Water, water, every where

“I’m glad we’re on the same page,” Sam said, and I felt relieved. But I was far from comfortable. We might be on the same page, but I wasn’t happy about reading it.
- Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

So how did I spend the first part of my "summer" holiday (which feels like a lifetime ago now)? Well last Christmas M and I went kayaking in the Queen Charlotte Sound which was amazing so this year a group of us decided we were going to kayak in the neighbouring sound, the Pelorus Sound. The 4-day trip turned into a 5-day trip when the weather went from wet to wild and we were trapped (we did attempt to paddle back but it became apparent there was no way that was going to happen). The days were long and hard and I ended up very sick by the morning of the fourth day. It was quite an experience!


So much gear to pack!


The views are incredible in the Pelorus Sound. It's breathtaking.


Food...food is good. Over half the party was vegetarian or vegan so we all cooked together. When you're kayaking you can take heaps of stuff so we had tinned beans, heaps of fresh vegetables, wraps, tofu, pasta, wraps, rice...epic amounts of food. Turned out to be fortunate as we couldn't get back in on the last day and had to stay out an extra night.


So the boys decided we were going to portage (meaning carry the kayaks) over the bank. You can see that it wasn't exactly flat. In fact on the other side it was more of a sheer drop!


It rained so hard during the second night that our campsite was flooded out in the middle of the night and we had to (carefully) move our tents in the dark. By daylight the water was at least up to my ankles and deeper in places.


Awesome group of people and an awesome trip.

The ancient history decorated in tinsel

It was all about health, of course. It was a conspiracy. Why did they never find a vegetable that was bad for you, hey? And what was so wrong with onion gravy anyway? It had onions in it, didn't it? They made you fart, didn't they? That was good for you, wasn't it? He was sure he had read that somewhere.
- Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Oh man, it’s been a LONG time. So long that I can’t even remember everything that’s happened! I was trying to go through all my photos and it all got a bit much! I can’t believe it’s already two thirds of the way through February. Where is the year going?

I know it was months ago but the easiest place to start seems to be Christmasy stuff. Christmas time basically involves lots more cooking, baking, eating, socialising and all that kind of stuff.

The weekend before Christmas M and I travelled up to Auckland for the annual family get together. To start with we proceeded to eat our way around some of my favourite places in Auckland (as well as catching up with some of our favourite people) including lunching at Cosset...


No, I didn't eat ALL of that! But what I did eat was delicious!

We then had to devour lots of food at the family Christmas party that evening. I'd made my tofukey which always goes down well. It's nights like this that make me miss being back up in Auckland with my family. My aunts and uncles are like second parents and my cousins have become brothers and sisters.


Pancakes for brunch at Revel were the perfect way to recover from the food coma of the night before (okay, that's not strictly true but it seemed like an awesome idea at the time). They were buckwheat pancakes served with rhubarb...delicious.

Christmas eve was all about singing carols in the park whilst trying to keep the candle from blowing out (which we failed at miserably!).


Christmas itself was spent at M’s family’s house where we got to eat potatoes that were dug from the garden right before our very eyes and I ate peas straight from the pod (11 peas in one pod - apparently that's good luck).


I made tofukey and Christmas pudding (which was served with soy cream and fresh berries) for everyone. I love Christmas food. Christmas cake was also made...I think I might need to make another one now so we can enjoy it at all times of the year.


All in all I think it was quite possibly the best Christmas I've ever had. Yay!

Join me next time when I dive back down into the deep archives of time since my last post and find some other exciting things to tell you about! I promise it won't be far away.