fuel for night owls

coffee...

mmm... such a feen and i had many a regular fixes at many a different little cafe's around wanaka. one day i popped into the innovative sushi and smoothie shop to grab a quick coffee before i started work and i fell in love with the cute coffee cup art by the coffee brand supreme!

{supreme coffee from yohei}

food...

i enjoyed living in my little multi-cultural flat in wanaka during the winter and spring months. my routine turned fairly european whilst sharing the apartment with a 27 year old from france whom i had lovingly dubbed francois (officially he went by julien, however this was a mission for me to pronounce in correct french accentuation). he soon returned the favor by calling me cicciolina, in which he explained meant "the pretty, happy, bouncy girl"... needless to say i wore my new nickname with pride!

many nights i would return home from a late night at work or an evening out to be greeted by the beautiful smell of baking bread wafting down the stairs. as francois' parents were bakers, he too had inherited the passion of baking and cooking authentic european cuisine. to my taste-buds delight (but not my hips) i was treated to fresh bread, crepes, gratin (layered potato, cream and herbs baked) and other french inspired edibles.

my usual night owlness characteristics were well out-shined by francois late night habbits. at first i found it funny that francois ate dinner at 11pm. as i would be getting ready for bed, francois would be getting ready for dinner! but i did find myself rummaging around the kitchen for food later and later each night. francois loved that bambino (the nickname of our third flatmate) and i had adjusted to the european lifestyle he introduced to the house.

after a particularly tiring evening i arrive home to an excitable francois in the kitchen proclaiming that he was going to fix me a french aperitif and a home-made vegetarian pizza (which involved him making the dough for the base also).

the aperitif - or french cocktail - consisted of whiskey mixed with sugar and lemon. admittedly i took a sip straight away and pulled a face from the strength of the spirit, but wait a few moments for the sugar to dissolve and it transforms into a delectable sweet and sour beverage with a kick.

"although, the pizza wont taste like it does back home" francois exclaims (please imagine a french accent)...

"first of all your pizza will have no meat on it!" (he found it hard to believe i don't eat meat when we "have such quality meat in new zealand")

"secondly, it wont be cooked in a wood fired oven like the one my father and i built in my backyard and thirdly, you don't have good cheese! this mozarella was made in australia! pfft!"

.... it still tasted like heaven to me!

the aperitif {insert french name here once remembered} and vege pizza
strategically displayed on our ironing board

it was a sad parting of ways when i left the flat to continue my transient existence, but i can't wait to experience this culture in it's natural environment...

france - i'll see you in a couple of years.
francois - thank you for all your delicious delicacies and i'll see you in a couple of years!

xxx

By Jorge!

As a girl who prides herself on not being a label basher, i seem to have accumulated several items of clothing by the fashion label Jorge. Their feminine style catches my eye and i cannot resist the temptation of treating myself to fairly affordable pieces from an almost local (they're australian, but still!) designer. Only having been around a couple of years, their brand has been introduced into several clothing outlets all over New Zed and Aussie.

i'm swooning over the solarized shots, i can't help but sigh

over any light driven photography.

ode to floral cut-out back patterned dresses -

a self confessed feen. i own a couple of these gorgeous styled frocks, and am

trying to wear the heck out of them while i am still in the southern hemisphere's summer

(i leave in a week's time for a white canadian christmas and a new york new years!!)

this seemed highly appropriate with xmas chasing our heels...
(i recently adorned my friends house with fairy lights, i love them so!)

also, am adoring the monika vintage short - which can be found on their website. the floral fabric reminds me of my nana's curtains (i must remember to save those when she re-models...)

xxx

frollicking in the town fit for queens

a dear friend of mine turned 26 this week. another friend and i had planned for a while that we would treat our birthday girl to a mystery weekend away in Queenstown (which is the tourist hub of the south island) just over an hours drive away from wanaka over the crown ranges.

as i work with alisha, it was hard work keeping our plans secret everyday but we managed to keep the activities quiet until we arrived at our 1st destination on friday night: the day spa.

much deserved girly pampering at body sanctum which had spectacular views over the bustling town and lake. we left feeling laxed out, however, our next destination was something we needed to amp up for...

kylie had the wild idea of making us attempt pole dancing in an hour and a half lesson with a (quite possibly a stripper) pole dance teacher. after all, if we were to have a weekend of wining, dining and relaxing, we had to get our exercise in there somehow!

apart from maybe losing a few iq points listening to our peppy pole dancing master talk about her poling antics, we actually may have gained some muscle that we never knew we had by pulling ourselves up and around in all sorts of contortionist positions around the pole. with the help of a few bubbles we giggled our way out of the dance studio with silly grins on our faces proclaiming that we may well just join up to the pole dancing school!

classing ourselves up, we prepared for a flash dining experience out in an intimate restaurant tucked away in a back alley called the bunker....




this cosy abode served up the most delish meals. mine consisted of rosted portebello mushrooms topped with ricotta and almonds, served with a caramelised onion tartlet, slow roasted tomatoes and a salsa verde...



