground by 9am–I don’t think they actually like people. We continued our way north west ending up in Westport, NZ for lunch. Now if you are thinking, “I wonder if it’s like Westport, CT?” Well the NZ guidebook told us the town was the culinary epicenter of the south island. As we rolled into town I had to question the last time a tourist had even pulled through. We searched endlessly for someplace hospitable looking and ended up finding a little deli and were semi-delighted with our lunch of fried whitebait and quiche, but thought we should get out of there fast. About two hours later we finally arrived in the warm sunny beaches of Marahau where we set about organizing our kayak trip in Able Tasman for the next morning. That evening we strolled on the beach collecting mussel shells the size of my hand and got packed for our trip. The next morning we got up bright and early to set out on our two day full of Germans backpackers who according to kayaking adventure. We joined a group of six other kayakers plus a guide Steve and headed out on the ocean. Margaret sat in the front and John in the back to steer. The weather was perfect and the wind pushed us with ease in the right direction. We even set up a sail with everyone grabbing hold of the other kayaks and with the two front outside kayakers holding onto the sail and the two rear outside kayakers tying the sail to the paddles and hoisting it into the air. Although the sun was warm and the ocean looked tropical, it was actually a bit deceiving. We had seal playfully swimming by our kayak. We made it to our beach camp called the anchorage by early evening. It wasMargaret’s translations weren’t that exciting. After a Thanksgiving meal of pees, Uncle Ben’s Spanish rice and sardines we were the first to bed. The next morning we got up early and headed out, this time on our own. I must say I was very proud of our team work. We paddled our way to a deserted shore on Mosquito beach for lunch and made our way around Seal Island (yes, more seals!).
Our final leg was the most challenging with the wind trying to push of back and waves trying to tip us over. We reached our final destination and relaxed on shore while waiting for a speedboat to pick us up. As we had finished the final leg of the kayak journey a few hours earlier than planned we decided to try and make it halfway back to Christchurch so we could spend the night and next day relaxing in hot springs. Again luck was on our side. We found a 100% authentic (except for the optional bathing suit) Japanese hot spring called Maruia Hot Spring making us feel like we were smack in the middle of Japan, literally you felt like you had been transported, the décor the food, the workers all was in Japanese. We ate a delicious meal and headed to soak our bones in the hot spring. The evening ended with some warm tea and hot sake and John unknowingly switching into Japanese speaking mode. The following morning we woke refreshed and took another soak in the hot springs and had delightful breakfast. At this point we were on the final 24 hours of our trip. We managed to squeeze in a stop at vineyard called the Mud Room on our way back into Christchurch and sample their delicious Equinox Reisling. We arrived in the city in the late afternoon just in time to do a little shopping (cheese, meat, chocolate etc), a little spa treatment and to realize 99% of the town was booked for the evening because Pearl Jam was playing the next evening. That Christchurch was freezing! We walked around the city trying with difficulty to find a place to eat and overall weren’t blown away by the city. We lucked out and found a serviced apartment near the cathedral which worked out great because we had plenty of room to unpack our Spaceship and spread out all of our belongings that had been scattered around the car. The only downside to the hotel was the freakishly small parking garage. For a moment I thought we had made it all this way with the van only to take off the side of it in a parking lot! Thankfully with John’s parking skills the crisis was adverted. The next morning we got early to return our trusty Spaceship back to the garage where Sloan, the office manager was waiting, and headed off to the airport. Our travel in New Zealand had been so carefree and with such ease that it was a rude awaking when we had to stand in line for an hour to check our bags. When we got to the counter we found out that you can take 100lbs of luggage into New Zealand, but you can only take 45lbs out. Thankfully, our carry-ons had hardly anything in them and it dawned on me that the whole process was silly since the weight ended up on the plane anyways. It was also surprising that after we got our luggage sorted we had to stand in another line to pay an airport exit tax, which is something I thought only developing countries did. So it was a bit of a rough trip home, but with all the luck and fantastic moments we had while we were there, it was a small price to pay.
r our return from New Zealand we had a jammed packed couple of weeks with wine tasting, Christmas parties, football games, dinners, horse races just to name a few things. With most of our friends leaving Singapore for Christmas vacation the city has gotten quiet. It was fascinating watching the last minute Christmas shopping craze here. I still don’t understand how Christmas works, since about 90% of the population is Buddhist and I can’t help but wonder how much is this sign that the old ways are truly dying in Singapore? Although in a few weeks time Chinese New Year will be here and the flurry of shopping will begin again. Our attempt of going to Christmas Mass failed first by a church that was packed to overflowing, and second by a church where the priest only spoke Chinese. Although at the time I was disappointed John saved the evening by taking me to a pastry shop. We returned home to open one Christmas present and went to bed. Christmas day we got u
p to more presents, cooked and skyped our families. In the afternoon we headed over to John’s colleague Nick and Sarah were we had a feast! Turkey, ham, sausage, bacon, stuffing, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, shrimp, smoked salmon, chips, cauliflower all while drinking champagne and Pims. And to top it off for dessert Christmas pudding and Christmas cookies! I also can’t forget our Christmas crackers and snow! From the merriment of feasting we moved to meet our friends Chris and David for a Christmas movie and drinks at a boutique little theatre just down from our apartment called the Screening Room which is in the same building as John’s favorite boutique scotch whiskey bar Malt Vault. All in all a lovely day for two people very far away from home. Now as the week winds down and the clock ticks ahead into the next year we look back on how blessed we are and feel very grateful. We are looking forward to 2010 and are excited to see how it unfolds. We are planning to continue living life to the fullest and enjoying all we can out the adventure. We thank all our friends and family for their support and well wishes and wish you all a happy and blessed new year.
