Log 19: Patty comes to New Zealand and a Kiwi Thanksgiving!

On November 17^th, having lost an entire day in the air and her birthday, my Mom arrived in New Zealand for a bit of a visit over the US Thanksgiving!  Even though I hadn’t really been missing the US much yet, I was missing my family and it was great to have my Mom come see me! Maybe next time I’ll get dad out as well, but two weeks was a long time for him to be away from the farm.  

We decided while she was here that we would show the Kiwi’s what an American Thanksgiving was all about since many had asked me questions about it and they wanted to know how you could possibly have a pumpkin pie that was no savory, but sweet. They kiwi pumpkins have a green husk and to me taste more like squash so I had Mom bring over a large can of real pumpkin puree for the pies. Gotta be authentic!  So Mom and I set about making preparations and finding a turkey, we found a farm that raised them and has frozen ones for sale so we drove out to pick on up.  A sweet old lady showed us to the freezer and we picked out a 7kg (~14lb) turkey and when I asked the price I almost fainted when she said $80 (~65 USD). I almost refused but because I had 20 people showing up at my house in a few days for Thanksgiving dinner I needed a turkey and didn’t know where else to go.

The next day Mom and I headed out tiki touring a bit and stopped at the Moeraki boulders near Dunedin as well as stopping in the actually village of Moeraki for lunch at a famous fish restaurant called Fleurs.  Though we didn’t know you needed a reservation, and showing up at lunch time on a Saturday there weren’t any open tables, but we were allowed to sit at the bar. We sampled the seafood chowder and another grilled fish dish and washed it down with a cider before heading back on the road to the Otago peninsula to walk around the gardens of Lanarch castle.  We stayed the night at a little hostel in an even smaller town called Milton where Mom had her first hostelling experience. A little Swiss hippie man was running the place and he was really nice but insisted on washing our dishes and ‘suggesting’ how to cook and where.  We also got to feed his pet lamb… but we surprised him when I fed it like I knew what I was doing.  I finally confessed my profession and that Mom and I were from a farm and he got a giggle out of it.

We drove onto Milford sound and saw the chasm again on the way, then stayed at the lodge there and took a boat ride out to the Tasman sea the next morning, but this time we got breakfast! Fruit and museli but it was still breakfast!  We drove back through Queenstown and Cardrona and stopped at the inn for a beer and some sweet chili and sour cream wedges…YUM!  By the time we got to Lake Tekapo I needed a break from driving so we stopped at the edge of the lake and we put our feet in the lake water to say we did and to get an appreciation for how cold it was. Glacial fed these lakes and rivers, bright blue water from the high mineral content but your feet will freeze in about 3 seconds from the temperature.

               

We were planning to do Thanksgiving on the real day but Barb my landlady was going to be going to Aussie, so we compromised and went a day early. Mom and I spent the day before cooking pies and preparing the turkey and stuffing, as well as finding supplies to make pretzels.  The day of the big dinner we made the pretzels, as well as some cartoon pictures attempting to tell the story of the first thanksgiving to explain to the Kiwi’s. “Basically the pilgrims came over and were making a poor go of the colony, until the Indians showed us what to hunt and how to grow food to get us through winter. So in thanks we had a big dinner then gave them smallpox, and annihilated their tribes for the next 200 years. The end.”  

Everyone arrived in my garage and we had a buffet style dinner since we didn’t have enough chairs.  The turkey came out great as well as the pumpkin pies. Barb and Ross even came and I know they had a good time cuz Ross stayed out and partied with us instead of going to bed. Eilis came down from Christchurch I talked her into playing a few tunes with me for the group.  Richard, Susan’s partner, seemed keen to try out the fiddle and in 10min we had him playing Three Blind Mice and he was so excited! I think everyone had a blast and Mom and I certainly did too. 

