Marathon Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving a few days late! I spent Thanksgiving at work *sadface* and had pasta for supper. I did manage to bump into a couple of fellow Americans that day though and we enjoyed reminiscing about how nice it would be to have turkey instead of work :)

I meant to post this a month ago when said weekend occurred, but my schedule in general has been rather marathon-ish since then so I am just now getting to it.

Back in September I agreed to be the horizontal harp player for the Orchestras final concert this year (horizontal harp because I was playing the harp part on a keyboard instead of a harp as there are unfortunately no harps to be found in New Plymouth). Then in October I decided to join the Powerco team for the Round the Mountain Relay. This was all well and good until I realized that both events were the same weekend. But I had committed to both already and chose to keep the commitment, so I was left with figuring out how to fit it all into one weekend.

Each spring, there is a relay around Mount Taranaki organized. Teams from businesses or just groups of people who want to form a team can enter. There are walking teams, running teams, and composite teams. This year there was also the option to do a solo run, which meant you were running all by your lonesome for a very long time.
The walking teams started Friday evening. The composite teams started at 11pm Friday night, and each member of those teams would run one leg and walk another. The run teams started at 230am Saturday morning. There were 21 legs to complete, for the running teams you could have up to 16 people, so a few had to kindly offer to more than one leg. The total distance was 150 kilometers. Our team completed it in 14:22, 13th out of 15 for the business class. We were just glad to not be last!

Saturday evening was the Last Night of the Proms orchestra concert. It was a combination New Plymouth Orchestra and New Plymouth Ars Nova Choir combined concert which also featured four local vocal soloists. It was an England/New Zealand patriotic concert which featured well known tunes from both sides of the pond such as "God Save the Queen" (same tune as My Country 'Tis of Thee, but notably different words!), Sea Shanties with Rule Britania, and Pomp and Circumstance also known as Land of Hope and Glory. The program also included classic works such as Wagners Bridal Chorus and Flying Dutchman overture and opera excerpts.

So how did all this fit into a terribly busy weekend?

Well, I had just enough time to grab dinner and a cup of tea before heading off to orchestra for the evening. Rehearsal was scheduled 7-10 pm as we needed to coordinate everything with the choir in terms of tuning, balance, sharing the stage, etc. We also had to sort out lighting and sound issues and run the program from start to finish. We managed to finish by 11pm, yippee.
I had a powernap and then met up with some of my fellow runners at 2am. The team had been split into groups for organization and transportation purposes as we were sharing company vehicles for getting to and from starting points. Our first runner got himself to the start of the relay as it was in town, so the plan was for us to head to where Leg 2 started, which was the bit I was running, for the first handoff. After the first 4 legs had been completed, we would all head back to town so the next group in our vehicle could take over (we were scheduled to be back just past sunrise, around 6am).

My leg of the relay was 9.5k long. I started at 315, finished at 405, which I thought was quite good since that was the fastest I'd run that distance in several weeks of training. I am quite certain that half the reason I ran so fast is because I was so cold, when I got to my finish point it was 40 degrees! Considering what it was though, I can say I did have fun. This was my first official "race" so it was a new experience for sure. There were people all along the route to offer encouragement and ensure it was well-lit. We were also equipped with plenty of lighting as well as reflective gear. Knowing there was a whole group of people running with you provided both a bit of competitiveness to keep going, and motivation in knowing you weren't the only one wondering why you were up at such a crazy hour to run. I had three hills, but it was dark enough I did not know for sure how big they were, so I kept assuming it was going to get worse than it did, which also seemed to make it a bit easier. When I got to my finish point, there was coffee (which I declined, but did have a snack), water, and plenty of encouraging congratulations.

I got back to town in time to warm up with a cup of tea, have a shower and breakfast, then I was off to orchestra again, armed with a coffee and some snacks to keep me awake. The rehearsal was  planned from 9am - 1pm, but lucky for me we finished at 11am due to the hard work from the night before. So I was off to home for a nap. I found it surprisingly hard to go to sleep, but managed a couple hours and a good bit of relaxing before it was time to get ready for the concert.

