Manuel's really REALLY long walk

In April, Manuel and a few of our friends (Neil, Phil, and Sandra) are participating in the Oxfam Trailwalker challenge as a team with the goal of walking 100 Km in less than 36 hours. Their goal is actually to do it 22 hours!! People, this is 100 Km - over SIXTY MILES - in 22 hours. They will not sleep, they will just walk. Me and Michelle and Vanessa will be the support van and make sure they have food and water and dry socks at all the checkpoints, etc. And cheer them on when they look tired :)

The money donated goes to Oxfam Foundation New Zealand, which in turn goes out to help poor communities - read more about it here

If you'd like to help Manuel raise his money (each participant must raise at least $500), then go here to donate to team "These boots are made for walkin'"

Vistitors from Oz

Here is yet another long overdue post! (What else is new....)

Going all the way back to December, we had our very first visitors to come and stay with us! (Michelle doesn't count because technically she isn't visiting...she's living here). Paul and Lisa and their little guy Lachlan came over to visit us from Australia for a few days. They were spending a few weeks in New Zealand for their wedding anniversary and stayed with us while having a look at Wellington! Paul is Ann's (my friend from Munich) brother. We've met the whole McMaster gang a few times on our trips to Brisbane and it was so fun having them around!

Here is Lachlan (he just turned 1 in January). He had to especially pack his cute little sweater for our "Wellington summer"...he probably doesn't wear it much in OZ...

We went out to the Karori bird sanctuary on the first day. Manuel and I had never been and it has just undergone a sort of facelift and with the addition of a cool new visitor center (which is still being built)...and who could resist a place called "Zealandia".

This guy was cool to watch. He would step on this lever to open his little food compartment, then fly to a nearby branch to eat...then fly back and do it again. over and over.

Lachlan having a ride on mummy Lisa's shoulders. Seriously, Cutest. Kid. Ever.

Our little nature walk was like being in Land Before Time :)

After our Zealandia adventure, we drove up to the top of the Botanical Gardens to take the Cable Car down to the city to find some Fush & Chups :)

Here's the McMaster clan with a view of what Wellington looks like on a nice day...

We made a quick stop at Farmer's to visit Michelle at work, and brag about how we were going to lunch... :)
The Cuba St. giant umbrella


The City Gallery decked out in dots for some crazy dot exhibition. If Tara owned a City Gallery, it would probably look like this.
Oh, I forgot to mention that there was a UNICYCLE convention going on in Wellington that week. Unicyclists from all over the world were in town for some really cool events including: unicycle basketball, unicycle mountain biking, and various races and freestyle events. The city was seriously filled with unicyclists.

Here are a few boys riding down the stairs on their wheels :) crazy I tell you.

It really didn't take long for Lachlan and Manuel to become best friends on the trip! They were so cute together! Manuel would just carry him around and show him different things. This fountain was a big hit, in particular :)
He was also a very big fan of Manuel's ice cream coffee :)

We stopped and played at the playground next to Queen's Wharf for a bit, which was thoughtfully covered in soft rubber tiles and not sand and dirt.

Lachey is getting very close to walking!

Back to the unicycles a moment, because this picture is really necessary!

We took a little walk to the top of Mt. Albert Park (at least I think that is the name of this place..) for a 360 view of Welly. Miramar and the airport are just in the distance here in this photo.
Near the dump in Happy Valley, there is some really cool rusty junk sculptures, including this spider car. There is also a little Mini Golf course there which we will have to pay a visit to...





Sunset view from our deck
We went to The Cheeky Pippi for brunch, just down at the bottom of the hill from us in Island Bay. They have grapevines growing in the sun room eating area and Lachlan was very interested in touching them :)
Though the weather wasn't so nice in Wellington, it wasn't too bad out in Martinborough. We took a little road trip out to visit a few vineyards and tasted wine. We also went to an Olive grove and tasted Olive oil! Apparently there is a real art to tasting olive oil, including making silly faces and embarrassing slurping noises. Our host there was great though and Manuel and I left with olive oil infused with Fennel. It's actually really yummy, even just on bread!
I'm not going to lie, part of the reason I loved the olive oil so much was because of the cool labels and branding.

