Sausage Sizzle

Here in New Zealand, no gathering is complete without a "sausage sizzle". Whether it is a school function, sports team party, family gathering or fundraiser, sausages will be the main attraction. It is the equivalent to pizza at American gatherings. There is a distinct science to the "sausage sizzle". The only type of sausage available here is a low cost, pureed meat sausage with very little flavor added. The sausage is grilled on a propane "grill" that consists of a flat iron surface creating a frying pan. The sausage is then wrapped in a piece of heavily buttered bread, tomato sauce is slathered on, it is stuck in a serviette (napkin) and handed to you. After being here for 10 months I have buttered more bread than I can remember and turned as many sausages on the grill. I am amazed at the amount of sausages that are consumed each time. I will not be sad to say "goodbye" to sausages when we leave New Zealand, but I will miss the activity of making and eating the sausages in a group of people!

No Worries - Kris

A visit from home!

We had a fabulous time when my parents were able to come visit us this summer. The kids and I drove up to Auckland and picked my parents up from the airport. We had so looked forward to this visit with them. We took them on a whirl-wind tour of the North Island visiting Waitomo caves, Rotorua, and driving home through Lake Waikeremoana.
I had not yet driven the road through the lake mountains but had heard it was something I needed to do while here. Looking at the map I decided that this would be the route home despite the fact that we were going through very windy mountain roads, 50 miles of it unsealed (gravel) in a 9 passenger van. I began to get a little worried as we crossed a sealed (paved) bridge and realized we were still bumping up and down. A glance in the rearview mirror confirmed my suspissions. We had a flat tire. There was no shoulder to pull over on so we just stopped 1/2 way between two curves and began the change. Fortunately another car did come by and help my dad change the tire!
During the 2 weeks at our house my parents got to take a helicopter ride, see dolphins in the ocean, play on the beach, hike, sit in hot pools, and visit Gisborne and Napier. We had friends over to meet them and enjoyed showing them our little town. We dined on fish n' chips, fresh lobster caught by Chad, fresh vension from a friend and pippies (small clams) from another friend. It felt so good to share our life with my parents. Now talking on the phone is so different as they can actually picture what I am talking about or where I am sitting.
After 2 1/2 weeks Elena & I took them to Wellington for a few days. Blondely following GPS we did another crazy route with my dad hanging on for dear life in the passanger seat! I was able to see more things in Wellington including riding the cable car up the mountain and exploring the coast.
Leaving them at the airport was especially difficult. As Elena said "goodbye" and turned around to leave, the tears began trickling down her cheeks. I picked her up and quietly walked to the car. During the 8 hours driving home I began to wonder it my parents had really been here or was it all just a very good dream? We miss our family and friends from MI so much yet I realize that when we leave here there are people we will miss dearly as well. A little part of us has been left in each place we have lived. But I would rather have a bit of me enriched and left than not have those special times with people in the first place.

No Worries - Kris

the A&P show

I love going to the fair in the summer but I was amazed at how I felt as if I had stepped back into time watching the events of the fair here in Wairoa as people show-cased the skills they used every day on their stations. Here in New Zealand the fair is called the A&P show. Agriculture and Pastoral.

The kids and I headed over on Fri. afternoon to catch the very beginning horse events. We met some friends from England and looked in amazement at the spread they had set out to nibble on all afternoon. The Europeans really know how to picnic in style. We settled in on the blankets and enjoyed a lazy summer afternoon under a big tree watching English style ridding, dressage, and jumping.

In the evening we headed back as a family to watch the speed shearing competition. What fun! The sheep just laid there limply when the shearers grabbed them and began shearing. The music was going getting everyone into it and the announcer sounded a bit like an auctioneer! The winner sheared his sheep in only 19 sec! On Sat. the sheep shearing continued all day with team events and timed trials seeing how many sheep one person could shear in a set time period.

On Sat. morning we fought the crowds (o.k. no crowds, this is Wairoa!) to get into the fairgrounds to see a horse show we Americans could identify with - the Rodeo! Bull fighting, barrel racing, calf roping all done in Western style. Some ranchers still use horses to round up their sheep although many have switched over to 4 wheelers.

Taking a break from the sun we headed into the domestics barn and found several women spinning the wool fleece into yarn. Several more women were in rocking chairs knitting the wool into sweaters. A room near by had the fleece (wool from the sheep) entrants and the winners.

I also had an entry in the domestics barn. I had been working on a Crazy Quilt for the past 1 1/2 years finishing just 2 weeks before the A&P show. Some friends suggested that I enter the quilt into the show. What fun to win 1st place in patchwork! Well, there wasn't very much competition but it was still a very rewarding experience. I am beginning to feel like I really fit in here. I gave the quilt to my mom when they arrived for a visit.

Just outside the domestics barn the "iron man" competition was going on. Teams of 3 had to do a variety of events including sheep shearing, wood chopping, hay bale rolling, pig carrying and other such things.

As we were heading back towards the main strip we stopped to watch the dog trials. Each trial took between 10-15 min. as the dog steered a group of sheep through a course. It was fascinating to watch these dogs work the sheep. The master typically carried a cane. He rarely lifted the cane but occasionally used it to create a visual barrier causing the sheep to walk in a different direction. The sheep were truly not interested in walking through a course. They would much rather eat grass. The patience of the farmer was amazing as well.

To finish up our day we watched some wood-chopping. If you won a round of wood-chopping you could enter the next round with a 9 sec. penalty. If you watch the man in the front of this video he had just won 4 rounds giving him a 27 sec. penalty. There was a 3 way tie for first in this round. Watch the blocks of wood as they split in half.

We were tired as we headed back to the car for the 5 min. drive home. It was fun to see all the things going on around us in every day life.