I had to be at the theater by 7pm, as we started at 730. By the time I got home, it was nearly 1030 so it felt like a long night, but it was a good, tired accompanied by a feeling of accomplishment, and great plans to sleep in the next morning. The orchestra played well, the house was full, and the audience was enthusiastic. There was red, white, and blue decorating the theater, but it was in the wrong pattern :) Once we got past the classical selections on the program, I was not familiar with many of the tunes, but enjoyed observing the obvious pleasure from both listeners and performers with each new selection. I'd only heard Pomp and Circumstance as a graduation walk piece, so it was interesting to hear it performed with a choir. The New Zealand national anthem was performed in Te Reo (Maori) by a high school girls choir. Both the New Zealand anthem and God Save the Queen were arranged by an Australian (one of the conductors for the evening), which we found a bit amusing :)

I do not have plans to repeat such a schedule anytime soon, but looking back, I wouldn't have given up either experience simply to have a bit more sleep on Friday night :)

Happy Holiday season, and see some of you very soon!

A Sudden Storm

When I first got to New Plymouth and was finding my way around town and meeting lots of new people, I would often get asked if it snows where I grew up. Then I would hear about the one time a few years ago when it snowed in town (the mountain is frequently covered in snow, but it is too warm in town, it hardly gets below freezing), just enough to have a light dusting on the ground, but that was enough to halt all driving, and send people home from work and school halfway through the day.

Having been here for nearly 18 months now, I have grown accustomed to the warmer temperatures (especially now that it is Spring, yay!), so I was just as surprised as the local when the weather took an unexpected turn one day last week.

I always leave work right at 4pm on Wednesdays so that I am home in time to teach a piano lesson. Right about 3:30 last Wednesday, the sunny day suddenly went to dreary dark cloudy. By 3:50 it had gotten quite windy and was starting to rain. By 4:07 when I was nearly halfway home, it was pouring buckets of rain and then it started to hail. By the time I reached downtown, traffic was nearly at a standstill and there was increasing amount of standing water everywhere (it was still raining) because the pea-sized hail was clogging the drains.
It took me half an hour to get home that day (it normally takes 10-12 depending whether the lights are red or green). I must say I was impressed with how drivers handled the weather. Everyone slowed down and was extra cautious and mindful of everyone else, which was quite relieving.

According to the newspaper in the next couple days, there were no major accidents, but downtown did experience a significant amount of flooding. Since the drains started clogging, water just ran up on the sidewalks and then into stores restaurants, anywhere. The storm was over in about an hours time, but even now you can see places just starting to dry out or get cleaned up from all the water.

Just past where the hail started, it was only downtown that got more than a bit of rain

My driveway

Hail-drifts downtown

A local adventure

Labor day in the US is the unofficial end of summer. In NZ, it is the unofficial start of summer. The last Monday of October is New Zealand’s labor day so we had a three day weekend to enjoy. The weather being temperamental as usual for this time of year, only one of the 3 days was predicted to be sunny. So I decided to make the most of it and planned a day trip to some local spots which I had not yet had the opportunity to explore (the joy of having my own car is I can up and go when and where I want, yay!). I did not plan a terribly long day as I had wanted a bit of a sleep-in, and had to be back in time for the long-awaited Mexican night with my Japanese friends, but I was armed with a picnic, camera, and enthusiasm and off I went down SHWY 3.

First stop was the Mt. Damper Falls. Several times I’ve seen the sign as I passed the turn-off and since it said it was only 27k down the road, I figured it would be a fun little detour off the highway. I forgot however, that 27k (about 17 miles) on a New Zealand is not the breezy drive that you would find on say a straight and flat Kansas highway. It took over half an hour to drive all the way to the falls (you can go 100k in an hour on a non-windy flat-ish road). The lovely scenic drive started out a nice paved two lane highway alongside a river that had lots of whitebait fishers on it. After a while it got narrow, then turned to gravel with a gorge on one side and a massive rocky cliff face on the other. It turned back to blacktop just in time to go up the windy road to the top of Mt. Damper. Once you reached the top, you parked and walked through a pasture full of sheep, then through a woodland trail until you suddenly popped out into the sunshine and saw the waterfall (only a 10-15 minute walk). The view was definitely worth the drive, I’d happily return at some stage. It was definitely one of those trips where the journey was as exciting as the destination, as you never knew what the next corner would bring.

