1. Dark brown sugar
2. Cornstarch
3. Vanilla Extract
4. Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
So I drove to the store, and here's what I discovered:
1. They make "brown sugar" in this country. Not light brown sugar, not dark brown sugar. There are not 50 shades of brown. So I came home with 500 grams of soft brown sugar.
2. Cornstarch is actually corn flour here. But when I got to the store they didnt have that, they only had maize corn flour or wheaten corn flour. If I wanted wheaten corn flour wouldnt I just get regular flour? Maybe? Who knows. I got the maize one and hoped for the best.
3. They call extract "essense". ugh. I can't win.
4. Turns out they dont sell those classic toll house semi sweet chocolate chips here either. I had to choose between milk chocolate or dark chocolate and "drops" or "buttons". Came home with some "dark chocolate drops" which Cam confirmed would probably work because dark chocolate doesnt have full sweetness.
So here I am, more than a year in to living abroad, with less than a month to go, and I still can hardly grocery shop on my own. But hey, the cookies taste delicious.
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| Queenstown - December 2014. Just getting you ready for the rest of the post. |
The main reason for this post is that last weekend, Cam, seven of our closest work mates/friends, and I went to Queenstown!
Queenstown was the #1 place reccommended to me before I came to New Zealand and it is hands down my favorite place in this country. Every time I go to Queenstown I leave thinking that it is the most gorgeous place on earth, I had the best time, and I hope I go back but if I don't I think I'm satisfied with the excursions I did. Then I go back and find all kinds of new things to do. Well, to be fair, the first time I knew I wasn't satisfied.
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| Hellooooo Queenstown |
Trip #1 - November 2014 - Travelled through Queenstown on my way to the Routeburn track. Got there after dark, and woke up to the most splendid scenery I'd ever seen. Drove around Lake Wakatipu to the get to the track, and after the hike drove the "road to glenorchy" back to Queenstown before heading back to Chch.
Excursions: FergBurger (It counts), Road to Glenorchy
Trip #2 - December 2014 - Thought my time would be over on 12/20/2014, so my mom came for a visit and we flew on down to Queenstown for the weekend.
Excurions: Queenstown Hill hike, AJ Hackett Bungy, Arrowtown
Trip #3 - March 2015 - Three friends from Hopkins/NY came to visit and we stopped in Queenstown on the way to Milford Sound.
Excursions: Paragliding!!
Trip #4 - April 2015- It was Jen and Keith's last weekend in NZ and Keith was going to run the Routeburn (See Trip #1), so we all got a bach to wish them farewell.
Excursion: Gondola + Luge
And finally TRIP NUMBER 5:
Spoiler Alert.
Excursions: Queenstown Half Marathon, Shotover Jet, Million Dollar Cruise (for the girls), Downhill Mountain Biking (for the boys)
This trip was a long time coming. I had known that I wanted to run a half while I was in New Zealand and knew a friend who ran Queenstown last year and said it was a great course. He didn't tell me about the giant hill in the middle.... but that's besides the point for now. I checked the other day and I actually signed up for the half on July 24th! That seems like so long ago now.
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| Photo from Approximately July 24th. So long ago! |
The Friday before the race, Cam and I drove down to Queenstown with James and Jess, the other two friends running with me.
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| Stopped in Tekapo on the way down! |
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| Lupins! Photo Cred: Cam |
James had booked our accomodation and warned us that it was "the only thing left" by the time we booked and it was garden view, not lake view. So when we got to Queenstown and checked out the hotel I was absolutely shocked at how nice they were. For the nine of us, we had two 2-bedroom apartments, each with a lake side balcony.
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| First look from the parking lot. I like what I see. (Our future room had one of those pretty balconies) |
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| Just stop. Still in the parking lot. |
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| Didn't think it could get much better? This is our room. #remarkable |
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| That view tho. |
After checking out both rooms, and picking the better one (perks of arriving first), we walked the last 3k of the race course (!!) in to town to pick up our bibs. I was really anxious about the race, so Cam and I got chicken sandwiches and sat by the water for a while before I caught a cab back to the hotel.
