From Auckland to the Coromandel

http://www.skycityauckland.co.nz/Attractions/Skytower.html
http://www.nzsteel.co.nz/about-new-zealand-steel/history
http://www.lighthouse.awhitu.com/


The real reason we came up - apart from having a break was that a good longstanding friend was being inducted as presbyter into the Uniting Church at Waiuku and Districts combined churches.
Said Friend has been duly inducted and it was her first "official" service today - so we decided to come up as support for her today and then tag on a few days in the Coromandel.
Well the service went well and all was just peachy!!
After the service we headed home where we quickly changed and applied sunscreen and headed of to the big wild yonder - called Waiuku peninsula. First stop a lovely beach (Clarkes Beach) and then on to yet another beach. Along the way we saw the outlying churches where our friend will have to travel to every so often on Sundays.
check out the website of the church --> http://www.standrewscentre.org.nz/

Of course not having had lunch we did feel peckish and decided to sample some of the local cuisine. We knew as soon as we walked through the door that we would be well looked after as Monsignor Ted here promised as a first rate cuisine. I had a Cauliflower soup with Blue cheese - and it tasted better then it sounded. This was augmented with a Mediterranean Salad - which some of you know as Caesars Salad - and THAT was nice.
The food was great to - although we did suffer from the sun while sitting outside.










Well there is nothing more to be said - other then we took another left turn and drove all the way to the light house on the Manakau harbor head. Fantastic views!! The Tasman sea - unusually calm and a beaut to see.





Looking across the harbor towards Auckland City, and yes you can see the Skytower in the left side. Amazing that we made it up there yesterday.










Us two blokes sat on the beach and tossed some ideas round for a suitable heading for this particular shot. I think we decided to call this - "newly appointed local presbyter checks out location for mass baptism" - and you would have to agree - this one HAS got possibilities!!
Wonder if I should email this to the church secretary??





Missed the sunset with late dinner - ah well there is always another day. Tomorrow we drive towards the Coromandel and spend some time there.
Hmmmm we need to get some black sand from the other beach - oddly enough its iron sand and there is this nearby mill that makes steel. Mamabear is keen to visit - so maybe tomorrow.

From Auckland to the Coromandel

swimming-with-the-sharks
www.kellytarltons.co.nz/



Having been bedded and slept well we decided to head into the big smoke and see some of the lovely sights - first up was Kelly Tarlton's. A boys dream world if you are seriously into fish and tanks.

First up is the penguin enclosure and just to give you an idea on the cold - see if you can keep your hand in this antarctic cooled water tank - yes folks it was about plus 2 degrees cold - as close as poss to freezing and yes - mamabear made the 30 sec. then threatening to warm her hands on my neck. BRRRRRR


Here are the little critters enjoying their enclosure. Amazing to see them 'fly' under the water, very agile!!!

Urm - and somewhat smelly too . . .



















Next came the feeding of the stingrays. This young and very thin but shapely lady in a wetsuit was rigged up with a lapel mic and gave a running commentary on the habitats and whats what with the rays - all the while feeding them and having to watch her footing. They sure are amazing creatures!!






Next up was the predator tunnel = and hey - it WAS a tunnel. There is this 3 inch thick polycarbon something rather plastic that is shaped and provides a clear viewing of the tank. The sand was at my chest height - and the tank over the top of that = allowing for a 180 degree view - and amazing it was to see these extremely efficient lean mean eating fish to literally cruise in the current - and showing no care in the world!!




We where lucky and saw the resident Octopus being fed, as well as some monster crayfish (which looked more like something out of a horror movie). The octopus changed his color - so that was cool to see.











One of mamabear's favorite 'the seahorse'- although I suspect it has something to do with the fact that the MALES carry the offspring and give birth!!!












The view across Mission Bay towards the sky tower. It was Waitangi Day - New Zealand's national day - and unbeknown to us they had a huge event in Mission bay happening. So we ended up making a detour - as the street was blocked of for traffic. Almost got lost but with the help of one of the marshals found our way to Kelly's place ok - and then of course back the same way!!





We decided after the inspiration of the salt water tanks that it was time for lunch and I seemed to remember a good place at Victoria market - which ended up a disappointment. It looked as though it has had its day and was a bit run down. Still it was welcome to sit down in the shade and eat a sandwich and have a drink. From there - yep u guessed it - we walked towards the sky tower.
Oh yeah - everywhere you sat - we saw signs saying "do not feed the birds" and when a guest leaves its half eaten dinner on the table and the staff a slack in collecting - what do you get - a FREE meal for the feathered wildlife!! These guys enjoyed the spaghetti with tomato sauce . . . . . . .














