Scones!

I am now officially obsessed with scones, baking them and eating them. These are some apricot scones I made earlier today, they turned our light, buttery and scrumptious.

Scones are big here, both savory and sweet and I am on a mission to try as many as I can. Oh the things we do in the name of baking research!

Photos of the Day- Wellington Botanical Gardens

Photo of the Day at the Wellington Zoo

Christmas Eve and Christmas

Christmas Eve Dinner at our flat

Near the top of Mt Victoria

The view from the top

Hope you all have a happy holiday!!  We are off to a Christmas/ Summer BBQ this evening with some friends we've met along our travels here.  Thinking of you all and sending lots of love.

xoxo
Kaitlyn

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Wellington New Zealand!! We love and miss you all.

xoxo
Kaitlyn

The Best Selling Book in New Zealand

Not only is this the bestselling cookbook in New Zealand- it is also the bestselling book.  Its been around about 90 years and I am told it is the quintessential Kiwi cookbook.  I was lucky enough to find a used copy the other day.  Can't wait to try out some new goodies!!

These chocolaty biscuits are in every cafe and coffee shop.

The finished product: Afghan Cookies

Happy Cooking (and of course, eating)!

xoxo
Kaitlyn

Some Wellington Highlights

Our time in Wellington has been a bit of a blur- lots of great things to see and great people to meet.  We've been lucky enough to meet a few new friends through couchsurfing.com, I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is an awesome organization and we've been having a great time exploring the pubs and trying out all the good beers on tap here (I've discovered I love Porters, who knew?).  While it would be impossible to share every little detail with you, here are some highlights I wanted to share:

The National War Monument

 

 

Every township or even village we have gone through has some sort of memorial in honour of New Zealanders who gave their lives in war.  This is the national monument, on the top of a hill overlooking the harbor.  It has names dating back to WWI and there flowers and letters from loved ones scattered around the sides of the room.  Whatever you feel about war it is always moving to see how countries chose to show appreciation.

There isn't a story behind this door- I just liked it and it is just up the street from our flat.

One of the coolest things we've done here is to drive out to Lyall Bay to see the Marine Research Center.  It is only open to the public a few hours per week, the rest of the time it is used to research the creatures and plants that live in Cook Straight.  They have Octopuses (Octopi?) in three separate tanks- 1 is a female that just laid 3000 eggs which will be put into the ocean once they hatch (the mama will die, they only mate once in their life and then the male and female die).  The other 2 are males and really big, probably 6 or 7 feet long.  We got to watch one get fed, it eats a whole crab every day- it was really cool.  I think they might be my new favorite sea creature.  The research center also houses a huge touch tank (I think Sky is holding a hermit crab but I can't remember) with sea stars of all sorts, little crabs, including one species of crab that builds a camouflage for itself out of bits of seaweed and whatever it can find, super cool.  We also saw some cod, a scorpion fish a hag fish (also known as a snot eel, charming name no?) and a smattering of other fish that live just off the coast. 


I hope you all have a lovely holiday and new year!!

Heaps of Love,
Kaitlyn

Fiji Plants and Animals

While we were traveling in Fiji (feels so long ago!!) I took lots of photos of flowers and wildlife and always meant to post them just never got around to it.  Now that we have some quiet time in Wellington I thought I would share a few of them with you all.  Enjoy and have a happy holiday!!! Miss you all.



Hibiscus, Orchid and Palm Leaf Garlands




Its just a head of cabbage but I think it is beautiful



Fiji and New Zealand both have amazing ferns, they are everywhere



I forget the name of these but they were everywhere- anyone know?




Ginger Blossom



We found this little guy just outside our Burre



A clam we found snorkeling just off the coast

xoxo
Kaitlyn

Colors of New Zealand

 

So many ideas, so little time...

Sea Shepherd in Wellington

Before Sea Shepherd went off to save the whalesin the Antarctic Reserve, they made a quick stop in Wellington to raise awareness, gather support and stock up on supplies.  We had a chance to check out the ship and meet some of the crew, as well as watch a documentary about their work.

