Steve and Holly's wedding!

I love weddings: the guests from out-of-town (and, in this case, -country), everyone dressed up nice, beautiful flowers, cake, and the expressions of love in front of the assembled family and friends. The first wedding I have attended in New Zealand occurred the first weekend of February. Our fellow American expatriates, Holly and Steve, got married in Nelson, where they have recently moved. In fact, they are actually building a home on a large piece of land in Upper Moutere (map here).

Their wedding was wonderful; the weather was perfect, the food divine, lovely wine, smart, fun, and interesting guests. The wedding, entertainment, dinner, and dancing was followed the next day by a bus trip to Holly and Steve's property in Moutere for a terrific BBQ and walk around the developing land. The entertainment was the Twisty Twins, who are in fact twin sisters who perform outstanding feats of acrobatics.

Two days still wasn't enough, so I'm intending to return for another visit in a few months. There is so much to do in the area, and it's just beautiful.

Here's a photo of me, Darin (spouse), Eric (brother-in-law), and Barb (sister) at the wedding.

Darin and I stayed a couple of extra days so that we could do an overnight sailboat trip to the Abel Tasman park.  We went with Nelson Sailing Adventures, and had a great time. There were two bean bag chairs at the front of the boat, and the fresh ocean air is just wonderful. 

Again, we had terrific weather. The trip from Nelson to Abel Tasman was about 3.5 hours. We stopped at a few islands, hiked, swam, snorkeled, star gazed, relaxed, and drank numerous bottles of wine. Holly and Steve joined us on this trip, and they enjoyed the opportunity to relax.  Holly got to drive the sailboat.  Darin took me on a ride in the dingy around one of the small islands we visited.

Below is a shot from one of the islands we hiked on. I was impressed to see two kinds of birds that I have never seen before, the south island Robin and the Bellbird (check out their song here, amazing!) I believe this is Adele island, where pests are controlled so that the birds are protected.

The sailboat was a catamaran, and had 4 berths (bedrooms) and 2 bathrooms for the captain, two couples, and another woman, a young German woman who works at the Anchor Bar in Nelson harbor. Below is a photo of our boat at anchor at one of the small islands. 

The captain set up a BBQ grill at the back of the boat and cooked us steak and chicken for dinner, served with a beautiful salad and baby potatoes.

I think seeing the Abel Tasman Park this way gave us a unique perspective, because we went to the nearby islands without having to kayak or water taxi. We got lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking, in a real bed (not a tent), next to the island with all the birds, and in the morning wake up to their dawn chorus.  The stars- or  I should say galaxy, were the most impressive I have ever seen.  We had two days on the boat; we left at 9 am on Monday and returned to dock about 5 pm on Tuesday.

I am really looking forward to going back, spending more time exploring and visiting. It's a great getaway from Auckland, and only about 70 min on the plane.

Give me the bad news first

Do I see a silver lining?
In my last post, I described my attempt to get Thyro-tabs into New Zealand for my dog. I called the ACVM contact person to see if they’d received the Application for Approval to Import a Veterinary Medicine I sent two weeks ago. The person called back and told me that the decision was mailed this week. I have a feeling of doom now, based on the lack of communication on the phone. If it were good news, wouldn’t they just tell me? To be fair, my question was answered and that should be enough. I will have the answer to my Application for Approval to Import a Veterinary Medicine by early next week. If it fails, this ordeal will have cost me about $200 dollars. And I will have to continue to pay $119 every 83 days to give my dog 12 pills a day for the rest of his life. Groan.
This feeling of gloom may be due to the recent consultation with my dentist. I was really bummed out to learn I have a cracked tooth. The dentist will clean the teeth, fix the cracked tooth with a partial crown, remove the other amalgam fillings with decay around them, laser out the bacteria, and fill in the holes with Cerec. The cost for this work is estimated to be $3800, and I’ve paid $200 for the diagnostic pictures and consultation already. There is no dental insurance coverage in New Zealand, so I’m absolutely floored by the cost. On the other hand, I really want to get my teeth fixed, and ultimately, $4000 is not that much when you consider it over the next 30 years. I get horribly stressed when going to the dentist for a cleaning, because of sensitivity. This dentist will do all the work in one sitting (3-4 hrs) and give me a benzodiazepine and halcyon prior to extensive dental work to relax me and give me a short-term memory loss, so I feel that he is rather considerate and kind. Also, this dentist is recognized as one of the best in his field. Still, this is a large, unexpected sum that means dramatic cutbacks in spending.