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| One mile to go on the course (the night before) |
I got race ready and was in bed before Cam got home. (Also, while getting ready I realized I didn't have ANY food for breakfast. Oops. Traveling for races is hard. Thanks to Cam who grabbed me a scone in town before coming home)
And the next morning it was go time!! Cam (if you can't tell yet, he was the best support crew - major major thanks to Cam.) got up early, took our picture on the balcony (pre-race photos are always the sleepiest), and drove us to the start.
And the next morning it was go time!! Cam (if you can't tell yet, he was the best support crew - major major thanks to Cam.) got up early, took our picture on the balcony (pre-race photos are always the sleepiest), and drove us to the start.
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| Pre race photos - energy level is not quite READY TO RUN 13.1 MILES. |
I was so nervous getting out of the car. As soon as we got about 5 meters from the car, I turned to Jess and said "I can't wait to see Cam again at the finish." #motivation
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| Lets do this! |
And then we got in line, crossed the start line, and ran ran ran until I got back to town. A lot of people have asked how it went/how it was so I think I got my synopsis down: It was hard. It was beautiful. Literally every turn was an incredible view.
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| Not even joking (maybe one filter) but this was the course!! Would've taken so many more photos if I weren't also trying to run a race. |
The last 11.5 miles were on a trail along the lake, but unfortunately it was really narrow and crowded. I felt like it was hard to boost up or down a hill with the path being so narrow and full of people.
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| See what I mean about crowded. Mile 1.5 of the race and heading in to the trail portion |
But in the end, I finished, and I saw Cam right in front of the finish, and the announcer man announced my finish! "Erin is across the line! Good job Erin!" And then I found Cam. And then I cried. Ah that post half finish line cry - gets me every time.
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| FINISHERS! |
The rest of the day is a slight blur - we did a lot of walking and as much sitting as possible. The rest of our friends (the 6 non-runners) were headed on an uphill hike, but I knew I wasn't cut out of that. Cam, James, Jess and I went in to town for a giant pizza and beer feast. We were trying to figure out what we could do that would be exciting (especially for Cam who didn't run) but not too tiring. All of us agreed that the one excursion we hadn't done but would want to was the shotover jet. So we got on the next tour, and headed over to sit down and wait for that to start.
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| :) |
As expected, the shotover jet was incredible!! The bottom of the boat must have been so shallow because it was able to go so close to rocks and the shore without (seemingly) worrying about the depth of the water. It zoomed through the canyon, making several 360 turns in the middle, and had us all cracking up the whole time.
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| My best friend Kate also went on the shotover jet. Cam made fun of me for taking this picture. |
And after that I was dead. Time for a nap, some beers, dinner, and finally home. When I got home, I checked my phone and I had allegedly walked 22 miles that day. Gooooood night.
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| Are you getting sick of this view yet? Yeah me neither. |
Sunday morning, I woke up feeling surprisingly alright. Cam and I walked in to town to get some meat pies for breakfast (what has happened to me!?), and ended up meeting up with our friends. They were meant to do paragliding (See Trip #2... it was incredible), but it got cancelled due to wind, and they were itching to find another activity.
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| Not to rub it in, but #tbt. Remember this? |
The guys decided to go downhill mountain biking (take a bike up the gondola and then ride down tracks that are marked like ski slopes - green, blue, black, double black) so Cam went with them to do that. Kiki, her friend Terri, and I decided to take the Million Dollar Cruise for $35. Honestly most excursions in Queenstown cost $200 for an 8 second experience (yes bungy jumping I'm talking about you), so $35 for a 90 minute cruise where I could SIT DOWN the whole time? Sign me up.
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| Million Dollar Views |
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| Hotel I stayed at with my mom last December! |
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| One more of this view.. Can't stop, won't stop. |
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| Oh forgot to mention I was the captain of the cruise. Look at that sign above my head - that's my favorite part. |
Both of our excursions ended at the same time (ish), so we all met up, got some dumplings for lunch, and started the long long drive back to Christchurch. I was honestly so sad to leave Queenstown, knowing that I really am leaving New Zealand this time. But I'll be back. As my mom said, I'm still young ;)
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| Ah Queenstown. I LOVE YOU. 12/2014 |
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