First off- their ship is huge!!   Had the chance to go onboard and see the helipad, the control room and check out the crew's area.  The ship we were on, called the 'Steve Irwin' will be out on the waters in Antarctica from this coming Tuesday for about the next 3 months without coming ashore.  

It is an 8 day trip down to Antarctic waters and then they will be looking for the illegal Japanese whaling ships.  I didn't really know what it was they did before yesterday.  They are pretty amazing.  They work to save whales as well as dolphins and sharks and they work all over the world.  Paul Watson, the Captain, started out working with Greenpeace and decided to take a more aggressive tactic back in the 70s and began Sea Shepherd.  The work they do puts them in direct conflict with the poachers, placing themselves between a whale and a whaling ship for instance.  Fairly recently they began work off the Galapagos to stop the trade of shark fins which claim the lives of tens of thousands of sharks per year.  If you want more information here is their website: http://www.seashepherd.org/

Perhaps it is growing up on the water around boats, or my recently found love of scuba diving, but I find myself caring more and more about the oceans and conservation efforts.  The creatures they are working to save have been around a lot longer than we have- perhaps they have something to teach us.

That is all for now, it is a blustery, beautiful day here in Wellington, perfect for sipping tea and watching the clouds roll by. 

xoxo
Kaitlyn

How to Order a Coffee in New Zealand

A latte at Baobab Cafe
(my new favorite spot in Newtown)

I'm not sure if mentioned this before but New Zealand has some amazing coffee.  However, it took me a while to figure out how to order the stuff; so if you should ever be in New Zealand and in need of caffeine here is a quick guide to get you started:

Short Black = a shot of espresso
Long Black = a single americano
Flat White (my personal favorite) = a latte with lots of milk and just a little foam on top
Fluffy = foamed milk (you can also order it with chocolate for hot chocolate drink)

Enjoy!

Scuba Diving in Taputeranga Marine Reserve

Beach entry.  No, its not easy with 80lbs of gear on your back :)

 I love scuba diving.  Being under the water, the quiet mystery of visiting a new world.  It was quite a change to back to cold water diving after the warm waters of fiji.  This dive was much more similar to Catalina Island, lots of kelp and a bit cloudy, about 2 meters of visibility, perhaps a bit more, but not much.

We were with our dive guide, Karl, who dives these waters on an almost daily basis- he took us through mermaid's kitchen into caves, we saw Octopus and eels and lots of sea stars.  The colors here are vibrant, purples and pinks next to the greens and browns of the kelp, with little bits of red here and there.

Our friend Fluffy the Octopus.  That is our dive guide's hand in the right of the photo.  That is one huge Octopus!!

We've joined the dive club and hope to get out nearly once a week to see everything this area has to offer.  Lots of divers here go out to catch food- scallops, blue cod, crayfish.  There is a big party on Sunday to benefit cancer research with a seafood feast all caught just off the shore by the local divers.  We haven't decided yet if we are going to go.

And lastly, check out this video Sky took of me swimming through the channel after the jump: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19KCR6vBNiY

That is all for now- tomorrow we are off to Cricket match, time to go research how the game is played.

xoxo
Kaitlyn

Hello from Wellington!!

We have officially moved into our Wellington flat and will be here until the middle of January, after that we hope to head down to the south island and explore a bit more of the country.  We are in the Newtown neighborhood, super cute, easy to get to the city, kind of reminds me of one of the many neighborhoods surrounding Seattle.  In fact, this whole city reminds me of Seattle a little bit.  It is set right on the water, the weather can be a bit unpredictable (all the kiwis we've met outside of Wellington have said the same thing- it is a great city but the weather sucks) - we woke up to rain this morning and now it is sunny and a bit windy.  I love it.

There are some great hikes right outside our door and there is art, music, cafes and cute pubs everywhere.  What more could I possible need?  Oh yeah, there is a huge farmers market just down the street every Sunday.  I feel right at home here.

In other news, I already have a job teaching yoga!  Tomorrow I begin at a studio just a ten minute walk from our new place.  Hopefully I'll be teaching there 2 or 3 times per week with the occasional outdoor class when the weather is nice.

Missing you all and wishing you could be here to see how amazing this place is!!

xoxo
Kaitlyn