No Worries - Kris

The Agrodome

We walked into the hall and waited. Grandma, Grandpa, Damon, Maddie, Mom and I. There were a bunch of sheep lined up, I guessed they were probably going to use them for the show. There was one that looked old - like an old man, gross, and most of all dirty! And there was of course one that looked like he did not want to get dirty at all and he looked as though he was a statue just waiting for someone to take a photo of him!
We sat down and there were about 20 places for sheep to stand for the show. A man walked out and he introduced us to the first sheep (the old man one!) The sheep knew what to do. He raced right up to the top where his food was! The man said this kind of wool was really good and used for lots of things like sweaters. It was Merino - the number one best wool sheep in New Zealand.
After he was done with the sheep he brought out some dogs and because he could not use real sheep for the dog to round up on the little stage he brought out some ducks! There are two kinds of farm dogs. "Hunt away" dogs are the most commonly used (they bark and that makes the sheep go away). There are also the heading dogs. Instead of barking they stay low and go around to direct the sheep in different directions. He asked for some volunteer kids so I raised my hand and he asked me to come up! Some others came up too and a lady gave us some bottles filled with milk. Then he said when I say "GO" we will have a race to drink them! Ready and "GO" the lady opened up a door and about 10 lambs came racing out! Each one of them raced to a different bottle! They drank those bottles sooo fast and it was fun feeding them! After that he sheered a sheep and then the show was done!

- Elena

The Luge

I could see people soaring down the huge hill as we stepped out of the car. I was really excited and couldn't help but imagine myself flying down the hill. We quickly walked towards the entry door and went in to be met by none other than..... a huge line. Waiting in line was the worst part of the whole thing. Then we remembered that we had not thought of how many rides to buy and how many we should each get to do, so we let some one in front of us to give us time to think. Finally we came to a decision, but unfortunately the person we let in front of us happened to be someone leading a Japanese cruise. As a result we had to let the rest of the cruise go in front too. After we paid we started to get anxious, the people were flying down the hills and occasionally you would here the screeching tires. We rode up the hill on gondolas which gave a good view over lake Rotorua. Getting to the top we jumped out and speed-walked over to the helmet boxes. After picking the smallest size we could find we looked around and headed towards the nearest place to go down on "The Luge". We all got into our carts and we were off speeding down the hill, then coming to a halt at the bottom, unable to resist a broad grin. Then we took a ski lift back up. We did the same again another two times, wishing we could do it more. We took the gondola to get down, an end to our journey.

- Damon

The Waitomo Caves

When my Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us, one of the things we did with them is the Waitomo Caves. The caves were really big and had lots of glowworms. The glowworms were on the cave ceiling and looked like tiny stars. The glowworms catch bugs to eat by hanging a sticky string from the ceiling. The bugs see the glowworm's light and they go toward it and then get caught. The glowworms life cycle goes egg, larva, pupa, adult. The eggs hatch after 20 days. After the eggs hatch they are larva and they catch food. Then they are pupa and that is when they are in a cocoon. Adults live only a few days and in the that few days they mate.
We saw some stalagmites (stalagmites look like icicles made from rock on the floor) and some stalactites (stalactites look like icicles made from rock hanging from the ceiling).
To get out of the cave we had to ride in a boat. We had to be quiet in the boat and it was completely dark except for the glowworms.
In 1887 the caves were first explored by Chief Tane and the English explorer Fred Mace. They got into the caves by building a raft of flax stems and they only had candles for light. After exploring the caves, Chief Tane began leading tours through the caves in 1889.

- Maddie

Crayfish-ing

A couple of weeks ago I got my first chance to dive since getting my certificate back in November. Compared to the experience of learning to dive in mirk that made for about 3 feet of visibility, this was heaven. I went with another of the docs in town. He was a marine biologist in a former life, but gave it up to go into medicine. So this is the guy to go diving with.

He's got a bach (bachelor pad, a NZ slang thing--most who have them aren't bachelors, just people who didn't know what else to do with their extra money) out in Mahia, the town up the road from us. It's a peninsula, and either one side or the other usually has decently calm water. You can see it on the map about 20 miles from us up the coast. Anyway, we went down the coast a mile or so from his place and did a shore dive. A shore dive is when one parks away from the water, puts on lots of equipment (at the car), then lugs himself down to the surf and (if he survives) gets in and has a nice dive. The best part is not having a boat payment.

So a crayfish is a Red Rock Lobster. Yeah, sounds much more appetizing that way, doesn't it? Anyway, it is legal to just go down to the bottom, poke your head into any deep, dark cave or under any giant rock on the seabed, and pull out a lobster if you can. It's the greatest. One benefit of putting your head into sea caves and rock crevices is that the wetsuit gets warm rather quickly. The traditional way to catch crayfish is with one's hand. I agree, it was bad enough with the crevices and stuff, but it's tradition. Well, you know what I always say--tradition, schmadition. Most people who care about their limbs use a tool. The guy I went with had a hollow metal rod with a steel cable running through it; stuck out the end was a loop of that cable. He pulls the near end, and the loop at the far end gets tighter. See how that works? It's not the cray we're defeating here, it's bad Mr Crevice. The doc I was diving with says crayfish have got something going for them, they've been around for millions more years than us. Well, I've got two things to say to the crayfish: cerebellum and opposable thumbs.

After the looping comes the fighting the lobster into a bag under water. Later after that comes the dipping the lobster into melted butter, which is what one must focus very intently on whilst dragging the many pounds of equipment (strapped tightly to the body) out onto the rocks and up the beach to the car.

Mainly, it's not terrifying at all and lobster tastes good, so I think I'll do it again. Lobster must be 54mm wide at the tail to keep, and the daily limit is 6 lobster per person. Life, as they say, is tough.

- Chad