New Zealand: South Island

The South Island was pretty amazing...

Queenstown Hill Hike--
that's the look you get before hypothermia 

Freezing!  See hood.

View of the other bungee jump, from the Queenstown Gondola.

Mirror Lakes.

Arrowtown Chinese Settlement- a sad part of NZ history.

Te Anau.  Educational tidbit: Lake Te Anau is the largest 
lake in the South Island and second only within New Zealand to Lake Taupo.

Cadbury Factory in Dunedin.

Fleur's Place.  Spectacular views, location and food.

Rose at the Christchurch Botanical Gardens.

Decadent New Zealand: Fruits and food

I gained a few pounds on the trip.  Not entirely sure why...

Afghan cookie at the saddest cafe in NZ, just outside of Christchurch.

Post-run sugar at the Wellington Farmer's Market.

Fergburger, the Queenstown institution.  I got the Lamby.

Venison at V. Know in Queenstown.

Gummy worms at a Cromwell fruit stand.  

My score from the Wellington Farmer's Market.
A peacherine (eh), kiwiberries (yum!) and some sugary sweet plums.

Kiwiberry up close.

Mussels at V. Know in Queenstown.

My first NZ lambchops care of my awesome cousin.

An American(o) in NZ.

Not just any potato chips, but NZ potato chips!

Whole fish at the Wedding @ the Boatshed in Wellington.

Cappuccino at Fraser's in Auckland after a morning walk to Mt. Eden.  

Highly addictive.
Cookies and jelly candy INSIDE the chocolate.  Yeah.  

I'll have a flip-flop shaped cookie, please.

A "Lamington".  As a cream non-lover, it was still ok.

Venison pie.  Basically, you cannot get away from pies.
You wouldn't want to.  They are mostly delicious.

My first Scotch Egg @ Christchurch Farmer's Market.

Hey, they have orange cox!  Huh?  Orange cox!
No, it's a "Cox Orange", found only in NZ.

New Zealand, Land of Kiwis

Lake Tekapo, South Island

I kicked off 2014 with a 16 day trip to New Zealand to tour the North and South Islands, climb a little, swim a little, eat a lot, and dream a little.  My first stop was the Epsom section of Auckland, where I visited the standard tourist attractions: Mt. Eden, One Tree Hill, Davenport, the Viaduct, and Mission Bay.  Nope, no Skytower.

Te Annau at dusk, South Island

The original plan was to spend two days in Auckland and drive down to Wellington.  Fate had other plans so we instead based ourselves out of Auckland for four days and flew down to Wellington in time for my cousin's wedding in Wellington.  Using Auckland as our home base, we visited Kawhia and the hot springs beach on Ocean Road, which nears the top of my list of places to remember for a lifetime (seriously, one of the most amazing places I've seen, next to the night J and I had the Placa Real in Barcelona all to ourselves at night, to boot!).  We also visited pungent Rotorua and feasted on fried oysters, fish and chips, and fried mussels along the way.

Windsor Blue at the Christchurch Farmer's Market

Flying down to Wellington, we were treated to a wonderful wedding and the coldest summer winds known to man.  After the wedding whirlwind, we made our way down to Christchurch, Queenstown, Dunedin, Milford Sound, and Bluff.  We could easily have spent 2 weeks on each island and still not seen everything...

More posts to come.  Yes, there will be doggie voyeur pics, and a "Fruits of..." post.

Singer's 3rd anniversary/ 5th birthday.

Birthday girl dressed for her birthday
car ride.  (Pardon the birthday mess!)

More belated picture posting.  Singer got a little shafted this year on her birthday.  I didn't have time to bake her a cake OR make her a squirrel-shaped mural out of carrots.  I'm a bad, bad person.

Totally phoned it in.  Cheese, chicken
and steak.  (And bonus prosciutto
 in the car.)

I did make her a trio of proteins for her third anniversary.  Get it?  I know. Tenuous at best.  Actually, it turned out to be a quadruple of proteins, because after her birthday dinner, I took her on a birthday car ride.  While I was in the store, she found the POUND of prosciutto I had purchased earlier that day.  She ate the whole thing as the man in the car next to mine watched.

