A Very Kiwi Summer Christmas!

Well, it's official - we celebrated our first Christmas in the Summertime. We could definitely get used to it too! We were hosted by our friend Mark's family. They were incredibly gracious to not only welcome us into their home for Christmas, but also Trey's friend Adnan who has been staying with us from St. Louis, MO. We had a beautiful, hot summer day to celebrate. We spent most of our time outside in their gorgeous backyard talking over salmon and cream cheese dip and 7 layer dip that we contributed to the gathering. Mmmmm. Those Kiwis loved that 7 layer dip! :)

Mark's dad bbq'd lamb and Mark's mom put out a great spread of ham, veggies, potatoes, crayfish with avocado and prawns. Everything was soooo delicious. For dessert of course we had the traditional pavlova with kiwi fruit and fresh fruit as well as some yummy raspberry ambrosia that obviously Jocelyn could not take part of, but Trey said it was very yummy.

People gathered around the tree and exchanged gifts. Mark and Lily had even gotten presents for Jocelyn, Trey and Adnan! Jocelyn got a stuffed animal Kiwi to add to the "family", Trey got a Kiwi words and phrases book and Adnan got traditional Kiwi candy (or lollies as they are called here!) It was incredibly thoughtful and felt good to be included.

There was much merriment and drinking and soon enough, the boys got up to playing some touch rugby. I think the game may have gone smoother if they weren't all so drunk! LOL It was fun for the girls to watch though.

A bit later a few of us took a walk to the Riccarton Bush which is a short walk out of Mark's family's backyard.

Riccarton House & Bush is a heritage site located in the Christchurch suburb of Riccarton just 3.5 km from the city centre. Covering almost 12 hectares our visitor attraction consists of two historic buildings set in parkland and gardens bordered by the River Avon and a native forest reserve featuring Kahikatea trees up to 600 years old

The site, known to local Maori as "Putaringamotu" ...the place of an echo, was home to Canterbury's pioneering Deans family, the first Europeans to settle on the Plains in 1843.

It was a nice little piece of history on an otherwise food-filled day!

The best part of making so many close friends so quickly is getting to see things like that which is not a typical "touristy" thing to see but we were so glad we learned even more about Kiwi culture and history.

Enjoy a few pics from Christmas and we will post a link to more soon.

More stories coming re: our trip to the West Coast shortly and more pics too!!

P.S. The last two pics above are from the day after Adnan arrived - we took him to the gorgeous Botanical Gardens here in Christchurch :)

A visit from a special friend

We officially had our very first visitors in New Zealand.....Saturday Jocelyn's favorite college professor, John Hochheimer (or Hoch as he is affectionately referred to by his former students) came to visit with his wife, Chris. He had been invited to speak at a conference in Melbourne, Australia and decided to see more of the Land Down Under and its surroundings by taking a cruise which conveniently had a stop in Christchurch!

We picked them up from the port in Lyttelton in the morning and drove them through the port hills. They certainly did not offer THAT as an excursion on the cruise! LOL It was a little cloudy which impaired the view of the mountains in the background but it was still a beautiful day to see the REAL New Zealand. Next, we took them to the top of Taylor's Mistake - one of our favorite spots. We just enjoyed the scenery and each other's company. Some reminiscing and some new advice.

We decided they had to try the famous New Zealand green-lipped mussels so once the sun came out we headed into Christchurch city and ate lunch at the Belgian Beer Cafe which is known for their 1kg pot of mussels with frites. Mmmmmm. Delicious. They were amazed by just how huge the mussels were as were we when we first got here.

Finally, as we were leaving the restaurant, we ran into Sonya and Vinnie - Sonya is a co-worker of Jocelyn's at the Lemon. She recommended we try the traditional vanilla ices (no relation to the defunct rapper!) from a street vendor. How could we refuse!! She then took our photo to capture the experience. :)

Finally, we were running out of time so we took them on the Christchurch Tram. It was fine, but let's just say if anyone else comes to visit, we will not be doing that. Just easier to walk around we think. Sorry Hoch and Chris. The only other time we were on the Tram was for the hairyLemon Christmas party and I think we all know that our opinions MAY have been impaired! ha! ha!

The one funny thing we got to show them while on the tram was the unfortunately named "$5 bus" whose owners did not consider inflation!



We dropped them back off at the port. Their next stop was Tauranga and then Auckland.

Sunday we went to the Botanical Gardens across the street from our flat. We were able to take some really nice photos and enjoy a relaxing Sunday.











Today, Trey's friend Adnan arrives. Jocelyn is done with work until January 5th and we are preparing for Christmas Day at our friend Mark's parent's house here in Christchurch. We are excited for our very first Summer Christmas and Christmas bbq complete with lamb, crayfish (lobster) and prawns (shrimp)!!

Christmas Time

Christmas is coming closer but we are still struggling to get in the mood since it is the beginning of summer here and family is so far away. It will be nice to see a few familiar faces with Hoch, one of Jocelyn's professors from Ithaca, and Adnan one of Trey's friends from Rockford, coming to visit. Also, Jocelyn got an early Christmas gift or late Hanukkah gift from hairyLemon in the form of them extending her contract another 8 weeks. A few weeks ago we also bought a small fake Christmas tree and decorated it. You will notice that we opted for a black tree instead of the traditional green tree. You will just have to trust us that the black trees looked much better than the green trees at the store. Also, as promised, here are some pics from the hairyLemon Christmas party.

Christmas party fun!

This weekend was the hairyLemon Christmas party (Jocelyn's work). Jocelyn planned the party and everyone seems to have a great time. We rented out the tram that loops the city and had food and alcohol provided by local caterers. Jocelyn also hired a local group called The Court Jesters who "crashed" the party and performed some comedy routines on board. Nobody else knew that they were coming which was an added bit of fun! :)

It was also fun to meet everyone's partners. After the tram we all went to a local bar and partied until the wee hours of the morning! It was heaps of fun! It is a really fun group and Jocelyn is really enjoying her time with all of them.

Saturday we went out to enjoy what turned out to be a beautiful day and enjoyed the local market with lots of vendors and artists selling some traditional Maori and Kiwi souvenirs. Later that night we went down the street to enjoy a yummy sushi dinner and then stopped across the street at the casino. No winnings this time :(

Next week we are planning an American Food Night at our place and then maybe bbq at a friend's house.

It is officially summertime here now which is still a little odd but we are adjusting :)