Mt. Maunganui

Walking the Beach @ Mt. Maunganui

Sunset from the top

Just out front of our Hotel

My last trip in New Zealand!!!! I was able to take a few days last week to hit a new beach. My great boss, worried that our car might rattle off the road.... so she rented a cute little Toyota for Amber and me to go to the beach. Aside from coming down with the flu..... it was great. We got a hotel room and stayed right on the water. It wasn't a large town, but a beautiful ... quiet beach spot. We basically just bummed around, picked sea shells and hiked up the Mount to see the sunset... It was very relaxing! We only had a few days, but it was just the ticket to finish off the last few weeks of work..... Here are some photos!!!!

Tongariro Crossing

Tongariro National Park

Devil's Staircase

Emerald Lake

Red Crater and Mt. Doom

Looking down on Red Crater

1900 meters high

The Ocean

The End is Near!

On Friday, i hiked the Tongariro Crossing. A world re-knowned trek, 18.5 kilometers long, voted best 1-day trek in New Zealand. This hike takes about 7.5 hours, very difficult but, very exciting journey. Remember, Lord of the Rings? Part of this hike is the "devil's staircase" and "Mt. Doom." It's where Froto and Sam climbed to pitch the ring into Mt. Doom. My cause wasn't quite as noble, but just as daring. The funny thing is..... I had no idea what i was getting into. I had a day off, heard about this beautiful "walking trail", and thought, I'll do that. Luckily i found out that i would need to pack a lunch and needed to catch the bus at 6:30am. After 1 1/2 hour bus ride, i found out that this is one of the most difficult trails, meant for experience hikers. I get to the base of the mountain and about laughed my head off. i was too proud to turn around. I met some fun girls on the bus, as clueless as me, and they invited me to hike with them. The sites were beautiful. On top of the mountain, 1900 meters up, is the red crater with Emerald and Blue Lake on top. It is amazing...... These volcanoes formed lakes suspended forever on top of the mountain. All throughout the park are little geysers steaming from the ground. The land is so dynamic. It is quite rocky and hilly at first.......then come the craters and lakes.....then the beautiful trees/flowers and valley......then last at the end, the waterfalls and lagoon shaded trail. Just at the end, everyone sits to wait for the bus, talks and the bus driver takes names, to make sure everyone made it to the end..... freaky! I was sooo very sore for days. I worked muscles i didn't know i had, but i felt so proud. Most athletic i have ever felt! i was afraid my legs would fall off and the guest got another pretty big laugh at my expense. They all knew about my lack of information and planning going into this, so it was all very funny again how sore i was. I will definitely do it again before i come back. 

My Kitchens at Poronui - Safari Camp, Lodge, Owner's Cottage and Wine Cellar.

Owner's Cottage Kitchen

Owner's Cottage

BBQ at Recreation Center

Wine Cellar

Lodge Kitchen

Safari Camp

Safari Camp Kitchen

View from the back of Safari Camp

Guest Cabin at Safari

Mostly.... i cook up at the lodge for 20 something guest a night. Five nights a week i cook at the lodge, once a week i cook at the wine cellar (tasting menu) and one night we have a more casual BBQ... Great fun! Occasionally i get to mix it up a bit. In addition to the lodge guest, i will prepare for the Owner's Cottage... I prep all day for both, then hand over my work at the lodge around 5:00pm to travel down the property to cook for the folks renting out the cottage. It is quite the place. We try to accommodate any request we get and at times, it is to spend a night at Safari Camp. A two cabin camp ground with no power and BBQ grill. (By far my favorite!) Here are some pictures of the locations. 

Ohope and Whakatane

Lady in the Harbor. 

Stingray we brought in with the line.

View of Ohope

Surf Beach

This past weekend I went with Louise… Kris’s niece, Jane’s cousin took me to the beach, Ohope, to visit her family. They have a house right on the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. It was just two hours away from Poronui.

When we arrived, we wasted no time to kick our flip-flops off and walk the sandy beach. The sun was beating down, but it was still cool and breezy. Perfect weather. When we met up with the family, they made dinner (nice) and we played pictionary for the night. They have a little one year old, so I played tea party and ate Marmite sandwiches. For those of you who have never had Marmite, now is not a good time to start. It is a beefy tasting paste that people in European countries, Aussies and Kiwis have grown up on. And meat pies. It taste like beefy nutella. Hudson’s know what I mean. Sorry Inge!

That morning, we got up early to set the line out in the ocean for fish. I was so excited about this. We set the rod in the sand, baited twenty or so hooks with squid and then the cousins, set out the other end by Kayaks a mile into the ocean.  We left it there for two hours while we swam and played on the beach a bit. When we brought it in. We were hoping for some snapper, trout or shark, but what we got was one angry sting-ray. It fought and fought, but we got it back into the ocean.. No fish though. The day before they got a few.  It was cool to see all the residents do this.  I think it is a cool way to live.

 Later we took a tour of the town. We went to a few little places and then went to several lookout points. Amazing to see the beach from so many angles. We also took a mini Maori tour. If I haven’t mentioned, the Maori Indians are quite prominent in New Zealand and the founders of this culture. On both beaches I have visited, the names, statues and culture is painted all over the cities.

 We stayed two days and then got up really early to get back for round two of a crazy-busy week. Again I am cooking at the lodge and Owner’s cottage. Both places are so different to cook for, equally fun, but a challenge to do both at once. I have loved our guests. We have had quite a few families…which has been great to see and a nice reminder of home. As the season is changing, I am experiencing more new foods to play with and getting pretty routine in my job.  I have stared walking to work every day, About 4 ½ miles. I take Kris’s dog with me and we have a ball. I enjoy the fact that there are no animals that will jump out and eat me on the way to work. That’s about it for now. Miss you guys. 

