Fancy Meeting You Here!

It's been a while, hasn't it? Where have I been? Mostly all around New Zealand with Joe and Nikhila, waiting for summer to start, working on the business, watching Top Chef 2.

So summer is HERE. It's beautiful. Sunny, mild, crowded on our street like it's never been before. I enjoy sitting out on the deck with The Cheat, watching the peoples go by.

Brenda and I are hard at work on Vida Foods. This week we upgraded the website to make it extra pretty. Check it out, and tell me what you think.! www.vidafoods.co.nz We've sold and delivered our first Excalibur dehydrator, and now we're working on adding more content to the website (I'm particularly interested in the Recipes page). We're in talks with the local organic market in Wellington about carrying our products. They like our stuff and have agreed to sell it there, but we're still wrangling about price. In the meantime, we're looking for other businesses to sell to. So far there's been a lot of interest and things are looking good! I've gone back to eating non-raw foods (and it's awesome), but have noticed a significant increase in my raw food consumption. I feel great!

Nikhila came to visit for a few weeks and we had a great time touristing around. We spent Christmas on the south island with some lovely friends. It was rainy and dreary and there were lots of sandflies, but the food was lovely and the company was spectacular. Then we went white water rafting and jumped in the river and had to be saved by our guide. Fun! The weather was too rainy for our glacier helicopter tour, but Joe and I did manage to see some dolphins again in Kaikoura. Can't recommend this tour more highly. If you're ever in New Zealand...

For her last week here, she and I drove leisurely up to Auckland via Rotorua and Taupo. I love Auckland! I think I actually got a city high just from being there. We did all kinds of touristy things, including a bungy rocket in the middle of downtown. It was at least 4.3 times as terrifying as the Wellington bungy! I was really impressed by Nikhila's bravery. Had I known how scary it was going to be, I don't think I would have had the balls to do it. Never again. I think I prefer scary water adventures to scary heights adventures.

Saturday will be the Ardents' fourth wedding anniversary (also the fifth anniversary of our first date). What should we do to celebrate? We've tried to make a tradition of travelling, but since we seem to be already travelling, maybe the only logical choice is to stay in. We're thinking about going here for dinner.