Balsamic roasted pumpkin and friends

The fall cooking bug has bitten me. Not just a quick little nibble. No, it’s latched on with iron jaws and will not. Let. Go. Not that I’m really trying to get rid of it, mind you! I spent significant portions of last weekend browsing pumpkin and squash recipes, preparation tips, recipes, articles, and recipes . . . and just drooling and wishing I could make every single one of those recipes.

Side note: Did you know that WebMD has a whole section oncooking? I didn’t! But they do, and it’s great! They have all sorts of articles on things like how to cook healthfully for one or two, how to incorporate convenience foods in a healthy way, how to make healthy changes to recipes you already use, etc. If you’re interested in eating healthy foods, I would highly recommend it.

Anyway . . . needless to say, there are a whole lot of new recipes on my “must try” list, and it will take me awhile to work through them all! Tonight I made Balsamic Roasted Pumpkin and Friends. Even before my weekend of pumpkin recipe searches, I had wanted to roast some fall/winter vegetables. I had already picked up a sugar pumpkin, acorn squash, and sweet potato, and then I came across this recipe. So I used her sauce on my veggies, and the result was phenomenal! The smell alone was enough to drive me a little crazy because it smelled so good! And that first bite was unbelievable! I think heaven is going to taste pretty awesome, and I think that roasted winter squash is going to be among its flavors. Holy cow. Okay, here’s the recipe!

Balsamic Roasted Pumpkin and Friends

Ingredients:

1 sugar pumpkin (the small kind)

1 acorn squash

1 sweet potato, unpeeled and washed

1 yellow onion, cut into wedges

8-12 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Paprika

Salt

Juice of 1 orange

I eyeballed the sauce ingredients. Probably used about 2-3 Tbsp. each of the oil and vinegar, and just kinda sprinkled in the salt and paprika. I also learned from WebMD that pumpkin and sweet potato are denser than acorn squash and, therefore, generally take longer to roast. So I cut my acorn squash into larger chunks than the pumpkin and sweet potato, so they’d all cook pretty evenly.

Directions:

Peel the pumpkin and acorn squash, if desired. I recently learned that acorn squash skin is edible—and actually has lots of nutrients—so I didn’t bother peeling mine since acorn squash can be tricky to peel. Cut squash and pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy fibers. Cube the pumpkin, squash, and sweet potato. Cut up the onion and garlic and dump into a bowl with the other veggies, preferably one with a lid. I did all the above steps the night before and refrigerated overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a couple 9” x 13” pans with foil and spray with cooking spray.

Whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, paprika, salt, and orange juice. Pour over veggies and toss to coat (or put on the lid and shake). Add more salt, paprika, or olive oil if you feel the veggies need it. The goal is to have enough sauce and spices to add a nice flavor to the veggies and keep them moist while roasting, without overwhelming them or making the dish high in fat or sodium. Pour into prepared pans and bake until the veggies are tender, about 20 minutes, stirring once halfway through.

Yield: 4-6 generous servings.

Verdict and variations: This would be awesome with some pecans sprinkled on near the end of the baking time, though it tastes divine as is. And really, you could use just about any combination of winter squash that roast well. In this dish, my slight favorite was probably the acorn squash.

I ate it with these Easy Turkey and Parmesan Meatballs from Real Simple and some embellished store-bought marinara sauce (I think I added my own garlic, onion, mushrooms, and dried Italian herbs), both of which I made over the weekend. The only things I changed in the meatball recipe were to use half-and-half instead of whole milk, and to use crushed rosemary and olive oil Triscuits instead of breadcrumbs. Oh, and I used a smaller scooper than Real Simple does. I’ve never been a huge fan of meatballs, but these are really good—and fairly healthy! I’m not positive that the combination on my plate was an excellent one, but the meatballs and marinara were delicious, and the pumpkin and friends were even more so! So I ended up a very happy camper!

All ready to roast!

Ready to eat!

Mmmmm!

Apple pumpkin muffins

As you know, I recently returned from a trip to New Zealand to visit my brother and some friends. While we did cook several times while there, it was more in the style of “let’s create something out of the ingredients we have on hand” rather than the style of “let’s scour the internet for fabulous recipes and make one or combine several recipes into one masterpiece.” And in recent years, the latter style has become my preferred style.

