Today they finished drilling the last holes for what our contractor and engineer call caissons. This word choice seems odd because, according to my dictionary, a caisson is “a large watertight chamber, open at the bottom from which the water is kept out by air pressure and in which construction work may be carried out […]
After months of working both lunch and dinner service 5 days a week (basically 9 in the morning until closing, 11 PM or so), two weeks ago life in the Fish House (http://thefishhouse.com.au/) kitchen became sufficiently organized that Taylor could train someone to cover for her during service, thus allowing her to take one or […]
Arriving in Auckland, we found our hotel in the Parnell district and a nice Indian restaurant across the street. The next day, our only day in Auckland and last day in New Zealand, began somewhat differently than we had planned when it became clear that Nina had developed an ear infection. Finding medical help away […]
On our final day on the South Island we drove to the picturesque port city of Picton to turn in our rental car and catch the ferry to Wellington. Although we allowed what seemed like ample time for that process, Ted almost missed the boat. It turns out that there are two ferry services that […]
From Murchison, we drove to the north end of the south island. Our destination was Marahau, the southern gateway to the Abel Tasman national park. We parked our car there and took a water taxi north into the park to Anchorage Bay. Here we are eating lunch at a campsite there. This park, the smallest […]
Today, we had to say goodbye to Taylor at Christchurch. She flew from there to Auckland where she planned to have dinner at a great restaurant with a friend from Culinary School, and then leave at 7 AM the next morning for New York. We know that she made it safely to the states, but […]
Leaving Dunedin, we drove up into Central Otago. The last three days in Dunedin had been rainy and gray, so we were heartened to see blue sky as we loaded the car. However, as soon as we climbed out of Dunedin onto the Otago plateau we found ourselves in heavy fog. Our plan was to […]
Amazingly, in seemingly no time it was the start of our last week in Dunedin. We had decided early on in our stay to host a “thank you” party at a local pizza bar called Filadelphios for Liz, her family, and the students in her lab, who had all contributed to the success of our […]
Liz Franz, who was Ted’s host at the University of Otago, her husband Mike, and their son Matai have a wonderful house on 23 acres of land near the opening of the Otago Harbor. Liz bought this property, which was a hillside sheep pasture with a small cottage and woolshed, soon after she immigrated to […]
Since coming to Dunedin, we have taken a number of small trips on the weekends. Both Saturdays, we have gone to the Dunedin Farmers’ Market. The first Saturday it was raining, but the second was better. The Market is very good; it doesn’t have as many stalls as the Irvine market, but it has more […]