Queenstown in Autumn

We went to Queenstown the other weekend to see Chris White who was in town for work. I didn't get any pictures with Whitey, but I took a few pictures off our hotel balcony. Anytime of the year, summer, spring, autumn and winter, Queenstown is breathtaking.

Warm home, Warm heart, Warm kittens

Living in just about sub antarctic conditions (literally), you would think that every single house built in this place would come with a fire. You would think it would be mandatory from the government. You would think...

But after living in this house for a year, I could NOT go thru another winter with out a fire (and neither could my precious kittens - who are very sensitive to the cold).

So, we got ourselves one of them there fires and my world has changed. Instead of having a living room that is 55 degrees. We now have one that doesn't drop below 75. Ahhhhhh the difference.

Plus it provides endless entertainment for the kittens.

But then sometimes it kills Russell (case and point below... (please excuse the ugly orange
fish bin holding our firewood. We get a pretty one today)).

Feeding the Japanese Squid Boat

You might wonder how my life is different now that I live in New Zealand... well, I will tell you one thing, you would have never caught me doing this on a Saturday morning in Dallas.
Aaron sure does one thing really well... he never lets life get boring.

We went on Damon's fishing boat to meet a Japanese Squid boat out in the ocean. They needed fresh supplies: fresh veggies, chips, tofu, sprite, etc, and we were just the people to do it.

We "tied" our boat to their ship and tried to balance while lifting heavy food boxes into a basket to be pulled into their ship while battling the swell.

Just another day in Dunedin....

Squid boat in the distance

Squid boat

Chanel watching the ship come closer...

The black running down the side is not rust, but Ink from the squid.

Chanel in front of the supplies.

Richard Taylor

My fish monger

Getting tied up

Japanese about to lower down the basket for us to fill up.

Wedding Season

February is no doubt Wedding Season for Kiwis. There is only one month that is warm enough for weddings, barely, and so they squish in as many as possible. We had 4 in the month of February.

We started out with Corey and Lizzie. Two of our friends that live in Christchurch. (They have purchased tickets to our Texas wedding, but with the earthquake last month, fingers crossed they will still be able to make it.) We had been looking forward to this wedding for such a long time. They are one of those couples that are undeniably in love with each other. They make you happy to be around them and a part of their lives. I love weddings where I know they are truly happy and in love. Lizzie is Scottish and Corey is a kiwi and they had such a beautiful wedding (they got married on top of a hill in Wanaka with the mountains behind them). There were quite a few Scottish traditions incorporated into the reception, so that was fun to see. Plus they had me sitting next to the most amazing scottish couple: two gay doctors who I instantly fell in love with, of course. I was mesmerized by their fabulous accents and outstanding dance moves all night long.

Overall...Beautiful couple in a Beautiful location - unseasonably cold though. brr.

The next wedding we went to was for a very nice young couple that work with Aaron and Damon. Brad, is the guy on Damon's boat that pulls in the craypots (just like on Deadliest Catch) and Hayley works with Aaron in the fish factory. Their wedding was the first wedding I have been to here in New Zealand that took place in a church. It was a beautiful old church and it was so refreshing to watch a ceremony in a church. Plus it kept us from standing outside in the cold. Smart couple. Their reception was beautiful as well, but I got no pictures.

Aaron attended wedding number 3 on his own. That wedding was in Christchurch and I didn't really know the couple all that well and didnt feel like the 4 hour trip there. And didn't feel like standing outside for another wedding.

Our last wedding was in a small fishing town called Karitane. Damon's fishing mentor's daughter got married and it was breath-taking. Absolutely breath-taking. The wedding took place on her father's land out in the fishing community. And I totally wedding stalked her reception with my camera. I took tons of pictures of decorations at the reception.

Damon, Chanel, me and Aaron out by the edge of his land.

Name tags that led you to where your seat was.

Chanel and Damon

Aaron had quite the red wine hangover the next day.

ChandlerCooperGardner Christmas 2010.

After work on Christmas Eve, Aaron and I loaded ourselves in the "ute" and headed to Queenstown to celebrate Christmas with the family. Aaron and Damon rented a big house for the family to spend the holidays. This place was a-maz-ing.

We really did a whole lot of nothing for 10 days.
We hung out on Christmas day.

Cooked Dinner

Christmas Dinner with Christmas Crackers.

The rest of the Holiday, we played back yard cricket, made a slip n slide, invited friends over

And on a couple of rainy days... a good game of Scrabble was all we needed!

Lover's Leap

Our friends, Lizzie and Corey who live in Christchurch visited me and Aaron the weekend before Christmas. On their last day in Dunedin, we went for a walk and I really liked the pictures we took. We walked to a look-out point called Lovers Leap. It was breathtaking.

This is no Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. Damn It.

On Sunday afternoon, I dragged Aaron kicking and screaming to go pick out a Christmas Tree with me & he was NOT happy. Aaron's tradition is to get in the Ute (truck) and go to the country and cut down a random tree. Now, that sounds all romantic and wonderful and fabulous, but I have seen the stolen trees and they are of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree lineage. So, it took a lot of work to get him to agree to BUY a 30 dollar tree (which I thought was QUITE a bargain.) But we found the "Keeper" and we brought it home after a trip to Kmart to buy some decorations (which aaron says costs us $200 - which is such an exaggeration. I can think of so many more decorations to buy, Mr. Grinch).

The cats have left the tree alone UNTIL today when I bought the tree skirt. Well, that makes all the difference. The cats now love the tree. Love to sit under the tree. Love to look at the lights. It is weird.

Here are some pictures of aaron and the tree, the cats and the tree and our niece, Daisy Mae, under the tree. She LOVED the flashing lights. Cheap entertainment!

Russell... he is a mess



"Merry Christmas" love Rico and Russell. Goodness they are ugly.




Daisy Mae.


Daisy loving the lights.