Once my car had found its way back to the highway, we headed for Mokau. Mokau is a lovely little seaside town just past the Taranaki-Waikato line. There is not a lot to do there, but there is a nice beach where I wanted to enjoy the picnic. It was a bit windy, but it was sunny and warm and I nearly fell asleep, which was just lovely J

 After packing up the leftovers from lunch, it was time to mosey towards home (as lunch did not really happen until around 2pm), but had one more stop planned along the way. There is a rock formation called “The Three Sisters” that I had not been able to see yet, as you can only reach the site when the tide is out. It is just around the corner from Mokau, at Tongaporutu. After parking at the beach, you walk down the coast a bit past some caves until you emerge in a lovely spot where you can see Elephant and the Sisters. Right now there are only 2 as one has broken off, but in time, another will emerge from the cliffs due to erosion of wind and sea. Due to the changing tides, there was not a lot of time to spend exploring, but had a chance to enjoy walking among the rock formations and taking lots of pictures J

An International Kitchen

This weekend I will be an American in New Zealand cooking Mexican for Japanese friends. I’m excited J So how did this situation come about?

Well, first of all, Mexican food is hard to come by in New Zealand. That is possibly because there are not many Hispanics here (most of the immigrants here are Asians, Indians or UK-ers), so I suppose in some respects the demand is not what you would expect to find in the US. Because it is not something normally found here, the majority of Kiwis are not familiar with Mexican cuisine. So, regarding my dinner guests, my Japanese friends have never had Mexican food and have been quite keen to try it so we finally settled on a date for this week.

One of my favourite stores in New Plymouth is Piano Works, where they sell all manner of pianos and sheet music. The owner was one of the first people I met when I got to town, and I often drop by to look for something or find out a bit of info on music around town. So when I popped in one day, I was introduced to their new staff member who turned out to be Japanese and we quickly struck up a friendship. She is also a pianist so we did a recital together in September, and have another performance coming up. Through this friend and many trips to the Japanese-owned sushi restaurant in town, I have becomes friends with a couple of the other Japanese ladies in town around our age, but often have opposing work schedules, so we are looking forward to the get-together.

Having always cooked and/or eaten Mexican food, I tend to take it for granted that everyone knows what a fajita is, how to make a quesadilla, or what goes in an enchilada. But in NZ that is not the case. So today at lunch as we were discussing weekend plans I shared excitement over the upcoming dinner plans. This led to questions such as the best uses for tortillas, how to make enchiladas, etc. I was declared to be the resident expert on Mexican cuisine as I was the only one present who grew up with such kitchen delights J

Island Weather

Growing up in the Midwest, I was used to the idea of weather rapidly changing. Thunderstorms, strong winds, still days, sunny, cloudy, rainbows, muggy, humid, tolerable were just a few of the conditions you could expect at a given time throughout the year. I have mentioned before that local Taranakians will say this is the place where you can experience all four seasons in one day. So today I thought I would explore that topic in a bit greater detail.

As a general rule, you can expect Taranaki to be windy, sunny, rainy, beautiful, dreary, hot, chilly, and windy. Yes, I know I said windy more than once. That is because the wind really can be quite strong here. You will also note that I did not mention snow, ice, hail, sleet, muggy, or freezing. After surviving two winters here, I have experienced below freezing temperatures all of twice. Those two time were two mornings in a row when I was up before daylight to get ready for work, during a "cold snap." Alternatively, summer temperatures have in my experience not gotten over 90 degrees Fahrenheit (about 35 degrees Celsius) but who knows what is in store for this summer.

On the worst days, it is damp, cold and rainy. This can be expected during the winter. It rains most days during the winter months and you rarely see the sun. Sadly this means you also rarely see the mountain. If you do want to see it, the best time is around dawn, for some reason that seems to be when there is the least amount of cloud cover around the mountain. Spring and fall vary widely as to temperature and the amount of sunshine you see. But when summer comes to Taranaki, it is worth all the windy and rainy and cold damp grumpy days. The sky will be a clear, bright blue. You can see the mountain, often still with bits of snow on the very top (I climbed it mid-summer last year, there was snow in the crater even then). The ocean is several shades of blue and green and the sun is bright and warm. It is true that the sun is stronger here. Fair-skinned folks like me make a habit of putting on sunscreen every day before leaving the house, and keep it around for further application if outside a lot. A day that gets up around 85 degrees will feel as warm as a day up to 100 degrees in the Midwest, BUT no humidity!! Ok that's stretching it a bit. There is humidity but somehow it is not the muggy oppressive heat that I grew up with. The hardest part of summer here is having to go to work. We are lucky to have a big window in our office where we can see outside. It is not uncommon to see all of us giving the outdoors longing looks most of the day. The community is quite active and there is a plethora of summer outdoor activities to partake in, which makes it easy to get out and enjoy the season.

