The REAL Windy City

I have some extremely shocking news for everybody – we have been lied to our whole lives! Yes! The Windy City is not, in fact, United States. It is on the southern tip of the North Island of New Zealand. Chicago, the poser, could learn a thing or two from Wellington where the wind almost blew Lauren and me off the tarmac when we disembarked from the airplane. I have never had such an eventful landing as when the plane descended towards Wellington. I was on one of those small planes where there are just two seats per row and two columns of seats. As we flew over the bay, the wind buffeted us around, causing the plane to suddenly drop, and with it my stomach. Then the engines would rev with all the power they had and the little plane that could zoomed along, landing us safely, if slightly ill, at the Wellington airport.

Here is what greeted us in the airport. Best airport art ever.

Another tidbit of shocking news – New York City is NOT the center of the food world. Little Wellington, population 395,600, has more cafes then New York City. How is that possible, you might ask? Well, I might tell you, all the streets of Central Wellington are lined with café after café because Wellington is kind of Hipsterville and since the hipsters lika da coffee, there’s gotta be a place to buy it. I wish I liked coffee so I could have fit in better with the alternative, big glasses, black clothes wearing set. But the pastries and Earl Grey tea was YUM.

My favorite café, Midnight Espresso. It had some pretty sweet wall art.

This is a strawberry squeeze, which tasted like Caribbean sunshine in a glass, and a savory muffin. If you are ever travelling in NZ, you can pretty much that any café or bakery or dairy you go to will have a decent savory muffin and cheese scone.

We also managed to find the best pizza I’ve had in NZ at a restaurant called Scopa, which, admittedly, is not a very impressive statement because NZ suffers from the “doughy dough why is there bbq sauce on all the pizza” affliction. These pizzas, though, were delicious for any country and rival my favorite pizza at Area 4 near MIT.

And this just a bea-UTIFUL picture of Lauren and her crazy eyes so I have to put it up. The pizza looks damn fine too.

We found some fun stores on Cuba Street, which was like the Church St (Burlington), the Central Square (Boston), of Wellington. One had a lot of great little trinkets like fake moustaches, a Titanic shaped candle holder, really funky card, and

these awesome OCTOPUS FINGERS!

Although food and me are like this and it is generally my favorite part of new places, the thing I enjoyed most in Wellington was Te Papa, the national museum. It is six floors of New Zealand history, Maori and Pakeha (the white Euros), and other exhibits that have travelled around the world. It was a fantastic museum with lots to touch and play with. It reminded me of the Museum of Science in Boston; the kind of place that made me with I had a week in Wellington so I could go back and spend a couple hours there every day. I was talked to the man who worked in the gift shop and he said that it would take a person three days to get through the whole museum if she read everything. Lauren and I made it through the first three floors and just touched on the fourth before we were bushed.

Entrance to Te Papa. The first sculptures we saw were large boulders making Lauren, another geologist, very happy.

Pygmy blue whale skeleton. This museum also has the heaviest squid in the world on display. I’s rather show you a picture of the whale and the birds because it largest squid is not a pretty sight. Weird and slimy and jiggly are better descriptors I think.

This was the quote that greeted us at the entrance of the exhibit on Maori and nature. It summarizes the central idea of many a Maori legend. There were many of the stories written on the walls or spoken out loud if you pushed a button and I loved them so much I bought a book of them. So be warned: I will probably make you sit and listen to me read a Maori story in my best (terrible) New Zealand accent.

Te Papa is probably the only museum in the world that would have a “Sheep Cam.” It showed what it is like to eat, wander around, look at fellow sheep, and be rounded up from the sheep’s perspective. I love how the screen is protected by two grand halves of a sheep in the style of bronze lions at a prestigious library or sphinxes guarding a pharaoh’s tomb.

On our last day in Windy Welly we walked up to the famous botanic gardens. It was windy (surprise) and rainy (to be expected), but we made the steep climb and the view was still worth it.

Cloudy day in the Wellington harbor.

Scrolly, curly, zig zaggy trees were my favorite part of the gardens.

We got back to Christchurch on Wednesday night, and since then, I have been boppin around trying to absorb the sunshine that has graced the city until today (Sunday). I unfortunately sprained my ankle at crossfit on Friday so I’ve actually done a little less boppin and a little more sitting. BORING. I have my finals on the 17^th and 22^nd of June, so I haven't started the study slog yet, but I can see it on the horizon (ew school). I’m seeing the Dali Lama speak tomorrow at UC, which I am very excited about. Hopefully my next blog post will be so enlightened I’ll know all the secrets of the whole world ever. But until then, could you please do me one favor – appreciate how late the sun stays out because it is set by 5:30 these wintry days and that's just depressing. So tell me about the late sunshine and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Magical Places

Last weekend, I went to Narnia. While generations have been told Narnia’s entrance is through a certain wardrobe, it is in fact a 1 hour 45 minute drive outside of Christchurch at a place called Flock Hill. Yes, folk, you have been LIED to. Just in case you don’t have time (for some unthinkable reason) to get to New Zealand, I’ll show you what it looks like.

