Happy Birthday, Fargo!

My Rottweiler Fargo had a birthday party today, and we were so pleased by all the people who came to see him! Seems like such a frivolous thing, to have a birthday party for a dog, but 12 is OLD for a Rottweiler. In the photo, I am holding the liver cake that I made for him (minced liver, apple, carrot, oatmeal, olive oil, and flour). I honestly didn't expect him to live this long. Just 5 months ago he had an ultrasound showning neoplasms on his liver and adrenal gland, with no reasonable treatment.  He's gained back the weight that he lost, and his gut seems to be working normally, so YAY! He is a very cool dog- relaxed yet still playful.  He went to Murawai beach a couple days before his birthday to celebrate. 

This old boy used to get so angry when we helped him into the truck, but now he seems to understand it is necessary for him to go anywhere, and is more tolerant of our assistance.  He doesn't get to go off property very often, as he has poor control over his rear legs, but he didn't fall down at the beach.  Best of all, he wasn't sore afterwards. 

Below is Zeus at Bethells beach. Bethells is just south of Murawai, but you can't drive directly from one to the other. You have to make an effort to drive to these west coast beaches, along twisty, narrow roads. Both beaches have areas that allow dogs off leash.  I look foward to the day when he is as obedient and reliable as Fargo.

April, aka Autumn in Auckland 2011

The weather has finally turned wet and cool, which gives me an excuse to sit inside in front of my computer to update my blog.  Obviously the weather was really nice, in the photo above, taken at Karekare beach west of Auckland a few weeks ago. It is probably my favorite beach because it is so beautiful and quiet.  It's huge too.  I took Zeus with me, and we explored the exapanding sand. He is now nearly 7 months old, and is the star of his puppy obedience class. We're continuing our effort, and making excellent progress. He has outgrown his collar and is bigger than his mum Ruby.     

We have 3 feijoa trees in our yard, and have had a massive crop of fruit this year. 

The fruit grew bigger than I have ever seen them before.  When I picked them up off the ground, I would tear open any bruised fruit and squeeze out the tasty insides for Zeus to eat. It didn't take him long to determine that he could do this himself. I've been finding peeled feijoa skins all around the porch and yard. 

 There's more than enough to share. I've taken multiple bags of them to work to give away, made several batches of feijoa and ginger jam, and many batches of feijoa and date loaf.  I'm not sure why they call it loaf, when it is more like cake. It's like banana bread- that too is like cake, and yet it's called bread.

Last month, my sister received her New Zealand citizenship. You must be a permanent resident for 5 years, and be a citizen in good standing. I think they make you explain any driving or parking violations.

She's still able to keep her USA citizenship, but she did swear allegiance to the queen. The ceremony was not too exciting, but it was very impressive to hear that people from 29 different countries were receiving their citizenship that day.  Mys sister was the only American there. People were encouraged to wear national dress. I wished there was a tea and biscuit afterward to have a chance to visit with the other new Kiwis, but apparently there was a planning oversight. Really- to not be offered tea and a biscuit (cookie) is very UN-Kiwi. 

I had this cake made for her. It is the North Island of NZ (on it's side- the top is on the right) with various kiwiana symbols on top. Note the long white clouds, gumboots, jandals, Mt Taranaki, sheep, pig, dogs, kiwi, windsurfer and Sky Tower.

There were fern fronds decorating the sides. I surprised my sister with it at work, at the start of our weekly group meeting.  Her husband and my husband were hiding in the next room with the cake, and wheeled it out on a cart, so we shared the joy with our coworkers.  

*8

Of course we went out to dinner afterwards, and had a really enjoyable meal at a new restaurant called the Foodstore.  We liked that it sourced most of the ingredients from New Zealand, used free range chicken and line caught fish, and had a seasonal menu.  For dessert, one of us ordered the pavlova, which is a very Kiwi. It was the best one I've ever had. Unfortunately, when I went back with my husband a week ago, we didn't enjoy it as much. The menu had changed and I just wasn't that impressed with my chicken.  It was served with a mild applesauce, which I thought was boring. It should have been served with a nice chutney instead. My feijoa chutney, for instance. The other new restaurant I tried recently is KK Malaysian. This place has no decoration, crap interior, and a tiny kitchen crammed with people cooking and preparing the food, which is exceptional. People will line up outside to wait for one of the few tables. The KK Special chicken is amazing, and the chicken laksa was also great.  I'll definitely go back.

Where in the world is Karamea?

Karamea is on the west coast of the south island of New Zealand, around the corner from the Abel Tasman park. To get there, you have to first get to Westport and then drive north for about an hour and a half, through twisty, winding mountains and along the Tasman Sea.  I flew down to Nelson and rented a car from there. Why did I choose to go there? Because I'd seen photos of the area, and it appeared to be a wonderland. Also, Air New Zealand had a "grabaseat" fare for relatively cheap, and I could get the time off work.  Drive time from Nelson was about 5 hours with stops. I picked up a couple of young women hitchiking, who were going to Karamea to hike the the Heaphy track.  One was another American. 

