Sorry for the delay.  I finally had a few minutes to take some pictures of the new home!

Living Room (and where I am currently sitting).

Bedroom.  Woohoo a big bed!

Some of the backyard, grille, and sliding door to our bedroom.

The babies! Look how big they’ve gotten! We began to dig up an area in the yard for a garden, so they’ll be going into the ground soon enough.

And even a real clothes line!

There are a few more rooms, but you get the idea.  It’s such a beautiful home & really, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. The next few months are going to be great – plus the fact that my friends Mary & Emily are coming in March – it’ll be nice that they get their own room and a pool to lounge around all day.

This is the first year I actually feel that my future completely belongs to me. For the first 24 years of life, the upcoming year was always dedicated to education.  Year after year, I knew that the time ahead would be filled with new classes, facts to be learned, papers to be written, and boring lectures to endure.  But then I graduated… school over.  From there the next step was dealing with the big to do of applying for jobs & praying that someone would hire me.  Sure enough companies did, making holidays & days off the only things to look forward to.

But now, being on vacation for over three months, I can’t help but be giddy for my future. So for 2010, here are the big todo’s:

(1) Finish at least one of my open ended writing ventures: As other aspiring writers know, good ideas mean nothing if they aren’t seen through.  I want to complete something. Finally see the beginning and the end.

(2) Travel more! The plan (for now) is to stay here up in northern New Zealand til’ the end of April and then rent a camper van to explore the south island.  Maybe we’ll do that for two weeks or so.  Afterward, head over to Australia for another 2 weeks and then off to Thailand we go! From Thailand….well that’s a mystery.  I’ve been talking to my brother about possibly setting up a trip to meet up – he’s thrown Turkey out there, which would be awesome.  Otherwise back to NJ.

(3) Have a year of Summers! Kyle & I will get home in July/early August and hip hurray, it’s time for another Summer! I love New Jersey that time of the year.  The energy is so good, plus there is always a fun party or bbq to go to.  I’d be sad to miss it. Plus one of Kyle’s friends is getting married in August and it is guaranteed to be an amazing wedding.

(4) What’s next? Who knows….I suppose get a job? One thing for sure it’s NOT going to be a traditional 9-5 job.  Life has been quite enjoyable working 4 days a week and so wonderfully stress free. Kyle & I could NEVER go back to where we began.

The best thing in the world is when you can replicate dishes from your favorite restaurants.  Way back when, I wrote about Camarones A La Diabla. It’s this great spicy shrimp dish that I absolutely adore from Juanito’s, a Mexican restaurant in Red Bank. The flavors are so intense and beautiful that I thought we’d never be able re-create it.  But after looking up the recipe, it appeared to be easy as can be. So last night, Kyle & I took the challenge. He made the shrimpies and I made the yellow rice. And ohhh boy, the meal turned out restaurant worthy!

Juanito’s

Ours!

*Sigh*

…. if you didn’t know any better, you’d think we were at a summertime bbq!

This years Christmas was definitely the most unique that I have ever experienced. Coming from a place like New Jersey, where December is cold and snowy, we were happy to welcome a summer holiday season.  Most Kiwi’s, I’ve learned, spend the day down at the beach, but we opted for an afternoon out on the deck, sipping cold wine, and enjoying the great weather & good company.

The weeks leading up to Christmas were kinda weird here in Kerikeri, where no one decorated or played holiday music.  I always thought of my friend Courtney, who absolutely adores Christmas music – if she was here, she’d be outraged!  Me, I usually get sick of the music pretty quickly.  But without having any, I was thrilled to hear  “White Christmas” while shopping for Kyle’s gift – a puzzle & cookbook. He surprised me with a book I’ve been wanting to read.  It really doesn’t take much to make us happy   But anyway, it was disappointing that New Zealand doesn’t get into the holiday spirit.  Next year’s will just have to be super  big traditional Christmas then!

Ugh it’s been so long since I’ve last blogged and LOTS has been going on.  I’ll update you in the next few days. A couple bummers, but more good than bad.

The best news by far is that Kyle & I have moved!! One of his boss’s good friends (friend to us now) needed flatmates and offered the rooms to us. Let me tell you,  the house is PHENOMINAL.  It has television! A big kitchen! Nice sized closets! King size bed! A pool! And probably the most magical thing of all - INTERNET!

It’s funny, you never realize how much you adore technology til’ its gone.  Not having the internet at the tip of my fingers the past few months has been a struggle.  Especially when I’ve wanted to keep up with my blog on what’s happening here in New Zealand. And as you can see, have failed pretty miserably.  But it all changes now!

We have struck gold!

Yesterday we packed up the mini van and headed across town to the new place. It’s amazing how quickly you can accumulate stuff.  Kyle & I started with 4 bags and somehow ended up with more than a car load of household goods, not including all our plant babies – who are all going to be very excited once they’re transplanted into the ground. 

It’s definitely a nice way to start off 2010. And amazing to think where Kyle & I will be in 2011.