We had to stop at the world famous Sheffield Pie Shop to have enough strength should we happen upon the White Witch. I got a Moroccan lamb pie, which was good, but didn’t quite live up to the Te Anau pies.

I went to Flock Hill with Dan, Lauren, and Dan’s sister’s friend Kristen and her boyfriend, Tom, who are travelling around the world for two months.

There were some funky shaped rocks on Flock Hill. They looked more like plants growing out of the ground.

I found my throne. Now I can join the Pevensies in their rule of Narnia.

Ok so actually I lied. This isn’t really Narnia, but it IS where they filmed the final battle scene in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie.

It was fascinating to walk among these gigantic, oddly shaped boulders with a couple geologists (Lauren and Dan) because they could us the story of the rocks. This crazy texture was created by small streams of water.

Lauren captured this awesome picture of Dan and me. I still can’t believe I’m in a real place sometimes.

I also have had some lovely Skype dinners.

First, with Grandma and Pops (May 14).

Then again (May 17).

Then with the whole family and lots of wonderful friends (May 20).

So as you can see, I pretend like I’m abroad, but I’m not actually. The only difference is I’m not technically sitting at the SAME table. But I am sitting at A table, and that’s just such a small detail it doesn’t even count.

We also took our flat holiday card this week. We decided it should be a happy fourth of July card because why not celebrate America in NZ? But there are seven people in that picture, you might be thinking, and Kiri said she’s only living with two people. Whaaa? Well, I have adopted myself over to another flat because I really enjoy the people who live there. They are lively and very funny, and agree with me when I say HEY LET’S HAVE A FLAT HOLIDAY CARD. They accepted me with open arms (probably because I bring them food and paper towels), and I have dinner there 95% of the time, I work there, I’m there a lot more often than I’m in my own flat. Earlier in the semester the original five flat members decided to make me official flat 99 member #6, so we say that’s were I live, and the other flat I have just holds my bed and my clothes.

Mayhem in Flat 99. Dan is official flat 99 member #7.

Happy 4^th of July! ‘Merica.

In other news, I got a small tattoo on my wrist the past Friday. It is a reminder to keep pushing myself to do things I want to do even if it scares the shiznit out of me. My favorite part of the tattoo, though, is the lettering. I asked seven people who are very, very important to me to write “be brave” in lowercase letters on a piece paper, take a picture of it and email it to me. I then chose my favorite letter each person wrote and put it together.

The original letters. In order of whom they belong to: Mom, Dan, Jen, Dad, Robin, Char, and Ollie. Dan is representing for other Middlebury friends Anna, Tess, and Fiona, and Robin and Char are representing for their families.

I printed out the compilation and brought it to Zealand Tattoo where an artist shrank down the size to fit on my wrist, then made a stencil for the other tattoo artist to follow. I had them redo the stencil three times on my wrist because first it wasn’t straight, then it wasn’t centered. Finally, it looked right and Zang, the owner of Zealand Tattoo, sat down and got to work. It took about 10 minutes and then I was done.

The final product. It looks puffy because it’s irritated. After a week or so it should be looking more normal.

I love how it turned out and what it represents. Now I have my buddies with me always, feeding me encouragement and strength. I wish this phrase had more than seven letters because there are many people who have supported me so much throughout my life. Just because “be brave” is short, I want them to know they are not forgotten.

On Saturday, I went to my happy place, the farmers market, with Dan, Sarina, and Lauren. We got some gooooood eats.

Lauren has a delicious Coloumbian empanada, Dan has a pain au chocolat, Sarina has a chili mousse (it had excellent texture), and I have a BLAT (BLT with avocado). For dessert that night, I also got a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting, and an INCREDIBLE brownie, salted peanut butter cream, ganache extravaganza. It was an excellent way to end our meal of fresh pasta from the farmers market and simple tomato sauce with chorizo I cooked up from Splendid Table. Good stuff. And to top off the fabulousness of the day, I had the best Oh Hell game of my life. Thanks to all the noobies for playing with me and letting me crack 200 points.

I hear the family is convening in Maine this weekend and I’m sad to miss out on the first “summer” weekend of the year. Really wish I could be there for tea (ahem, Char) and family dinner. BUT, I will be home in less than a month, so look out USA! Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Akaroa treats me so well. Again.

