Day Trip Part III: Fleurs Place

This post is a little belated, but I left out an important part of our day trip to Moeraki and Dunedin last month. After we visited the Moeraki boulders, we had a lovely dinner at a quaint little restaurant called Fleurs Place.  Interestingly, everyone we talked to about visiting Moeraki suggested that we eat there. And it was worth it! Here is a little information from the website along with a link to the page.

http://www.fleursplace.com/

 

Fleurs Place a restaurant, cafe and bar right on the waterfront at the old jetty. Our specialty is fresh fish straight from Moeraki Bay fishing boats. The restaurant established on an early whaling station site in 2002 and is built from gathered collectables and demolition materials from all over New Zealand.

The owner Fleur Sullivan has made her reputation in Central Otago where she established Olivers restaurant and has received numerous awards for her restaurants and in recognition for her contribution to tourism. Come and stay - Enjoy the tranquillity.

NEW BOOK When British television chef and restaurateur Rick Stein was told he could choose to go anywhere in the world to write a travel article for English newspaper the Daily Mail, he chose Fleurs Place in Moeraki, New Zealand. The restaurant, run by the inimitable Fleur Sullivan, was 'Just one of those places that keeps cropping up in conversations' whenever there was a gathering of 'foodies', he said. Set in the sleepy little fishing village of Moeraki on the Otago coast, Fleurs Place has an unbeatable setting. There's water on three sides, fishing boats bobbing in the harbour, the famous Moeraki boulders across the bay and, to the north, the open sea. Fleur uses only the freshest of local ingredients - indeed, fishing boats land their catches right into her restaurant. This book combines recipes supplied by Fleur herself with photographs of the spectacular scenery of coastal Otago and the Moeraki area. Side-bar text includes information on Fleur, the restaurant, local suppliers and the Moeraki area. Buy the book at Fishpond.co.nz

Magazine's Best Cafe Awards for 2007. The overall winner was coastal cafe Fleur's Place, in Moeraki, south of Oamaru.

The sun was setting as we looked across the harbor during our amazing dinner. Unfortunately we only took a picture of the spread of yummy breads we tried out as an appetizer. The different sauces were quite different and very tasty.  Then we shared an enormous platter of various local fish that is caught by the fishermen daily. It was pretty cool to look out the window and see the fishing boats tied off right outside the restaurant next to a ramp where they haul the fish up to the restaurant. 

The website mentions that there is water on three sides of the restaurant. From where we were sitting we could look out at two of the sides. The picture through the window was taken directly from our table. For the other picture I just stepped outside on to the balcony a few steps away. Too bad it was too cold to eat on the balcony! The picture doesn't quite do the sunset justice because I took too long to take it, but the color was stunning.

Christchurch among the friendliest cities in the world

I was reading articles on Stuff.co.nz (equivalent of Yahoo! here in NZ) and found this article about the 20 friendliest and unfriendliest cities in the world. I thought it was interesting that New Zealand, a country the size of Colorado, has three cities in the most friendly list and the U.S. had four. Sadly though, the U.S. also had eight listed on the unfriendliest cities. Come on America, that's almost half!

The Friendliest and Unfriendliest Cities in the World

Christchurch is listed at #11 on the friendliest cities list. Now I know I'm not the only one who thinks the people here are great!

Office Party - Christmas in July?

I'm a little late on this post, but better late than never. Two Saturdays back on July 27th we had our mid-winter Christmas party. Funny name for a party held in July, but it's winter here so I guess the Kiwi's think it fits. The theme for the party this year was Americana. 

I was averse to trying to rent a costume so I spent a while thinking of how I could possibly dress up to look "American". I asked the tax group if I could just come in my every day clothes since I actually am an American but I was emphatically turned down.

So as I went through the masses of clothing I brought with me, I found a Yankees jersey that I "borrowed" from Austin for a baseball dress up day in the SLC office. I have been wondering why on earth I thought I needed to bring it with me all the way to New Zealand, but I think I have figured it out. If I have the jersey in New Zealand, I can't actually return it to Austin and it will have to remain in my possession indefinitely. Sorry bro! (Although I'm quite sure it's a kids jersey and you are much to tall for it now). In addition to the jersey, Brian left his Yankees hat here and I had the makings of an outfit. 

The party was pretty fun. We had a nice dinner and a hired band afterwards. It can be pretty funny to watch drunk accountants trying to dance. I was really surprised at how festive the costumes were and I actually felt like I didn't put enough effort into it. There were some Miss Americas, a statue of liberty, Uncle Sam, Evel Knievel, Great Gatsby flappers, full on military outfits. And the one fully suited up football player was none other than Payton Manning as a (drumroll) Denver Bronco!!! Everyone looked at me pretty weird when I yelled "Go Broncos" as he walked in the door haha.

All in all it was a pretty fun evening and a great way to distract me from the first Saturday night with Brian being back in Salt Lake. I miss you sweetie! I'll see about grabbing some pics from work and posting them here.

I'm still not sure how an Americana themed party in July is related to Christmas...maybe I'll figure it out next year.

I loved the Gatsby girls

Pretty good representation here - a cowboy, Lance Armstrong, Native American and Evel Knievel

The two tax partners (my bosses!) dressed up as Col. Hogan (Hogan's Heroes) and  NY Knicks player

There's me in my Yankees gear...

Yes, that's a Peyton Manning jersey - go Broncos!

The jacket on the girl in the middle actual said Pink Ladies. Awesome!

