Christmas in the southern hemisphere

Although my job is good and just what I was looking for in terms of slow pace and relaxed, sometimes it's a little too slow paced. Everyone in this country is on holiday right now so it appears we won't have any customers for the next few weeks. That means I get to go home at 1:00 and...go berry picking! Living in this region means farms and vineyards ten minutes away. Growing up in Ohio there was plenty of apple picking, but never acres upon acres of gigantic boysenberries and raspberries. Now I just have to find enough berry recipes to keep me busy for the rest of the summer.
As for the Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations, we were invited to more than we could handle. I think everyone felt bad for us that we were far from our families on Christmas (as much as I told people it really didn't matter because we don't celebrate it). We had a secret-santa gift exchange and dinner with our friends Jenn and Tomo. Jon thought it would be a great idea to give a grown man (and Japanese) a paint-by-numbers set. Oddly enough, Tomo thought it was the most clever thing he had ever seen and was fascinated by it. Ahh, the little things that keep men entertained. Since the four of us are expats, we thought it would be fun to at least try to celebrate like Kiwis, so we bought a Pavlova. Big mistake. Pavlova is the quintessential Kiwi dessert. It's just egg whites and sugar baked like a cake. It's really just quishy, eggy foam, sometimes flavored. It had such an odd texture and not a great flavor that we just ended up poking at it. See photos.
Next, we went to a riverside barbeque courtesy of Jon's co-worker. There was lots of food and kids jumping off bridges. Kiwi kids really have no fears. They grow up tramping through the bush, usually without shoes. Later on that night, we went to a Hanukkah party at my co-worker's (Tamar) house, who happens to be Israeli. I had no idea what a large Israeli population lives here. Now, I know Israelis are not quiet people, but they sure do know how to throw down. By the time we left, they were blasting Israeli pop music and Tamar's husband (not a small man) was going crazy on the makeshift dancefloor.
Yesterday, we finally got out of Nelson for a little while and went to a place called Cable Bay. It's not far but feels completely isolated. There is a small boulder bank that separates the mainland from a private island and it forms a little bay. We hiked up to the top of a hill next to the bay which had amazing views over to Nelson and Abel Tasman National Park. It's a big spot for locals to hang out on the (rocky) beach and go kayaking or snorkling. Pictures follow.
Jon is trying to keep busy with his two weeks of vacation. Right now he is making maztoh ball soup, courtesy of a box of Manischewitz from Ohio and singing Joni Mitchell in a voice that sounds like he has lost his manhood.

In conclusion, some American foods that don't exactly translate into Kiwi:
granola = muesli
cookie = biscuit
eggplant = aubergine
cilantro = coriander
zucchini = courgette
refrigerator = chiller
snack = tea
dinner = tea
tea = tea
dessert = pudding
cake = pudding
pudding = pudding
latte = coffee
moccachino = coffee
flat white = coffee
coffee = long black


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Another day in paradise…

Hi Everyone...

We survived our first 2 and someodd weeks of working. My job is going well, the first project I’m on is a pretty big one and there’s not a lot of time allocated to finish it so it’s been stressful trying to get it done on budget. I’m hoping after this project the next ones will run smoothly. The group I’m working with is a lot of fun; there’s only about 12 of us, but, it’s a good mix of people from different countries and backgrounds. Some of them are a bunch of nutcases. Gay’s job is going well, I think. She says she’s been washing a lot of dishes and that’s mostly because they just opened and there aren’t a lot of customers yet.

Let’s have a party, we’ll all dance the haka…
The owner of the company tries really hard to make the atmosphere at work as fun as possible. In fact last Thursday I got home from work and Gay had had a stressful day because it was the first day of operation for the cafe. After she talked about her day she asked me about mine and I said ..”well., I did some work, then I got a massage, then I had a glass of wine, then I got a squash lesson.” Gay rolled her eyes.
So we had our year-end meeting/party last week. Part of it was a celebration of Thomas’ recent New Zealand residency. So Niki, the owner, thought it would be cool for everyone to perform the haka for Thomas during the meeting. For those that don’t know what the haka is; it’s an intense and angry Maori war dance, which is now performed by the All Blacks before their rugby games. If you want more info on the haka, this is a great site. So Niki made arrangements for us to meet on a marae which is a Maori meeting house and we got about an hour long lesson on the haka by the director of the local marae. It was a really cool experience.

Meanwhile Gay and I have taken up racquet-based sporting activities. I’ve been playing squash at least twice a week with work-mates and Gay has planted herself firmly into the Nelson tennis scene. She’s ended up subbing for 2 teams in 3 separate matches and has also gotten herself a coaching gig on the side.

Videos of Life in New Zealand…
If you happened to read the comments of the previous post, my brother said something that stuck with me. No, not the part about my “…becoming a real bisexually Jack Hanna…” (whatever that means). But the part about showing how New Zealanders live and not what they live on. So here is a short video clip of Gay showing us how real New Zealanders live. Enjoy.

In addition to that here is a video clip, taken from Thomas’ mobile phone of the company doing the haka. The quality is horrible, and if you looks close you get see me make a brief appearance on the far left side. It’s a .3gp file and it opens in QuickTime for me, so you may need that installed. If you don’t then just watch the video on the haka site, it’s much better.