Adventures in Juicing

I think I may be addicted. ;)

We've had this awesome top of the line juicer for years that Josh's dad gave us when we moved to the Bay Area over 7 years ago. Josh used it a few times early on, but didn't like cleaning it. So it sat there collecting dust, then got packed in it's box when we moved, and didn't see the light of day...until a month ago. I don't know why I never used it, but I'm kicking myself now because I just realized how awesome that little machine is!

What prompted me to dust the juicer off and actually use it? The short answer is Netflix suggestions. No joke.

The longer answer is that my dad has been telling me to watch a documentary called Forks Over Knives for a while now, and I finally did. On Netflix. After watching that, Hungry for Change and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead both popped up as suggestions. The subject of the latter had a few cameos in the former. This man completely reversed his health problems by changing his entire approach and outlook to life. It started with fasting on nothing but juiced fruit and vegetables for two months. I'm not sick, nor do I have the desire to do even the more reasonable 10 day juice cleanse. But I do love juice, and know that I don't consume as many vegetables as I should...why not give it a try?

So off I go to the store, juice drink recipe in hand, hoping that this will actually taste good like most of the people said in the documentary. Here is what I made:

"Mean Green" Juice

• 1 bunch kale*
• 4 celery stalks 
• 1 cucumber
• 2 green apples
• 1/2 lemon
• ~1/4" ginger root (about the size of a marble)

*I only used half of the kale, to save some for other recipes.

I was surprised at how much came out into the solid tub, though I shouldn't have been. It seems like such a waste to just throw it in the compost.

And here was the end result:

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually not bad at all! It was fairly sweet, slightly salty (didn't expect that one), with a small amount of fibrous/grassy taste to it. I won't use quite so much ginger in the future (it didn't detract from the overall taste, but was a tad strong), and will throw in an extra apple (love me some apple) to sweeten it a bit more. I had two other people taste it to see what they thought. General consensus on "Mean Green": Good. I will definitely be making this one again. Hopefully the alterations will improve the taste.

I woke up the next morning in the mood for a fruit smoothie. We didn't have any juice to mix with it in the fridge. No problem; I juiced up some oranges and green apples and was good to go!

Before I had put the juicer away, my roommate who has a cold came into the kitchen:
Me: Do you want some juice to help with your cold?
Roomate: Sure...
Me: Alright, are you ok with garlic? A lot of these recipes call for it.
Roomate: I'll try it.

I whipped up this recipe for cold/fever/flu:

• 4 oz orange
• 4 oz carrot
• 1 oz lemon
• 1 clove garlic

I don't like garlic, so I didn't try it. It looked really good, but all I could smell was that garlic! My roommate assured me that although the garlic was strong, the juice tasted good. I suspect that he was just being nice, but he did drink all of it.

Does anyone have any recipe suggestions for me? Something that you love and doesn't taste like lawn trimmings? I probably won't be juicing garlic, avocado, or onions any time soon; but I am open to suggestions! I would also love to figure out something to do with the left over rind/peel/seeds/fiber that becomes composting waste. Perhaps it could be used in a food dish, or some other application?

So...This is Actually Hell

My apologies for not posting anything for so long. Work and the holidays sucked up all of my time for a while there. When you're never home, you just don't want to sit and write blogs once you do get time off.

Anyways... I left off right before we got to Hell's Gate, northeast of Rotorua.

It was a beautiful drive through diverse scenery as we passed through the different ecosystems that the North Island has to offer. When we arrived, both of us were happy to get out of the car and stretch our legs, so the tour at Hell's Gate was quite welcomed!

Of course, Josh couldn't resist the opportunity when I wanted a shot of him in front of the entrance...

I don't know why, don't even ask...