WARNING: This blog post VERY food heavy. Have a snack in front of you or you will be jealous and hungry by the end of the entry.

The best thing about eating alone is that you don’t have to talk to anyone so you can completely focus on the food in front of you.

Like the crazy flavors in this salad that had “leaves,” pickled rhubarb, orange marinated fennel, hazelnut bits, and some sort of citrus dressing.

Or the solid piece of steak in front of you topped with a perfectly grilled (read: not soggy) favorite part of my meal shitake mushroom and herb butter.

And to end, a chocolate and salted caramel torte with berry compote on the side that I ate with the vanilla ice cream but kept FAR away from the chocolate.

When you’re not thinking about the food, then you can stare up at the wine bottles lining the ceiling and think you’re big thoughts, like “I saw a dolphin today. I would be a dolphin.” And when you run out of thoughts, you can look around the restaurant and figure out who is with whom, married? Dating? Way off the mark, actually brother and sister? Honeymoon? Best friend date (I’m looking at you Dan Reed)? How did those people decide to take their three year old here? I like that those people took their three year old here. I like her dress. Can I ask her where she got it? Would that be weird? Can you talk when you’re three? Once you get sick of doing that, then you go back and take another bite and the process starts all over again.

The worst part of eating alone is that you can’t look across the table and see your pleasure reflected in another’s face. It’s like the whole tree/sound debacle – is food really as delicious if there isn’t someone else there to agree with you that yes, the food is that delicious?

I stayed in an adorable pink and purple hostel called Chez La Mer where – get this – I had my OWN ROOM with a DOUBLE BED and a TOWEL they just GAVE ME. What? What is this luxurious craziness? Well, for Akaroa Weekend Part II, I decided to treat myself to a room without seven other people and with a bed that was made when I arrived. You may recall Akaroa Weekend Part I, which included much hiking, strenuous activity, and a sleeping bag. Let me tell you Part II is the exact 180^o opposite do the hokie pokie and turn yourself around, of Part I. My first day here (Saturday May 11) included a walk about town, possibly the best salmon I ever had from the pier, a super cool wildlife/historical cruise of around the large Akaroa inlet, tea (Earl Grey of course) in the sunshine, and the amazing meal presented above at the adorable 12-table aptly named Little Bistro, that you saw above.

Here is the town of Akaroa. Some of these pictures may look familiar from my epically long blog post from back in February, but instead of seeing the landscape from on high, now it is from the water.

This was a seriously amazing sandwich, mostly because the salmon barely hours old.

Murphy’s Seafood on the pier was pretty much just a grill and a toaster for the ciabatta rolls that was the vehicle for the salmon.

Let me just paint you a little picture here. I walked down the pier just to see the end and I passed this guy’s grill station. I walked past it again, noticing that I could buy a sandwich from said guy. The “Fresh Fish” sign finally proved too tempting, so on the third pass, I ordered one. I learned that Akaroa salmon is not shipped anywhere and it is only sold in New Zealand because they want to make sure it is no more than 24 hours old by the time it hits the eater’s plate. Obviously, this tidbit made me even more excited because I was about to eat a fish I won’t see again after I leave the country.

I waited…and waited…and waited and I was so sure the fillet (pronounced with the “t” at the end in proper Kiwi fashion) had been on the grill too long and it would be dry. Well, friends, I was absolutely mistaken. Why did I think I knew more about the right way to cook a fish than the man who catches the salmon for a living? I took a bite, and man oh man I almost lost half the tender salmon out the back of the sandwich. It was so delicate and juicy that it immediately slid apart. It was coated in lemonpepper, a squeeze of lemon and that was it. I sat down on the side of the pier and gently pulled apart the salmon with my fingers, putting one half of the bread on the ground so I could have the pure salmon. A seagull instantly picked up the seven inch piece of bread and tried to swallow it. It’s fellows, watching it struggle, wandered around the first seagull, waiting to pounce the second it put down the bread. Finding Nemo style seagull calls ensued. But, drifting around in fish heaven, I barely noticed the battle for my bread as I took bite after wondrous bite of the salmon. Seriously guys, I know this is a long time to go on about a piece of fish but it was incredible. I can’t wait to come back to NZ with some of you and bring you here. I swooned for the 12 minutes it took me to greedily gulp it down.

After that amazing experience, I decided it would be a good idea to take a historical/wildlife cruise around Akaroa harbor on a large catamaran (all motor, no sail) called the Black Cat (great name).  We wandered around the harbor and our captain told us about the fierce Maori tribes that used to live here, the animals who inhabited the area, and the colonials who came and exploited it all. It was a beautiful day where I got to see:

The tiny blue penguin. Just trust me, that black dot in the water is a penguin, and look at the color of that water!

