Snow!

Last night we heard rumors that a snow was planned for the Christchurch area. Not that it hasn't happened before, in winter 2011 Christchurch got the most snow since 1992 with 30 cm. Now... this is no Boston Nor'easter which could dump 30 cm an hour, however, snow is a big deal to Christchurch. With no proper snow removal equipment and many earthquake damaged roads, the conditions were slightly concerning. Today between 10-18 cm of snow fell in the region. Here are some photos of our area, Sumner Beach.

Queen's Birthday Holiday

We celebrated the Queen's Birthday holiday with a day off work and took a camping/hiking trip to Lake Sumner Forest Park. The hiking route is outlined below, total distance was near 45 km over the entire trip. Our first night we spent at Hurunui Hut, which is pictured below. After depositing our packs at the hut we hiked a 9km round trip to the naturally occurring hot springs and jumped in. We returned to Hurunui Hut for the evening. The next day we crossed over the Hurunui River in search of Mackenzie Hut, which was situated up the river valley. We crossed several high "stream" crossings in the rain, and decided to turn around for the car. Just before we turned back we saw a stunning rainbow, photo and video follows. Sunday night we camped at Loch Katrine and Monday we drove out the 4WD jeep trail back to Christchurch.

The Last Two Months

I knew I was forgetting about something, oh yes, the blog, life updates, etc. Sad to say that I was absent from blogger long enough for them to change the posting protocol! Life here has gotten much shakier in the last week, including a 5.2 earthquake yesterday. You can see the trend data of the earthquakes here. I don't talk much about the quakes because I don't want to frighten people (mostly my mom), but they are a part of our life here, and cannot be readily ignored. 

ok, starting from where I left off from blog land, or approximately April, we flew across the Tasman Sea to Sydney, Australia. Where we spent a lovely four day Easter weekend. Pictured below is the Sydney Opera House, The Harbour Bridge, Downtown Sydney from the Harbour Bridge, The Three Sisters of Blue Mountain National Park and Forrest perfecting his handstand.

Shortly following the Sydney trip we travelled down to Arrowtown New Zealand for our engagement photos. We really enjoyed the photo session and our photographers were outstanding. A little sneak peak of the photos is below, we have over 200 images so you will likely see more as the wedding plans develop.

The following weekend we took a short boat cruise around Lyttelton Harbour with Forrest's work group. It was a fun event. 

The next week was another holiday, mid-week ANZAC Day. We headed out to Lake Sumner for a quick bike ride.

The next major event was our Cinco de Mayo party, where 40 people showed up in costume and ready to have some fun. The tequila and tacos were plentiful, as were the sombrero's and fake moustaches.we even had a pinata!

After the Cinco de Mayo party we needed to take a break and set up the tent in the great outdoors. We traveled to the Rangitata River Valley to camp at Lake Camp (ironically enough).

Last weekend Forrest took a gnarly hiking trip with three other engineers, the photos are absolutely stunning and can be found here. I went to Auckland with a friend that is headed back to the UK. Auckland had a great city feel to it, and it's only 1.5 hour plane ride north (on the North Island).

As you can see, my lack of blogging wasn't because I could not reach my laptop from the sofa. We have been very busy, per our usual selves, and are looking forward to the upcoming winter season. They say it has been known to snow here in Christchurch, guess we will see! Take care Friends (and internet stalkers)!

menus and food blogs

If you know me well then you're quite aware that i love to cook. turning vegetarian for January and about 70% vegetarian currently, has made me refocus on purity of taste and ingredients. I've also been really focused on not eating too many things that i didn't personally make or see being made. if an ingredient seems mysterious, don't throw it down the hatch! i also love google reader and subscribe to several food blogs, some of my favorite (in particular order) are:

Simply Recipies
Smitten Kitchen
Vanilla Garlic
Cheap, Healthy, Good (no mayo)
fat free vegan

what have we been eating lately?
Butternut Squash with pasta and sage, or some combination listed here
i made a quiche and an apple pie lately.

Forrest made me Aloo Gohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifbi and Mushroom Risotto

i've also recently made banana bread and we have different curries (Japanese or Thai) at least twice a week.

i'd like to try and find a good recipe for a Barley Salad i had at Pukeko Junction cafe... was very tasty.

Grape Ride - just a taster

We just finished the busiest month ever, with a 42km (roughly 26 miles) bike ride (known as the Taster Course, as the full ride, Grape Ride, is 101km) in the Marlborough wine region. We rounded up 8 or so friends and headed off with our bikes.... with 2,500 other bikers doing either the 42km or the 101km course.

I finished 233rd place, woohoo! with a time of 1:51:50.
Forrest finished 232nd place with a time of 1:51:48.

I let Forrest place before me because I felt sorry for him, as he had to replace the tube of his tire minutes before the race began. it was high drama!
the race and the trip was great fun, we are even considering biking 101km next year!