New Zealand 2008-09 Days 1 and 2

Day 1 - Auckland. After a long day, we finally arrived at Conifer Grove, Auckland, and stayed the night with Phil, Julie, Rich and Rob.



The Morgans have lived in NZ for five years, and they took us on a walk round their area, Takanini, which was very picturesque. In the evening, Phil cooked up a mean Moroccan chicken for dinner which was gorgeous, followed by a controversial tequilla trifle, which also tasted factastic!

Day 2 - Lake Taupo

We drove to Taupo in the morning, and in the early afternoon, met up with Jac and Graham, who were in the middle of the a three week trip around NZ. After a late lunch, we decided to hit the water and go fishing on the lake. It's illegal to sell trout in NZ, even in a restaurant, the only way you can eat one, is by catching it yourself, and then cooking it on a BBQ!

It was quiet a relaxed affair....there was some beer....


whilst we were watching the rods, waiting for a bite....




Then the fish started biting.....



Everyone managed to land one....except Dan! At least he had fun driving the boat....


At the end of the afternoon, we'd bagged enough for dinner...


put it on the BBQ, and had a fantastic night!

Christmas 2008

So here's what we got up to over Christmas 08':

Pre-Christmas dinner: Since we were not going to be cooking our own Christmas dinner this year, it felt a bit wrong not to have a turkey of our own, so we made the whole spread the weekend before Christmas-Megan came round to enjoy it with us, and brought her homemade Australian trifle. Dan got the opportunity to practice his mum's brussel sprouts with cream, bacon and almonds, and my word, those sprouts were the best we have ever tasted!






Christmas Eve had a south American flavour, as we had a BBQ with Aldo and Mon and their Brazilian family. The meat was amazing (brought to brisbane in a suitcase from Sydney Aldo's parents live), and the bean and chirizo rice was amazing aswell!



So, Christmas day, we made our way over to Sam and Paula's place in Fig Tree Pocket to have an amazing Christmas dinner.




I swear I'd never seen so many roast pototoes!!


It was so warm, afterward we had a great stroll along the Brisbane river and an ice pop to cool down when we returned! Then the girls beat the boys at a round of Cranium (which happens to be a great combination of pictionary/charades/trivial pursuit all rolled into one-on my christmas list for next year I think...!).