Hanmer, Mullets and Mexican Food

Much has been going on in the past week or so. We have been quite busy with work, and traveling on the weekends. We usually try to do something to get away from the monotony of life in the office. It's nice. There is a lot to see, all of it is beautiful.

We made a trip to town last Friday to find a little excitement and check out the Rose Gardens here in Christchurch. The roses weren't fully bloomed yet, but some had come out to see us. Pretty amazing. We plan to go back and check them out when they're all blooming.

After tramping through the gardens for a while, we headed into town to find some food. And since we can never seem to have a craving for anything specific (other than thai food), we stumbled into a Mexican restaurant. It seemed pretty safe to assume that mexican food is pretty good, and rather hard to screw up.

It seems, however, that the Kiwi's do not have a handle on the recipes created by our friends to the south. The margarita's were good, as were the chip's and salsa, but as soon as the food arrived, something was amiss......

It stunk horribly, A little bit like the food had been smoked over cardboard, with the ashes had sprinkled as a garnish atop the enchiladas and fish tacos. Being good citizens, Emily and I each had a bite, somehow kept the vomit away from the light of day, and calmly asked for our check.

LESSON LEARNED: The goodness of Mexican food is indirectly proportional to the your proximity to the nation of Mexico. Basically, the farther away from Mexico you get, the higher the chance you will hurl in you refried beans before you taste your meal. Be warned.

Saturday, we hopped on a bus to Hanmer springs to get away and see some mountains. We trekked through a maze and played a little putt-putt. Any type of golf game with Emily is interesting. I find myself saying things like, "Your putter is backwards," or "Your ball is the green one," or "You're still away." It's quite the rousing time for anyone in the vicinity.

And we also saw an amazing mullet. It's like we are living in a time warp! There are mullets all over the place. Mullets proudly walking around, sitting on benches, riding buses. It's just wacky. Check out the mullet we played putt-putt behind:The scenery was pretty awesome in Hanmer along with the camaro mullet that we saw. There wasn't terribly much to do, so we took some walks, sat in the hot springs for a little bit. The springs were quite strange because they were set up like swimming pools, so it looked like a bunch of hot-tubs filled with sulfur smelling water. Nasty.

We did, however, get to see this:

We ventured to church last night for a young adult's gathering. It was interesting, but the guy teaching talked bad about American's, implying that visitors could get shot, and that Americans believe prosperity theology. Anyway, we left without anyone talking to us. Just a bit of encouragement to those of you at Hope, Visio Dei, or wherever you are, friendly churches are a good thing. We certainly miss the community we experienced there. On a higher note, it looks like we might try being Anglicans next. So stay tuned to find out how that goes....