Barry the Blister

It's taken three days for Brian and I to cycle from Nelson to Westport, and what do I have to show for it? No, not abs of steel. No, bugs are not stuck in my teeth. No, my dear friends, I am afraid I have gained one heck of a blister. Where? Well, I hate to admit this to all of you who are following along, but I've got Barry, Barry the Blister, on my ass. Yes, on my ass. There. I've said it. When I discovered that I had a blister on my ass, the first thing I thought was, "Oh, that must be why my butt hurt so much while we were riding" and then the second thought was, "This will make a great blog story." It hurts like hell, and I can't sit on hard surfaces. Dammit. I've managed to keep the blister un-popped, and I hope to keep it that way. Suffice to say, we're taking today and perhaps tomorrow off to allow for some critical healing time, in amongst the earthquakes (yes, wake-you-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night earthquakes). Here's a bit of photo action from our three days of riding... Our new tent, MSR Hubba Hubba. Appropriately named, I say.Our first camping night (free camping thanks to random local approaching us while we cooked dinner just off the main street in Wakefield) was a success. The possums stayed clear of us, lucky for them... The following morning was just lovely. This is my view when I'm drafting Brian. I like drafting. I like my view. Bikes among friends! Albeit rusty friends. Third night of camping was good, except for the sand fly masses... We managed okay with a little breeze during dinner, but in the morning, upon waking up, we realized that our either carbon dioxide levels or obtuse ranky smell (a few days of riding with zero showers) attracted nearly the entire sand fly population to our tent. Luckily, none of the little bastards got inside until we armoured ourselves up and bolted out from under our orange shelter. AHHHHHH! Mangy little blood-sucking bastards. If you've experienced them, you'd use worse words than that, let me tell you.... On a happy note, I'll describe some of the food we've been fortunate to ingest during our trip, even though grocery stores have been scarce. We bought some homemade marmalade off the side of the road. So gooood. Cous-cous and quinoa hot dish with peas, nuts, tomatoes and stupendous sundried tomato feta cheese. Add a few ginger beers, and we've got one heck of a dinner. Curry pasta for four (yeah, right), more stupendous feta cheese. No bugs. Yum. One kilogram of frozen raspberries off the side of the road. Totally worth the weight, and lasted barely two days. Our favourite salty friend, Vegemite. The best darned bacon and egg and beef burger I've ever had! (see description of said burger in blog entry below)...

Hmmm... I'm getting hungry. All this is making me think of our last two meals we cooked in the hostel which were out of this world: chicken fajitas with some major doctoring up with avacados, olives, plain yogurt, and more... Mmm... Then for breakfast we had egg fajitas with all of the above once again. Ooooooooooh. And we've treated ourselves to a sweet little package of Tim Tams!.... All this talk of food..... Oh dear, I'm going to implode, I'm so hungry. What's for lunch, Brian? I'm craving some meat again. I promise not to make this entire cycling portion of my blog all about food. At least I'll try. One last thing for today. We have started a working list of how many honks, etc, we get while riding. I'll try to keep this updated as the blog goes along. Honks: 4 Waves: at least 30 "Good on ya!": 3 "How ya goin?!": 3 "Woo-Hoo!":1

I'm diggin' the downhill

Our bikes have taken us to... where are we? Oh, yes, Murchison. We've gone about 60 kms already today, and have decided our bums are capable (barely) of surviving another 30 kms to the next campsite. We've got tuna sandwhiches to look forward to, so we should be fine... One of the exciting moments of today was stopping in at a pub in the middle of absolutely nowhere (as in, there was nothing else in this empty valley except one little pub), and I realized that I was craving meat for lunch, greasy meat. I fessed up to Brian, who looked as though my greasy desire had completely justified our biking partnership. Here's the yummy part: one of our burgers had bacon and a fried egg on it, plus cheese and a fat patty of beef. I never understood seeing hard core cyclists coming into greasy spoons ordering crap food, but now I get it. We're HUNGRY! And greasy food tastes way better than healthy goods, right? Yep, I'll keep telling myself that for the time being. Man, that burger was fan-freaking-tastic. Just after getting back on the road I told Brian that I had a piece of beef stuck in my wisdom tooth, and he said he'd just fished out a bit of a french fry a minute ago. Apparently, a great time killer while riding is doing the ol' search and rescue for food bits. I can see that. Well, I'm going to finish my drink, take a toilet break, and get my sore bum back on the saddle... I'll put some pictures on here later when I have more time. It's only been three days and I'm having a GREAT ride, I feel awesome on the bike, and Brian is looking pretty darned cute sitting at the next table reading the paper, sipping on a coffee. Hellloooooooo.