If you are planning to visit NZ during the summer, you can expect the opportunity try out the beach, surfing, kite-surfing, cricket on the beach, rugby (apparently something you can do all year long, All Blacks beat Australia last night, yay!), soccer, mountain biking, tramping (hiking), mountain and rock climbing, marathons around the mountain (I will be participating in a "round the mountain relay" in the 3 weeks as part of Powerco's team), and many other activities. One activity that I find to be noticeably lacking is baseball/softball. Those of you who know me will acknowledge that I am far from being a star athlete, but I always enjoy a good game. It is just not a kiwi thing though. I have been enthusiastically following the Royals adventure through the playoffs (thanks for the text updates dad!), much to the amusement of my Kiwi friends who fail to completely understand the sport. I have also noticed that beach volleyball is not huge here, but that could be because I have not yet found the right beach for it (again I will point out that I am better sticking to music over sports, so I likely would not play much anyway, it is simply an observation).

If I were to sum up an explanation of Taranaki weather, or really I think New Zealand weather in general, I would say it is milder than that of the Midwest. There are noticeable changes as the seasons come and go, but there are not the temperature and precipitation extremes that Midwesterners experience between summer and winter. I found that in the heart of winter I did miss snow a bit, although I could see the snow-covered mountain from afar which usually worked as a fix, and I will probably get my fill of it while home for Christmas this year. I have found that I do not miss the muggy humid summers, because despite the strength of the sun here, the heat is not so unbearable that you stay inside just to avoid melting. For those of you who are planning your trip here as you read this, I will advise that Taranaki is not the only windy place. Most of the places I have visited claim to be nearly the windiest place in the country.

Hope you have had a fantastic weekend and have a good week coming up.
Here are a couple of pictures just for fun. If you have seen them before, enjoy them again :)

In Whakatane, October 2013

Traveling to the tip of the North Island

Sunset, winter 2013

Flowers in Picton, March 2014

Everday life

In the last few months I seem to have settled into a nice routine of work, music, and local adventures. I have not done much major traveling around New Zealand in quite some time so I do not have as many pictures or new places to share as I did the first few months I was here (not because I have seen everything, just because I have become more grounded in New Plymouth). This means I have the opportunity to share little tidbits about ordinary life that are different in New Zealand than in the US. Do keep in mind that some of what I will say in this post might differ if I were in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, or Dunedin (the 4 large cities in NZ). New Plymouth is a far bigger place than many I have visited, but it is a small city as opposed to something like a major city. For those of you who might be familiar with the area I come from, Clinton or Harrisonville might be reasonable comparisons, although I must say they quite noticeably lack both a gorgeous mountain and the beach J

When you do not own a car, things like the price of gas or the most convenient place to get gas when you are late for work but running on empty tend to not really cross your mind. But since I have recently acquired my very own set of wheels, these are things of which I now take note. Gas around here tends to hover right around $2.15 a liter. I would like to take this opportunity to note that in 15 months time, the lowest I have seen is $2.09 and the highest is $2.25 (within New Plymouth, not the country as a whole). Having grown up with gas prices as moody as the weather, the lack of fluctuation is delightful. However, I still prefer the cost of gas in America, because one gallon is 3.7 liters, which means one gallon of gas costs nearly $8. While we are discussing paying for gas, pay at the pump is not a common find in NZ, but neither is the requirement to pre-pay for your gas. I have now found two gas stations in New Plymouth which have pay at the pump (there are at least 10 stations around town that I know of, probably several more that I have yet to come across), so not a large number. But there is no issue with pumping first and then heading to pay what you owe at any of the non-pay-at-the-pump stations.

It is fairly common knowledge that America has become a nation of convenience. This means drive-through food places and banks and ATMs are easily found in most towns. New Zealand has far fewer drive-thrus and those which I have seen are only food places. I have not yet come across any drive-thru banks or ATMs. In New Plymouth, the only options are Burger King, McDonalds, and the recently re-built KFC (it caught fire about 6 wks ago). There are plenty of ATMs around town, but you have to be willing to get out of your car to get your money (most grocery stores have one, so you can get food with the money you just took out haha). Banks are usually only open Monday through Friday from 9am to 4:30pm so if you need something which cannot be accomplished online or with a phone call, plan your day accordingly.

