Yes I’m getting my holidays out of order, having posted our Turducken Thanksgiving Feast before these Halloween pics. It’s because, as the Ultimate Warrior, I had sustained wild and possibly career-ending injuries when Macho Man Randy Savage jumped off the top rope with the ring bell and shattered my spine. Although the doctors said I’d never wrestle again, I’ve had a miraculous and total recovery in time to post the pics and exact my revenge via an Ultimate Suplex. The Interncontinental Championship Belt is mine once more!

Here are some photos of the post-retribution party, my trophy mermaid and some celebratory karaoke.

With all the preparations complete, the Turduckenssan roasting away in the oven and Angela & I properly rested-up, the first of our Kiwi friends began to arrive. We eventually had 22 people over, a worrisome prospect considering the tricky layout of our humble home. Luckily unlike the cold and dark November evenings we are used to in the States, it was perfect, sunny and warm outside. To the front yard!

Foolishly loading up on starters. Bwa hahahaha!

Back in the kitchen, everything was humming along nicely including a terrifying amount of food. Everyone brought either massive starters, sides or desserts, and food was piling up everywhere. It was time to eat. The turducken carved-up like a solid loaf of delicious bone-free brick. So nice. For those of you who weren’t there to hurt yourself by over-eating, the best I can do is share the pictures.

All in all, it was excellent getting to spend a nice warm night with the great friends we’ve been lucky enough to make during our brief time in New Zealand. Though we will be leaving in less than 3 months, it’s so good to know that we’ve come across such great people whose friendships we’ll savour forever. Thanks to everyone for making it out. Sorry if all the gluttony did permanent internal damage.

On that note, here’s the Turduckenssan in all it’s carved glory:

And pies!

The day is young, but Angela and I are already exhausted from two days worth of preparations. We’re hosting a Thanksgiving feast for our Kiwi friends and busting out all the stops. Angela’s baked two pumpkin pies from scratch (including fresh pumpkin). I’ve whipped together a killer stuffing with Madeira, mushroom and bacon.

But the piece de resistance is the fabled Turducken. This mythical beast feast entails deboning a turkey, duck and chicken, then stuffing them into each other with a layer of stuffing between each bird. At the end, you tie it all together and you’re left with a turkey-shaped boulder of solid bird carcass. It’s truly a sight to behold. I made a slight addition, throwing a Pouissan into the center just because I could. It’s name is Maurice, and he’s currently baking away in the oven. People arrive in about 7 hours. I hope they’re ready for their minds to be blown away with flavour!

When pouissans attack!

The fabled Turduckenssan.

Can you believe they don’t do pumpkin pies in NZ? MADNESS! It’s time for an education.

I always dread getting back on the blog and feeling like I have to apologize for an extended absence of posts, but this is definitely one of those instances. So to get it off my shoulders… I’m sorry for the extended absence of posts!

I guess part of it’s due to a sudden realisation that the little things that happen in our daily lives can be so insignificant compared to the bigger things that have been happening to our friends. Congrats to Michael Field on his second son, Bryan Pauze on his second daughter, Sean Elwood on his approaching first born, Jackie & Dono on their marriage, and I’m sure a few others who I’ve missed who’ve had amazing things happen recently.

While not as significant as the above events, I’m still happy to finally announce that Angela and I are moving back to the USA! It’s been exactly 2 years since we first arrived in New Zealand and we’ve had a lovely time exploring the country and getting to know some of the people. Though the plans have been in the works for a while, we were waiting for the right time to tell certain interested parties (our offices). Luckily I was made redundant at Saatchi NZ, so the cat was let out of the bag and it’s all go.

The current plan is to stay here until the beginning of February (I have 3 months severance pay, Angela has a big John Cleese tour), then we’re packing up and travelling Asia for as long as we can handle it (maybe 4 months?). We’re aiming to hit 11 countries, but we’ll see how it goes. Then we’re going to move to San Francisco and get back into rat race. Woo hoo!

As for the blog, I’ve now got a bit more free time to keep it updated, including posting the remaining entries from the Campervan trip. Yes they happened 2 years ago, but we were just getting to the best parts of the country when I stopped. So hopefully I haven’t lost too many visitors - and get ready for excessively long posts and gargantuan photo albums!

Our campervan trip around NZ is now over a year and a half behind us, and we found ourselves in serious need of a reminder of how beautiful this country can be (besides the usual 1-hour radius around Auckland). So a few weekends back we packed some snacks, hopped in the car and headed down to Raglan, New Zealand’s Surfer’s Paradise. It was featured as one of the locations in the 1969 movie “Endless Summer.” I haven’t seen the film, but a trip to Raglan quickly gives you a glimpse of the dedicated surfer lifestyle that we all occasionaly dream of, but only a few actually live.