The next day we had a bit of a lie in then went for a short tramp towards the mines at Woolshed creek so show Mom just what this tramping thing was all about.  I soon found I had challenged her a bit too much when I took the wrong trail and there was quite a bit of rock climbing and bush whacking. I confessed my wrong direction in the middle and promised this was the worst bit.  Oops.  We stopped for lunch at the mines and then headed back down to Merino.  On the way back my radiator hose sprung a leak and we had to make an emergency pit stop into Gary’s to get that replaced. Thankfully he was home and was able to fix it pretty quick. These old cars… I’m going to start carrying all kinds of liquids with me in the boot, oh I mean trunk!

After a nap and a change, Mom came with me to touch that night. I was a bit worried as one of our clients, Craig, who plays on our team when we are short of people along with some of his workers, had decided I was really fun to pick on and he was more than excited to meet my mother.  I did threaten him with a lashing though, and told him under no circumstances was he allowed to pick on my mother. He said he’d be on his best behavior and that he’d even bring his teenage daughter as a chaperone. True to his word he was really nice but I had an eye on him the whole time. I think our team won but I’m never sure at the end as the point system changes if a girl or a guy makes a ‘tri’ or a ‘goal’ but Team Richard, was doing a great job. Two partners of our vets are both named Richard and play touch with us and both are pretty darn fast and cheeky when it comes to playing touch. I’m usually running along the side just trying to figure out who has the ball and where it is going, if thrown to me, I try to hand it off as quickly as possible. The beers and conversation in the club afterward make it all worth it though.

The next day Mom and I headed off tiki touring again, north this time towards the top of the south island. Our first stop was in Kaiakoura where I thought we’d see some seals at the seal colony, maybe it was the wrong season or the wrong time of day but there were none. But we went up the coast to a look-out point anyway. This was where I made the very unfortunate mistake of slamming my left index finger in the car door attempting to give another car some room. OWW!  A large blood blister under the nail and throbbing pain was quite irritating. We found a hotel that gave me a bag of ice and I iced my finger while Mom shifted the transmission for me as we continued on. This was also just a week before the Possum’s were recording a CD and I was more than worried that my finger wasn’t going to be able to press down on my finger board let alone play anything great sounding and solid. Grr. 

We made it up to Blenheim and Picton and took a tour out on a mail boat around the Queen Charlotte Sounds. Stayed the night there and then headed back down and stayed in Kaiakoura again for the night. Maybe it was all the driving making us giddy, but Mom and I made an evening of playing movie charades in our sketchy ‘Delux Cabin’ where we stayed.  Back in Christchurch we went to the Saturday Riccarton market, which is everything from garage sale items, boxes of books, homemade soaps and finger puppets, to well done crafts and food stands. Eilis met up with us and we all cruised the market while a Scottish band played tunes on the small stage in the center.

We stopped for lunch at a pizza joint, then stayed in Christchurch for the day and saw an art exhibit at the gallery later in the day.  Just about the time I realized it was time to go meet the band for a final rehearsal before our big recording weekend, I also realized I had locked my keys in my car!  DOH!  I was finally going to be on time for a practice because I was IN town and I was still going to be late!  Luckily a shop keeping took pitty on me let me use his phone book to call a towing company and they came and unlocked my car for the price of a Thanksgiving turkey, $80.

Finally at practice, I introduced Mom to the guys and she was entertained and fed wine by Sue, Bryz’s wife, while we played some tunes and met with the sound engineer that was going to do our recording. Hours later we finally made it back to Ashburton as I had work in the morning, and I think Mom was ready for a lie in anyway.  After dinner with Ross and Barb Mom and I headed up to Christchurch again for a session at Bailies and to stay in a hotel for the night as Mom’s flight left really early in the morning. It was very strange staying in even the most budget hotel after becoming so used to hostels and dorm style housing. It was like luxury living!  After an exhausting 2 weeks of touring I hope my Mom got to see enough of New Zealand, it was great having her come all the way out to see me all the craziness of my life at the moment!  

Patty tramping like a trooper!!!  Silly Kat took the wrong trail...

Mom and I at heading to Milford sound

Thanksgiving! I was too busy chatting and didn't get any good photos:(

Someone proped up a possum carcass....i felt i needed to point and grimace.

Log 18: Beach tramp, and Show Day!