Lachlan wasn't so interested in tasting olive oil he was handed around to be entertained out in the garden (which was HUGE).

This is what an artichoke looks like when it flowers. Really pretty!

The olive trees and tasting house Lavender

Christmas!

Here is our real live Christmas tree :) We've definitely upgraded from last year's Christmas potted plant :) The branches are a little droopier than at home...since it's summer here and the tree doesn't have a chance to really harden off at all... so it was a bit difficult to hang the ornaments..BUT, here she is, and ain't she a beaut!! (PS. I had to work all last week so Manuel and our friend Neil went to go pick up the tree - and he picked it out all by himself! not too bad I say!)

Hanging in the doorway is Grandma Bebout's partridge in a pear tree decoration that I have always really loved and this year it means all the more! Nanny Bebout passed away to go be with Pappy Bebout this past week, and if there is one thing that will always remind me of her, it's Christmas time! I loved her sugar cookies, her Christmas decorations and how she always called her couch "the davenport".

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Hong Kong part 2

Carrying on with my visit to Hong Kong...

Not only did I have a layover in HK on the way to Germany, but I had one on the way back as well. I stayed (by myself - yikes!) in a private room in a hostel for 2 nights. I read tons of reviews online before choosing my place...to make sure it wasn't too sketch :)

It certainly was not like any place I have ever stayed...

Here is the hallway outside of my room


And here is Jackie Chan :) only made of wax..

On my first day of exploring I decided to take the world's steepest cable car journey (literally) up to "The Peak" for a view of the entire Hong Kong area. I was all excited about my big day out and my list of sights to see...until I got outside and it was about 200 degrees...then all I could think about was my air-conditioned room..BUT, I stuck with the plan and trooped on anyway. In line for the cable car, I overheard a couple in front of me talking and accidentally mistook them for kiwis...big mistake when they are actually Aussies! After chatting a few minutes they felt bad that I was all alone and decided to adopt me for the day! I literally went everywhere with them after that, and saw much more than I probably would have otherwise :) Even though I told them my name was Nicole, they called me Nikki right from the start :) They even bought me lunch!! I heard fantastic stories about the war in Nam and riding Harley's all over the world:)

Here we are posing at the cable car platform :

Here's the view from the top. Hong Kong is HUGE....and the buildings are so tall and skinny!
They didn't even make fun of my giant sunglasses! they just loved me for me ...
Here's that peak tram that I was talking about...

Take a look at these really skinny double-decker buses! They could squeeze through anywhere!

This is the Hong Kong MTR underground subway. Sure was empty when I got on...

Okay, so some of you may know that I have a fairly strong aversion to Chinese food.... All I can say is that I was VERY brave for lunch with my new friends. I ordered something off of the menu which I could not read, by just picking out one of the pictures... Apparently I ordered noodles with mystery dumplings....but the good news is: it didn't make me want to vomit :) I actually enjoyed it!

I loved how everything was matching green :) And that can of green tea sure was yummy...
Despite my bravery, these are a few things that I definitely did NOT eat...

hello, billboard city...

All over the city was bamboo scaffolding. It looked terrifying.


Here is the inside of my itty bitty tiny private room/broom closet. It was literally just a bed. I couldn't even open the door the whole way. This was my private little potty which I was glad to have so I didn't have to walk down the sketchy hallway somewhere... I could go from the bed to the bathroom without touching the floor....you know if i needed to...not that I tried....
Hong Kong is one of those places that you really don't need more than a few days. I would like to someday see more of China, but I think I could be done with Hong Kong... But at least I can say I've been. I've got the spoon to prove it :)