I thought the whole park was pretty neat, but that is probably because I am a dork for geological phenomenon. We took a lot of photos of all of the different features, but they don't really do it justice. The first thing that you notice upon getting out of the car is the oh so subtle smell of sulfur that pervades the whole area surrounding Rotorua. Nearer to the geothermal vents, you feel the rise in temperature, which was nice because it cut the chill in the air.

Most of the photos looks similar to this

I probably did this a hundred times, the steam felt good ;0)

Josh likes to take pictures of flowers and trees and such. I think that is so cute.This vegetation was unexpected because you cannot see it from the entrance (where there is almost nothing growing), and the climate/ecosystem surrounding it is so different.

Some video of the things we saw at the park... These are the Spraying Pools. I like the water bubbling/boiling in what they call "the frying pan effect."

 

I wanted to visit Hell's Gate in particular, out of a handful of parks in the area, because they had a hot waterfall. I have an obsession with them, after all. =0) I was thinking that I would be able to get a lot closer than we actually could, so I was a little disappointed when we finally saw it. But it was still awesome.

They love to advertise that things are the biggest or tallest down here. This is the largest hot waterfall in the southern hemisphere...

A view of the Steaming Cliffs. Though, there is so much steam you can't actually view the cliffs ha ha.

 

Koro Koro (The Hot Lakes). Footpath bridge in the background.

 Anyone that knows the Garners, knows that we don't exactly follow rules. There were signs everywhere telling you not to go off the path or touch the water/go near the features... 

My name may have changed, but you can tell where I came from he he. The water was only lukewarm.

I couldn't resist seeing what the mud felt like in the foot pool before we left. The water was nice and warm, and the mud felt great. :)

We didn't realize it at the time, but there was a distinctive odor that clung to us just from being here. It was reminiscent of sulfur, but thankfully not as noxious. The owners of the B&B where we checked in afterwards were very happy that we had not gotten any treatments at the spa here because they always have to throw out any sheets and towels people use afterwards, the smell is that persistent.

The next activity on our agenda had us driving to Waitomo Caves to check into the Waitomo Caves Guest Lodge Bed & Breakfast. We got there fairly late, hungry, and pretty much ready to hit the hay. The wonderful and very knowledgeable owners checked us in, and sent us off with suggestions to eat at the local brew pub (even warning us to ignore the surly cook/waitress), and told us that we absolutely had to borrow some of their torches (flashlights) and take a walk on the walking trail that loops by the caves before we retired for the night so that we could take in a free "show" of the famous glow worms because that was the only night we would be there. I will tell you more about rest of the night, and the adventures of day 3 in the next post. Hopefully it won't take me quite so long to write it!

From Hobbiton to Hell

Day 3: October 15, 2010

After an impromptu day of sightseeing in and around Auckland, we got back (somewhat) to the itinerary I had planned before we left. We were on a tight schedule today, so we got an early wake up call and said goodbye to the Rydges Hotel and Auckland. A beautiful city with very friendly people, you should visit it sometime!

We hopped in the car and drove through the beautiful countryside and down to Matamata. What's in Matamata, you may ask? It's the one thing that Josh really wanted to do in New Zealand... Hobbiton! The site where they built the set for the Lord of the Rings movies is tucked away on a sheep farm, and you can tour the set. The farm is owned by the Alexander family, where they run daily tours of Hobbiton, then show you how they shear the sheep. =0)

Remember when I said to invest in a GPS unit if driving in NZ? This is because none of the highways are straight thoroughfares with multiple lanes taking you from point A to point B; you wind, twist, and turn through the countryside and there are not really signs posted to point you towards attractions. In fact, we did not see one single sign saying that we were getting close to the Hobbiton tours, or going towards Matamata. We were late for the tour that I had intended us to be on, and the lack of signage was making me nervous that we were nowhere near where we needed to be. Josh had complete faith, however, and was not surprised in the least when all of a sudden we came around and up the corner of a rolling hill and there it was! I am convinced that the GPS did not send us on a direct route, considering the long drive down roads that were not quite wide enough for 2 vehicles to pass, and where we saw nothing but sheep on the hills for miles. But it did get us there, and everywhere else we were trying to go, which is more than I can say for my own unit at home.