seeing we had worked up such an appetite with our gymnist routines we felt like we simply must indulge in the mouth watering deserts the bunker had to offer...



scrummy sticky date pudding and panna cotta tingled our taste sensations.

we then ventured upstairs to the bunker's cocktail lounge. no scummy queenstown madness here, just pure class and cocktail accompanied with a funky dj, pretty fairy lights and an outside screening of the old james bond movies.

breakfast is served french style at the lush les alpes cafe just down from the lakefront. les alpes' decor is decadently french farm-style and displays gorgeous pasteries in their cabinet, along with a delicatessen of french cheeses and a cellar full of fine wines.

having a rich dinner the night before i could only graze on organic museli, but if you have a sweet tooth or sugar craving then this is the place for you, their treats look sweeter than heaven.

on our way home we shared a cheese platter and a wine or two at gibbston valley winery and cheesery and also stumbled upon this little beauty... waitiri creek winery.

nestled in the gibbston valley, this little woodern church houses aromatic wines and an appetizing lunch menu. we only stopped in for a wine tasting, but will definitely be back here. it had such a stunning setting, suitable for weddings, events or a just lovely lunch.

refreshing with a fresh fruit frozen yoghurt from the cromwell fruit stall, we wandered around cromwell old town in the hot sun.

it was a pleasure spending a weekend away with these two girls.

i am graced with such beautiful friends xxx

My Sunday Screening

Most sundays i work until 9 - 9.30ish pm, and all i wanna do when i get home is lax out in my bed with minky (my beloved sandy coloured faux mink blanket), my feather duvet and poofy pillows with my lap top and watch a easy going movie.

Last night i chose a movie that i hadn't actually heard of before; The Edge of Love.

Now this sounds like a cheesy romantic flick, but it wasn't quite. Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller were the female leads in a dark comedy/drama set during World War Two.

The plot was interesting, but what had me most caught up was the stunning artistic cinematography and the cutest 1940's outfits.

i am really loving Sienna. i have always admired her style as a person, but haven't had the privilege to see her act. i have to admit, im definitely a fan.

xxx

my muse-ical box

having strong musically opinionated parents growing up, i too have inherited a passion for music. as my folks themselves were only young when i graced (or should i say disrupted) the world with my presence, they had a mordern taste for the early 90's music that permeated my childhood. i have fond memories of head banging to nirvana and screaming my lungs out to alanis morrisette... in my ballerina costumes!


like most 90's kids i enjoyed pop sensations like spice girls, peter andre and hanson along with jumping on the pre teen bandwagon of listening to songs with swear words, cue eminem and the bloodhound gang. but it wasnt really until after high school that i started to develop my own tastes outside of my dad's (who only permitted us to listen to two radio stations in the car, the rock and hauraki rock).


rock music was still where it was at in my early teens, with the likes of red hot chili peppers and incubus at the top of my list (they both still remain favs of mine). and im proud to say RHCP's californication was the 1st CD i ever brought. although, at one point i even leaned towards the darker side of rock - the heavy metalers such as deftones, system of a down, slipknot, megadeath and even, (dare i say it), cradle of filth. i often attended concerts of all my fav rock musicians.


my musical influences lightened up with age, and i guess you could say i listened to more indie style music in the last few years. in fact anything with melodies that didn't have the heavy baseline i was used to. i took my musical blinders off and open-heartedly listened to a world full of new music. i have the widest range of music genres on my ipod (forgive me though, i am terrible at identifying exactly which genre each are now days). a few of my playlist revolving artists over the last couple of years include vampire weekend, mgmt, razorlight, kings of leon, cold war kids, the kooks, she & him, the shins, newton faulkner, paolo nutini, passion pit, florence and the machine, badly drawn boy, pete doherty, the view, edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros, red light company, gossip, the last shadow puppets, the courteeners... oh the list really does go on.


just recently, in true wanaka style, i have been introduced to dubstep - the town's winter vibe of choice. being described as tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples with occasional words. i have had many a nights in the clubs dancing (or trancing) to the heavy heartbeat sounds.


wanaka also proudly plays its native new zealand music often. after being out of the country for a year i am so appreciative to be surrounded by such an array of nz talent. thrashing beauties like shapeshifter, kora, tahuna breaks, sola rosa, adi dick, gin, la roux, ladyhawke, the lookie loos... again the list does go on and on. i do also have to say big ups to our neighbouring aussie musos too including pendulum, the temper trap and thirsty merc.


to end my musical rant i have to leave you with a kiwi band that is rocking my socks off right now. the slutty new wave/electro duo who describe themselves as "a cross between a late 80's police drama intro theme and a sophisticated super hussy"...

here's to the kids of 88

xxx

Snap happy

this week i have had the dilemma of contemplating on which new camera to buy. after loosing my little compact digital camera in dunedin a couple of weekends ago, i have felt deprived of being able to click away at life's continuous kodak moments. for over a year now i have had my eye on olympus' compact slr camera (the PEN E-P1).