So when I got back from New Zealand—and back into the hemisphere where it was fall instead of spring—I just had to make something delightfully fallish. Partly because I wanted to scour the internet for mouth-watering recipes, partly because I wanted something enjoyable (i.e., baking) mixed in with my day of unenjoyable laundry and unpacking, and partly because I wanted to make a little something to share with my coworkers (especially my student workers!) for holding down the fort while I was gone. And so, I settled on these Apple Pumpkin Muffins from allrecipes.com.

I didn’t change as much as I often do, but I did cut the oil, decrease the sugar, and use part whole wheat flour to make it a little healthier. The original recipe was for 18, I increased it to 24, and actually got 30 muffins out of the batch. Also, since I took several hundred pictures in New Zealand, I was a little pictured out, so didn’t take any photos of these little autumn muffins. Next time!

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/3 whole wheat flour

1-1/3 cup sugar

4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1-1/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1-3/4 eggs (I accomplished this by cracking two eggs into a measuring cup and scooping out a couple teaspoons of the whites)

1-1/3 cups pumpkin puree

2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

2-2/3 cups finely chopped peeled apples (I used a little less than two largeish jonagold apples)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray muffin pans (or use paper liners). I waffle back and forth in my preference. Liners are definitely tidier, whereas the spray can leave tacky residue on the pans. But sometimes liners peel off the muffin easily when it’s time to chow down, so you end up losing half your muffin.

In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients (through and including the applesauce). Make a well in the dry ingredients; add the wet ingredients and stir until just moistened. Fold in apples. Scoop batter into muffin tins, filling about 1/2 to 2/3 full.

Bake for 20 minutes, check for doneness, and cook longer if needed. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Yield: 30 muffins

Calories: Approximately 97 calories per muffin.

Verdict: Yummy and healthy! The pumpkin-apple combination is just hard to beat, especially when going for fallish flavors. I didn’t think they tasted like health food (though maybe I just like the taste and texture of healthy foods!), but at 97 calories, I could eat them without feeling guilty. They were perfect for breakfast . . . and mid-morning snack . . . and mid-afternoon snack . :) Everyone who ate one liked it (except for that one friend who doesn’t like pumpkin but tried really hard to like these). I will keep this recipe for future autumn baking needs.

Changes to make next time: I don’t feel these muffins need any changes to improve them, as I thought they were great as-is (technically, should that be “as-are”?). Chopping the apples so finely did take quite a bit of time, so I might grate the apples next time for the sake of making prep go more quickly. These would also be good with some pecans and/or walnuts folded in with the apples. Craisins would also be yummy—just be sure to cut back on the sugar measurement since crasins will add a lot of sweetness.

New Zealand trip, days 14, 15, and 15 again: Hamilton and home

Friday, October 14

Last night we said goodbye to our Wellington roommates--Fabio and Nick were the only two left from that first night in the hostel. This morning we caught an early-morning bus from Wellington to Hamilton, and the day was mostly spent driving. It's worth noting that our first bus was a double-decker. Yes, we sat on the second story.

The point of going to Hamilton was to spend the night near Auckland without being in Auckland because of all the Rugby World Cuppers there for the final few games. We have heard that Hamilton is a good place to live, but there's not much to do there. We arrived late afternoon and, after checking in to the hostel, the only thing we did was walk down to a lake which was maybe a mile away. Then we made dinner, I rearranged the contents of my luggage and carryons, and we're going to bed early because my bus to Auckland tomorrow leaves at 5:45 a.m.

The lake in Hamilton

Saturday, October 15, Take 1

This morning we got up an an ungodly hour, tried really hard not to disturb our sleeping roommate, and walked to the bus station with all our luggage in tow. Normally, 5:45 a.m. is not my friend. Today, though, it was at least better than 4:55 a.m., which is when we initially thought my bus was leaving. There was no point in Josh paying for a bus fare to Auckland, only to immediately turn around and go right back the way we came, all the way to New Plymouth. So we said goodbye in Hamilton; I got on the bus, and he hitchhiked back to New Plymouth. 

Most of the people on the bus had been on it all night, so they were mostly asleep or highly groggy when I boarded. Sleeping on buses is impossible for me, so I stayed awake and soaked up the last few hours of New Zealand scenery. 

The bus went to Manukau Centre where I did not go inside again with all my luggage again, but instead caught the first bus to the Auckland airport international terminal. The Qantas desk wasn't open quite yet, so I killed time for an hour before checking in and proceeding to security. Then I still had a few hours until the gate opened for my flight to Los Angeles. Fortunately, Auckland airport has an awesome passengers' lounge with comfy chairs and plenty of electrical outlets. There's also a large, lighted sculpture in the middle of the lounge, and the color of the light gradually changes, and it plays nature sounds. How cool is that?

