New Zealand: Scenery (Picture Overload!)

Here are some pictures taken throughout our trip. There are not words to describe them so I'll let you know where the pictures were taken and let the actual picture speak for itself. ENJOY!

Beautiful fall foliage in Ashburton, New Zealand.

Church of the Good Shepard
Lake Tekapo

Lake Tekapo

Moeraki Boulders
Koekohe Beach

Lake Pukaki

Mt. Cook-highest peak on the South Island

A great spot Ryan found right outside of Cromwell

Alexandra-my favorite little town. I had a great run along this river.

I love the yellow leaves!

Lake Wakatipu
Queenstown

Edith Cavell Bridge
Shotover River, Queenstown

Shotover River

Arrowtown Junction-my pictures really don't do this valley justice.

Lake Wanaka

There are some beautiful pictures of the mountains where Ryan hunted but I will save those for him to use on his post about his hunting adventures!

New Zealand: The Wineries

As most of you know, the main reason for our trip to New Zealand was for Ryan to go red stag hunting. Luckily, the outfitter he went with was very good and he got his red stag on day 2. He then wanted to hunt for a fallow deer which took us to another part of the island that I wasn't sure we would get to visit. This set us up to be in the best part of the island for wine tasting. So, after another successful hunt on Friday we had ALL day Saturday to make our way through the wine country of Central Otago.

We started at Three Miners Vineyard out side of Alexandra. This is a small family owned vineyard that just planted it's first vine in 2000 and produced it's first bottle in 2004 (harvest to bottling take a whole year!). When we pulled up the owner was outside doing some work and led us in to the little tasting room and told us about how he got started. His wines have won several accolades in Australia and Asia. Ryan even liked the Pinot Noir (he's not a big wine-o) so I didn't argue when he suggested we bring a bottle back to Singapore!

Alaina and I in front of the entrance sign.

We then made our way to Cromwell to visit Wooing Tree Vineyard. It was another small, family owned vineyard with great wines! I am sucker for a good Pinot Noir so that is of course what I brought home but their Blondie (a unique Blanc de Noir) and Tickled Pink dessert wine were also delish! Wooing Tree has also won many accolades and actually distribute to Singapore. Here's to hoping it doesn't cost an arm and leg to get in Singapore and hoping I can find it! (Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures here but the website is great, click on the link above).

Next stop was Gibbston Valley Cheesery and Winery. We were all starting to get a little hungry at this point and New Zealand is known for it's cheeses. Gibbston Valley is a bigger vineyard (they charge you for tastings) but produce great cheese and wine none the less. Here we skipped the tastings and each ordered a glass and a big yummy platter of cheese, crackers and breads to share.




All in all, our wine tour was successful! I had never done a wine tasting/tour before and what a better place than New Zealand to start. Now, I just want to go to Australia and Napa Valley. ;-)

"Sweet As, Mate"

According to urbandictionary.com, "Sweet As" is the second most common phrase used ('Awesome' is #1)in New Zealand. I will have to disagree and say it IS THE MOST used phrase in New Zealand or it was the week of April 11 when we were there. It is/was our favorite saying of the Kiwis (Kiwis are flightless birds unique to New Zealand so, it's what the people of NZ are called). And not only can 'as' be added to the end of sweet but pretty much any word you want to emphasis the meaning. Bro is often added to the end as well. I tell you all of this because if you were to ask me how our trip to New Zealand was I would tell you it was 1: Sweet As and 2: Awesome! Really, words can't describe how amazingly beautiful the South Island of New Zealand is. I of course took a TON of pictures so I think I will break up the blog into three parts: Wineries, Scenery and Hunting (I'll let Ryan take care of this one though).

I'll leave you with the picture below as I work on New Zealand: The Wineries post.

Jurong Bird Park

Since Sunday is the only day both Ryan and I don't have to work, we usually try to get out of the house and do something early in the day so that we have the rest of Sunday to RELAX! Today, we headed out to Jurong Bird Park. There are birds from all over the world. They even had penguins...warm and cold climate species! They were my favorite!










Scarlet Ibis (there is a store by this name in De Leon so I had to get a picture!)
I really didn't want to post this picture. I look REALLY rough (needless to say) but I knew my mom would be disappointed if there wasn't a picture of her baby girl on the blog. Love you, Mom!










We had to make one last stop by the penguins. Aren't they just the cutest?

Countdown to New Zealand

We are getting very excited about our trip to New Zealand and this is what we've been doing to prepare....





Hiking at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.


We are going with our friends, Jason and Alaina. The boys will be hunting most of the trip and Alaina and I will be exploring the beautiful South Island. I can't wait to share stories and pictures!

The Lion King

Thanks to my wonderful parents (extra shout out to mom though), Ryan and I were able see The Lion King Musical at the new Marina Bay Sands Theatre. When my mom was here in November they were advertising for The Lion King that started in March and I mentioned that I would really like to go. Being the awesome mom that she is, she remembered and purchased Ryan and I AWESOME tickets for our 1st Anniversary. We went to the matinee last Sunday. I can't say that Ryan loved or even enjoyed it for that matter (he's not one for men dancing in tights. ha.) but he was a trooper and didn't complain once (He loves me.) Unfortunately, we weren't able to take pictures of the amazing costumes so I'll just highly recommend seeing it if it comes to a city near you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

My beautiful lilies from my sweet, sweet hubby! I came home from a very long day at work to find this beautiful bouquet and a bottle of wine waiting for me. Very unexpected which made it even more special. Love you, Ryan Tom!

Gong Xi Fa Cai-Happy [Chinese] New Year

I apologize for my lack of blogging but late is better than never, right?

Chinese New Year was about 2 weeks ago and it is now the year of the Rabbit! My whole life I thought I was born in the year of the Pig/Boar only to find out that I was born before the 1983 Chinese New Year (CNY can fall anywhere between mid/late Jan to early/mid Feb-it's based on the moon; CNY is also known as Lunar New Year) so, I was actually born in the year of the Dog (as was Ryan)! The extent of my Chinese Zodiac education was from a place mat at Yen Jing in Greenville, Texas so it's been fun to learn a little bit more about it! (side note: I do miss the sizzling rice soup and wontons from there ;-)

Moving on....Ryan and I both had Thursday and Friday off, which was much needed! Thursday we spent the day BBQ-ing and playing dominoes(Shoot the Moon-if you don't know this game, you should, it's fun) with friends. Friday we went to the horse races. Singapore has a new Turf Club and it's beautiful. We won a little money and lost a little money so I think we came out even for the day!



Chinese New Year actually lasts 15 days so for 2 weeks you can see festivities all over town. Lion and Dragon dances are a huge part of CNY and they were going on all over town! Last Sunday, we were invited by some friends to the American Club to see the Lion and Dragon dance going on there. The Lion performance was amazing!






It was nice to enjoy a little bit of Chinese New Year this year. It was the weekend we moved to Singapore last year so needless to say we were a bit jet lagged and tired from the whirlwind of a month we had. Can you believe we've been in Singapore a year already?!?