I have lots of opportunities to spend money this winter on things much more fun than dental work. My niece from Minnesota is visiting for 2 months, and a getaway to Wellington, the International Film Festival, and my birthday are all on the agenda in July. Our old house needs the roof replaced.

So that's enough whinging, I do have some good news. Today our vet called to tell us the application to import Fargo's thyroid medication was APPROVED!! Darin picked up the paperwork from the vet's office and is going to the MAF office at the airport tomorrow to pick it up. I had convinced myself that my try would fail. Wow, that was a learning experience. Now I will have to get a nice little present for my vet, Dr. Doogle at Swanson Road Vet, because I couldn't have done this without his help.

Darin finished his Dayskipper practical course. There was challenging weather, and uncomfortable sleeping conditions, so he was glad to come home to his own bed.

Last weekend, I took a free course on making compost. Rob, our teacher, has an organic orchard and garden in Riverhead, near Kumeu, north about 20 min. from our home. Here's a photo of what we piled into the 3-sided space to make "hot" compost. Ingredients included paper egg cartons, newspaper, wood chips, canna lily stalks, cow manure, hay and chicken poop from the henhouse, grass clippings, several wheelbarrows full of cold compost, and comfrey (the leaves on top). I came home enthused about compost and went to work on improving mine. My effort was half-assed, because I don't have the proper 1 meter square minimum space. We also learned about Bokashi, which seems like less work than worm farming, and could be utilized by every household in any climate.

The above photo shows Rob digging into the delicious plant food.

Dog days of summer

We have been in a holding pattern since the agreement to purchase the farm (which needs a clever name, any suggestions are welcome). Several phone calls to the solicitor/lawyer, Kaipara District Council, and the bank have advanced the campaign, and next week we'll "go unconditional". This means we'll pay for it.

The summer has been very dry. The weather has been gorgeous, really spectacular and perfect for the beach. I took Fargo to Bethell's (the local west coast) beach on Monday, and gave him a bath afterwards. The garden has needed water more than I have been watering, so the tomatoes are struggling, but there are plenty of small green ones on the vines. The zucchini plant just keeps giving, and the silverbeet/chard too. The pumpkin (volunteer plants) has dominated one corner of the garden and spilled over into the rest of the yard. There are several pumpkins on the vine looking mighty tasty. The lemons, OH the lemons, so many, what to do? I kept thinking I should make cookies or muffins or sorbet or something, but it never happened. Finally I remembered the saying that "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade"- so I did. We developed a delicious strawberry lemonade with lots of ice, using fresh strawberries, that was perfect for these warm summer afternoons. As they say here in NZ, "choice" (SO 80's!) We are going to have a massive crop of blackberries, which are growing on thornless vines, fortunately. They are currently plagued by little grey moths, so I've been going out there after work to spray them with my homemade pesticide garlic spray. I have no idea if it works or not, and I might be infusing the berries with garlic- yikes! I'll find out soon enough, eh!

We saw the movie Cloverfield last weekend, and really liked it. I thought I might get motion sickness from the handheld camera movement, but it didn't bother me. It was predictable, but that was part of the fun. I recently found a few DVDs for less than $10, so bought House of 1000 Corpses, The Thing, and Evil Dead 2 to add to my collection. I had an awesome collection on VHS before we moved here, and am trying to rebuild it slowly on DVD.

Darin is away this week, so this is a perfect opportunity to watch horror movies.I watched House of 1000 Corpses tonight after being inspired by all the fresh raw meat we picked up at the home kill butcher's home. It cost $1 per kg, and the bill was $188 so I guess 188 kg! Well that's based on the cow's carcass weight, so the cut meat would be less than that. Darin saved the liver, heart, and tongue for the pets. I fed them the tongue this week, and they really liked it. Barb gave her cow tongues to a Philipino co-worker, who made a dish with them she claims her family is very fond of. Bones were also saved for the pets, but they look good enough to use to make stock.

Darin is on his 5 day sailing course, and having a great time. He's in cell/mobile phone range sometimes so calls or texts in the evening or morning. I encouraged him to take this course because I was sure he'd be good at it, and pretty sure he'd enjoy it. I have such a hard time finding good gifts for him, but this one is worthy. Expensive, but worth it because now he will have a skill he can apply recreationally.