On the screen that shows each departing flight's status, they have little directions out to the side for the passengers. For a long time it just said "Relax" next to mine since boarding time wasn't for a while. Closer to time, it changed to something like, "Gate opens in 50 minutes," and later, "Go to gate." Quite helpful!

Another thing I like about Qantas is the way they board. First they allowed families with children and anyone needing special assistance. Then the first class and other important people. Then they started boarding from the back of the plane and worked their way up. That makes infinitely more sense to me and is so much more efficient than loading the front first and moving back!

On a large plane, you know how you have the two sets of seats along the window, with another row of four or five seats in between? Well, I was in the middle section . . . all by myself! So I could stretch out and even lie down. I took a 30-45-minute nap, had a snack, then slept for another four hours straight, which is unheard of for me on planes!

Sulley with the paddle Qantas gave us for stirring tea/coffee.

Saturday, October 15, Encore

Saturday was so cool that I decided to do it again, this time starting the day in Los Angeles instead of Hamilton. One perk of the return trip is that the flights got progressively shorter. First, because the winds were in our favor, so each of the longer flights was shorter (LAX to AUK was around 13 hours; AUK to LAX was more like 9 or 10). And second, because the longest one was first, the second one was only a couple hours, and the third was under an hour.

I would like to point out that I've been in large airports where the primary language was not English, that were significantly easier to navigate than LAX. Some signage and friendlier staff would be helpful. Just sayin' . . .

Since I was back in a hemisphere where it was autumn instead of spring, I had to get a pumpkin spice latte from a Starbucks in the airport. It was tasty and delightfully fallish!

While boarding flight #3, I ran into a friend from home, so we got to catch up for a few minutes while walking down the jetway. Apparently we were also at LAX at the same time but didn't know it. Also, they did give us drinks this time on this flight, which was nice. Then we landed, all my luggage landed with us, a friend picked me up from the airport, and I got to go home. 

And that concludes my adventures in New Zealand. Can I go back?

New Zealand trip, day 13: Middle Earth

Thursday, October 13

Before coming on this trip, my main objectives were to spend time with Josh and Team Cat Biscuit, to bask in the beauty that is New Zealand, and to do something Lord of the Rings-ish. The Shire set is currently closed to visitors (because they're filming The Hobbit there right now!), so a LOTR bus tour in and around Wellington sounded like the next best thing. We looked over pamphlets from a couple different companies, and Asia, the friendly young woman at the hostel travel desk, recommended Wellington Movie Tours, which is owned and run by a guy named Ted. We took her word for it, plunked down some money, and signed up for a four-hour tour that included stops at a handful of locations where LOTR scenes were shot. Asia did not lead us astray. The tour was excellent!

Ted took us to a number of locations that appear (or sort of appear once all the green screens and set pieces have done their jobs) in the films. While driving from one location to the next, Ted shared fun movie facts and cast/crew anecdotes, and showed movie clips corresponding to locations we had just seen or were about to see. He has a brother who works at Weta, so he had some inside scoops that you can't necessarily get by watching the DVD special features. And at each location, Ted was really good about explaining what exactly we were seeing ("Here's a picture of Frodo and Sam walking through Hobbiton woods. See that bend in the path? That's right over there. That twig off to the side if the screen shot...that's this twig right here") and also helping us line up our own camera shots ("Stand right here, camera pointed that way, and make sure you get the hill, the stump, and the twig in your shot").

Due to a slight misunderstanding, Ted thought we had booked the full day, rather than the half day, tour, so he didn't drop us off after four hours, and we didn't realize what was happening until we were well on our way to the next stop. But, although we initially hadn't wanted to invest in the full day tour, we're both really glad we ended up on it. The second half was, by far, my favorite half--well worth the extra money!

After we had visited each location, which I'll list below, we stopped at the Weta Cave where they have a number of display pieces (Gollum sculpture, Sauron's suit of armor, etc.), a lot if purchasable merchandise, and a video about some of Weta's projects over the years. Then we drove past Peter Jackson's studios where they filmed significant portions of LOTR and are filming The Hobbit right now. In fact, we drove down this one road in the studio complex, and we had to stop the bus because they were doing a take on the other side of the wall and needed quiet on the set. Once they finished the take and communicated to the traffic director that he could let traffic go again, I peered over the wall as we drove past, but all I saw was the back of someone's white ball cap.