Since living with Kyle, I really haven’t don’t cook as much as I like to.  He is a fantastic chef and happily takes over the kitchen.  Sure I help chopping and so on, but haven’t made him dinner in a while.

So Saturday he asked if I would and here’s what I made!

Chiang Mai Noodle Soup

Isn’t it pretty? I’ve never made it before and was extremely pleased to how it turned out.  And it’s super easy to make.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups coconut milk – I used real & light to cut some of the calories

2 tbsp. red curry paste

1 tsp. ground tumeric

1 pound chicken breast – you don’t really need all of that.  Just buy any amount, you end up cutting it up into chunks anyway so it works out.

1 tbsp. soy sauce

4 tbsp. fish sauce

Juice of one lime

1 pound egg noodles – again I didn’t use an exact pound.  I made an amount of what seemed good for two people.

salt & pepper

Garnish:

3 spring onions – thinly chopped

4 red chillies – thinly chopped

2 tbsp. fried sliced garlic- easily found in an Asian market

cilantro

(1) put 1/3 coconut milk in saucepan, bring to a boil and stir until it separates.

(2) add curry paste & tumeric – stir to mix completely and until fragrant.

(3) Add chicken & stir fry for about 2 minutes – make sure chunks are coated well with the paste.

(4) Add remaining coconut milk, chicken stock, fish sauce, soy sauce, & salt and pepper. Simmer for 7-10 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in lime juice.

(5) Pour in separate bowls over noodles and garnish.

Mmmmm delicious. Go! Go make it!

I know, I know, it has already been about a week since Thanksgiving. But I figured I should at least acknowledge it and hope everyone had a nice one  This time of year is getting me a little sad -  the holidays and no family to celebrate with.  None of the usual traditions that I hold so dear -  but at the same time it’s exciting to do something so completely different and out of  the ordinary.

Anyway, for Thanksgiving we had our two friends, Marc & Jaime, over for dinner. Mmmmm Kyle cooked delicious enchiladas and I made a nice salad &  spicy Thai salsa.  Kyle mentioned to Jaime that he ALWAYS has cheesecake for dessert, so she surprised us with one! SO delicious. Mm mm mm.

Did I ever tell you that Kyle & I started our very own make shift garden? Apart from living in a beautiful place, being near farm animals on a daily basis, and seeing the most crystal clear stars, our other daydream of New Zealand was raising a garden.  Here are some of the babies:

And while I love each of them, the apple of my eye is by far the Thai basil, who is hard to find in grocery stores & expensive. OF COURSE Thai basil is the one taking it’s sweet time growing.  Pineapple Sage is thriving, the onlyplant I have absolutely no idea what to do with.

There are only two things I know when thinking about Sage

(1) It’s the name of my cat back home – she’s an amazing cat, by the way. I wish I had a picture to show you. The only pictures I have are of our cat Thorsten, who appears to be the photogenic out of the two.

(2) Used when cleansing spaces.

I read somewhere to put it in salsa or as an herbal tea, but what else? I googled around and here are some of the interesting finds:

According to www.herbcompanion.com, “It’s a taste of the tropics for temperate gardeners. Just close your eyes and crush a leaf under your nose: the fragrance is unexpected and exotic. What better garnish for a frosty piña colada or glass of iced tea than a fresh sprig of fruit-scented pine­apple sage? And beyond its olfactory bouquet, the autumn flowers that burst upon the scene with show-stopping drama deserve a place of prominence in the garden (or in a sunny window, if your growing season is short).”

Wikipedia was useful too. “Pineapple sage is extensively used in Mexican traditional medicine, especially for the treatment of anxiety. Although scientific information about these medicinal properties is scarce, a preliminary study on mice found support for the plant potentially having antidepressant and anti-anxiety properties”.

Well this will be interesting to play around with.  If anyone has any other suggestions, I would absolutely appreciate it!

I tried. I really tried to let my hair grow out.  The idea was to be low maintenance while traveling.  But alas I missed the edgy bob and felt frumpy with my hair always pulled back. Sure it’s a little more time consuming. Sure I’ll have to get my haircut once a month. FINE I’ll have to wake up earlier to style it. But whatever, I love it and it’s back!

Serviette: Chiefly Brit a small square of cloth or paper used while eating to protect the clothes, wipe the mouth and hands, etc.

Picture the scene: it was my first day at work at the cafe.  Not only was I new & not too sure what I was supposed to be doing, but the accents were completely throwing me off.

Mark: (busily making 14 coffees at the same time, while the customers impatiently waited) Kristine love, can you please fold me a sue-viette?

Kristine (blank face. looking around frantically for something to fold): a what? huh?

Mark: a SUE-VEE-ETTE. Come on darlin’, I need to get these coffees out.

Kristine: (still confused, she handed him a handful of sugar packets) …heh these..?

(Fed up, Mark nudged her out of the way and grabbed a handful of napkins).

Kristine: OHHH napkins…I never heard that word before.

At that point the entire crowd of Kiwi’s gave me the look of, “ohhh stupid American, get over yourself and get to know how things work here in New Zealand.”