Doubtful Sound overnight cruise April 29-30

I think most folks just go for the day cruise, but considering how long it takes to get there without a car, I'm glad that I splurged on the overnight boat cruise. We started off with a bus ride from Queenstown to Manapouri (~50) with a stop at the Five River's cafe near the half way mark. At the visitor's centre, we boarded a boat to get across the lake, then hopped on another bus to get us to the 'cruise ship' for the next ~24 hours. It was a pretty good deal, the meals were prepared on the ship, there was lots of complimentary warm bevvies to be had and the commentary provided was quite good and informative.

Wellington, Picton and the Queen Charlotte Track

Travels with Nicki

Red Rocks along the aptly named
Red Rocks Walkway.

I met Nicki during my last two weeks on the farm, and we made plans to go hiking together before she settled into work over the winter. I felt I had earned a vacation after 6 months of wwoofing.

Krumm-Jury farm conclusion.

Holy smokes! I can't believe how quickly the time has flown during my stay with the Krumm-Jury family. It's the first fully properly organic place that I've come across (makes you wonder about who's running this wwoof organization, don't it). I've had the opportunity to do all sorts of different tasks and I believe I've learned a lots of new skills and gained a lot of insight into how much work goes into keeping a place like this going (and why macadamia nuts are so goddamn expensive).

Swanson, Auckland, New Zealand September 19 - October 3

My very first WWOOF hosts were located just west of central Auckland, but it was very much the bush. I loved it. There was a new little sleepout building for up to 4 of us to sleep and cook in. There was even a flatscreen tv and cable. I was blown away by the amenities, actually.

Northland Road Trip October 3 - October 6

Sue and John sent the 3 of us away for the long weekend to enjoy some travel in Séb's car.

We zipped up along the West coast, stopping briefly along the way to check out a few sights, like the biggest/oldest Kauri tree, some beautiful lakes and had a peek at 90 mile beach (which is only really about 55 miles long. LIARS!). Our goal the first day was to get as far North as we could (all the pretty stuff was along the North and Eastern coasts, we'd been assured by several people before we set out). As it was still spring, we did get a fair share of showers as we made our way down the highway, but thankfully it was never enough to completely ruin our trip. The first day, we made it from Swanson to Ahipara Holiday Park.

Rawkin' the River City

Now you're cooking... with KANJI!

What can I say, I'm on a roll. A combined effort of Google Translate (about time they added that 'draw' function. Jeebus.), Denshi Jisho and Weblio has unlocked all the information. Every appliance is different, so, I figger the more pages we get with this information for frustrated folks, the better.

Tuck in!

Rice Cooker (炊飯器)

Let's enjoy... heating and cooling!

Here's the remote for my "ルームエアコン" (ruumu eakon).

Bathing... Japan-style

Here is the control panel in my shower/tub room.

運転:Power

お湯はり保温: Fill with hot water

わかす保温: Fill with boiling water

呼出: Call button (HELP! MAYDAY! I forgot my rubber ducky~!)

浴室優先: Bathroom Priority (washing the dishes won't mess with your bath water)

あつめ: Hot

ぬるめ: Lukewarm

たっぷり: Fill

給湯:Water supply

ふろ:Bath

湯量: Amount of hot water

Spring is ON!

Needed a little spring, it wasn't coming up north quickly enough...

... so I went down to Tokyo.  The Fantastic Mr Flynn offered to put me up at his new Tokyo pad, but was at work during the day. I stowed my pack in a coin locker at one of the stations near his place and set off to amuse myself. My initial plan was to get my nerd-on in Akihabara. Buuuuuut the near constant deluge all day made this feel rather uninviting. I was having some trouble navigating the area anyway, possibly due to the lack of sleep from riding the highway bus down overnight. Yes. We'll blame that. :D

Chicken soup with rice

Believe it or not, it's been almost spring-like 'round here... but winter just won't release her kung-fu grip... or Mother Nature is going through menopause or summing. I dunno. But it's frustrating, to say the least.

In an attempt to retain/regain (I'm not sure quite what my status is right now... which is part of the problem, I suppose) my sanity and to reduce my cabin fever, I do my damnedest to get out for a nice long walk when the weather takes a break from raining and snowing. If I can, I take the long way around to get to the grocery store on my way home from work. I noticed that Charley, my jade plant, has roused from his wintery slumber, and that some of the other plants are trying to do the same.

... my iphone is not exactly the best at focusing on up close pictures, but, you can see the buds breaking through... You can do it, little buddies! I believe in youuuuu~!

Ginger and Beef recipes

Hello all my buddies! For those of you living in Canada and northern Japan, hang in there, this winter thing can't last forever! We'll get through this!!! Here's a simple, delicious and warm entree I came up with, somewhat inspired by what Jade and I created to help Flynn clean out his fridge before his big move.

Shichi-Snow-he

I've found myself feeling rather restless these last few weeks, the wether doesn't always lend itself to walking around outdoors. However, today was rather nice, so I took advantage of it and decided to play around with my new fave toy.

Here's another sampling of where I've been living the last year and a half.

I went out for the evening and lost my driveway one night.

Recipe request: Vegetarian Hash

I've been trying to use up some of the dry good that I have kicking around my apartment, currently that includes dry soy beans and TVP. I posted a pic of my first attempt and was sassed/asked to supply the recipe. It's nothing fancy, but it's a fairly quick and painless dinner, and is yummy with raw or steamed veggies.

Lake Towada and D-Fly's birthday

A hearty "hullo" to my dear readers.

As we are currently balls-deep into Fe-brrrrrrrrrr-uary I hope you are all keeping nice and toasty warm. (Or nice and cool, for my fans south of the equator). If memory serves, this was the most brutal month weather-wise last year for me It strikes me that it's a month of extreme weather no matter where you live on this big blue ball.
... okay, that's enough with the scrotal references. Jeebus. Where is my mind?

This was *supposed* to be a post about Okinawa...

Sage advice... who knew.

I've been doing lots of reflecting...

...and I think this quote sums up where I'm sitting right now:

"We all change. When you think about it, we're all different people. All through our lives.

And that's ok. That's good. You gotta keep movin'.

So long as you remember all the people that you used to be." - The Doctor

Cinnamon Bun recipe

I wanna try this!

Christmas Baking!

Merry Christmas, lads and lasses.
I must confess I haven't been up to much that I deem blog-worthy lately. I've been going to work dinners, making weekly trips to the post office taking long evening walks before the winter winds begin to howl. I feel that I must take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts. I've been really lucky so far with how nice the weather has been... I fear that mentioning it will jinx it and it'll be nothing but heaps of snow for the next 6 months, but... I'll take that chance right now.