Then Ted dropped us off at various convenient points around the city, and that was that. All in all, an excellent day! We had a small enough tour group (15) that we got to know some people and, as a group, developed some ongoing jokes throughout the day.

Oh, and after that, we tried again at Flying Burrito Brothers for Josh's belated birthday dinner, and this time were successful. The food was excellent, the atmosphere was elegantly grungy, and Josh got Argentine travel tips from our waiter.

Now, for the LOTR scene locations we saw:

• Helms Deep / Minas Tirith – First we went to Dry Creek Quarry where they built the set for Helms Deep, then Minas Tirith. Since the set is long gone, it basically just looked like some mountains and hills. Fun fact: during filming, the LOTR films weren't a big deal to most Kiwis, so even while these massive HD and MT sets were hanging out on the side of the road, the general attitude was, “There’s a castle by the side of the road. Weird.” People weren't really interested until filming was done, the sets were all gone, and Fellowship was released in theaters.
• Isengard – Next we went to Courtland Park, where several little snippets were shot: Gandalf riding up to the tower; Gandalf and Saruman walking through the garden discussing the ring; and the Uruk Hai starting to tear down the trees. Fun fact: they installed a path for Gandalf to ride along. When filming was finished, they wanted to put the grass back but someone wanted there to be some trace of where the path had been. So they planted a slightly different kind of grass, so the path is subtle but noticeable if you look closely.
• Aragorn Washed Ashore – When Aragorn falls off the cliff (on the South Island) and floats down the river (also on the South Island, I believe), he magically washes ashore outside Wellington, where his horse picks him up. Here's a not great photo. The river was flooded, so we couldn’t see the actual shore where the scene happened, but we could see the rock wall on the opposite bank. Fun fact: The river he floats down flows the opposite direction as the river where he washes ashore.
• Rivendell – We stopped for a lunch of Subway sandwiches at Rivendell. Of all the locations, this is my favorite in the movie, but to be honest, it’s really unimpressive in person—because the beauty of Rivendell relies heavily on all the CG and sets. BUT Ted was awesome and brought a Legolas costume and bow, so we could all take Legolas pictures! While our group was at Rivendell, there was another tour group there, and they did not get to take Legolas pictures. Evidence that Ted's tour was far superior to whatever company those other people used! There was also a fun swing bridge that had nothing to do with the movie but was exciting to walk on. Fun fact: Some of the trees in the park were in the way, so they had a green team who took detailed pictures of where exactly each tree was. Then they uprooted the problem trees, moved them to a nearby greenhouse that they set up, kept them alive during set-building and filming, and replanted them in their exact spots after the set was gone.

Where the Council is standing in Ted's picture is where we were standing.

• Dunharrow Plateau – We visited the place where they filmed the smaller version of Dunharrow (where they gather armies together in Return of the King to prepare for the massive battle near the end; there was also a larger version of the camp, and I think that was on the South Island somewhere). In this picture, the men are actually standing on a ledge overlooking Wellington, but they used green screens to cover up Wellington. This area also shows up in Fellowship when the hobbits are camping at Weathertop and look over the ledge to see the Black Riders approaching.
• Hobbiton Woods – This location was a clear favorite for me. Largely because the real location actually looks like what’s in the movie and actually appears in the movie for longer than a few seconds. Also, we had a lot of fun photo ops that Ted directed. 
• First we recreated Frodo’s Tree, where Frodo is chillin’ in the tree and Sam is cooking. 
• Next we recreated Shortcut to the Mushrooms, where the hobbits fall down the hill and wind up in a heap at the bottom. This was the most fun shot and involved Josh laying on the ground, me laying across him on my tummy, another girl laying/sitting on the ground with her legs over us (holding a broken carrot), and another guy with his legs intertwined with the rest of the mess. 
• Third, we did Hobbit’s Hideaway—which happens when Frodo senses something bad is coming for them and yells, “Get off the road!” Then they hop over a (fake) tree into a little cubby. Ted recruited the four of us from the falling scene, and was very specific in his instructions on how we should pose—“Frodo, you’re holding the ring like this; Merry, you’re confused about the ring; Sam, you’re yelling, ‘Nooooo,” and reaching across Merry to keep Frodo from putting the ring on; Pippin, you have this plastic bug crawling on you, and you’re freaking out.” 
• Finally, we went to an area in the Race to the Ferry scene. There’s a shot where one of the hobbits looks up the path and sees the Black Rider and horse. Ted’s intro went something like this: “So if you stand here and look up, those two trees up there frame the shot. Now, I bet you want a horse in your shot, huh? I need three volunteers!” Josh, the other hobbit girl, and I remained faithful to the duty of posing for everyone’s pictures, so we volunteered to be the horse. I was the head and front leg; she was the rider, horse torso, and other front leg; and Josh was the back half of the horse. I was skeptical about how much we would actually resemble a horse and rider, but we really did! See?