Craggy caves

An old World War II base where submarines would come to recharge their batteries.

Salmon farms. These are the cages for the largest/oldest salmon. You can see a fisherman feeding the fish. She walked across thin, slippery, violently rocking pathways between the cages like she was walking on a sidewalk in town.

Cows on the hillside. I know that’s not very exciting, but hey, I liked this picture.

And look! The rare Kiris Bundler. I hear she had every warm item of clothing she brought on her body, numbering in the five layers category. Double pants were also employed for warmth. Double pants and hand shadows on the face, clearly one of the coolest of the creatures.

I also saw flopping fur seals and the rarest dolphin in the world, the Hector’s dolphin. I couldn’t get a picture of the little dolphins because they darted in and out of the water so quickly. Although it was cold, I am very glad I did it because of all the wildlife I saw and history I learned, but also because being out on the water is good for my soul.

And now, for the main reason I got myself to Akaroa this weekend, the Akaroa Cooking School. Da da da DAAAA.

It was right in town, about a ten-minute walk from my hostel.

I sauntered into the Akaroa Cooking School at 10:00 and was immediately met by the smiling and extremely welcoming Lou and Ant. They own and run the School and I instantly wanted to be their friend or invited over for dinner or something. They are just those kind of people. I was given a cup of Earl Grey tea (I know this is becoming a pattern) and the twelve of us students wandered around the beautiful, airy space.

This is the view from inside the School looking out towards the harbor. It looks like they can open up this entire wall when it’s very warm in the summer. As you can see, it was another perfect day, reaching the 60s in the afternoon. New Zealand winter = the best.

We sat here and watched with wonder as Lou created colorful, oh-my-god-I-can’t-wait-to-eat-that dishes. In the background you can see the long table where we ate lunch later in the day.

Demonstration area. So shiny! The whole place was so light and airy and warm, exactly how I want my future house to feel.

Lou and Ant teaching us about risotto.

And BOOM risotto and bubbly as our 12:30 snack. Wish you were here?

Lou whipping out the pasta. Aren’t those the coolest olive oil boxes?

Now all I want to do is get my hands into pasta dough. Look at the colors in this dish I mean, come on, is this even real?

Then we had a ten minute break where I walked around and took more pictures of the harbor. I can’t help it! It was so sunny and the mist was so pretty.

One more of the misty, misty water.

After our break, we watched Lou work her magic for a couple more hours, and then we sat down to lunch. Every course was paired with a wine carefully selected by Ant, and I felt very well taken care of, and a little spoiled. We we started with crostini, one topped with caramelized zucchini and the other with mushrooms sautéed in a pan then cooked in cream and drizzled with truffle oil (Deb – I thought of you while eating these mushrooms and am putting in an early request for yours when I get back). The next dish we ate was that beautiful spaghetti pictured above.

Last savory dish was this lovely grouper from Murphy’s Seafood (of sandwich fame) with a zippy butter sauce that included chilies and plenty of gaaahhhlic.

Finally, we ended the meal with luscious tiramisu. I am a professed tiramisu hater, but I cleaned my plate so completely that they could have put the plate directly back on the shelf. I can’t wait to make it for everybody at home because this was the BEST tiramisu I’ve ever had. When Lou was making the custard, I said the fluffy, light yellow cloud that settled in the bowl looked so good I wanted to dip my hand in and lick it off my fingers. Lou and Ant proceeded to dip twelve spoons into the mixture and pass them around for all of us to try. We all grinned at each other at being allowed to eat the batter. After Lou was done making the tiramisu, she looked directly at me and asked if anyone wanted to lick the custard-covered spatula. Of course I tried to be cool about it, and waited about ten seconds before leaping out of my seat and almost knocking another student out of her chair to grab the spatula. So you can see why I freakin loved this whole day so much.

That was the end of my day at the Akaroa Cooking School, and I enjoyed all of it. I would definitely put this on my list of favorite things I’ve done in New Zealand that also includes a helicopter ride over Milford Sound, the parachuting part of my skydive, and the Banks Peninsula Track. I was smiling for most of the day, surrounded by very kind and warm people who also loved food and loved the process of making it together. I will be back.

Now I’m sitting in the Akaroa Library “doing my homework” a.k.a. writing this blog, which is WAY more fun, before I head back to Christchurch this afternoon. I am also listening to the librarians (all women, all in their golden years) discussing the LA Lakers, and a woman next to me learning bridge from her bridge coach. And because I really can’t help myself, here is one last picture of the ocean.

Akaroa harbor at sunset. SO PRETTY!

This blog post is dedicated to my mother, Carola, because she is the one who helps me be brave to go out on my own and find adventure. Happy mother's day!