Trifecta of devouring.

When I got back to my car, I noticed the plastic clam shell that once held prosciutto, and Singer, with her bad girl face on.  When I looked up, I noticed a man in the car next to mine, pretending not to stare.  Figuring him to be an accomplice to the crime, I asked him to roll down his window and asked him if he saw her eating anything.  He said, "her head was down.  I think she ate it all."  Oh geez.

So, I guess Singer got the last laugh.  And since she didn't get a stomach blockage from all of the little wax paper dividers in the meat, I guess I shouldn't complain.

Last leg, Thailand

... so, nearly three months after the end of the trip (and right before I head off to New Zealand!!!) comes the final Asia Trip 2013 post.

Sanctuary of Truth

Our trip to Thailand was amazing!  After my quick trip to steamy Singapore, I hopped a plane to Bangkok, Thailand.  The flight itself was nothing short of…  interesting.  I ended up next to a very chatty pastry chef who showed me pictures of all of his confections during the ride. Chefs of his ilk tend to be itinerant by circumstance and/ or character, and he was no different.  We ended up exchanging email addresses, promising to meet up in during our travels, but after he accidentally showed me some of his itinerant-chef activities on his phone, I decided against it, even with the muscle awaiting me in Bangkok!

I arrived in Bangkok in the late afternoon, and quickly (ok, I found them before they found me) found Paul and Patrick ("P1" and "P2"), and eventually, our driver.  On the drive over, it was clear that jetlag had taken its toll on Paul…

Thai Elephants, v2013.

Patrick and I chatted a bit, and eventually I settled on checking out the roadside  scenery.  As with my first trip, lots of dirt, roadside stands and the occasional oddity.  After a two hour ride, we arrived at our hotel in Pattaya—the Dusit Thani.  Quite nice, at the north end of the drag.  After settling in and grabbing a quick nap, we headed out in search of food.  Well, I wanted food.  P1P2 wanted to be accosted by every single suit-swilling man on the sidewalk.  After over two hours of walking, we were exhausted and angry.  So.. we settled on the most overpriced, underwhelming Hard Rock Café known to man.  I ended up paying $20 USD for a burger… which is not bad if you’re in.. NYC.  In Pattaya, $20 USD will buy you 3+ hours of legit massage.   Anyway… first night down, we went back to the hotel.  Most of us went back to the hotel. 

The next few days were spent riding elephants, amphibious vehicles, and bar stools, visiting a touristy (but tasty!) made-for-suckers floating market at the north side of Pattaya, birthdaying, eating, and being massaged.  I might have befriended more than my fair share of strays and fruit mongers.  We also went to a magnificent wooden temple called the Sanctuary of Truth.  It's being entirely rebuilt by an army of woodworkers, reminiscent of a chisel-wielding Asian chain gang.  

During the trip, P1P2 also partook of the Tiffany Show (I opted for a massage, citing, "been there, done that").  

Pics, pics and more pics.

Elephants are truly amazing.  I had mixed feelings
about my visit to this facility.

 

The Sanctuary of Truth is basically on a beach,
a stone's throw away from the main drag.

Up close.

Truly stunning.

She knows her way around a mallet.

Truth-Carving Army

These actors were a hoot.

Like the Hollywood sign, but with more ladyboys.  

Dregs of my birthday flowers and my 7-11 raid.

Disco Tuk-tuk to Lumphini Muy Thai Arena, in the rain.
Tuk-tuk of near death, is what it was.

I think he threw on Snoop for us.  Or Ke$ha.  Probably to
drown out the sound of my screams.

In the club-- er, tuk-tuk.  Can't see this, but P2 is to my left,
smashed into the safety bar.  These things are not built for
 American-sized people.

Outrageously priced foreigner seats.  

Only KO of the night...

I wandered into the prep area, and the press took pics of me
 with him and a bunch of his handlers.  I'm not really sure why.
I asked them to take one of me with my camera for kicks too.

Post-fight octopus.  Looked great, was really only
luke warm.  Didn't get sick, so I call that a win.

Bday flowers made it to Bangkok!

...and the Bangkok airport at 6 am. Until we meet again, Thailand.
En route to HK.