WhiteBait .... Yum

Not!
Left is a whitebait fisherman. I guess the pickings are slim this whitebait season. This seemed to be a very Kiwi thing while we lived there. A fritter full of whitebait is an acquired taste.

There are grittles fired up outside stores and other places where they would be selling whitebait fritters sorta how we sell hotdogs or what not.

Photo by JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/The Press

I could not find many pictures of whitebait or a fritter. But I did find this website by a Kiwi photographer. Since I could not download or link to images without breaking copy-right then here are links to the pages with some examples.

Whitebait by David Wall

Fritter by David Wall


David has some great pictures of NZ at his website. Very cool.

New Zealand Rugby - Texas Football

Only New Zealand's love of rugby comes close to Texan's love of football. The Rugby World Cup starts next week in France. NZ won the inaugural World Cup in 1987. Since then they have been favorites ever Cup (91', 95', 99', & 03') but have not brought home the Webb trophy since 1987. They are a Cup starved country for twenty years but again this year the All-Blacks are favorites .... and are looking good over the last four years.

The picture (by JOHN SELKIRK/Dominion Post) shows Richie McCaw (captain) holding a capsule that is filled with dirt from the rugby grounds of every All-Black ever. Turns out there are 1071 capped All-Blacks. I am not positive but I think each All-Black going France this year was presented with a small capsule while the captain received a larger one.

Talk about crazed fans and country. Expectations are high and NZ will not easily accept less than the Webb trophy this time.

Andrew Gilbert now in Oz

This is Leaf and Andrew in New Zealand. They are engaged, at least when I last checked since they maybe married by now.

Andrew is a good friend from New Zealand who also is part of the Wildbunch from Massey. He was the young pup of the group.

Andrew is now working at ANU in Canberra with Peter Gill.

Adamson Family in New Zealand

Sharon, Ross, and Nathan (two yrs) Adamson.

Ross is a good friend from New Zealand (one of the Wildbunch from Massey) though we have not seen each other in about ten years now. At least he writes. ;)


The Adamsons live in Wellington.

The Day Of The Fairies

Audrey Nolen had her birthday party yesterday and the theme was Fairies. So April set it up so they could make wings and wands.


Audrey enjoying her cake and goodies.

The reviews from Audrey were wonderful. Sounds like she had the best time ever.





Here is Elizabeth with her Fairie wings from the party.

A Kiwi Night

Yesterday evening we had a passel of Kiwi's over to visit and pizza.

The whole Burrell family (Tony, Margret, Jack, and Erin). Paul Plieger, a former Tony PD, who is now a Lecturer at Massey University and one of his students Karl. Also a couple (Mark and Michelle) from Wellington who have been living here for three months but are off to Washington state for three more months.

It was good to see everyone, especially the Burrells who have been gone most of the summer.

It was nice to catch up and find out what Paul and Isabelle have been up to since moving back to NZ They have a place to live up near Atawhai where Peter and Elizabeth lived when we first moved to NZ. Paul is working on proton sponges and doing research on Beryllium. He is using that "G" code which he bought but I encouraged him to get a demo of Q-Chem and if it can do what he wants then switch on principle. ;) Also told him of Banned By Gaussian. Here is a recent article on the issue.














On another note: Mark and Michelle are very nice. Too bad we just met them before they moved away. They just bought a 1989 Dodge ute (Pickup) for their trip to Washington state. It seems Michelle has always wanted a pickup for some reason. They got a pretty good deal since it only had around 75,000 miles and is 17 yrs old. I pray it works out well for them.

It was a nice evening.

The Wild Bunch From Massey University

Massey University
Theoretical Chemistry Group
Circa 1996






Back: (L-R) Jeremy Dombroski & Andrew Gilbert.
Front:(L-R) Ross Adamson, Peter Gill, & Terry Adams
Missing is Phillip Stewart

Grandma Texas in Red River, NM

Grandma TX, Aunt TK, and Marcia come to
Red River every summer they get a chance.
We went to visit them in July.



Grandma TX and the girls.

A Little Bit First Bed

A Little Bit's first night in her big girl bed





Elizabeth at 9:40pm
in the evening.





Elizabeth at 4:40am
later in the morning.

These Boots Are Made For Walking

Guess Dad's shoes are bigger to fill than they thought.

Back Online!

Our main computer got hosed for the internet connection. We had to move to a
spare machine. Thanks Mom. :)

All is better for now.

Haka

Bless you. :)

NO I mean the Haka. A New Zealand Maori dance so to speak that is an absolute must to see when performed by the All-Blacks. They perform this before every test (game) in front of the opposing side (team).

HAKA

Have a look at some of the video clips.

First Day Of School

Emily was off to her first day of fourth grade. Wow. Seems just like
yesterday I was lamenting her getting on the bus and going to kindergarten.

Elizabeth says she will soon be a big girl and go to school too. :)

Emily got the teacher she wanted and a class full of kids she knows pretty well. So it should be a good start to a great year. :)

Both of the girls are a bit sickly though. Emily has a sore throat and Elizabeth a runny nose. First day of school and they both get sick on cue.

Well for me it is only a few more weeks til the Rugby World Cup starts in France. The All-Blacks still look strong but not quite as strong as over the last two years. They really need a dominant form to pull the Cup out. It is a tough tournament.

Big Ben Silenced!

Emily will a bit sad to find out they are going to stop the bell Big Ben from ringing for a month. But at least it is for maintenance.

Big Ben Story

Elizabeth Ray

Elizabeth Ray
Summer of 2005
At Gabriel's during
Peter and Elizabeth Gill's visit









Elizabeth Ray
Summer of 2007









It has been two fast years since Peter and Elizabeth were here to visit. And Elizabeth and Emily have grown so much.

And we miss the Gill's so much too.