Zebra Kisses

Last weekend P was able to check off one more thing from her life time goal list: Pet a Zebra.



I have a feeling it will be slightly harder to scratch off Pet a King Cheetah.

Mini Egg Showdown!

Helen, an ex-pat from the UK, and I shared some local mini eggs at work and were astounded and horrified to find that Cadbury's Kiwi mini eggs (properly pronounced "eeegs" here) are not the same as the mini eggs we got back home. They were inferior! How can this be? Cadbury is the chocolate of choice for most New Zealanders. How could they change the recipe on us?! Is nothing sacred?

Fortunately, we were saved by our loved ones who sent mini eggs from home in care packages! Hooray for care packages! This meant we were able to have a mini egg showdown with eggs (and eeegs) from the US, the UK and NZ!



You'll have no trouble identifying the US package, no doubt, as it is appropriately sized. Both the UK and Kiwi bags leave you wanting more (and yet cost the same as the US bag!) The UK bag is on the upper right, and the Kiwi is upper left. I must admit I like the yellow of the UK version - I find it pleasingly Eastery. Also, I like the see through window of the Kiwi package.

Since P doesn't like chocolate (sad, but true), she was designated "the blinder" for our showdown. Each country was assigned (randomly by the blinder) a colorful bowl (red, purple, or green). A handful of eggs were placed in each of the bowls by P. We, "the tasters," then had to use all of our senses to determine 1- which egg was the superior egg overall. 2- which country was assigned to which bowl.

Before I share the results of the showdown I must tell you that it's very hard to truly blind a mini egg showdown and still keep it fun. Next time I think we will go for blindfolds as the eggs from different countries do look different. The UK eggs have heaps of speckles. The US eggs have the least speckles. This was a dead give away to the regular consumers of mini eggs. I can spot a US mini egg from 30 meters. Helen can spot a UK mini egg from 68 meters.

Turns out only 2 people (out of 6) were able to correctly tell where all three eggs were from. Congratulations Harold and Helen (or was it Andrew?). Most of us got our "home" eggs without much fuss, but couldn't properly tell the others apart. We all preferred eggs from home (be that US or UK), with the exception of B who preferred the Kiwi eggs. I thought the Kiwi eggs had a spice in them - a touch of cinnamon. That should have clued me into it being the Kiwi eggs since Kiwis put funny spices in everything (like cloves in the ketchup), but I panicked and assigned it to the UK.

Can't wait for next Easter! Do you know of any other countries that do their own Cadbury mini eggs? If so I want some for next years showdown! Can't wait to taste Ozzie eggs!

These are the fancy parrots that feed on the neighbor's tree.

There are two of them- one is hiding in the shadows.
They are not escaped pets, they are native.
I don't remember their official name.

Pig Update

I know you've been wondering what the pigs have been up to.


Same old thing, really.
Looking cute.
Eating veggies.

This is Snippet and a can of Wattie's baked beaNZ.

Black-eyed pig salad.

Daisy, Milo and Marmite.
One of these is the name of the pig.
The rest are foods you can only get in NZ
(or by special order).

B's Northland adventures with Matt

Since I didn't go on this trip I can't really comment on the photos, but they are too lovely to stay hidden in my computer. I didn't do anything to the pictures- didn't change the colors, didn't mess with the lighting - New Zealand just is this beautiful.

Raglan - Home of the world famous left hand point breaks.

Easter is a four day holiday* here, and since we had the weekend off we decided to head out of town. I chose Raglan because it is relatively close to home, and I was intrigued by it's Bohemian Art/Surf culture.


We stayed in the cabooses:

This place offers accommodation in refurbished train cars with a hostel/backpacker/NZ holiday park atmosphere (ie shared bathrooms and kitchen facilities.)

Notice the Easter Bunny. She, along with 20,000 of her closest relatives and friends, lives here year round and thoughtfully provided a dyed hard boiled egg for P since her usual Easter Bunny was not willing to make the 6,000 mile swim to get here.

Also, notice the back of the Buddha sculpture.

If you are not so into cabooses, and you have some sway with the owners, you might get to stay here:

The view from this deck is amazing: (The view of the deck is also amazing.)

You could also stay in the "tipi retreat" for quite a lot more money or just bring your own tipi:

We met some nice folks here and had a quiet, relaxing break. While the shower experience was frustrating at times (scalding/freezing/scalding) and cooking dinner with 30 other people simultaneously is not my favorite sport, overall this was a great place. Best of all none of us acquired head lice which is my new gold standard for rating NZ backpackers/hostels/holiday parks.

On a day trip we visited Bridal Veil Falls: (Not to be confused with Bridal Veil Falls.)

On the way home we went to the Hamilton Zoo and chatted up this chimp:

And now P is off at horse camp and we are back at work. Fortunately this weekend is Anzac Day and my birthday, and I'm off work to boot! More adventures ahead!

Here is P, Flat RJ, Flat Ms Cool Nice, and BlingBling, the horse. Hope y'all have a great weekend!

* Good Friday is a big deal here- the shops close, no one works, and same goes for Easter Monday. B got Tuesday off as well - Easter Tuesday. I love all these holidays! Easter Tuesday?! Fantastic! Can't wait for Anzac and Queen's Birthday Monday!

Flat friends

We have been entertaining some flat friends. R.J. and Ms Cool Nice have been with us for awhile now and soon I will send them back home with photos and great stories to tell.

This picture is for grandma and grandpa, and grandma and grandpa, and the rest of family back home. P is enjoying Fall break and is away at horse camp for a week! Can't wait to see what her pigs get up this time!