A month of rainy weather has made everyone at Solscape a bit stir crazy.

The ocean has been grumpy. The online surf reports that we check religiously have a maximum swell height of 20 ft. The waves here in Raglan have been off the charts all week. The thought of surfing a 20 ft + wave (or double and a half overheader) makes me crap my pants. But some people don’t seem to be fazed (sp?). Three days ago a beginner surfer got swept out to open sea by the current. He started at the beach, and luckily the coast guard happened to spot him at the river mouth as they finished their patrols for the day.
Angry Ocean
The waves don’t look so big from here.

Needless to say, we haven’t been in the water much. There was however, a brief bit of sunshine yesterday that inspired Lenny and I to hop in his car and seek out some pictures. Just down the coast from us is an amazing little spot that I can’t believe I never visited until now. I am reminded again of how amazing New Zealand is and how lucky we are to have found this place. Beautiful.
Lenny, excited about a few sun rays.

Dani gets some air.

Clouds roll in over Te Toto.

Lenny looks out over Te Toto.

I think I am addicted to taking photos of dead trees.

Windswept trees.

Dani, in hippy pants, looking thoughtful.

Silly place to store a boat.
Winter.

Me too.

Simply putting a picture of English policemen with funny hats on a bag of hamburger rolls does not make them English muffins. While those little guys are admittedly rather cute, I quote one Mr. Thomas when I request, nay, demand “nooks and crannies”. Without a nook or a cranny to be seen, the product you have been promoting as “English Muffins” is no more than a bag of oddly shaped white bread dinner rolls. New Zealand bakers, you can do better.

Kind Regards,
Dani

[Editor’s Note: Breaking news. According to our sources they apparently don’t even have English muffins in the UK or Canadian bacon in Canada. What is the world coming to?]

It has been rainy and cold for the past week. And by rainy, I don’t just mean the occasional shower. I mean a constat light rain punctuated by heavy downpours that seem to occur just as I am stepping out of the house. The winter weather has me rethinking our car-free lifestyle. It is much less fun to hitch or bike when you spend the rest of the day shivering. Luckily, only 5 weeks until I venture to the northern heisphere. Just in time.

One day I was citing him in my thesis and the next day here he was, in Raglan of all places.
Bill McKibben watching Nelson’s talk on Saturday night. Too freaking cool!

People try all sorts of things to reclaim their youth. Three rainy days indoors have found me reading too many ladies magazines and the ads for facelifts, age-defying creams, and body part firmers are no less offensive here than they are in the states. Men are no different than women in the search for eternal youth. Some men jump out of airplanes or buy a sports car on their fortieth and others date women 15 years their junior. Well, as Nelson already had the latter covered, rejuvination for his 41st came in the form of a caving trip to Waitomo.

We have both done a bit of caving before, and unlike many of the tourists who come to Waitomo we were not in search of an action-packed adrenaline boosting day of adventure (where you descend a well-lit ramp, follow a boardwalk guided tour through the caves, and participate in blackwater rafting with 50 of your not so dearest friends). We were looking for something a more initmate and mellow, and a bit less….um kitchy.

We came across Green Glow Eco Tours, a new company begun by Paul, a 25 year veteran caver tired of doing the touristy thing. He specializes in private tours that cater to the clients’ individual needs in a private cave he leases. It was sweet.

We saw stalactites and mites, glow worms, wettas, and crystals. We did three rappels, the longest one about 100ft. Nelson graciously said “Dani, you can go first”, which gave him a few minutes to collect himself for the descent.

It turns out Paul is not only an expert in spelunking, but knew tons about the natural history of the area. His endless knowledge of cave geology and biology kept Nelson enraptured, while his knowledge in cave photography helped produce these gorgeous gems. (He too fell in love with the G10).

All in all, it was an incredible day. Does Nelson feel that he has reclaimed some of his youth? “What are you talking about?” He replies. Youth is in the eye of the beholder and age is only a number. Like a stinky piece of cheese, he only seems to get better with age.

Our first rappell. 100 mts. If you look closely you can see Nelson in a red jacket about 1/3 of the way down.

Abseiling inside a cave.

Glow worm mucus. Yum.

At the mouth of the cave.

Tiny stalactites called “straws”. So delicate, but each one takes about 100 years to grow an inch.

A tight spot. Not posed, we actually crawled through there.



Inside the cave under the glow worms.

Two birthday parties? Lucky!
And a new wetsuit?

Since we were going down to Whanganui, we decided to celebrate in Raglan with friends before we left. I made pumpkin lasagna and apple feijoa crumble and we drank a few bottles of wine with friends. I think the best birthday surprise was that Lenny showed up again, completely unannounced. It was a happy reunion for sure. Music, running through a field of wild flowers, and Nelson and Lenny embracing.

It was also so good to see so many friends in Whanganui. After a raucous celebration in Raglan before our trip, we celebrated two nights in a row with the Brookes family and other friends. This is the cake Mandy and Toby made. Lucky for Nelson we were traveling, because I don’t think I’ve ever made anything so beautiful. Then, thanks to Maia, Sophie, and Karuna, we had a scavenger hunt for Nelson’s birthday present.
Where could that next clue be?
Oh there it is!
Under the covers?
A winter-weight wetsuit!

This time last year we were in New Hampshire. We knew we were about to begin a huge adventure, a new chapter in our lives, but didn’t know exactly where we were headed. I sang a love song to my baby on his fortieth birthday (in front of 400 close friends).

One year later we are living in a beautiful place working towards making our dreams come true. I can’t think of a better outcome to our adventures or a better person to be sharing them with. We are away this week celebrating Nelson’s birthday with friends in Wanganui (Whanganui?), and then with a caving trip in Waitomo.

I am in love with SoSo Fancy Carrots more today than ever before. Happy birthday to the most wonderful man I know.

My baby sister turns 20 today. Isn’t she fabulous?

How about now?

And my older brother (in-law) will turn, oh I don’t know let’s just call it 40-ish on the 17th. He’s quite fabulous too.(This image has been edited, as to be less offensive to our younger viewers.)

Happy birthday! Love you both.

Sequoia and I were inspired by a website that calimed it was “so easy” to dye eggs using natural dyes. It made sense to us. Why rely on Red #40 and Yellow #5 when we had marigolds, lilacs, and beetroots in bloom. We gathered almost all of our ingredients from our very own yard.

Then we boiled them down and added a teaspoon of vinegar to each cup.

Even the most principled seven year old gets impatient waiting for natural dyes to work. Can’t we just add food coloring to help them?

The beetroot was the only one that didn’t need assistance. Although, I think if I had added about 3x as mauch of each ingredient it would have helped. Chili powder worked well to make a nice orange color. Broccoli and swiss chard leaves made yellow. Lavender petals made lavender. And we heard blueberries will make blue, although they are definitely not local or in season here, so we went without blue.
Here are our results. I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that most of the coloring came from the bottle. We’ll try again next year.