i mean look how beautiful she is...

last year the PEN was a whopping $2000nz... but as a discontinued model (sigh) its now reduced to $800nz. which for an slr is actually quite reasonable, but its still a lot of money that i cannot really afford. oh how i tried to find this model at one of the bigger department stores where you can finance with 6 months interest free and various other deals, but no prevail.

impatient as i am with wanting a camera asap, i kept racking my brain on how i could come up with the funds. again i had come up with no plan as of yet.

however, while scoping out the only camera shop in wanaka my friend alisha picked up this dinky little white pentax and goes "oh this looks like a bit of you..." and there it was, a skip of a heartbeat, camera love at first sight.

of course, i hadnt ended my relationship with the olympus pen, and i still had strong feelings for it.

so, over a bottle of wine in the sun, i weighed up the pros and cons of each:

the olympus is an slr: pro. it has inter changable lenses: pro. it is super pretty: pro. though it is expensive: con. and it doesnt actually come with a flash (you have to purchase them separately for an extra $300): con.

now the pentax on the other hand is only a compact camera: con. but it has the same amount of megapixel as the PEN: pro. it costs half the amount so can buy it straight away: pro. and it is also super pretty: pro.

and on this sunny spring day after a lovely brekky with my dad who had come to visit me, i strolled into our small camera store and politely asked the camera man to take the pentax off the shelf, she will now be mine! (much to the dismay of the other staff member who aparently had had her eye on it also).

so say hello to my little bundle of beauty that will now be snapping all my most precious and memorable moments...

xxx

Traipsing out of Wonderland...

...and into a wonderworld! so far in my six month stint in wanaka i have got to explore a few other scenic gems in the deep south (thats otago to you other lovely kiwis).

my friend/flatmate gina and i have sometimes gotten restless during our small town residence. i feel bad saying it, but i guess you stop admiring the spectacualr beauty that every fresh face to town notices and start to feel a tad claustrophobic. this is especially true in the sense of feeling landlocked. even though wanaka has a lake, the sea is my anchor. around the 1st few days of spring we both were craving the sight, smell and feel of the sea.

so, on one overcast morning in wanaka, jeans and i along with our other friend emma, ventured out to the wild west coast. destination: haast.

After blinking and almost missing the classic kiwi town centre of haast (which consisted of a dairy, tea rooms/takeaway and a pub!) we drove a few more kms to the beach with itching toes...

Not having spent much time at west coast beaches we were amused at the gorse-ridden walkway to the beach, surrounded by paddocks of miniture horses and half fallen down shacks.

Who wears stockings to the beach?!

I definitely had to loose those on the soft sand, but as typical west coast weather goes, it was overcast and windy.

But we didn't care, loving it in the icy salt water

...and played at the cold coast for a good 10 minutes before we froze our toes off and retreated to the car. even though the west coast doesnt have the same peachy pristine visage to it like the east coast beaches, the contrasting colours and untamed atmosphere actually make it

worth it.

****

another spring morning, after going on my daily ritual of walking around mt iron and running home, i got a call from my boss alisha at base backpackers telling me to get to the airport in 20 minutes... im going on a flight to milford sound!

talk about the perks of working in tourism. so off i went in a flurry to the wanaka airport and pretty much boarded the 6 seater plane straight away... 'bagsed' the front seat!

flying over mount aspiring and surrounding snowy ranges, westward

starting our decent into the sounds, greener than ive seen in a while. i got to do a boat cruise as well, which i have done with my bestie monique at the start of this year. it wasn't the same without her... though the best part was seeing dolphies in the water! my favourite animal.

again, here's west coast weather for ya, it started to rain on the way out

and i found somewhere over the rainbow!

****

our last little excursion was to dunedin for a couple of days. we became students again, crashing with fellow student friends in a typical dunedin flat with 5 boys. i have visited them a fair bit over the past few months, but i think gina may have supressed her former grunge student lifestyle and was a little shocked at the state of their abode.

again drawn to the beaches, jeans and i visited aramoana with matt to take a look at the surf...

it was a teensy bit windy, and offshore so no waves for matty to surf. but doesn't gina look like a little pixie blowing in the wind?!

we found the surf at st. claire's beach

along with an odd looking cylindrical concrete structure

what's left of the st. claire pier

after the day spent at the dunedin beaches and the nights re-living our student days it was time to head back to work - 3 hours drive away.

over the weekend we kept hearing the rumour of the worst storm in 100 years to hit otago, the storm the size of australia! not thinking much of it in the spring weather we hit the road in the trusty (or not so trusty) mazda familia who struggled to start when leaving the city. not so long out of town, we started to rub our eyes when we saw white pieces of rain float by the car window... soon the whole country side turned from green to white and the snow got snowier!

stopped in milton for a frollick

magical.

much loved adventures xxx