I don't think you have any clue how much pumpkin I have eaten over these past 8 months. Before I came to NZ, I had only had the pureed stuff in soup, pasta and dessert.
Kiwi's love their pumpkin. It's what potatoes are to North Americans. Total staple food. I said that I was pumpkin'd out the other week (it's what these farm-bred meat-eaters throw at us veggies with a sideways glance and a heavy sigh... to be honest, I am endlessly thrilled that Helen is a Veg too- misery loves company).
But I take it back. I'm not pumpkin'd out. Tonight's dinner was just a gong-show. This weekend was the official start of the rugby season for all our guys, so everyone stayed at the Hostel (instead of going home to visit their families). Food ran out, and the poor weekend cook was scrambling to put something together for the few dozen hungry teen boys that didn't get anything yet. I grabbed a few ingredients that they wrinkled their noses at (pumpkin) and brought it back to my room to cook up.
Pan fried pumpkin. A little salt and pepper. Yup. I'm a fan.
The weather here has been unreal. Despite the fact that we're about midway through autumn (entering Vancouver's November equivalent), it's still shorts and t-shirt weather! It's been in the 20's and sunny for weeks, but tonight it has changed. The rain is pouring down and there's a definite chill in the air. The highs this week are supposed to be in the mid-teens (with snow in the higher areas). It looks like NZ is beginning to mourn our departure.
One week left. At this time next week, Scotty and I will be sitting in some wait area in Fiji. Fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly and we can spend 2 of our 5-hour stop-over on the beach. I'm not sure how kind I'll be to my travel buddy at the end of our 30 hour trek back home (yes, 30 flipping hours). Hopefully I'll be all hopped up on the excitement of seeing all these people that I grew an even greater fondness for (distance does that) that my exhaustion will go into that over-tired hilarious mode, where everything sends me into a laughing fit. That's the best.
Either way, there'll be tears. I'm just hoping (for Scotty's sake) they're the laughing kind.
I was so busy putting that video together and then getting some souvenirs for those special little nephews and nieces of ours that I haven't even mentioned our trip to Queenstown.
Keeping with the trend of our travels,
it was amazing.
"They're pills that create a sort of temporary forgettingness. So if somebody finds out how you do a trick, you just give 'em one of these, and they forget the whole thing. It's a mainstay of the magician's toolkit, like how clowns always have a rag soaked in ether." Gob Bluth, Arrested Development (From IMDB)
IT'S THAT TIME OF NIGHT WHEN THE THE MAGIC TRICKS ARE DONE AND NOW THEY TRY TO BENCH PRESS EACH OTHER.
I don't think there was a more scenic time to go than when we did. The autumn colours were out in full force. Bathed that bright golden autumn sunshine, and then contrasted against that bluer than blue sky- I just sighed over and over and over again.
SWOOOOOOON
HOW CRAZY IS IT THAT NEXT WEEK I GO FROM AUTUMN TO SPRING?
No trip to Queenstown would be complete without a little bungee. We just watched. Brian inquired about whether you could go free if you went nude (as a certain someone wouldn't even bat an eyelash at that kind of opportunity), but they said no- you can go nude, but it'll still cost you $200 bucks.
So we just watched.
And no one went naked.
THIS GIRL WAS A ROCKSTAR. PERFECT FORM. DIDN'T SCREAM FOR HER LIFE. JUST DID A LITTLE WHO-HOO!
ROMANTIC WAY TO SPEND $400
THIS POOR GUY HAD TO BE PUSHED.
THIS WOULD BE ME IF I WENT.
THIS WOULD BE ME AND SCOTT (EXCEPT SCOTTY WOULD PROBABLY BE SMILING... AND NAKED)
HA HA.
THESE SIGNS ARE EVERYWHERE IN QUEENSTOWN. IN EVERY LANGUAGE. THE ENDLESS WAR ON POOPY PAPERS.
We spent our Saturday on top of Bob's Peak. At 1,425 feet above the lake, it gave us an eagle's view of the city with the Remarkables Mountain range as the backdrop. Scotty and I likened it to Grouse Mountain (we even had a good trek up to the top).
STAIRCASE THAT JUST DROPS INTO THIN AIR (FOR THE ZIP-LINERS)
QUEENSTOWN WITH THE REMARKABLES IN THE BACKGROUND
We spread out our packed lunches and had a picnic on the edge of the mountain. First row seats to Queenstown.
WATCHING THE PARAGLIDERS GO OFF THE EDGE
THE FIRST SUNDAY AT CHURCH- WE'RE RUNNING LATE. CHURCH HAS STARTED AND AS WE CROSS THE GRASS OUT FRONT, MAYA YELLS, "I'VE GOT 2 DADDY'S" AS BRIAN AND SCOTTY WALK IN IN MATCHING OUTFITS.
We donned our helmets and took the lift up to the street luge track so that Scotty could feel the wind in his beard. With only a pull brake and four wheels, we sped down the hill on these plastic sleds (they could really go). Helen and Maya left us all in the dust on our first trip down and I howled like a hyena at Scotty trying to videotape us and steer his luge with his feet.
HA HA. LOOK AT SCOTTY.
THE LUGE TRACK. INSANELY SCENIC.
The next day we met up with an old house master (he finished in December and moved back to Queenstown to help out with the family business) for a little 4-wheel tour (the family business). When I say "little" I mean 3+ hours along trails, through giant puddles and over motocross trials.
I HAD SOME SERIOUS LITTLE SISTER SYNDROME. JUST WANTED TO KEEP UP WITH THE BOYS.
Despite the steady stream of dust coming from the guide in front, I couldn't stop grinning. I even told myself to smile with my mouth shut, but the next thing I knew, I was running my tongue over my mud caked teeth and telling myself to smile with my mouth shut all over again.
SCOTTY
BRIAN
DUST FACES.
Lachlan (our guide) put Maya on the front of his quad (he was the one doing the wheelie in the video). I had enough trouble keeping myself on the bike down over the bumps- I couldn't imagine keeping a 5 year old on too, but I guess starting your riding career at 3 makes those kinds of things easy. Lachy has been a national quad-bike and motocross competitor for years and was training himself up to qualify for this years races. Two weeks before the qualifiers, he flipped his bike, was knocked unconscious and had to be air lifted to the hospital. True to any guy who has always led the extreme sports lifestyle, he was pretty relaxed as he told us about his accident- sandwiching the fact that his mother actually had said her goodbyes to him in the hospital between the hallucinations (upon waking from his head injury) that the medivac staff were aliens with no heads and that he failed the comprehension tests (after spending who knows how long in the hospital) because the lady pronounced "sandwich" really strangely and it distracted him (not because he was brain-damaged).
He captured his crash on video. If you go ahead to 3:20, you'll get a really eery feeling after watching it (it's not gruesome or anything, just creepy).
Plans for the final week include packing, crafting (i'm not telling, you'll find out when I'm home) and a few last beach visits. I'll try and do one last post before we take off. I never got around to posting about a few other places we've seen.
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