Day 3 in New Zealand: Sha's birthday

Hey ... I'm engaged. I've now been with Sha for exactly 1 year!! We celebrated today by having a house inspection for termites and then having dinner in the revolving restaurant on the top of the Sydney tower.

Day 3 in New Zealand was Sha's birthday! She's now approximately 22 years old (as she has been for a few birthdays now). We set out early in the morning to try and find some breakfast in Westport. We did. The bacon was about the size of a gammon steak. Feeling rather full we headed off to try and find the ocean. This shouldn't have been too hard as Westport is a port on the sea, but Sha was navigating and so we got lost. We ended up on a quiet dirt road which allowed Sha to have a go driving until we stopped next to a field to have a photograph with a large dog called Yeti ("because he has 7 toes").

Finally we found the ocean and drove down to the end of the pier. After a rather nerve wracking 100-point turn to face the other direction we headed back toward the mountains. We hoped that the Lewis Pass through the mountains would be open!

The drive started through the Buller Gorge: "Scene of earthquakes, floods and home to hundreds of transient workers during goldmining times, the gorge has been a challenge to horsemen, coach drivers, roadmakers and bridge builders". It's certainly fun to drive along!

Then we started getting back into the high snow-capped mountains. But the road was clear! Although it did start snowing for a little while.

After a very long drive through the mountains and with the weather starting to look rather dramatic we pulled up in Hamner Springs for lunch. Another hour or so of driving got us to the other side of the country and we ran onto a beach on the Pacific coast!! Then we got completely lost in the one-way streets in Christchurch. We ended up by accident at a hotel and found that we couldn't do a U-turn and so simply stayed there for the night. It was a great hotel!! We were on the 23rd floor and had a huge window sill which we sat on eating Sha's birthday cake and watching the great views!

Day 2 in New Zealand: up the coast

Did I mention that I was engaged? Engaged to 莎莎. I got very upset last night. I was trying to say the word "coin" in Chinese. Apparently it is yingbi which seems to be completely impossible to say.

After getting off the train in Greymouth, eating our huge lunch and discovering that the road back to Christchurch was blocked with snow we started driving north. Wow, that was a spectacular coast line! I had just asked Sha to find me a seal when she spotted a baby one bounding across the sand into the sea. We didn't travel very fast as we seemed to stop after each corner to jump out of the car to get a better view of the scenery. It wasn't possible to get a good view whilst driving as I was concentrating on the rather windy road (which happens to be the only road on the West Coast of the South Island).

We stopped at Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks! According to wikipedia the "Pancake Rocks are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts though a number of vertical blowholes during high tides. Together with the 'pancake'-layering of the limestone (created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments)". We also saw lots of Nikau Palms which are "the most southern naturally growing palm in the world".

We continued North, past signs warning us of penguins, wekas and deer. We saw lots of deers, a few wekas and no penguins. However, we did come across a huge seal colony. It smelt of fish. There were young seals frolicking in a small rock pool and the adult seals sitting around looking very relaxed.

In the evening we arrived in Westport. There's not much in Westport. We found a great motel (the Spa Motel) which provided a huge spa in the room and then went out to explore the town. We found some strange fruit in the supermarket and bought Sha a candle for her birthday. Finally we ended up in the Denniston Dog which was obviously proud of the local mining community. All the photos on the wall were of huge diggers (Alexander would have loved it).

Day 2 in New Zealand: The Train to Greymouth

Did I mention that I'm engaged? Engaged to Sha Sha!! :) We woke very early on the second day of our holiday (ridiculously early given the time difference between Sydney and Christchurch). It was raining hard. We checked out of the hotel, gave Gary a final stroke and jumped into a taxi to the train station. We got on the TranzAlpine which goes from Christchurch on the Pacific ocean to Greymouth on the Tasman. Between the two towns the train crosses the spectacular Southern Alps and then through the rain forest. It's wonderful. The rain stopped somewhere high in the mountains and we went through some patches of snow. However, the sky suddenly cleared and we had incredible views of the snow covered mountains. (We discovered later that a huge snow storm was following us which completely blocked the roads.)

The guard on the train provided a running commentary. He had been working on the New Zealand trains for the last 40 years or so and was sad to see the end of the steam locomotives. Apparently they had a job getting up the mountains, but the diesel trains are even worse because they overheat in the tunnels.

On arrival in Greymouth we picked up the keys for our hire car, discovered that all the roads were under thick snow and so went to have a huge lunch in the local pub. In the afternoon we drove North along the coast trying to find a way back through the mountains!

Proposing to Sha

I'm engaged!! Engaged to be married!! Engaged to 莎莎. It all happened in New Zealand. I got to the airport about 6 hours early and sat around waiting for Sha, wondering what to do and trying to decide whether she'd say yes or no.

Oh dear. I've just said wo ai Sha Sha to her mum and she didn't understand me at all. I think that I'd better go to another Chinese lesson.

Anyway, Sha finally turned up at the airport and we checked in, had a huge Chinese meal at the airport and then headed off to Christchurch. We landed at 1am and found our way to the hotel on the edge of the botanical gardens. The hotel had a cat called Gary.

In the morning we went for a walk through the gardens. I spent the entire time trying to find a suitable place to propose. I steered Sha to the bonsai garden, but it wasn't very good. I then tried to steer Sha towards a huge beautiful tree, but Sha demanded to see a kiwi. In the end we were walking down the river when I finally found the courage to propose. A huge duck ambled up to watch and quack at us. Sha said "yes"!! :) I had planned a long, detailed speech, but I forgot it all.