Its November now and I can’t believe time has flown by as it has.  Only 2 months from now I’ll be heading off to Asia with my friend Matt, which we finally have almost all planned!

Determined to get more tramping in and not spend any of my weekends idle, I decided to head up to Christchurch and just see what happened. After walking around the markets, having lunch and a glass of wine in a café, I convinced Eilis to come into town and have a coffee and see a movie with me.  Meanwhile she talked me into going tramping with the Peninsula Tramping Club on Amberly Beach the next day. Making an attempt to meet new people and maybe some people our own age after our experience from the festival, we set out full of hope.  When arrived at the rendezvous point, the people arriving were definitely of the grey hair variety.  I told Eilis that if anyone shows up with a cane we’re not getting out of the car.  Not quite canes but lots of hiking poles, and knee pads…  Lordy!  What else were we gonna do with our day right?  After meeting Stan the leader, the group carpooled to the trailhead and after some brief introductions it seemed we were on our way.  First he introduced Eilis, “This is Eilis, from Ireland,” hello’s and howdy’s around the circle. Then me, “And this is Kat, from America.” I swear I’m not lying, there was a collective groan amongst the group!!  The first face to face bad press I’ve really gotten for being American in New Zealand!  We started off on our walk at the slowest pace imaginable and Stan was like a sheep dog herding everyone together and telling everyone to stay close.  We got to the beach section that was really beautiful flat brown sand with a great view of the sea. As we kept going, we started to ‘mosey’ down the beach just enjoying the day, and Stan got worried that I was getting tired and couldn’t keep up. Hmm…  We started climbing over rocks and boulders along the shore and half way along, Stan comments that I’m doing a great job!  I was really starting to get irritated with this guy so I sarcastically ask him if he was worried I couldn’t manage? No straight answer, just a lot of bluster.  Some American that had joined them before must have really screwed up.   Hours later after walking for what seemed forever on a rocky beach we finally made it to Stan’s bach (cabin, cottage, summer home) and his wife gave us coffee and fresh scones.  Later in the walk I finally managed to convince Stan that I wasn’t pathetic and Eilis and I chatted with him about how we play music. Back at his house, instead of paying our walking fee, he actually asked if we would play a few tunes for the group. A great end to what could have been a very walk.

On the way back we stopped at Barrie and Kath’s place, Barrie is the accordion player from the session, just to say hello, and we ended up invited in for a beer and dinner. We started talking music and it was 10pm before we left and headed back to Christchurch, and me back to Ashburton.

The next week was Cup Day on Tuesday and Charlotte, one of our receptionists, and I had been planning to go up to the races for the day.  Cup Day is thoroughbred racing and supposedly a fancy event, where everyone dresses up to the nine’s and wears hats.  Not wanting to splurge too much I found a $4 hat at the Coin Save shop that looked like a bad Easter bonnet. When we finally got there after I stupidly left my wallet at home, we parked up and walked into our fancy event. Even on the walk in there were so many early 20’s drunks walking in trying to hide their remaining alcohol under their fancy dresses that I started to get worried.  Just inside the gate, we got a few beers and walked out to the lawns in front of the track to watch the races. We were a few races late from the beginning and there was already trash everywhere, drunk 18-25’s stumbling around so you had to watch your fingers so they didn’t get stepped on.  BUT we placed our bet’s on a few races and with my landlord Ross’s advice for Monkey King to win, I made $25!!!  After the races finished Craig from work found us and gave us a ride back into town. It was a Tuesday night and the Irish session was on but I forgot that the car park where I parked my car locks at 8pm, so my fiddle was locked away. We stopped in anyway for a drink and Patty let me play a few tunes on her fiddle. 

The Christchurch Show Day was the following weekend so Eilis and I met up there and walked around the day watching the show jumping, wood chopping, sheep shearing, and being a sweltering day with the sun out, we even stopped for ice cream and a mushroom sandwich… yeah never had a mushroom sandwich and likely won’t again. It was very similar to our county fairs in the US, just no tractor pulls or demolition derby!