Talofa Lava

Talofa Lava!

It's tough to believe that we've been home from Samoa for nearly a week now. It's even harder to believe how amazingly blessed we were to have the opportunity to visit such a beautiful country filled with even more beautiful people.

Samoa was our very first "beach vacation," so we did our best to sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenery. We stayed in a tiny, 10 hut resort for our week on Savaii, the larger but much less populated island in Samoa.

Here's a peek at our beachfront fale.

Homes on Savaii are usually comprised of two separate buildings. One enclosed home with windows and doors which is next to a separate, large, open fale that serves as a living room, dining room, and bedroom when the weather cooperates. Available to the breezes off of the water, the open fales capitalize on the merits of natural air conditioning. Apparently electric AC is reserved fairly exclusively for those inhabiting resorts. Our own cute little hut # ono made the best of every world; great sliding shutters to open up 3 sides of the room to breezes (while keeping out the bugs) and delicious, delicious air conditioning for the times when the shutters needed to close in order to keep out the rain. Plus, the view wasn't bad.

Truth be told, this is really how our view looked to us most hours of most days.  Well, Adam's, at least.

Ok, this is where we fess up to the fact that we apparently skirted the edges of a cyclone our first 24 hours on the island. While we enjoyed the drama of the boarded up windows and actually delighted in an excuse to hunker down in our fale for a day, we were ecstatic when the clouds lifted and the breezes eased enough for us to venture out and begin to explore our surroundings.

Callie counted 13 - yes thirteen different and distinct LDS church meetinghouses on Savaii.  Talk about  chapels with a view, this building sat only a few walking minutes away from the resort.  Too bad we weren't around for a Sunday.

Paradise just may be defined as anywhere with waves and palmtrees.  Oh, and a small store stocked with ice cold Diet Coke is a must-have.

Having maxed out our skin's tolerance to the intensity of the sun, our next day on Savaii was blessed with an amazing full day bus tour of the island in the company of two awesome Scottish women and a generous tour-guide host named Seti.  We hadn't been on the road for even 15 minutes before the van had stopped twice for fresh fruit from the side of the road.

Mangoes are delicious - but they're not easy to eat with grace.

Adam enjoyed a tree-top jaunt across a suspension bridge in the canopy of the island's cloud forest.

Island legends tell a tale about a mother and her daughter who jump to their deaths at Lovers Leap but return to the cove as a shark and a sea turtle.  We didn't see any turtles in the muddy waters but there was definitely a shark or two swimming below.

Adam's not sure about a Lover's Leap towards the sharks ...he's considering more of a Lover's Lean, instead.

Our midday stop was at the Alofa'aga blowholes.  

Our guide Seti and his trusty driver companion get the coconut shells ready....

throw....

BLOW!!!

Flying coconuts were amusing, but the fresh, ice-cold ones we had for lunch were even better.  Almost as in good, in fact, than the fresh pineapple that Seti cut up for us on the beach.

Turquoise waterfall paradise swimming, anyone?

The beauty of nature.

Savaii is, as I think we've established, gorgeous.  But it has a fiery history.  This church was demolished in a volcanic eruption in the early 1900's.  Mount Vailuluu is a temperamental giant who blew his top to cover parts of the island in thick lava rock.  Thankfully German soldiers were hanging out in the area on their large ships and were able to rescue the inhabitants of the island before anyone was injured.  

A bit of perspective as to the depth of the lava flow. 

Our final stop on the Savaii tour was for swimming with the turtles.  The family that cares for the lagoon where these rescued, often injured, turtles reside welcomes tourists to come and get up close and personal with the gentle giants.  A "health spa" for turtles, Samoan conservation officials periodically determine which turtles are ready to be released back into the wild.  In the meantime, they REALLY enjoy their papaya snacks.

Adam fell in love with another older woman.  

Callie wasn't so sure about her frisky man.

Back for a final beach day at the resort, Adam made friends with some locals...hermit-crabs, that is.  Sorry, Kara, I didn't find either Pearl or Ruffles (our childhood hermit-crabs who mysteriously disappeared during a particularly ugly sibling argument, I believe.)

Our final dinner in Savaii was timed perfectly with the resorts evening of feasting and dancing, the fiafia.  Better yet, the weather FINALLY allowed us to eat out in the open air under the sun and, eventually, the stars.

YUM!!

Callie was thrilled with the traditional performance of music and dance.  She was even more excited to see a "real life" version of a log drum she and Adam had tried to jigger-up her last year of teaching for an island musical piece for her girls' chorus.   Now if she had only brought her video camera...

At the end of the day, paradise is more about who you're with than where you are.  