We're the horse and rider!

• Weta and Studios – Next we visited the Weta Cave, then drove by the studios and some of the actors’ housing. A tree outside one of the Weta workshops was used for a mold to create Treebeard’s bark. Ted told us that was as close as we’d get to Treebeard. We also stopped at a scenic shoreline, mostly because it was pretty, but also because it loosely tied in to the films. The texture from the jagged rocks, pitted from years of salt water erosion, were used to help create the rocks in Shelob’s lair, pitted from Shelob’s venom. Fun fact: Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) injured himself while learning how to surf (we drove past the bay where it happened), so until his face healed, they had to shoot only the unswollen side of his face.

And that was that.

New Zealand trip, day 12: A squid, the haka, and some amazing pizza

Wednesday, October 12

The room smelled manly when I woke up this morning, as England, Wales, and Italy got themselves ready for the day. Ireland was still in bed when Josh and I went downstairs to make ginger apricot porridge for breakfast. (Side note: oatmeal is so much more exciting when you call it porrige.)

Today was our "walk around Wellington and mooch free things off the city" day, and we've got a Lord of the Rings bus tour (!) booked for tomorrow. First mooch stop: the library for free WiFi. After our 30 minutes were up and it kicked off our IP addresses, we continued to our second mooch stop--Te Papa (means Our Place) Museum which advertised free admission. Neither of us are big museum people, but they advertised some interesting exhibits about the Maori culture, including a chance to learn the haka, a traditional Maori war dance that has become iconic to Kiwis (for instance, the NZ rugby team does the haka on the field before games).

Te Papa is a good museum. Very kid-friendly and ADHD-friendly, and still interesting to those of us who aren't kids and don't have attention deficiencies. To be honest, I was a little disoriented at first because there wasn't a clear, predetermined, right path to go through the museum. :) Some highlights of Te Papa:
* Colossal squid - this thing was massive and creepy-looking. They found it a few years ago near Antarctica and managed to freeze, transport, thaw, study, and preserve it here on display at Te Papa. I don't remember the exact specs, but this thing was at least 8 feet long, and the blurbs said that its eyes were the size of soccer balls.
* Learning the haka - they allowed only six people in at a time, so we had to book our free tickets a couple hours in advance. They directed us to walk in and stand on a circle in the carpet, facing a giant screen, and we could see a silhouette of ourselves on the screen. We also each had a life-sized (pre-recorded) person projected on the screen in the spots that each of our silhouettes was. So a video of a woman was projected on the screen, overlapping with my own silhouette--so it was easier to mirror her movements. A Maori man on the screen walked us through how to do each move individually, then we had a practice run-through of the haka, then we did it for real. "For real" meaning we did it again with our silhouette guides. Then, after we exited the room, we could watch a video recording of what we actually looked like. As with all dancing I've ever tried to do, it did not come naturally to me, and I looked really robotic. But it was a lot of fun!
* Earthquake simulation room - they had a lot of exhibits about various forms of natural disasters--earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, water, etc. There was a room set up to simulate a level 5 aftershock while watching footage from a much stronger earthquake that happened years ago.
* Free WiFi - about halfway through our museum wanderings, we discovered free WiFi in the building. So we spent a considerable amount of time camped out with our electronic devices going.

After we had milked Te Papa for all its worth, we set out in search of food. Parents had asked me to take Josh out for a belated birthday dinner while here, so we were on the lookout for a birthday-worthy restaurant. First we tried the Hippopotamus Restaurant, but their food was pricey and sounded too fancy for our palates. Then we went by Flying Burrito Brothers, but they weren't open for dinner yet (we skipped lunch so wanted an early dinner). We looked for Fidel's, which The Lonely Planet recommended, but didn't see it. So we decided to postpone the birthday dinner for tomorrow and go to Hell Pizza tonight. HP is a widespread New Zealand pizza chain, and woman was that pizza good! We got two pizzas: the first had peanut satay, sweet chili, chicken, capsicum (green peppers), and onion; the second had apricot sauce, chicken, pine nuts, spring onions, cream cheese, and rosemary.