Hmm tea is up will need to finish this later . . . .. .

Nice dinner - and the apple/apricot pie - yummmm
just found this on the web - didn't know it was a new thing - scary stuff though

Camp cooking with a difference

Uhu - I so clearly remember the night. We had this whole term program based on food - supposedly healthy food and one night, we challenged the youth to cook a coca-cola chicken!
yes - you read that right - cook with coca-cola. Well they were really looking forward to that.
So we had four groups of youth and they got the EXACT copy of the recipe each and yes we had the exact measured ingredients for each group- yet SOMEHOW we ended up having 4 very different meals. Still it tasted all right, and the kids had a ball. funny really watching them cut an onion, then wiping the eyes cause they cry - and in the process putting more onion stuff into eyes . . . . . .

anywoo - below is the workings - enjoy






NATIVE AMERICAN CHICKEN CURRY

2 1/2 lbs chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2in strips
water
salt
celery tops
3 tbs margarine
1 tart apple, peeled and diced
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tbs curry powder
1/3 cups raisins
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cups Coca-Cola
3 1/2 tbs flour
1 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
8 servings rice cooked to package directions

Cook chicken and a few celery tops in a large pot of boiling salted water. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook 45 minutes. In a large skillet, melt the margarine and add apple, onion, and curry powder. Sauté for 5 minutes. Stir in raisins, chicken broth, and Coke. In a medium pot, mix flour with cream. Stir until smooth. Add salt, pepper, and apple/onion mixture. Cook over low heat until thick and creamy. Add drained cooked chicken. Cool and pour into gallon double zip-lock. Store in cooler overnight. Reheat slowly and serve over cooked rice.

Thanks to Coke.

Camp cooking with a difference

So I've been often asked what kind of meals our scouts can and do cook.
Well - many and there are dozens of good websites giving zillions of recipes for ideas. I shan't pretend to be the best camp cook - nor have all the wisdom, however I shall endeavor to write some of our best experiences up, for camp cooking with a difference. May they taste as good for you as they did for us . . . Bon appetite!!
(having said all of that - a huge junk of it is HOW you sell the very idea of outdoor / camp cooking to the youth. -- See there is the "Russian roadkill stew" (thanks to 'the geezers cookbook' ---> http://www.usscouts.org/macscouter/Cooking/index.asp ) which is basically a Beef Strogonoff - but with a bit of imagination and 'hard sell' you can either totally freak out the youth - or . . . .) See - I prepped my meal - telling stories about this dead animal I found - and skinned and hung it in the garage - for weeks - but made a Beef Strogonoff - that was very tasty - urm - yumm - urm - more on that later. . .

Meanwhile here is a very nice seafood chowder ala NZ
'Hoki Chowder'

6 tablespoons avocado oil
1 medium sized onion - peeled and finely chopped
1 stick of celery - peeled and diced
1 carrot, cleaned and cut into matchstick sized pieces
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon mild curry powder
125 g flour
3 cups of chicken stock - ideally home made (I almost always do)
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of cream
30 Tuatua, shelled (ok - here I cheat - they are a North Island deli only - so I use a nice firm fresh fish - usually Hoki - but hey feel free to use any mild flavored shell fish)
1 medium sized fresh snapper - (again a NZ fish - try some fresh salmon - diced)
2 tablespoon fresh chopped dill
some cracked pepper for seasoning

Heat the avocado oil in a large pot and add the onion. Cook, stirring often until softened, then add the celery and carrot. Cook for a further 2-3 minutes, then add the salt, curry powder and flour, stirring constantly.
This will go lumpy and firm - so be careful not to burn on the bottom of the pan.
Gradually add the chicken stock, stirring all the while, then the milk. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. The chowder base should be light and creamy - add a little more milk if necessary.
A few minutes before serving stir in the cream, the tuatua and the salmon, heat just enough to cook through, and serve garnished with the dill and black pepper.

