A Walk in the Waitakere Ranges

We are just coming out of winter here and entering spring and it's still very cold. Last weekend we decided to get out of the house on this fine sunny day, even though it was only 11C (47F). We have a book "Walking the Waitakere Ranges" that we like to use on our adventure walks. It describes some of the 140+ tracks and trails in the ranges (our house is located at the foot of the Waitakere Ranges). We weren't feeling very adventurous so chose what we thought would be an easy walk by the Lower Huia Dam.

The description said that this was a good walk to do on your first date (5 years too late) since it has wide tracks, making it possible to walk side by side. It didn't mention that we would be walking on gravel for the first half of the trail and wouldn't be able to hear each other talk or the native birds up above. Come to think of it, not being able to hear each other must be why it's a 'good first date' walk.

We came across a fork that was not in the book and decided to go left. The book did say that after the track heads downhill the bush pushes in closer.


Well this was nice and cozy, thanks. When we reached a rather large stream and realized that we couldn't cross it, we thought we would retrace our steps back to the last fork in the track.



I assumed we were back on track when we came across the "short set of clay steps" described in our guide book, that happen to be taller than half my body. Not exactly what someone would want to do on their first date.





We decided that I would go down first because I wanted to help Sunny and take a picture of Holming while he was coming down.

All three of us made it down without a scratch! Here is a picture to prove it.


It turned out to be a nice walk even with the detours. Till the next adventure!

A Bad Week

Let me start off by saying that I feel thoroughly welcome in New Zealand and don’t need anymore welcoming in my lifetime.

Last week was yet another week of bad luck. It started off on Monday with someone smashing into my car bumper at work and not leaving a note. The car park I park in is not attached to the hospital and is first come first served, so I will never know who did it. A side story to that one is that I now have match bumpers. About 6 months ago, I ran into my garage while pulling in. Part of the problem was that I was new to driving while sitting on the right side of the car and the other problem was that my cell phone fell off my lap while I was pulling in, which distracted me. Ugh! I was pretty annoyed with myself, but even more annoyed with the person that smashed into my car.

Tuesday was a totally different story. In preparation for rubbish pick up on Wednesday, I decided to put our rubbish bags (yes, we still use bags) and recycle bin out when I arrived home from work (at about 4:30pm). Well, about 30 minutes later, I was closing the blinds in the front of the house and noticed that our recycle bin was not there anymore. WHAT!?!?! We ran down the hill to see if we could find our bin with no such luck. On another side story, our neighbour had installed a surveillance camera facing our driveway since our house was burglarised five months ago. He can only see the street view and driveway. So, we popped over to ask him if he saw anything. Sure enough, the video clip has me putting out the rubbish then some young guy walking up the hill 15 minutes later and walking off with our bin. I mean really, who in the hell wants a full recycle bin? They are FREEEEEE from the council. If a neighbour can steal a recycle bin from in front of your house, what else would he be inclined to take? Moving on…..

Wednesday was the absolute worst of them all. We went on with our morning as usual, except bin-less. When Holming arrived at work, he noticed that someone had keyed the hood of his car, from one end to the other. WTF! We think it happened the day before while he was parked on the street at work. Not sure if the fact that it was freshly cleaned and someone was jealous had anything to do with it. We just don’t understand why people do these kinds of things. We have never! What’s next?

The fact that all these awful things have happened to us in one weeks time is just bad luck. Now that that’s out of the way we look forward to better times here in New Zealand.

Batteries

I try really hard to not compare NZ and the US so that I can give my life here a real chance at succeeding. Never mind that the cost of living is much higher and the salaries are much lower, never mind that customer service is on island time and most of all, never mind that we don’t have central heating or insulation in our homes. Like I said, I try not to dwell on the negative….

I don't mind paying extra for meat, butter, milk, and vegetables because it tastes far better here, BUT the fact that a 4 pack of AA batteries are $11.89 is appalling! That’s about 3 bucks a battery! I mean really, come on people. I can get a 10 pack of batteries from Target for $6.99. That’s right, 70 cents a battery.

I can usually cope with things being so expensive here but, every once in a while something like the price of batteries just blows my mind.

(The photo was taken from my phone. Sorry it's so fuzzy.)

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Another birthday here and gone.

I was surprised by the number of emails, e-cards, texts, facebook messages, phone calls and visits (workmates stopping off at my desk to wish me a happy birthday and/or placing surprises on my desk) I received for my birthday. One of the things that was truly an unexpected surprise was receiving flowers from Holming’s longest and dearest friends, Zoltan and Emma (Photo is above). It’s just what I needed to lift my spirits about being away from home on my birthday and about living here in New Zealand. I am very fortunate to be surrounded by such good people whether I’m here or there.

Thank you all for being the good people in my life.

Who looks more pitiful?

Yes, that is me under all those layers. With a 10.5 °C temperature,
winds up to 46 km/h and random heavy showers, the show must still go on. Sunny needs to pee and I need to take him. So, we both had to wear our rain coats. Too bad we're not matching.

New Zealand is the third fattest nation

"New Zealand is the third fattest nation in the developed world, a report has found.

The obesity rate among adults in New Zealand in 2007 was 26.5 per cent with only the United States at 34.3 per cent and Mexico at 30 per cent higher, the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Health Data Report 2009 released this month said."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10584163

OMG..... I am Mexican American and living in New Zealand....... Should I be concerned?

Does this make me a kiwi?

I finally did it! Does this make me a kiwi? Probably not but it makes my husband a very happy man.

A quick description of a New Zealand meat pie is that it's a hand-sized pie containing minced meat and gravy. Hey, America has pot pies, the UK has steak pies and we have meat pies.

In all the years I have been visiting New Zealand, I didn't understand what was so appealing about buying a packaged meat pie from a dairy (corner liquor store), a petrol station or a sports game. I mean what possible nutritional value can be found in such a thing? None, right?

Wrong! Thanks to Donna Hay and her magical art of cooking, and my added touch, I have finally made my husband a good quality homemade meat pie that is healthy.

Ingredients: 1Tbsp olive oil; 1 onion; 1 potato; 1 1/2 kg eye fillet; 1Tbsp tomato paste; 4 cups beef stock; 1/2 cup red wine;m 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce; 2 Tbsp cornflour; 1/4 cup water; sea salt & cracked black pepper (if you want a copy of the recipe email me)



Aren't they cute?!?!?!