We arrived about 10 minutes too late for the first tour, so we had some time to kill. We changed into heavier clothing to accommodate the rain and cool weather, then wandered into the deserted Shire's Rest Cafe. The Cafe is where the tours depart from, you can get some grub, and they have a modest amount of souvenirs there. Once we had finished inside and wandered back out, I snapped a few photos and took some video of the sheep hanging out nearby.

The Shire's Rest Cafe, a very unassuming building. The kitchen is downstairs, you go up the stairs and through the slider to get to the cafe counter and the souvenirs.

This sign wasn't even facing the road. There were no signs facing the road...

The pastureland next to the Cafe

View of surrounding hills across the street from the Cafe, Hobbiton is back there somewhere...

(I apologize ahead of time for the gum smacking in the video)

I got a little frustrated that I could not catch them on film, but a lot of the sheep were rolling around like dogs, which was quite funny! =0) You can see how beautiful the scenery is though.

aaand... then my camera broke! :( The toggle got stuck on video mode and I was unable to take photos from my camera for the rest of the trip. Don't worry, I stole Josh's camera and used that most of the time he he.

Since the movie set is currently being restored, and added to by crew members, we had to sign this confidentiality agreement stating that we would not post any photos. In the interest of not getting sued, I'm not going to post any of the actual photos from Hobbiton. I do have to recommend that you take the tour if you ever find yourself in New Zealand and you like the LOTR series. It was informative and neat to see all of the activity going on on-set as they added new hobbit holes and restored everything to the way it looked while filming the first movies.

Here are some more shots of us goofing around before the tour.

Watch out, here comes the Josh-Monster!

Gandalf in Mordor? Oh man... Josh, please don't kill me for not remembering this one ;)

Turning the camera on me

Hello!

As part of the tour, they take you over to a shed or barn where they give you bottles to feed lambs and give you a demonstration on how they shear sheep. The lambs were quite friendly and, again, behaved just like puppies. Adorable, little puppies =0)

WARNING: Adorable lambs in action!

Cute little guys huh? I especially love their tails, and how the one totally bogarted the bottle after abandoning it in the first place.

Next up, was the shearing. The guy that demonstrated the sheep shearing was a neat dude that was very mellow and quite friendly. He really opened up and wouldn't stop talking when he found out we were from California because he had a friend from Fresno that he had recently visited on a trip to the US. They took him to Yosemite, which he loved (us too obviously!), and he also stayed in the friend's house in San Clemente. Talk about a small world considering where both Josh and I grew up! Oh, and he was wearing the most hideous sock-like shoes I have ever seen. Seriously nasty looking ha ha! They were designed to be able to feel the sheep's movements and actually grip the body so they don't squirm away. Naturally they were covered in lanolin and poop. Anyone hungry? Well, we were!

It's definitely a talent to be able to shear these animals, this guy just chilled there like he was drunk or something

We had one more stop for the day before traveling to the hotel, so we bid farewell to the Alexander farm after ordering up some lunch in the Shire's Rest Cafe. Josh found a lamb burger on the menu and was pleasantly surprised to discover that they put mint sauce on it. Needless to say he was one happy man.

Now, since I was doing all of the driving, Josh was free to do his car narcolepsy thing and we passed through a lot of beautiful country that went undocumented. One thing I did capture was my attempt to wake him up by slowly turning up the music when they were playing a song he loves.

 Yeah, it didn't work. He was OUT.