Previously I'd asked a Chinese colleague at work for details on how to propose to a Chinese girl, but he wasn't very helpful. He said that he'd ask his mum ... but he didn't.

We then went to see the kiwis which happen to be in the aquarium with some huge rays. The rest of the day seems to be a bit of a blur. I recall drinking a lot of tea and not understanding the Kiwi accent at all (want a lud with your tea and fush un chups?) They seem to swap all the vowels around. We spent the rest of the day walking around the city and had a great dinner at a Beijing restaurant!

Oh yes, the big rugby game between Australia and New Zealand was on in Christchurch. Sha demanded that we watch it on the TV, but she only really wanted to see the haka at the start. New Zealand won.

More on the rest of the holiday tomorrow, but it involved wonderful scenic views of snowy mountains, driving down windy roads, huge eagles flying around us, having spectacular views of the Pacific, seeing baby seals, some extremely great food and making friends with a weka!! :)

A challenge

I decided this morning that I'd cook Sha a traditional Chinese dish. Rather stupidly I chose Luóhàn zhāi. This is a dish that calls for a huge number of ingredients although 18 is traditional to represent the 18 Buddhas. I managed only six ingredients :(

So ... a challenge. Can anyone do better? A complete list of the required ingredients is available here. Instead of starting the cooking (by wetting the wood ear) I spent a happy 30 minutes trying work out what Red jujubes are and whether I had any or not. At the end I discovered that I'd have to go looking for a prickly tree in Pakistan and so decided it was unlikely that the local supermarket would stock it.

The instructions that I found also lead to interesting problems. "Cut the tofu into cubes" ... okay, that's straightforward. "Lightly brown the tofu pieces on both sides". err.

Whilst we were eating we chatted with Sha's mum in Beijing and Sha has given my attempt at cooking 9.5/10 so I'm very happy!! :)

Yesterday afternoon we went to watch the new version of the Karate Kid at the cinema. It was fun. Much of the filming was from Sha's local area in Beijing and I kept having to stop her becoming too enthusiastic as the camera panned around. It was fun to see various roads etc. that we'd walked down together!!

This blog entry is all about food. I have to record the wonderful pork in preserved vegetables that Sha cooked last night!!!

A fun day

Sha and I bought tickets to New Zealand today. We just have to hope that we can get a VISA for her in time! We're going to see some snowy mountains!

We had fun around China town and the botanical gardens today. Sha got attacked by a da bei niao. I was crazy enough to buy the Journey to the West which comes in three huge volumes. This book was apparently first published in the 1590s (during the Ming dynasty).

Last night was interesting. I sat on a small Dash-8 in front of two huge, tough military guys. They spent the entire flight discussing the best way to shoot people. I listened in to their conversation on the best way to shoot people going up a hill, down a hill, standing still, running fast etc. etc. Apparently the US military is full of rednecks who don't know what they're doing, but the British are very good. They discussed the best ways to practice being a sniper, which seemed to entail shooting zombies on some computer game. I then had to help them find the gate for their next flight :)

Being with 莎莎

莎莎 was very sweet this morning. She woke up and chatted to me for ages in Chinese before realising that I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. We then sat outside on the side of the road with two guinea pigs on our lap getting funny looks from the people passing by. We're about to eat preserved bean curd, something that involves setting up the steamers in an incredible tower and some unidentifiable bit of preserved pork. Tonight it is likely that I'll continue to boil my feet in Sichuan pepper and rub some ginger on my head. I feel as if my life has changed a bit -- in a wonderful direction!

I've just bought a book on Chinese wildlife. All Chinese wildlife books seem to imply that the best place to see the animals of China is in the supermarket, Chinese medicine shop or in a restaurant! However, 莎 is going to take me to see the snub-nosed monkeys in Sichuan and the bamboo forests of Anhui.

I'm so jealous. 莎's cousin, 璐, drove to Sichuan and met two baby snow leopards crossing the road!

We've just been watching a Chinese "edition" of the Japanese animation Howl's moving castle. It was a tad confusing. Here are the English "subtitles" given near the start of the movie when a young girl is being accosted by some soldiers:

Okay, you get the kits. We'll make some noise You're a son of a bitch. You know that? Let's go (child crying) (speaks Serbo-Croatian) Come on. come on. I won't hurt you Come on. hurry. Let's move Let's go. Get them out of here. Come on, let's go (girl whining) Hey! Hey! Drop her! Drop her! Get in the truck! Let me go!

This didn't make much sense given the action (I love the "speaks Serbo-Croatian bit") and, as I was feeling a bit lost in the movie, we went out and bought a non-Chinese version of the DVD.

In our new "legal" version, the exact same part of the movie has been translated as:

gasps Hey. Looks like a little mouse lost its way Oh, no, I'm not lost. This little mouse looks thirsty. We should take her for a cup of tea No thanks, my sister's expecting me She's pretty cute for a mouse How old are you? You live around here? Leave me alone. You see? Your moustache scares all the girls. So? She's even cuter when she's scared

I need to stop now to stop the guinea pigs attacking the crocodile!

我爱莎莎


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Sha Sha must stand out to prove something, the reason why we use the pepper water to sink jiaozi,s feet is that he got excema, and apparelly this traditional method helps him a lot then we decided to gp ahead! another thing, I have to mention here is that the ginger thing, according traditional method ginger can help bald people grow hair, and all the medicine you can buy from market to cure the problem must contain ginger. Due to economic problem and the organic preference, we decided to put it on jiaozi's head straightway, it got GREAT result, he is more confident in front of the mirror!