Welcome 2010

Happy new year, dear readers.  I hope that this year, 2010, will be better than the last, but honestly, do you think it will? I suspect more of the same bullshit. Ok, that's totally pessimistic of me, I know. For the record, my new year resolution is to "be a better person" and this probably includes having a more positive attitude. Really, what do I have to complain about that is so bad? I have a job that I like, a husband who loves me, 2 dogs and 2 cats who need me and are nice and cuddly, and I live in an absolutely gorgeous country that's not overpopulated (yet), New Zealand.  I also lucky to have good friends here, many of whom I saw over the xmas/new-year holiday.

We certainly have enjoyed gorgeous weather lately, and it coincided neatly with my holiday time off.  Darin and I headed up to our land in Maungaturoto on Boxing Day and camped for 4 nights. The first day we went scuba diving with Poor Knights Divers.  We have dived with them before, and they are really great. They took us to Tye Dye Arch and Blue Mao Mao Arch, both places we hadn't been before and are infrequently dived due to conditions.

We were lucky to hit a calm day.  There were tons of fish, stingrays, eels, and nudibranchs.

The colors on the rocks were amazing. It was an excellent way to spend a day off work. When we returned to our garage on our land, we filled up a plastic tub with fresh water, from our tank that collects rainwater from the roof, to rinse our dive gear. Then we hung our gear on our trailer to dry. We had a hot shower using our propane water heater, which is hung in a private location in the trees behind the

garage.  The dogs obviously couldn't come, so we left them in the orchard. They seemed to handle this just fine, so we did it again the next day when we visited Bayley's Beach and Kai Iwi lakes.  Both places are so beautiful, just look at these photos.

Trout are stocked in the sand dune lakes of Kai Iwi, and I waded out into the soft sandy warm water to cast into the deep part of the lake. We didn't get any nibbles, but it was still a great afternoon.  Afterwards we drove to the west coast beach, Bayley's, which remided us a lot of the Torrey Pines beach reserve in San Diego, only bigger, and you can drive on Bayley's (and no Torrey Pines).

We spent the remainder of our time up north on our land getting work done, playing with the dogs, and reading. 

I recently read Night Watch, a Russian novel about "others", made into two movies which are really fun, Night Watch and Day Watch.  Thus I followed up with the Swedish vampire novel, Let Me In, made into a movie also, Let the Right One In. The book was excellent, better than the movie!

We celebrated New Year's Eve with friends and MEAT. Here's Darin, Master of the Grill:

 

I got some great specials at the butcher shop on the 31st, because they were to be closed for the following two days.  I used the leftover beef rib meat (yummy!) in a home-made chili with whole, dried New Mexico and chipotle chilis, which I've brought from the US and keep in either the freezer or

refridgerator, ground up in a coffee grinder. 

We've borrowed my sister's wood chipper (visions of Fargo, the movie!) to do some yard work. Our yard has been seriously neglected, and the previous owners planted a lot of plants, so this quickly grew into a huge job.  It's great to have all the wood chips to put into the compost, under the plants, and on the path around the garden. 

The garden is looking pretty sad, unfortunately.  I had one good cucumber, but the ones on the vines now are turning yellow and the leaves have the powdery mildew. The zucchini has the blossom end rot and is getting the mildew as well. The cabbage (my first) looks pretty good, despite all the green catepillars eating the leaves.  The lettuce I pulled out and fed to the chickens because it was stunted and started to bolt before really growing at all.  The silverbeet (aka chard) looks really good though, and the tomatoes are setting fruit.  I have two tiny jalapeno peppers.  I guess I'm a lazy gardener; I don't weed, feed, or water as often as needed. 

One more day of vacation, then back to work.  I'll be opening two trials for recruitment in January that I helped set up: One is a radiotherapy trial for prostate cancer, the other is a medical oncology trial for Wyeth's HER-2 + breast cancer drug, neratinib.  Should be exciting! 