A few hours later, we had finally made it to our next stop for the day. Hell. More specifically, Hell's Gate Geothermal Reserve. I have a bunch of photos and videos yet to show you from the reserve, but I'm going to finish it at a later date so I can finally get this one out! I hope you enjoyed the videos so far because I have a bunch more where they came from ;0)

Wedding Reception Slideshow

I had a few requests for the copies of the photos I used in the slideshow from the wedding. First, here is the link to the actual slideshow. Since I cannot upload it to Blogspot because it is not the correct file type, I have placed it in Photobucket here:
http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/Idylia/?action=view&current=WeddingPhotoSlideshow_0001.mp4

I'm bummed that I can't figure out how to publish the video with sound because Windows Movie Maker and Picasa are both being bitchy and not adding the songs I want to the video. So I guess you guys will just have to play your own =0)

What's Next?

Day 2: Oct 14, 2010

We had a wonderful first day in Auckland, and I was eager to do the next thing that I had booked for us in New Zealand, canyoning! Anyone that asked me about the trip probably got an earful of me gabbing about this tour. They take you on a hiking and repelling tour where you can repel over and into waterfalls, which sounded ridiculously awesome to me since I love waterfalls! Unfortunately, they called us the night before to tell us that they had canceled the tour, and we had too many other things planned to be able to fit it in any other day. I was bummed, really really bummed. If we ever make it back down to NZ, we have to go canyoning.

Since we had an extra day in Auckland, we decided we might sleep in, book an afternoon tour, and check out the city a bit more. I thought we might go to SkyCity and do the Skywalk (where you go to the top of something very similar to the Space Needle and walk around the outside of it on a walkway with no railing while harnessed). Or possibly eat in the revolving restaurant at the top (again, just like the Space Needle). It was only 2 short blocks from our hotel and the tour didn't start until 12:30, so we hoofed it over to SkyCity.

This place is a hotel, has a casino, many restaurants, a theater, the Skywalk and does bungee jumping. You can see the bungee lines running down on the left and going through the SKYCITY logo.

You can actually walk around the outside of the tower, on the ring going around the top!

It was about 10am when we walked in, which was unfortunately about 10 minutes too late for the first Skywalk, and we would not be able to go during any of the other times. So we decided to eat breakfast, and none of the main restaurants were open. We had gotten stuck in the dead zone between breakfast and lunch where restaurants close in New Zealand, which was a new one on us Americans who are used to being able to eat anytime we want. The revolving restaurant didn't open until after noon, so that was out. We would have gone to the top to look around, but we were too hungry. The man at the information desk was very helpful in telling us how many restaurants they had, and where they were but he didn't get that we meant we wanted food NOW. Rebo was only the place serving food, and to no one's surprise, that's where we wound up.

"Hurry up, I'm hungry!"

Pizza and Chardonnay. That's right, I'm day drinking! Who could pass up pizza and 2 glasses of wine on special for the same price of the pizza by itself? =0)

We wandered back to the hotel after donating $20 to the roulette table in the casino and jumped into the tour bus to go on the Bush and Beach Wilderness Experience tour. The rest of the people were significantly older than us and part of a group on holiday from England. We soon had a good time comparing the language differences between us as the different words came up throughout the day.

The first stop was an option to buy a snack from The Mill Bakehouse. Josh was excited to try a meat pie after the guide recommended them, and we also picked up a couple of delicious cinnamon buns that I particularly enjoyed.

I think Mikey likes it!

Next up? The Waitakere Ranges Regional Park! Since we were on a tour, we really only hit the highlights, but the park and the surrounding views were gorgeous! We stopped at the Arataki Center, where you can see this view of Manukau Harbor:

Beyond the harbor is the Tasman Sea!

What's up?

Inside the Arataki Center, they had carvings like this one that were carved out of kauri trees that depict the Te Kawerau a Maki ancestors. Again, I liked the eyes made out of paua shells.

Our guide told us about the views from the center, and gave us a little lesson on some of the local flora and fauna before we all enjoyed some home made ice cream topped with whipped cream. Yummy!

Picture perfect! (ahaha, I had to do it!)