Some people go all out - Uncle Sam, a hot dog and the Statue of Liberty

Day Trip Part II: Dunedin

Our original plan for our day-long road trip was to visit the Moeraki Boulders (see previous post). But as we started driving Saturday morning, we made really good time and were going to have to kill some extra hours while we waited for the tide to get low enough to see the boulders.

[Quick side bar: the speed limits in NZ towns are generally very low - usually 50-60 kmh. This is the equivalent of going between 30-35 mph. Luckily for us, we were driving through quite a bit of unpopulated countryside and got to travel at speeds closer to 70-75 mph.]

We quickly realized we needed something else to do. Dunedin is only about an hour past Moeraki so we decided to go all the way to Dunedin. It took about 4 hours to get there. Once there, we grabbed a little street map from a bookstore and started hunting for some of the places Brian remembered from his mission. It was so fun to see him excited about retracing his steps. It made for a great afternoon!

Baldwin Street

Our first stop was Baldwin Street. This is the steepest street in the world. The pictures just can't do it justice. You'll just have to take our word for it that it really is steep! We drove to the top in the car and on the way back, it felt like we were going straight down.

Can you see me?

Brian's first mission flat

Our second stop was checking out the area that Brian served in. The house in the picture below was where Brian lived when he first arrived in NZ on his mission! (He lived in an apartment inside that huge house behind him.) Props to Brian for remembering where it was. I was impressed. 

Jacobs Ladder

Just around the corner from Brian's first flat, Brian showed me Jacobs Ladder. Yes, you read that correctly, it's the real Jacobs Ladder!  We climbed up it a ways, but being out of shape we gave up before reaching the top. From where I am standing on the stairway (scroll down a few pics) there were still a few more flights like the one that separated me and Brian. My legs were burning!!!

Dunedin meeting house

We also made a stop at the church Brian attending while serving in Dunedin. It was a welcome sight to see the building still standing! The meeting house Brian attended in Christchurch during his mission was damaged beyond repair in the earthquakes and has since been demolished. He was very happy to see this one looking so great.

Goodbye Dunedin!

As we left Dunedin behind, we were again mesmerized by the beautiful scenery that can be found on the South island. The picture below was particularly interesting because of the fog sitting in one of the valleys below. It gets so thick that you can't see anything else, yet the valley right next to it had no fog at all! Not a bad pic for taking it while driving 70 mph...

Day Trip Part I: The Moeraki Boulders

It's been a while since I've blogged! I say I rather than we because it's obvious to me now that Brian is never going to take a turn...

With Brian heading back to the U.S. in a couple of days, we decided we would do something fun together this weekend. It's been a while since we planned a road trip - it's just not as exciting during the winter. Luckily, I heard about a historical place that we could drive to in a day so we decided to go and see the Moeraki Boulders.

We took a "short" three hour drive south of Christchurch. Moeraki is almost all the way to Dunedin, which was Brian's first area on his mission. (See Day Trip Part II for more on Dunedin). We planned to arrive at Moeraki in the late afternoon due to the tides. The boulders are really large, spherical shaped rocks that dot the beach in Moeraki. They can only be seen during low tide. It was kind of interesting to get online and map out the tides to make sure we would be there at the right time. Gotta love the internet!

It was a little cold by 4:00 pm as you will see from our warm outfits. But I was really excited that there were other tourists there and we got a nice family to take our picture. It's not often we get to be in a picture together!

(Scroll past the pictures for a history of the boulders)

Brian thought this one looked like a soccer ball. That's gonna hurt!

Origin of the Moeraki Boulders - The Maori explanation:

The Ngai Tahu people of the area (the main/largest Maori tribe in the Christchurch region) relate the Moeraki Boulders to the wreck of the great canoe Arai Te Uru. As it was traveling south, the canoe foundered in a storm near Matakaea (Shag Point). Its cargo was washed up on the nearby beaches - the round food baskets and water gourds are Te Kai Hinaki (the Moeraki Boulders), while the seed kumara (sweet potatoes) are the irregularly shaped boulders further south.

The hull of Arai Te Uru forms the reef which extends into the sea at Shag Point, and the large rock nearby is Hipo, the navigator. Several of the hills between Moeraki and Palmerston carry the names of crew members: Pukehiwitahi, Puketapu, Nga Tamariki a Hekura (Hekura's childrren) and Poutaiki. The hills can also be taken to represent the great waves which overwhelmed the canoe.

The scientific explanation:

The Moeraki Boulders were once buried in mudstone cliffs at the back of the beach. For millions of years the sea has been eroding these cliffs, washing away the soft mudstone which surrounds the resistant boulders. In the process the cliffs have constantly slumped seaward and the boulders have been left lying on the shoreline.

To geologists the Moeraki Boulders are septarian concretions. Their roundness has nothing to do with being washed by the surf - they were round when they formed in the mudstone. The process by which they formed began some 60 million years ago (in the Paleocene period). At that time much of this area was covered by ocean. Muddy sediment, with fragments of plants and shells, accumulated on the sea floor. As great thicknesses of mud piled up over millions of years, chemical changes occurred in the wet sediment and the concretions gradually grew within the mudstone.

About 15 million years ago during the Miocene period, the mudstone and other rocks of the region were lifted up above sea level and the agents of erosion began to work away at the new landmass. Eventually the modern coastline was sculptured, exposing the mudstone beds containing the concretions.

We saw this sign before we knew the history of the area. Like the mature couple we are, we couldn't pass up the amazing photo opportunity!