If you can manage - toast up some brown bread and thinly spread with some garlic butter and sprinkle some herbs on the bread.
Enjoy

Acrobatic bears

I so had to laugh,
someone gave me this link and hello - look at these extremely smart and sassy teddy bears

http://www.nobodyhere.com/justme/tower.here

however - I have yet to work out how to make them bounce on the blog - so for now you will have to click on the link and enjoy from there.
While trying to see if I can make this happen on the blog I came across this one - way cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTDuGaTRiJU

enjoy

Two (teddybear) cubs play chess

I nearly fell of the chair the other day. I got home from work and there where my two boys playing a game of chess. Last time that happened was urm - at least a decade ago - if not two. hmmm actually - such are the personalities that it ended up a bit of a slaughter - rather then an even match.
Now it was such a minties moment I just had to take some photos to commemorate the event - only to be told in very certain terms - "don't you dear". Sigh - loving father I am - listen I do.
So I found these - enjoy

Abraham and God

(God) took (Abraham) outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars-if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."(Genesis 15:5)

God had promised Abraham and Sarah that they would be founders of a great nation and a blessing to the earth. They had kept their part of the bargain and gone where God told them to go. They had trusted and believed. But the years had piled up like sand in the desert and no child had been born to them. True, God had brought them into a new land as promised, but what good was that if there was no one to leave it to?

The story of Sarah and Abraham is a story of barrenness - not only of their inability to have children, but also of a world in which our prayers go unanswered, our deepest hopes remain unborn. As for Abraham, so also for us the time comes when we want action. Abraham, speaking for us all, says to God, in essence, "The land is fine, Lord, but what about the child you promised?"

We who worship the God of Abraham and Sarah and believe that the promised blessing is also for us feel the urgency in his question. We have asked it from the depths of our hearts too. Why am I unable to find a meaningful job? Where is the good health for which I've prayed? Will there ever be someone to love me? How long must we live in fear of terrorism?

As Abraham's question cut through the night air, God gave him a sign. He took him outdoors, beneath a sky powdered with stars, and said again that he and Sarah would have descendants to outnumber the lights of heaven. It was not an explanation but simply a reiteration of the promise. It meant Don't give up! Keep the faith! I'm still around!

Faith is a gift, something we receive rather than achieve. Some receive it in great measure, others less so. But all of us, like Abraham, are called to be observers of signs. When he grew tired of waiting, he saw in the stars something that helped him persevere. Our signs may be more subtle - a kind word, a gentle hand, a beautiful thing that reminds us of the Creator's love. Harvest those signs. Share them. Each one, great or small, helps us in the long and difficult wait for the fulfillment of God's promises.

original tech support enquiry

The tech support problem dates back to long before the industrial revolution, when primitive tribesmen beat out a rhythm on drums to communicate:

Tech Support: This Fire Help. Me Groog.
User: Me Lorto. Help. Fire not work.

Tech Support: You have flint and stone?
User: Ugh.

Tech Support: You hit them together?
User: Ugh.

Tech Support: What happen?
User: Fire not work.

Tech Support: *sigh* Make spark?
User: No spark. No fire. Me confused. Fire work yesterday.

Tech Support: *sigh* You change rock?
User: I change nothing.

Tech Support: You sure?
User: Me make one change. Stone hot so me soak in stream so stone not burn Lorto hand. Small change. Shouldn't keep Lorto from make fire.

Tech Support: *Grabs club and goes to Lorto's cave*

A small staffing matter

THE BUSINESS GUIDE TO THE 7 DWARFS
By Jim Gum

Every month we get a Human Resources report on terminations. When they are asked to put a reason why they were terminated, the reasons vary from resigned, got a better job, getting married, moving, sexual misconduct, etc. What I've found is that there isn't a standard list. So, I decided to come up with one based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

In order to standardize our Human Resources forms we now use just 7 reasons for termination:

~ Happy: Had trouble putting nose to the grindstone. Too much time spent telling jokes at the water cooler.
~ Doc: Left to pursue further schooling, in particular, Ph.D. work.
~ Sleepy: Chronically late for work. Caused many project delays.
~ Grumpy: Poor attitude toward work. Not a team player. Trouble with early mornings.
~ Dopey: Made several critical errors at work costing the company money, e.g., misappropriated company funds.
~ Sneezy: Recurrent, chronic illness has made it difficult for the employee to complete work in a timely fashion.
~ Bashful: Lack of initiative. Not willing to make cold calls. Too often let workplace disagreements simmer.

OTHERS
~ Jealous Queen: Heavy involvement in the occult not congruent with organizational policies.
~ Snow White: Sexual misconduct, e.g., kissing strange men while under some kind of trance.
~ Huntsman: Couldn't stand to be cooped up in the office all day. Pursuing work with the National Forest Service.

Copyright 2000 Jim Gum. Permission is granted to send this to others, but not for commercial purposes.

Reading Teddybear

uhu - *me rubs bleary eyes*
I must be on holiday - I know 'cause I have time to read.