I have started making a mental list of daily things like this which I find interesting to share. Hopefully it interests you too, because there will likely be more to come. It is a beautiful spring day, warm and sunny with a Taranaki breeze (which means the breeze is a bit strong and still slightly chilly). I am anticipating a week of cabin fever at work as the weather forecast is for sun the next few days J

Back Beach

Coffee

I have never been a coffee drinker but after living in New Zealand I have come to appreciate the culture of drinking coffee. I do really enjoy the smell, but I just do not like the taste. And those who know me well will also know that I can be quite sensitive to caffeine so really you would not want me to be caffeinated every day, as I would eventually drive everyone around me nuts.

Unlike me, however, Kiwis love coffee. There are coffee shops everywhere you go, most of them far superior to Starbucks, although you can find a few of those here as well. I have mentioned before that breaks are an important part of the work day. We start the day with a cup of coffee while we get things organized for the day. Mid-way through the morning we take a break for a cup of tea or coffee, and again mid-way through the afternoon. It is common practice for the employer to provide teabags, coffee grounds, milk, and sugar for these breaks. Outside of work, if you are out about town and need to kill time, you go get a coffee. If you want to catch up with a friend, you schedule a coffee date. If you need to have a meeting with someone but it does not necessarily have to be at an office, you meet for a coffee and talk through your business. If you are tired or stressed or grumpy, you have a coffee.

I never spent a lot of time in coffee shops in the US, but it seems that the coffee shop menu is a bit different here. You have your standard hot chocolate, mocha, cappuccino, and tea. Tea options will be Earl Gray, English Breakfast, and several herbal options, not limited to, but including: peppermint, green tea, and something fruity. If you just want a black coffee, you order an Americano or Long Black (name varies shop to shop). If you want something fancier, you can get a latte or a flat white. The lattes generally have flavor options, such as vanilla, caramel, mint chocolate, double fudge mocha, and I’m sure many others. A flat white is not something I have ever tasted, but from what I can tell it is a combination of a cappuccino and an un-flavored latte. I am probably not entirely right on that, and my flat-mate who manages a restaurant and makes the best hot chocolate in town would probably roll her eyes at me for not figuring it out yet, especially since I used to work at a coffee shop J

There is a bit of a science to ordering your coffee here. Do you want to have it in shop or take away? If you are getting a cappuccino, do you want cinnamon or chocolate sprinkled on top? If you are having a hot chocolate or mocha, do you want marshmallows? Marshmallows in the drink or on the side? If you are ordering a hot chocolate for your children, would you prefer a fluffy? (A fluffy is a warm hot chocolate). You can also specify if you prefer regular milk, skim milk, or soy milk. Also, as a general rule, all coffees are double shots. That means TWO shots of Espresso. Yikes! says those of us who are not tolerant of caffeine! If you do not want so much caffeine, you can request half strength, quarter strength, whatever strength you prefer. You can also get extra shots, but I cannot imagine who would want to haha. The best customers are the one who have an order such as “I would like a soy cappuccino with cinnamon on top to have here.” Easy enough, they know what they want, and you do not have to ask twenty questions when taking their order t to make sure you get it right. The scary ones are those who come up to the counter and say “Can I get….”. If they pause, you know you need a pen and paper because their order will end up being something like a quarter strength, trim, Soy, half vanilla, half caramel, extra-hot latte with cinnamon on top and a marshmallow on the side. 

Some coffee/cafe pictures which have made me smile: 

Hot Water Beach, Coromandel, North Island

Wellington (I think....)

Wellington

Crowded House, New Plymouth

Somewhere on the South Island

Outside Hamilton, North Island

New Plymouth

Wellington

Westport, South ISland

Joe's Garage, New Plymouth

Wellington

What's in a name?