Riding at Poronui

Monty is Hungry......I guess we can stop now?

Ellie and Samantha's Christmas Present. 

Monty is in the mail.... Your daddies said it was okay. 

Over looking Poronui

First time adventures.

On Saturday, i went with Jane and Amber riding. This was my first, real riding experience. We saddled up and headed out on the property. What was meant to be a leisurely stroll for a couple of hours and a picnic on top of the hill, turned into an intensive day of riding. My horse, Monty, beautiful and calm was also pretty random. Probably a perfect horse for me, the beginner. The interesting thing was to try and stay on the horse when he went from a trot to a screeching halt, dipping his head down to eat a bit of grass. I almost went off the front of him several times. Luckily, i stayed on for the entire 3 1/2 hours. I was soooo sore. We did get to see a lot of the property that you can't see from the road. plus, all the wild life in a more natural setting. When i got into the lodge to cook that night, our clients laughed their heads off upon hearing about our day and how worn out i was. That night i received a call from Eve and was told, one of our guests had treated me to a message from Nancy, a Maori Princess and our resident Massage therapist. It was an incredibly fun day. Photos to follow.
I do work with some special people. Today is the anniversary of my mother's passing. In honor of my mothers life..... and the very special relationship that i miss.... my boss gave me, Jane and Amber the day off together. I planned to go on a hike or take off and go sight seeing, but i was surprised with a rafting trip. They had heard i had never been and wanted to do something special for me. It was a great experience and more than that, i really appreciate the hearts of my new work family. The Kaituna River is a 7 meter drop and 45 minute long trip. Our guides were great and made the trip a blast. Luckily i stayed in the raft, but swallowed a lot of water. They got some very funny pictures of us along the way. We were wearing the funniest clothing and not a big help in the rowing department. I looked like we should be shot out of a cannon rather than rafting. Since none of us fell out, they tried to liven up the experience by steering us back into the mouth of a rapid to get dunked. I kept my head down, but Jane and Amber looked hilarious in the pictures.
Tomorrow i am back in the saddle, so to speak. I will have 14 guest for the next 6 days and then have a three day break. We have a staff Christmas party one of those nights, but i am going hunting one of those days with Mau and Ben (our hunting guides). I am learning to shoot right now and really liking it. They are the ones who get me all my yummy meats from the property and i am thankful they are involving me so much in it all. I will get some pictures of that next week.
Thanks to all that have written me updates, i do miss you friends, great to hear about your lives.
Love always!

Week Two

These past few weeks have been great. Quite an adjustment, but definitely a learning experience i am thankful to have. We have had a variety of different cultures down here, with very different eating styles. They call New Zealand, a mini America, twenty years behind. I can see why. The cookery is more based on old school English/ British as opposed to our French influence. Sauces, spices and big flavors are a huge no-no..... i am slowly introducing that here. It has been interesting to adapt to this ordering system. We eat from the land, only local grocery. We talk to our produce people daily and ask what the freshest of vegetables, fruits and dairy is and our seafood purveyors for the catch of the day. Our chicken and lamb is picked up daily and the venison, hare, duck, and pig are from our ranch. I have been involved in the entire process. Amazing! When the animal is killed, i go down to the hunting range and pick it up and take it back to the chiller to break down and hang.. to age the animal. I feel like a rancher. I even get to drive all the work trucks around and feed the animals. Our pigs are so happy to see me with the slop buckets and all i can do is feel bad because i will be cooking them in a week or two. I got over it.

I have met some great people. Jane and Kris, Daughter and Mom, they work with the horses and also waitress and host at night. On my days off, i have gone into town with them and they have showed me the ropes. We took a tour of Taupo, lots of little shops and cafes' and then to all the little touristy sites. New Zealand is quite famous for it's honey, so went to the honey hive and did a honey tasting, yes... like a wine tasting. it was pretty cool. We went to Huka falls. They are rapids that stretch from here to Auckland. Very beautiful colors and amazingly fast moving water. The dam is released three times a day because of the amount of water. After our hike around Huka, we went to explore the prawn farm (shrimp) and eat at the little cafe'. We were too late to fish for prawns, but it was funny to see people at those little watering holes with tiny fishing rods.

Later, we met up wit Jane's partner, Trent to go fishing in Lake Taupo. It was a great view of the town and amazing to see the depth of the water. The locals say the lake is bigger than Singapore. We also strolled around to the carvings. Tribal artwork, etched in rock, took the Maori tribe three years to carve. their tribe is a large part of this culture. Language and cuisine. We have several Maori Indians working for Poronui and all have wonderful stories. They still hold a tribal supper once a month in various towns. Their food is buried and roasted in the ground for hours. Pig, potato, corn, etc. It is quite a big deal. The ladies invited me next month to attend with their families. Jade and wood carvings are also a huge deal here.

I am back on with new group of people at Poronui. I prep all day for the lodge, Eve cooks for the Lodge guests and i am cooking for a family in the Owner's Lodge. It has been a very busy few days. My whole dinner has to be ready by 4:30 in time for the lodge guests to return from fishing then, i race up to the Owner's cabin to cook for that family. I am learning a lot about time management. There is a lot of driving around in a day and a need to be three places at once. It is quite a rush actually. Other than that i will be taking my days off when they come and hopefully get to see a bit. I do love it here, but already missing my friends and family. Please let me know how you all are doing.