I have so far read 5504 pages of Tom Clancy (6) books since 24 Dec and another 3932 to go - EXCEPT my slow reading son is now holding up the works!! Yikes.

Somehow I don't think I am going to get them all finished before I head back to work. 2 more holidays left . . . . . . .
especially if I can't gang press my own book of my son - he's sorta stuck on page 200 something. . . .

Akaroa Tour guide

One of the pleasures in life - or should that be in scouting?? is that one does meet a lot of new people. So picture this -
Last joti somehow a guy from Austria made a connection to me (in NZ) during Joti (IRC-mailing list) - which he then passed on to a German young lady via a german pfadi chat room - who contacted me via email, while she was working in Nelson, spanning via the entire globe. Confused??? Anyhow to cut a long story short - we met and I was able to play the Akaroa Tour guide - eg - I took her and Micky out for the day.
It was a rather hot day - im sure temps were above 30 C - still we had fun walking around the original French Village and eventually boarded - urm - yeah ok walked on the Canterbury Cat - a boat that takes you out and around the Harbour - which is about 17 km long and never deeper then 15 meters - and has a somewhat silty water - perfect for the local wild life - one of which is the Hectors Dolphin - a NZ Dolphin and sadly a protected species, as there are not many left of them!! If you willing to pay mega bucks one can even have a guided swim with the dolphins, and yeah cause of the water condition you wont have to worry about sharks. anyhow - pics below - enjoy

My new Harley Davidson

Recently we drove up for the day to Hanmer and ended up walking up the little hill (after the rather filling luncheon we had in a lovely picnic place!!) and also did the traditional soak in the Thermal pools

------> http://www.hanmersprings.co.nz/thermal/about/

- with another 5000 folks or so I might add. it sure gets crowded during the summer holidays!!
While cruizing towards the pools I saw my new Bike in a shop and of course just HAD to get this brand spanking new Harley Davidson!! A little 25th Wedding anniversary for Mamabear I think. Just need a helmet and a license and vroooooom vroooooom - away we go.











Ahhhhhh schucks - its a little ONE-seater sporster!!! Now we have to do paper/scissor/rocks every time in order to work out who gets to ride it . . . . . . . . .

Sylvester / New Years celebrations 2009

You have to have some humor. Some of our traditions are that we always watch 'dinner for one'. Then at midnight there is the "Bummerl" from Vienna, followed by the Traditional "Blue Danube" Waltz - from one of the Strauss Composers. - of course having lived on the other side of the world one does not get to hear that to often - and last year we were in good old Austria and had some huge fun stomping round in the cold and seeing the fireworks and crackers and rockets and - yeah dinner for one! pity = cause we where in town (in Salzburg) we did not get to waltz in the snow ( we should have been in Vienna - or take a ghetto blaster with us).
This year - well - Mamabear managed to find 'dinner for one' on google and yeah!!
Good old Telecom stuffed our Broadband data allowance up and gave us a double quantity as a make up present (hehehe 20 gig's of data) - so naturally one has to make use of that and listen to live stream of ORF3 (and Bayern3!!)!! Wohoooooooo
anyhow below is a the clip!! - Enjoy and don't wet yourself laughing!! It is a longtime classic and we loved favorite of ours - and yeah the TV in Austria plays it EVERY year since EVER!!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_One <--------- for more info :D

Sandy Claws 2

So here we are strolling along the beach and who does one meet - a female!! Good looking one too- and naturally one has to stop for a chat. Wonder what his pick up line was??? Although I suspect Max has a rather un-complicated life - wish it was that easy in human life . . . . .







So the wicked Mamabear gave this as a pressie for the two more 'ahem' maturer blokes in the house to share!!

The story is that we saw this ages ago in a garden center and it was right in front of the main entrance door - right opposite the Sales-till and the sales lady saw I was tempted to urm - run a hand past - well u know :') -- and she said - hehehe 'virtually all the men going past are doing it - so feel free'. She must have told the truth 'cause a special part of her rump was rather shiny and polished!!
Now we have to find a place for Sophyia in our Garden . . . .
Wonder if Grandad likes it, if Sophyia contemplates life outside his Ranch-slider door . . . . .

Yep the SSS (also known as - oops can't tell you) came together and shared in a lovely meal and later admired the lights!!
Food was great and the company even better!!








It took some time and finally (yaaayyyyy) the promised bottle of red - ahem - urm grape juice - was delivered and ceremoniously opened and respectfully disposed of - hicks!!
I have the pic to prove it . . . . . .