On arrival, I visited the information center for maps and directions to my lodging, the wonderful bed and breakfast, Kuaka Cottage.

It reminded me of some of the places Darin and I stayed when we travelled to Alaska. One of the owners, Mark, grew up in Homer, Alaska, so that figures. He and Hanne built this out of the local limestone. They were very helpful and welcoming to me, and served excellent breakfasts and dinner, much of it from their garden. Hanne recommended I drive to Kohaihai beach for a swim in the river after my long drive. It was absolutely gorgeous and with only a few other people around, I felt like it was my own private paradise.

This river empties into the ocean, which is just off the left side of the image.  I walked the beginning of the Heaphy track, up the hillside in the picture above, to view Scott's beach on the other side of the hill. All of the walks I did in the Karamea area were extrememly well maintained, with excellent bridges, easy grades, and well marked paths.

The next day I drove into the Oparara Basin, which is about an hours drive from Karamea  in the Kahurangi forest. The drive is primarily on a rough gravel road with unending curves and steep climbs, which was doubly adventuresome for me as the rental car I was driving was a manual (stick) shift. I used to drive a manual in the US, but using the opposite hand for shifting was a bit challenging at first. I had arranged a tour of the Honeycomb Caves, as this area is only accessable by tour.  The reason for restriction is that it's full of moa bones, and already several tons of bones have been removed. It's also 13 kilometers long, so someone could easily get lost or hurt. There are 70 entrances, and only a few are easily accessable, meaning you could accidentally fall into a hole, as did the moa, and never get out alive.

Obviously, the bones in the next photo were reassembled into the shape of the moa, which was a flightless bird that was unique because it lacked vestigial wings (that is, evolutionarily, it never developed wings in its history).  The other cool thing about moa is that there were eleven species at one time, and their only predator was the (also extinct) Haast eagle. In the Oparara basin, the cave guide said no native Maori people lived and hunted this area.There were 6 or 7 different species found in just the Honeycomb Hill Caves.

After the cave tour, we had a picnic lunch and I walked to the other amazing parts of the park.  The Oparara Arch, the Moria Arch, and two other caves (much smaller, easily accessable) were all relatively close together. I spent the day going "WOW!" and taking photos. 

There is so much old growth forest here, I could totally imagine moa and dinosaurs running around.  Despite the perfect weather during my visit, this area gets 6 METERS of rain a year, so it is a rainforest. The other thing I love about the Oparara is that there are giant carniverous land snails here. Doesn't that sound primeval and frightening? It's a bit of a misnomer, the name "giant snails", as they fit in the palm of your hand. I like to imagine them as 7 feet tall, slowly, quietly, sneaking up on you in the still forest, sliming you as your screams are drowned by soft, cold flesh. Ah, I must write a screenplay! Then I can have an excuse to go back to Karamea to film there. In fact, though these snails are endangered, they can be found very near my home in Swanson, in the Waitakere hills west of Auckland.  I have not seen one in the wild yet, as they are nocturnal. 

I had time for one final walk on the way back to Nelson.  The Charming Creek Railway walk follows an old private small railway, used to take coal (I think) out of the mountains, via a stunning gorge. This walk has tunnels and a high, narrow wire rope bridge to a gorgeous waterfall.

Again, it was all for my private enjoyment, as I passed only one person on the way in, and two on the way out.

I stopped in Westport to buy some of the excellent Blackball salami products. They are from the west coast of the south island, so hard to get in Auckland. The other thing I found in Westport was an apple variety called Smitten. I ate this apple on my walk to the Oparara arch, and it was an ecstatic experience. According to this blog article, it's been developed for export, and this explains why I've been unable to find it at any of the markets in Auckland.  I certainly hope this changes, because I want more. If you're lucky enough, you might find it in North American markets soon. 

To finish off a great trip, my flight from Wellington (where I had to switch planes) to Auckland was on the fancy new All Blacks plane.

 Very nice plane inside and out.  Too bad the woman behind me insisted on changing her kid's diaper on the seat. She did it as the plane was loading and didn't want to go back to the toilet area. Then when she tried to get the stewardess to take the dirty diaper when collecting trash, she was told to take it back to the toilets, which of course she didn't.  I guess I should't be annoyed by this behavior, considering that I have seen parents holding their children to piss next to cars in a parking lot of a pet shop, and signs in some toilets that say "please do not stand on the toilet".  I guess I should get over it, as I'm planning a trip to southeast Asia at the end of the year.  There, I expect I'll tolerate all sorts of weird cultural norms.