But a palm tree doesn't hurt.

South Island Aventura

If the Junior Wilhoits had need for a battle cry it would likely be; "Aventura!"  From our very first days as a married couple in Costa Rica we have been pushing our limits and facing our fears together.  Perhaps we consider it an odd form of bonding.  Thus, it's no surprise that our trip down to Queenstown featured what the area is known best for:  Adventure.  We were able get ourselves into some white water rafting on the Shotover river where we has a wonderful time floating, paddling and learning about all the gold that miners relieved the canyon of in its history.  You'll have to take our word for it, though, since we did not get any pictures.  Simply think six seater blow-up boat with helmets and life jackets with a know-it-all Aussie/Indian and the oldest white water couple you've ever seen and you will get the gist of our travel down the river.

Not ones for resting too long, it was just a few days later that we found ourselves at the Queenstown iSite looking for our next adventure.  Wading through the impressive collection of possibilities we managed to find something that was new to us and did not include any excessive plummeting through the sky (and the more concerning spring back on a giant rubber band).  Canyoning, as we learned, is the combination of the fun sport of abseiling or rappelling, depending on your preference for German or French with a canyon filled with waterfalls and pools.

An hours drive north of Queenstown found us meeting our guides for the day in the beautiful little town of Wanaka.  From there we took another 45 minute drive into the Mt. Aspiring National Park where we were off for our adventure.  Gearing up for this adventure included the following equipment:

• Wetsuit
• Wetsuit booties
• Wetsuit gloves
• Wetsuit Skullcap
• Polar Fleece Insulator
• Rash Guard Shirt
• Harness
• Well-loved shoes
• Very Stylish Helmets (glittering gold for Callie and pink for Adam...he was comfortable with it)

As you can see, this produced a very flattering look when put together.  Lest you wonder why we already look exhausted - bear in mind that we had to hike straight UP the canyon with all of our gear prior to our descent down into it.  While the trek was strenuous, it actually made it feel more like you earned your adrenaline rush.

Safety and comfort came first, of course, as the water rushing through the canyon is true alpine water (sometimes glacial).  This trip is not even run during the winter because the temperature of the water is too cold and the course too dangerous.  It was hard to imagine the water getting any colder without freezing but the wetsuit did its job and we all kept warm enough during the trip.  Callie led the way with the first and longest straight down rappel into a waiting pool.

This is a beautiful smile in a wonderful scene but does not do the situation justice.  Fortunately we also captured some video of this adventure :)

After such a performance I followed Callie down the wall quite happily

Not purely rappeling, this trip also included some thrilling slides.  The first one fell a full 10 meters!

This was one of the longest walls we got to descend.  After doing the standard rappel for the first few meters, we would turn around and slide down with our back on the wall.  

Again I followed Callie, pausing to give the camera some good cheese.

Turn about being fair play, Callie did a great job capturing my graceful side.  (In defense of Callie's stellar videography she was attempting to film while half floating half treading water in the current of the freezing waterfall).  In other words - pardon the wetsuit glove...

Once on the bottom there was a good place to jump into the pool that Callie and I both took advantage of quite readily

This time Callie followed my brave example...after one of the other adventurers, of course

This canyon hosted many dramatic views that made even the simple task of walking beautiful and adventurous.  I was more than happy to lead this part.

This next rappel included a little bit of everything.  After a bit of abseiling and sliding it turned out the rope wasn't long enough - so we ended the descent with a plummet into the awaiting pool.

The view from below looked something like this ( I would be the little pink blob at the top right covered by LOTS of water ).

Continuing down the course...

It would seem that no adventure in New Zealand is complete without a flying fox.

The final slide was called "The Corkscrew" and, just to raise the fear factor, required a head first diving approach.

Callie deemed it all to easy after my slide and showed us how a professional does it.

One final lowering via pulley and we were out of the canyon.

Once back down at base came we were treated to delicious sandwiches, juice and cookies.  This trip will definitely go down as one of my favorites of all time...at least until we next get to holler "Aventura!" at the top of our lungs.

Quirky in Queenstown

Our kiwi tradition of spending New Year's Eve on the South Island of New Zealand continued with our welcome of 2012 in beautiful Queenstown. This is definitely a city that knows how to party. It appeared to our somewhat "old fogey" eyes that pretty much every university aged student on the south island landed in Queenstown for new years...and they each brought two foreign exchange student backpackers with them. It was pretty crowded, in other words.

We started our adventures with a ride up Bob's Peak in a gondola. Doesn't this guy make the cutest gondolier?

While we may have had to throw a few elbows to get to the railings, we eventually managed to take in some of the gorgeous views of the Remarkables.  

