Exploring the Land of the Long White Cloud

Back when we were making plans to head to Wanaka for the wedding, we got to thinking about stopping over in another city and by a good stroke of luck we found that Beervana, a beer festival, was going on in Wellington the weekend before the wedding. So we decided to go for it and after looking into it, we decided to volunteer for one session which would give us free admission to another session. So, Friday night we arrived for our volunteering session and got our assignments. Dustin was helping at the Portland seminar where they were pairing food with Portland brews. I was stationed at Liberty Brewing to serve the beer. It was a busy session and we both were exhausted by the end of the evening! The event takes place at the stadium in Wellington so about half of the concourse was taken over with stalls of food and beer. I can't be bothered to look up numbers at the moment (c'mon, I'm on holiday!) but there must have been 30 to 40 breweries offering multiple brews. I...

For me, it had been easily ten years or so since I would have played a full proper game of volleyball. My hand tells the story... That was last month when I started up with a casual volleyball league and luckily the subsequent games haven't caused such damage! We play Sunday nights and I think there's another 6 or 7 games in the season, it's been fun!

A couple months ago, friends asked me to make their wedding cake for their Wanaka Winter Wedding  that is set to take place this Saturday! These are some photos taken through the process of making the fondant leaves that will adorn the bottom tier. Getting the right imprint of the veins really makes them that much more realistic. And of course, they couldn't all be flat because that isn't very real either! These are all hand-painted and ready to be packed up and shipped. I experimented with some colours but will probably use the orange and red ones mostly. The logistics involved have been adding another layer to this cake - because had plans to travel to Wanaka and Wellington the week ahead of the wedding meant I couldn't make it on the normal schedule that I would. So the leaves were first up and have been layered with lots and lots of packing paper to be sent in the wedding convoy along with boxes of my tools. The cake itse...

It's just plain good timing that my parents sent over these instructions mere weeks after a whale washed up on the shore down the coast from us. We didn't end up going down to see the whale and although I think its remnants are still there, I think it's a little less awe-inspiring by this point. It would be cool to see it just to see the size of one! Sure, Dustin has swum alongside Whale Sharks so he might be tough to impress but I have only swum with dolphins so it would probably look pretty big. Friends of ours work for the department of conservation and Dustin texted one last week only to get a reply a couple hours later: "sorry was down at the whale and there was no reception" That was a totally normal response that neither of us batted an eye at. Good ol' New Zealand living. The friends are tasked with taking photos of the decomposition and tracking how long it takes - among other sciencey stuff. But I haven't heard what...

Who could resist this beautiful breakfast dish? I had intended to tweet this photo during the Costa Rica-Netherlands match with a cheeky "Costa Rica fans eat Dutch babies for breakfast" but I didn't end up doing so and alas, I would have had to eat a bit of humble pie after that anyways. However, I just had to share this masterpiece anyways. For those of you who haven't even tried this buttery delicious dish before, give it a go for your own good. (If you make that recipe and don't like it, email me for my version which is what our family has been making my whole life. Even if you do like that one, I might be able to be bothered to type it out for you if you ask because it is an amazing meal.) It's best served with some syrup although that morning I was feeling saucy so made a raspberry sauce to accompany it. But it would have been better with just syrup - and don't forget the mimosas!

Remember when we showed you our banana tree ? Well a few weeks ago when the mercury starting dropping I panicked about the possibility of losing them and harvested the bunch! (You aren't supposed to let them get too cold.) It took about a week until they started going a little yellow, then a little more and then they had brown spots on them so I made banana bread and banana chocolate frozen treats. I brought some to work to flog off and even dropped bunches off with friends because I was so worried they were about to go off and be overripe. I think we jumped in too early though. The middles were kind of tough and they weren't incredibly sweet. We still don't know what variety they were but the flavour was just a bit different than we have come to know and love as banana. As they got more and more brown they got better and sweeter. But by then they were looking pretty sad which is when I started getting rid of them so they got put to use! Next time we know...

I know, you're already starting to wonder if we do anything but talk about the house, renovate the house and then talk online about the renovation... I assure you it's not like that but it just seems to easiest to report on, especially with pictures. So, another short tale of our first home. Since we moved in, the spare room between the bathroom and the master has been affectionately called the Craft/Beer Room. But actually sharing the space easily has been a little less affectionate. Alas, a solution! A new set of shelves have been installed by our resident building expert and now there's a little more order. Enough order for me to crack into some projects with my new sewing machine. New projects that will be a little something like this . I already finished one but it was a housewarming gift so I didn't end up taking a photo of it. The next one is also a housewarming gift but I will post a pic soon of one of them... I have about 4 planned and maybe more afte...