After checking out the panoramic views, we took a short walk down to an un-named waterfall (or at least I can't remember the name or find it on Google). There was a smaller waterfall on the way down, where we saw this photographer wrecking the view and our photo ops. He was shooting a dude that was possibly a rugby player, but I couldn't figure out why he would place the light focus things right in front of the fall instead of using it as a backdrop. Silly guy, you always choose the waterfall! ;0)

Exploring the creek

I love waterfalls!

The next stop on our tour was the nearby Piha Beach. We took the opportunity to hike up a path that runs to the top of a bluff overlooking the beach and community while the rest of the tour-goers took a tea break. The view was amazing, we could see all of the sets coming in and the many surfers trying to catch a wave!

Overlooking Piha Beach and Lion's Head Rock

The waves weren't that high, but there sure were a lot of surfers!

One of the ladies on the tour saw us up on the bluff and tried to get our attention by waving and yelling from down on the beach. Not only did we not notice her, she got knocked down by a wave because she was standing in the surf and was caught off guard. I felt so bad when her friend told us!

Closer shot of Lion's Head Rock. You can also make out some tiny surfers ;)

Before we left Piha, the guide pulled out a magnet and showed us just how much iron is in the beautiful black sand that makes up the beach. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I kinda was ha ha! Of course, at this point, the camera battery died and we did not have another one with us so I couldn't document the sights during the rest of the tour.

We hit a few trails, which had a unique feature at the start and end of each trail head. The kauri trees in New Zealand are being threatened by Kauri die-back which sickens and can kill them, and the virus is transported most readily through soil on people's shoes or other equipment. Their solution was to install and maintain stations containing sprayers with a biodegradable solvent called Trigene. I borrowed a photo to show you what they look like.

Our guide helped us use these stations when we were hiking. I thought it was an interesting idea, and I hope its effective. We went to a different area of the park to view a very old, and large, kauri tree. I noticed what looked like a lot of sap on the trunk and asked about it. Unfortunately, this particular tree had been infected and would eventually die.

The last stop on our tour was an unscheduled stop at the Rose Hellaby House. Its a small house that sits on the edge of a hill with a spectacular view of Auckland and the surrounding areas. I was bummed that I couldn't get any shots from the backyard, but the photos would have looked like this:

 

Rose donated her house and land to the government, who maintain the grounds and have a historical display center within the house itself. It was such a beautiful day out that day, and we had a good time on the unplanned tour. =0)

Auckland as seen from the Rose Hellaby House

 After the tour, I loaded the camera with a fresh battery and was back in business! We were hungry by now and decided to wander down towards the harbor in search of a place to eat. I happily took photos of pretty much everything along the way.

I was quite taken with this building, although I never found out what it was. It sits on the water in the Auckland harbor.

One of the ferry terminals at the harbor

We also picked up some souvenirs while we were out

I'm not sure if anyone but me knows about Josh's current obsession with thai and indian food. Once we saw Thai Chilli, it was a foregone conclusion that we would be having dinner there, so in we went!

I liked the torches they had out front :)

There are two reasons that Josh loves thai food; pad thai noodles and thai iced tea. They did not serve the tea, or have any idea what Josh was talking about when he asked about it. This made him sad, but determined to find a place that did serve it for the rest of the trip!

SkyCity all lit up, our hotel is to the right

We finished up dinner and decided to hit up the Shakespeare Brewery, which we had passed no less than 3 times while sightseeing. We were hoping we would catch some of a rugby game that had been on, but we had to settle for the highlights. I have one word to describe that sport...savage! Those dudes are crazy!

These look dark, but they were probably the darkest beers there! It was weird how little variety was served. Mostly pilsners or pale ales...yuck!

"Here's to us!"

A few handles later (what we got when we asked for pints without thinking about it, oops, wrong system), we were ready to go back to the hotel and crash. Not too bad for being 20 hours ahead, I think. We had virtually no jet lag. We had to get up and check out early the next morning though, so it was nighty night for us!