 

A city completely devoted to thrill seekers, we whet our adrenaline appetites with a couple of competitive luge rides.  I was a little too busy driving the wheeled cart beneath me down a mountain to take pictures while we were actually on the hill...but this helmet-head sure looks cute!

No trip to Queenstown would be complete without a visit to Fergburger.  This one-of-a-kind burger joint is anything but fast food...in fact it took us more than 40 minutes of standing around in a crowd like this to get our plate-sized burgers!  

Fergburger has a grand total of about six tables for the hundreds and hundreds of clients it serves a day - so we upgraded to a much better seat by the lake with the added company of new year's revelers and a flock of ducks that has quite clearly grown fond of Fergburger fries. 

This is where our trip to the South Island took a bit of an unexpected detour.  Many of you may know that we had planned a four day backpacking trip on the Kepler Track outside of Te Anau.  Unfortunately, a small medical hiccup kept us off the trail.  Sufficient to say that recovery time in a beautiful Queenstown hotel suite was much closer to doctor's orders than 60 kms with 20 lbs on my back after sleeping in a hut with 40 other hikers.  Not to worry - everything and everyone is fine now...let's just say a 15 year old ski injury repeated itself (and if you don't know what that means - no need to ask - and if you do know...insert pitying laughs of hilarity here.


While we were definitely disappointed not to get to go on the trek, the Kepler will still be there when we are both healthy and able to actually enjoy the challenge.  So, while I convalesced with a couple of good Kindle books, some amazing Queenstown fudge, and some not-so-amazing daytime television Adam followed his orders of finding fun things to do on his own.  He started with some good Wakatipu county day hikes. 

Adam discovered the giant grass stalk native to solo hikers all over New Zealand.

A few restful days later and a clean bill of health from a follow up appointment later brought us to Arrowtown, a beautiful suburb of Queenstown.  A sunny hike up the Sawtooth Valley track led us up and down valleys where miners dug for gold.   

We may not have found gold, but happy and healthy smiles are priceless!

Our travels around the world have taught us that it's never a good idea to pass by a good crepe shop.  

Adam's in charge of the next blog post that will include tales of our whitewater rafting and canyon abseiling escapades, so I'll just leave you with our final outing in Queenstown - frisbee golf!  Adam out threw me on pretty much every tee, but the 18 holes of throwing along the lake around Queenstown Park was the perfect way to bid farewell to our South Island journey. 

See you in Samoa!

A Christmas to Remember

December 25th, 2011 was a Christmas to remember in the junior Wilhoit household. For starters, this was our first Christmas without any family geographically close enough with which whom we could celebrate. While I don't think either Adam or I would consider this milestone one that we were hoping to achieve just yet, in a small way it is nice to know that, together, the two of us really do make up a family fit even for the holidays. With that said, we can not WAIT until next year when we will be back stateside and able to enjoy old, family holiday traditions...though perhaps we'll have a couple of our own Kiwi ones to add to the repertoire.

For starters, we attempted to create our very own, genuine Kiwi masterpiece...the pavlova. (Insert impressed gasps of oohs and aahs here, please) In gathering local wisdom about how best to bake a pav, it was recommended to me that I start making the Christmas pavlova on Thursday night. Thursday was advised because, in the event that it didn't turn out, I could try again on Friday, and then again even on Saturday if necessary. Being the proud, independent, and culinary genious that I pretend to emulate, however...I didn't start until Saturday night...about 11 o'clock in the evening.

Things seemed to be going pretty well.  The eggwhites whipped right up, we actually had ALL of the ingredients on the recipe list for once, and I even managed to create a make-shift compass out of some twine and a pencil in order to create the perfect circumference guide for our mound of white deliciousness. 

Having smoothed and slathered to our hearts delight, we popped the pav in the oven and left it, as prescribed, completely sealed inside the oven so that after it was done cooking it could cool without a sharp drop in temperature.  It was with great anticipation that we raced to the oven the next morning to unwrap our treasure...a big cracked globe!  So much for our masterpiece. 

The pav may not have turned out quite as expected...but at least Santa managed to find us in our kiwi greenhouse.  It was SO WARM Christmas morning!

Since Christmas landed on a Sunday this year, Adam and I enjoyed a yummy breakfast for two of homemade cinnamon rolls (another baking experiment that was thankfully a bit more successful) and then quickly unwrapped some very thoughtful Christmas gifts.  We then gussied up and shot out the door for church, which had mercifully been bumped up to 10 o'clock with services for only an hour. 