Beach Swimmin' and King Fishin'

Spending the week with Cole has been pretty spectacular and a heck of a lot of fun! We are so glad to be able to chill out with our favourite little man, and help out Hazel and Craig as well. As the sun was setting the other evening, we strolled along the beach at low tide making some cool tracks in the sand. Brian footprints with Colesy footprints in the middle: The shadows and patterns on the sand were brilliant...Colesy LOVES being held, and he LOVES LOVES LOVES water. Splish-splash-a-ma-dash! Uncle Brian taking Cole into the not-too-brisk water: There was lots of laughter, plenty of smiles and one WET diaper. The next morning, Craig and Brian and I took Colesy on his first ever fishing trip! Craig was very excited at the opportunity to share one of his passions with his son, and I think the expedition was a hit with Cole! There was excitement all around at the first big tug on the line, but seconds later the bliss turned to "BUGGER! BUGGER! BUGGER!" as the line broke. ACK! Must have been some damned big fish on the hook to break the line... Hope was not lost, however, as we kept trolling and keeping Colesy occupied. The "Big Sport Fishing" design on Coles wee-shirt must have been good luck because a second big bite came ten minutes later. Craig took the line and kept control as the fish was a tuggin' and a swimmin'. Craig kept his cool and brought this massive king fish up to the surface with expertise and a whole lot of "Wooooo-hoooo!!!!'s" and "I LOVE FISHING!". Once bringing the fish into the boat, the measuring tape came out and confirmed that this fish was one big catch: just shy of one metre long!! After all that excitement, Brian and I took a quick dip into the ocean before we took the prize fish home to show Hazel. Lunch was a BBQ feast, and dinner - oh my gosh - dinner was the best meal I've had in New Zealand. Aside from potato wedge fries and a tasty salad, Craig put together the king fish into three separate dishes. I don't even know what they were called, but the first dish had lemon and coconut milk and cilantro with raw chunks of king fish, the second dish had mayonnaise and other yummy things with smoked king fish, and the third dish was sushi style with raw strips of king fish and a big bowl of soy sauce with oodles of wasabi. Ohhhhhh soooooooooooo gooooooooooooooooood! I'm still dreaming of those marvelous tastes... And today, we're planning on having king fish steaks seared on the BBQ just like tuna steaks. I CAN'T WAIT! This week has been quite the delicacy, delicious and delightful food time, and it makes me think this is going to be the excessive treat before we head off on our bikes with limited space and tools... Actually, I'm sure Brian and I will come up with some tasty treats of our own using a bit of ingenuity. Canned beans with cheese, anyone? I'll add some parsley off the side of the road for a touch of colour. This afternoon, we're going to do a test run with the bikes and head out to Rabbit Island for a swim in the ocean. If all goes well, our South Island bike tour will hopefully begin on Monday. Hazel suggested we do a "Before and After" photo shoot, which I think is a marvelous idea, so I'll be plunking the "before" photo on my blog soon.

A week with Cole-sey!

Brian and I are spending some quality time with one little guy named Cole, Cole-sey, Cole-sey boy, Mr. Man, Gorgeous, etc...

Every day is a good day, but yesterday was super! We walked all the way up to the geographical center of New Zealand with my friends Simon (from BC) and Katherine (England). Simon's on his last few days of an Australian/New Zealand tour before heading back to Canada to work at King Pacific Lodge once again... Simon, you are a super cook, and a bit of a weirdo (the kind I like).At the top of our hike, Cole ate a yummy sandwich followed by some episodes of being held and tossed in the air. Thank gosh the sandwich stayed where it belonged. The giggles coming from this wee-boy were contagious not only to us, but to the other folks enjoying the view over the town of Nelson. Brian, Cole, and Katherine:

Fun times with Aunty Dee! Except for the perma-wedgie. Sorry, little dude.

Today, we're in town getting myself all geared up for one heck of a ride! A cycle, that is. Brian and I are going to tour the south island using leg power. I've borrowed a super killer bike from Craig and Hazel, so we just need some bags and racks and a pair of decent bike shorts, and we'll be off rolling down the roads by early next week. Gosh, this blog story keeps getting more and more interesting... I'm having a blast, and can't wait to get on our bikes and see the south island in a completely different way.

And a small update on Beth: she made it back to Canada safe and sound, with a few hiccups along the way, but is prepping for a big cross-Canada road trip with her father. It sounds like she's continuing fun adventures too!

Beth, my dear, Hazel and Craig say 'hello!' and wish you well, and Cole-sey has just given you one long and very wet raspberry.

Two Paths Merge

I left the yoga retreat a few days ago and returned to Nelson, to Brian, who's calm and loving energy causes me to believe he's the most beautiful person I've met. Our two paths have merged to produce indescribable feelings of glowing light and love...

The Beauty of Anahata

The beauty of the simple prayer flags on the deck are a reflection of my time at Anahata. The wind and movement slowly defraying my internal stirring, allowing for stillness to rise in place. During my time at the retreat, I participated in three fire ceremonies (called havans). The most moving one for me was dedicated to the full moon and the lunar eclipse. Using a harmonium, we sang mantras related to Krishna. My favourite mantra is Hari Krisha, and if you meet up with me in person in the near future, I would be delighted to sing it for you (without the harmonium backup, of course, as those aren't so easy to fit into your pocket). Zac was incredible to watch as he let go of all inhibitions and sang from his inner most being. It was very powerful to be a part of this... The sun was shining onto us as we sang and I felt the vibrations of my voice from the deepest parts of my abdomen all the way up and out of my mouth and into the warm air. Caitlin's son, little Jaya, is the most adorable two year old, who seems to be sleeping blissfully every time I see him... After the fire ceremony, the full moon rose up above the ocean and the hills as the sky was slowly turning into darkness. I didn't sleep much that night. My eyes catching glimpses of silver light in my room and out on the land.

New Hairstyle...