American in Niue, part 4: The end of the holiday

Palaha CaveWednesday
We tried to sleep in as much as possible (with all the roosters crowing, earplugs are a definite help!). I had come down with a sore throat and cough, despite feeling fine on the trip from Auckland. We were personally asked about our health before we got on the plane- all the Niue passengers did. However, I am certain it was not swine flu (this is what they were looking to prevent), just a minor cold. I took a couple of a vitamin supplements, one called “Hairy Lemon” and the other from the US called “Emergen-C” I also had some pseudoephedrine/antihistamine with me, so taking that before diving helped keep my ears clear. I’m really glad that I brought along my fleece-lined, wind-barrier boat coat for whale watching on Wednesday.The whale watching trip was in the afternoon, with Dive Niue, who take out 6 passengers after scuba diving in the mornings. We were out on the water for about 3 hours, and we got some great whale interactions. I am really impressed by the operators of Dive Niue, they are professional and kind, well organized and hard-working. As the only dive operators on the island, you really don’t have a choice, so fortunately they are really good.
The weather was very nice- not too hot, so nice for walking around, but warm enough for swimming. The water is nice and warm too. I was concerned that the high surf would prevent us from our whale trip, but it wasn’t bad. Of course, the point of these boat trips is to fall out into the water to either scuba dive or snorkel. And when we got into the water, here is what we saw. This is my best whale photo, taken while it was surfacing to breathe. On Thursday, we explored some more caves. One of them, I won't even call a cave, had human bones in it, obviously very old bones. I didn't see any skulls or teeth so can't verify that they were human. Creepy yes, but in line with the common sight of graves along the road, in people's yards. Some of the graves are lavishly decorated and have roofs over them. These are in contrast to the sometimes shabby appearance of the homes (remember, there was a big cyclone in 2004). Along with the quiet, sparsely populated and rugged environment, the overall effect was a bit spooky. We loved it though. We went to the most excellent cave on the island, Palaha, and had it all to ourselves.Here it is from the water, and here we are inside of it. Early inhabitants used to live in the caves, and this one in particular is huge. We hung out there and read our books in the shade, listening to the surf. Thursday evening we had a dinner out. It was served buffet style and had a really good variety. We got to try the local land crab, "uga".
We had to fly back to Auckland on Friday, which was Saturday in Auckland. We would definitely go back there! It's no beach and sand island, but we loved the slow pace and uncrowded places. As I mentioned before, it is rough landscape, but very unique and special.

American in Niue, part 3

Monday
Our first dive day was Monday, and we met the boat at the Alofi wharf. As there is no harbor, boats are launched via a winch.

The inflatable boat takes four divers and one driver/divemaster. On the way to the dive site, we had dolphins cruise with us. We hooked up to a mooring ball near the Limu pools area and dove a site known as Twin or Two Caves. I was comfortable in my 3 ml neoprene with a beanie. The highlights of diving in Niue include the incredibly clear water and hence terrific visibility, and the caverns and caves. And the whales- during our surface interval, we watched a group of 3 beaching and spy-hopping, and saw another two that were approachable. Annie, our divemaster, got the boat in front of them and told us we could slip into the water with snorkel and fins. I didn’t see them at first, but then they came into view, out of the blue- right below me. It was so incredible to be in the same water space as them. The most visible one just sort of hung out below us for a good 5-10 minutes before swimming off. Our second dive was called Bubble Cave. You swim into a cave and come up above water into an enclosed cave. The structure was so interesting to swim through, and the water so clear, there was nothing to be scared of despite being surrounded by snakes swimming all around. They breathe air but live in the water, and are curious so they will sometimes follow divers around.

The other divers in the boat recommended the lemon cheesecake ice cream at one of the shops, so we had some to recharge after diving.

Tuesday
Our second day of diving departed from Avatele ramp, about 15 minutes south from Alofi. The surf was a bit larger today, and so it was good that our dive sites were relatively close. The first was Matavai Bommie, a small coral head, and the second was Snake Gully. Both sites had much more coral than the previous day’s sites, and also a wide variety of beautiful fish. Darin had his underwater video camera with him and got some great footage of the fish. Snake Gully was my favorite, because it had lots of fish and coral variety as well as a gorgeous cave and cavern. Not to mention lots of snakes! They are curious and not dangerous.
For lunch, Darin cut up the yellowfin tuna for sashimi, and I made rice- both eaten with soy sauce. We ate tuna again for dinner with one of the package pasta meals I brought along. Diving really tires you out, and I was coming down with a cold, so we watched a couple movies while here- Hancock, which was good except the ending, and Burn After Reading, in which Brad Pitt totally aced his role.

Scuba photos from the Poor Knights

Last weekend we were back in Tutukaka, and got to experience some great visibility and dive sites. This trip we dove 2 days, with 2 different operators. Darin and I decided we prefer Poor Knights Divers to Dive Tutukaka, mainly because Dive Tutukaka is a larger operator, has bigger boats, and thus has more divers on board. Poor Knights has a new, fast catamaran. The dive operators seem to visit the same areas, so there's no difference there. Lunch, however, was much better on Poor Knights- we got fresh smoked, locally caught marlin, mmm!! And, they gave us a kick ass deal on the trip. But really no complaints about Dive Tutukaka- in fact I really liked the dive site overviews and background about the islands. Oh, and their steps to get back on the boat are better.