This is a bit where our Christmas celebrations took a bit of a detour, however.  Upon arriving at our friend Heidi's house to pick her up for a day of orphaned American celebrations, she met us at the door with a bright red foot, having dropped a pot of boiling water on herself earlier in the morning.  Needless to say, we left her soaking her foot in cool water and went off to church.  When we returned to her home to check in, her foot had swelled into quite her own personal blistery-pavlova shape, so it was off to the ER.  The kind nurses in the Emergency Room informed us that it would be at least two hours before Heidi could be seen - but that an after-hours clinic would be open just down the road.  So we popped back in our trusty car to get Heidi down to a doctor who could see her more promptly.  Thankfully, the urgent care specialists were just slightly less busy - and we only waited about an hour for some expert pain relief and foot wrapping.  Here Heidi shows off her very unexpected Christmas present!

While our original plans for Christmas afternoon included a beautiful day throwing frisbees on the beach and munching picnic delicacies, we were more than happy to return to our quaint apartment on The Terrace for a very laid-back afternoon of watching The Muppet's Christmas Carol and practicing our New Zealand geography playing a new game given by Heidi, The Amazing Moa Hunt.  We lazily put our final touches on a deliciously humble Christmas potluck dinner.  Adam made an amazing stuffed chicken roll, Heidi mastered the potatoes and green beans, I was petulant and insisted on our traditional sweet potato casserole, and we all agreed that the carrot/cranberry/yogurt salad out of Edmond's cookbook was an experiment best left off of next year's menu.

And dessert, you ask?  In the end it was decided that Christmas Pavlova Parfait was the best way to rescue our fallen dome.  It may not have come with the pomp and circumstance of the traditional dessert, but it was both short and sweet - qualities we happen to admire in this household.

Merry Christmas everyone.  We love and miss you always.  May this beautiful season bring you all the happiness and warmth that we can send.

 

Adam's Adrenaline Adventure

Father Christmas arrived a day early, as he usually does in our house, and brought sun, heat and Adam's birthday! While anyone else would mope about having their very special day coincide with the silly season, my amazing husband generously smiles at sympathetic well-wishers and reminds them that December 24th is the best birthday he's ever had! We also figure he happens to be in pretty good birthday company.

We started his special day of celebrations with a birthday breakfast of Papa Kay cakes and fresh fruit. One of the greatest advantages to having a southern hemisphere holiday is the prevalence of summer fruits - and boy have we been capitalizing on the advantage.



Having enjoyed our breakfast, it was important to work off some of the whipped cream with some quick running of errands around town (we hadn't anticipated how handy Adam's birthday would become in securing a variety of bargains) followed by an adventure out to Adrenaline Forest, a great high ropes course located just outside of Wellington in Porirua. Adam looks great in a security harness.

Before we started climbing up into the canopy, this little hedgehog wandered out to enjoy a bit of sunshine before returning to her burrow for naptime. I'll never get used to seeing hedgehogs as wild animals as opposed to adorable household pets.

Adam enjoyed a barrel of fun on one of the first courses while I simply had a barrel of laughs watching him wriggle mid-air.

Every boy wants to be Spider-man.  Adam got to indulge his inner child by riding the Tarzan swing into this net.  Hang on birthday boy!

There are seven courses that you can work through at Adrenaline Forest.  Adam and I conquered numbers 1, 2, 3, and 5 before our arms begged for relief.  Every course gets a little tougher and quite a bit higher in the treetops.  As you can see Adam expertly walked himself across a monkey bridge - clearly ignoring the beautiful view of the bay behind him.

All of our play in the jungle left us with ape-sized appetites.  Where better to satisfy some cravings for good old fashioned American food than a good old-fashioned American diner...Denny's!  Before you judge Adam's choice you should remember that a) it's tough to get a burger around here without beetroot and egg b) they actually serve French Fries with Heinz ketchup and Ranch and c) they even gave Adam a free birthday lunch! 

Apparently some of New Zealand's computer networks didn't remember that it's polite to remain working when the birthday boy is on-call.  Poor Adam spent more than his fair share of his special day in this favored position.

Adam's i-phone mercifully stopped ringing long enough for us to enjoy a special birthday won-ton soup for supper.  Living abroad has certainly expanded our culinary skills.

 Discovered as a birthday favorite last year, Adam's request for a birthday cake has evolved from the traditional cheesecake to a more seasonally appropriate strawberry rhubarb pie.  Not quite as perfect as last year's attempt, it's the thought that counts and Adam didn't look like he minded the mushy pie crust too, too badly.

Ripping and tearing; a birthday must-do.

To the sweetest, most supportive, and handsome husband in any hemisphere...happy birthday Adam!