Because the clouds looked mischievous, we headed back to the hostel rather than walk around more. Fabio told us about the apartment he looked at today; Josh, Harry, and I swapped stories about the colossal squid and haka class, and told Nick and Fabio they needed to go to Te Papa to see the squid; Harry and Nick reminisced about UK television shows from back home; we all shared stories of all the places we've travelled. I'm really enjoying hostel life! It's cool to form community with complete strangers who will never see each other again.

New Zealand trip, day 11: All's well in Wellington

Tuesday, October 11

I wonder what cows think about--or if they think about anything. I've been pondering cows' behavior a lot lately since we've been taking road trips through plenty of pastures for sheep and cows alike. Like today on the bus ride to Wellington.

We woke up early and, since it was raining and the house is two miles from the bus station, we called a cab. A chipper cabbie named Bobsta picked us up and took us to the City Centre (downtown) where we purchased our bus tickets and hopped on the bus. It was about a seven-hour bus ride, and I spent most of the ride reading Grisham's A Time to Kill and periodically took breaks to watch the cow pastures go by.

We arrived in Wellington mid-afternoon, walked a couple minutes to our hostel, and were enthusiastically greeted by our new roommate, Fabio from Milan. If I remember correctly, he's here for a year for school--his university in Milan partners with a university here in Wellington--and he's staying in the hostel until he can find an apartment.

After Fabio excused himself to visit an Internet cafe, Josh and I went down the the lobby to read through Wellington attractions pamphlets and nail down our plans for the next couple days. Then we went out walking on the waterfront, coupled with a search for a grocery store. Architecture in Wellington is incredibly diverse. I don't know all the technical terms to describe it well, so just take my word for it that it's diverse. :)

We came back, made dinner with our newly-acquired groceries in the massive communal kitchen, discussed theology, and went upstairs to our room. Fabio was there, and was just as full of energy as our first encounter. He and Josh headed downstairs to the hangout room while I stayed upstairs to brush my teeth and read more Grisham. Somewhere in there I met Harry, another roommate from Ireland, who has been traveling in Australia, NZ South Island, and is now working his way up through the North Island. Harry left, and in came Nick from South Wales. He's here in New Zealand working with earthquake aftermath. While Nick and I were talking, our sixth and final roommate popped in and back out. He's from England, but that's about all I know about him right now. It's interesting to meet such a diverse group of people and suddenly be their roommate for a few days. This should be interesting. I'm excited about the new experience!

New Zealand trip, day 10: Change of plans and a lazy day

Monday, October 10

One of the biggest lessons I learned while in youth ministry is to remain flexible at all times.

Last night, Josh and I plotted the rest of our time together in New Zealand. We decided we'd hop on a bus first thing this morning and spend a couple days in Wellington. Then we'd hop on another bus and finish up the trip with a couple days in Whangarei (about 2 hours north of Auckland) so I could make it to the airport on time for my 2:00-something flight on Saturday afternoon. We did last-minute laundry, packed, perused The Lonely Planet for activities in Wellington and Whangarei, said goodbye to flatmates, and went to bed.

This morning I rolled out of bed, finished packing, and headed out to the kitchen to grab a quick breakfast, only to be met by Josh who greeted me with, "Okay, we need to change our plans." Due to bus route funkiness, Whangarei is not going to be a good option after all. The bus ride from Wellington to Whangarei is a beast (option A is a 15-hour all-night ride, and option B is a two-day trip with an overnight somewhere between Wellington and Whangarei). Also, the earliest bus from Whangarei to the Auckland airport on Saturday is a little too tight for comfort. So we're nixing Whangarei altogether (disappointing, since there are a lot of good-sounding, low-budget activities there) and are going to just do Wellington, with a Friday night in Hamilton and a Saturday morning bus to Auckland.

So the choices this morning were these: 1) spend an extra day here in New Plymouth and go to Wellington tomorrow, which would give us half of Tuesday and all of Wednesday and Thursday in Wellington; or 2) get on the bus this morning to Wellington, and have half of today plus all of Tuesday through Thursday in Wellington. And since I'm the visitor, Josh put the decision on me. For a number of reasons, I chose to stick around New Plymouth today and head to Wellington tomorrow.

So today has been gloriously laid-back and agenda-less! I threw some pictures on Facebook while internet usage was still unlimited, then crawled back in bed. When I got up the second time, I leisurely went through the rest of my pictures from days six through nine (so they're ready to upload the next time I have access to unrestricted internet), puttered around on Facebook, made another loaf of beer bread with Josh, caught up on email, revived dormant Words with Friends games, had a couple cups of hot tea . . . it's been a good day!