Let me see if I can remember the dive site names... my favorite was probably Middle Arch, for its overall healthy fish, encrutsing coral, and kelp environment. This is where we saw the boarfish (first fish photo) and tons of stingrays. Second favorite was Jan's Cave or Cove. You swim into this channel, getting shallower as it narrows, then under an arch, and surface inside a private "lost world". There's a big dark cave, too. The other sites were Trevor's reef and Nursery Cove. The visibility was nearly as good as in Hawaii, and the water was still warm. There was only minor current surge at Middle Arch. We've been to the Poor Knights Islands 3 times now, and even though the conditions are calm at the islands, it has always been rough crossing. It is so worth the ride, though! The islands are a marine preserves, so there are lots of HUGE snapper, and other yummy fish like the odd-looking John Dory and Kingfish. Well I guess the photos can show you just how great it was. What was also great was meeting new people. We stayed with our friend Roberta and her coworker/friends Graham and Darren. Graham makes a mean cup of tea! I also met a couple people from a dive club in Auckland, which I have been intending to join. Getting away from work was just so great. I try to avoid posting anything about work, because it's not often fun, and this blog is my escape from thinking about work. It's a good thing they pay me.

Now another weekend is at its end, and I dread having to leave the warm fire and get into the cold bed. We worked hard and played hard this weekend: We played the game Settlers with my sister and her husband on Friday, using the Seafarer's expansion pack for the first time, and I won (narrowly). Great game, sort of like Risk but with resource cards instead of armies. Saturday, Darin rented a woodchipper and made mulch out of all the tree and shrub trimmings from our yard. We also picked up the new hens, which were bought from a nice family in nearby Henderson Valley. The hens are 2 years old, so egg production had dropped off, and the dad wanted to make some modifications to the coop. They are very nice birds, and I was really sad we had to cull some, but we just cannot have 14 hens in our small coop. So we culled 7 of the 11 new chickens (butchered for dog and cat food). Earlier this morning, we met my friend Aleada at the monthly outdoor arts market in Titirangi, then went to lunch (home cooking, mmmm!) at another friend's house, meeting spouses and kids along too. I tried a new recipe and made pumpkin soup for dinner, since we had volunteer pumpkin plants in our garden. It turned out great! Find it here if you're interested. The recipe doesn't say to blend it, but DO put it in the blender. Also, I added 3 chipotle peppers in adobo with the pumpkin. Then you don't need the black pepper.

Northland trip

Over Easter, I had Friday and Monday off work. We had great weather for our trip up to the area known as Northland or Bay of Islands. Gorgeous, stunning vistas and remote, quiet beaches are littered everywhere up there. Our base was Paihia, which reminded us of Avalon, Catalina (California) and Anacortes Is. (Washington). We were there for 3 days, intending to dive Sat. and Sun. Instead, we only dove one day, because the sole dive operator was closed on Sunday. Why then, did the employee let us make a reservation to dive that day? And then not call us to tell us plans had changed? Our main goal of diving up there was to dive on the Rainbow Warrior, the Greenpeace boat sunk by the French, which means we'll have to go back. Sigh. Well, as soon as I saw the boat we were to dive from, I was glad we were only going one day! No toilet on board was my biggest concern. Diving makes you need to pee, and it's important to stay hydrated while diving, so it was a legitimate concern. Conditions were optimal, and with only 3 other guys on the boat, very friendly and experienced, we went to one of the advanced sites, Bird Rock (hey, just like the one off Catalina!). Lots of nice fish, a huge stingray, and Darin caught a legal sized lobster (they are called crayfish here). Our next dive site, after lunch on a small, remote beach (where we watered the bushes), was a lovely huge cave full of fish. I found a cusk eel in there, and Darin found a giant salp. Darin also found a nice big octopus, who posed for photos.

Our non-diving Sunday was spent touring around the area. We visited Kerikeri, hiked to the falls, checked out the destroyer ship that's going to be sunk as a dive site, and had a late lunch in Russell at the first hotel in New Zealand, the Duke of Marlborough. Did I mention how beautiful it is?

Sorry, now it's way past my bedtime, so the bit about the cave and the washouts will have to wait until next post.

scuba diving the Poor Knights, NZ

Here is a link to photos I took on our trip to the Poor Knights on Feb 24. Poor Knights Divers set us up in their bach and we had their nice boat to ourselves. Too bad they sent us to get our tanks filled at a diveshop that was 25 km away and closed. We learned that it is to your advantage to use the aluminium tanks they rent you in Tutukaka, because the steel tanks we rented in Auckland cost $10/tank to refill, then our dives were cancelled due to weather on Sunday. We had a great time though, and will definitely go back.

We went with fellow expat-American friends in Auckland, Adam and Roberta, and Holly and Steve. Please visit Holly's blog to read more details about our trip.