Yikes, I did not realize it has been a month since I posted anything! That is clearly testament to how quickly the time is flying for me. Since then, well I have made a rather impromptu trip home for some time with family (So great, we really need to make family reunions happen a bit more often!), performed in two recitals, added several new gigs to my busy music schedule, and gotten a visa to stay here until September 2015. And yesterday it was a lovely spring day so I cleaned out our garden plot and planted flower seeds around the borders so it looks pretty when it is time to put vegatables in. I will post pictures when there is something other than freshly over-turned dirt to see. So I have had lots on my calendar :)

But anyway, all of that is not actually what I planned to write about today. I thought that I would share an amusing mingling of cultures that I experienced yesterday.

Yesterday I had brunch plans with a fellow pianist who became a good friend during Phantom of the Opera. We had been wanting to have a catch-up for awhile but we both have busy teaching and accompanying schedules so pinning down a date and time can be difficult. However, it is currently school holidays for two weeks in between terms 3 and 4, so it seemed a good time to meet up. We could not settle on a coffee shop that would not be crazy busy on a Saturday mid-day so I offered to play hostess. I decided to put American food on the menu and set about making biscuits and gravy, as I was assuming the chances of her having tasted it before were quite slim.

Biscuits as Americans know them, and gravy as something you'd want to have at breakfast on your biscuits are both food items which Kiwis are likely to have never encountered. They do have gravy here, but not white gravy, and certainly not sausage gravy with lots of cracked pepper. It is easy to find the brown gravy you would expect on your turkey and stuffing at Thanksgiving, but they generally refer to is as just sauce. Gravy is not made with sausage here because they generally only have sausage in the form of links. You can find ground pork but it lacks the flavor of sausage so you have to add your own. Unless you want to finely chop the links and have chunks. I have tried both options in making gravy. Not sure which I prefer yet :)

Biscuits is a whole other topic of discussion, and one which set us on a funny conversation about food and names while we were dining yesterday. In NZ if someone offers you a biscuit, they are offering you something sweet, such as a Tim Tam or a chocolate chip cookie or an Oreo. While we refer to these items as cookies, kiwis generally would not be sure what you mean. What we call biscuits would be called a scone here. Most scones in NZ are a combination of a biscuit and a muffin and are generally savory, meaning they are have ham and cheese in them, or spinach and feta. Date scones are quite popular, and are usually the "sweet" option.

As a general rule, things are not so terribly different between NZ and the US. I did not experience the culture shock of new customs, new food, new language like when I went to Japan, or to a lesser extent, Austria. But even after 15 months, there are still things nearly every day that make me smile, even if it is just a vocabulary thing. There have been many interesting discussions at work that started because of something simple that was said by me and interpreted differently by a kiwi, or that I heard and did not understand, and so on and so forth. These experiences are educational but also fun. I find it terribly amusing to watch the reaction to asking a Kiwi if they have ever tried biscuits and gravy, because you can bet that if they do not know what you are referring to, they are probably picturing a chocolate chip cookie with brown sauce on it :)

Dutch Windmill

Shortly after getting my car, I decided to break it in with a weekend road trip to Wellington. Things had been crazy busy schedule-wise with Phantom running for 4 weeks and I was needing a couple of days to just relax and recharge. I decided that I would do better at actually relaxing if I took a couple days and went somewhere. So I got a long weekend off work, and the day after the last phantom show, headed South. Driving North takes a bit of mental preparation because you have to tackle first the mountain and then the gorge. The recommended speed limit for most of it is 15-35 kph, not very fast :) Driving South however is quite the opposite. It is most flat, ad surprisingly straight, as New Zealand roads go. You get to drive through lots of nice farmland and cozy little towns.

The time spent in Wellington was lovely. I even got lucky and the rain held off until I left. Windy is known as the windy city (on bad days it is apparently far worse than Taranaki) but I was lucky in that respect as well). I spent two days exploring bookstores, art galleries, and coffee shops :)
On the drive home, when cruising through one of the cute little towns along the way, I saw a sign for a Dutch windmill. Since it was time for a break from the car anyway I thought I'd check it out. In addition to the Windmill, there were signs and photos in "downtown" which was really just Main Street, showing just how little it has changed in the last 100 years. It was not anywhere that I could see myself wanting to live, but it was a cute place to stop for a coffee and stretch of the legs.

Still in use today for making flour

View of downtown/Main St from the top of the Windmill

The last stop I made for a break from the car (it's about a 4-4 1/2 hour drive) was at Duddings Lake, just because the name made me laugh. Nothing terribly exciting, but it would be a nice place to camp :)