Wow! Seems like time has gotten away from us a little. Sarah and I have been cranking along and settling into a stride here in Wellington. Well, maybe more of a duck and weave as we've had a few curve balls thrown our way since our last update.
So here it goes.....
Back in July, Sarah was able to take a trip with the local women's cycling club, Revolve. They left on a Friday and took a little drive up to Rotorua to explore the trails, finding a few good places to stop along the way. Places like the RJ's Licorice factory in Levin and The Wool Company in Taihape. She arrived to Rotorua higher than high from eating all the licorice...4 hours' she claims. Fortunately she was surrounded by 3 other fun girls with the similar problem....if you can call it that! The trip was full of fun, rekindling her memory of knitting with Ashley on the drive up, and mountain biking almost every hour of being awake (only separated by stints in the hot springs). Needless to say she had a lot of fun and had to go on a licorice detox when she returned home.
The knitted hat Marjolien is wearing in the front seat was knitted in less than an hour by Ashley here...she said it was normal behavior but it may have had something to do with the RJ's licorice!
Mountain biking with the girls in the redwoods of the Whakarewarewa Forest in Rotorua...
With Meghan in the background, about an hour before her bike got run over in the parking lot...no joke! Not a good story (or sound) but the happy ending is that it was covered in insurance and she got a heck of an upgrade for a bike!
Marjolien's steed at full speed!
See no evil, hear no evil, taste no evil? Looks suspicious!
A fun night for the girls in Rotorua...not a late or exciting night as we had ridden over 5 hours of the trails of Rotorua that day...food consumption and hot springs were priority!
Needless to say SBH reteurned home a tuckered girl and had much rest to catch up from the abundant amount of riding they did on the trails there in Rotorua!
This is another beautiful view from our porch one morning. As our friend Collette says, "It's all about the view"! We couldn't agree more!
And one more...needless to say we continue to be taken by how lucky we are to be in our cozy home with a view like this!
Zeph working in his man space...what better place than on the porch (in good weather that is)? He made us a lovely, stout king bed, made out of reclaimed wood from Shaun's (landlord/friend/upstairs neighbor) projects. A good use indeed! And, a wonderful bed with storage underneath!
And the finished product!
That theory goes wayside in the rain...but, here is Zeph proving his Wellingonian-ess to adapt to the weather! Fortunately it was a warm storm and he was pretty happy to be getting his hands dirty (or clean) again!
And a really cool knife block he made out of more reclaimed wood...
and a very good gluten free apple oat waffle...complete with (imported) maple syrup...they haven't figured out how to make maple syrup from their maple trees here yet...or, nobody is selling it! honey on the other hand, is everywhere!
That theory goes wayside in the rain...but, here is Zeph proving his Wellingonian-ess to adapt to the weather! Fortunately it was a warm storm and he was pretty happy to be getting his hands dirty (or clean) again!
And, in the kitchen department, Sarah made some gluten free breads, and one of the best ice cream sandwiches we've witnessed...gluten free and dairy free of course. In true Kiwi fashion, our favorite vanilla ice cream right now is made from...ewe's milk! While it seems intuitive that there is ice cream made from sheep's milk, there is only one dairy that does it thus far! Sarah is beginning to become a proponent for using lamb for their wool and ice cream over meat...if you tried the ice cream you might agree!
the gluten free bread...excellent toast as well!
and an amazing ice cream sandwich thanks to a new vegan cookie cookbook and the ewe's milk ice cream...quite a treat indeed!
All for now~ More catch up soon! In the next round of pictures will be the long story of our car dieing and Zeph bringing her back to life by rebuilding an engine for the first time. As well as a very colorful trip to Rotorua to watch the singlespeed world (mountain bike) championships!