I wish I could go into length about the town’s charms, plus a few wacky stories about the out-there locals, but this wasn’t that kind of trip. We relaxed in a beach bungalow, walked along the beach when it wasn’t too cold, and snapped heaps of photos (of which I’m quite proud of). Here are a few peeks at what we saw…

By the way, Angela had the quote of the trip in regards to ever-present yet distant surfers: “Looks like the sea ants are still at it.”

As noted in our last post, the weather has been total crap here over the last month. Yes it’s winter, but it seems worse than last year. Anyway, the NZ International Film Festival just rolled through for a few weeks and we managed to catch considerably more films than we did last year.

Notable highlights: “The King of Kong” was by far my favourite and involved the true story of good versus evil in the eternal battle for the high score on Donkey Kong. Yes it sounds like the epitome of geekdom, but the story transcends the nitty-gritty of competitive video gaming and really gets into the people behind the chase. I think it’s way better than (insert name of your favourite movie here)! Honestly!

“The Visitor” was the other stand-out for me. It’s made by the same director who did “The Station Agent” a few years back and follows a similar path of a loner who’s life is changed by a chance encounter with people who’s lives are eye-openingly different from his. A quality feel-good movie with ample scenes of real NYC, perfect for those of us who’ve since left it behind.

We also saw “Time Crimes” which was sort of “Memento” mixed with “Back to the Future 2.” Pretty good, but not great. There was “Sukiyaki Western Django” which seemed like it should have been great (spaghetti western starring hipster Japanese Yakuza-types and a Tarantino cameo), but ended up sounding better than it was. Visually great though. And watching the trailer again is giving me second thoughts, but no, it was about a 5 or 6. Oh well. Lastly, there was a NZ documentary named “Rain of the Children” about a Maori woman and her son whose pasts intertwined with major Maori events. The movie wasn’t bad, but the most moving part was when the Maoris in the audience did a chant afterwards that you could literally feel in your chest. Awesome.

It’s not my term, it’s what the New Zealand Herald is calling this weekend’s severe weather that has taken the northern island, ahem, by storm. Quite a wild time so far. We’re getting near hurricane strength winds of 130 km/h (or 80 miles/hour) and one place even recorded it at 167 km/h (103 miles per hour). Here at the house, it’s wild watching the trees swaying like crazy. We had tickets to the ballet tonight, but will probably hole up with a couple movies and whatever fun snacks we’ve been tucking away in the cupboards. It’s a Cheddar & Bacon Rashuns celebration! For “When Hunger Attacks…”

Yes, I only uploaded the most extreme photos. It’s really not that bad, and most of NZ doesn’t seem to be freaking out at all. Honestly, it’s just a perfect excuse to stay indoors and catch up on internetting.

Somehow, I just don’t think this would fly in the States…

Kaimai School Possum and Bunny Shoot

Kaimai School Possum and Bunny Shoot, Bay of Plenty, 20 July 2008

Please come and support Kaimai School, and help to raise funds to buy some more IT equipment, at this truly rural event. . . . a Possum Hunt.Get your family and friends together to form teams of up to 6 people at a cost of $10 per person and collect as many possums, bunnies (and other vermin if you desire) to win some amazing prizes donated by our wonderful sponsors.

Weigh in of fur will begin at 10.00am on Sunday 20 July 2008 at our school, followed by prize giving where refreshments will be available.

Entries available from Tauranga Hunting and Fishing, Wrightsons Ltd, Farmlands or please visit the school website www.kaimai.school.nz

Team entries must be in by Sunday 13 July.

For any enquiries please phone Bruce Coster on (07) 5430024 or (027) 480 7272.

So! Please come along and have some fun in the country.

When: Sunday, 20 July 2008

Time: 10:00am - 10:00am

Where: Kaimai School, State Highway 29, Bay of Plenty

Cost: Adult $10.00

I saw that it made it up to $4.18 a gallon in the States recently.

Blah.
We did the math and we paid $8.72 a gallon today. $74 to fill up an 8.25 gallon tank. If only we had an Air Force here, we could do our part for cheap petrol.

Donovan, a good friend of ours, reminded us about how unbelievably and unforgettably delicious the Samoas Girl Scout Cookies are. Yet for some reason while we were in Samoa, we totally forgot about Samoas. And while we sadly never found the Samoas factory, we did find unbelievable sunsets, some great snorkelling, and a fresh water spring on the beach that became a sinkhole if you stepped in the right place (pictured below). Though the trip left us perfectly rested and rejuvenated, we sure could use some Samoas. Oh, and if I do say so myself, our pictures are phenomenal!

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Fresh water was seeping out of the sand, and while we were exploring the source, my left leg found it.

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For the first 4-5 days, we stayed in an open Beach hut (called “fale”) with nothing but one lightbulb, a mosquito net, and some walls made out of palm leaves. Luckily we had the entire beach to ourselves for the first three nights.

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Dorks.

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A crevasse in a massive coral wall. It was amazing how large and colourful this formation was. Plus, there were fish everywhere, sadly they don’t sit too still for pictures.

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For about 3 minutes, the entire world looked like it was on fire.