Despite our distance from friends and family, we were able to celebrate a festive Thanksgiving in Westport, complete with all of the culinary elements of a traditional American feast and a great group of new friends. Finding turkeys in New Zealand is a bit of a challenge, but after many phone calls, conversations and web searches, Dara found a poultry farm in North Canterbury outside of Christchurch and ordered an 8 kilo bird. Jeremy picked it up in an iced chilly bin and the turkey rode shotgun during the journey across the Southern Alps.
“Turkey, what turkey?”
Inspired by their cousin Tessa’s handiwork in years past, Hazel, Leah and Rose got into the act by creating place cards for every guest.
By necessity, Dara got creative in equipping our kitchen with the proper utensils to pull off an authentic meal. This included brining the turkey in giant plastic bags, MacGyver-ing a rack to fit in the borrowed roasting pan, and stealing a syringe/turkey baster from the hospital.
Our crew included a colleague of Dara’s, Jeremy’s frisbee buddies Daniel and Steve and their families, our unofficial greeter Cate from Rose’s Kindy, and two French travelers that Dara befriended a few weeks ago. 18 total, including a very hungry Neve:
After dinner, the kids (and our French friends) watched a movie and romped downstairs while the rest of the adults had an amazing dessert of pecan and pumpkin pie and (not nearly as delicious as) Annie’s molasses cookies!
Morgane and Caroline, our French traveler friends, pulled their camper van into our driveway for the night and gave our girls a tour of their sweet ride in the morning before heading down the coast:
For the full set of photos, click here.
I bet that was the best Thwnksgiving ever!
Thinking about a molasses cookie right now!
You surely have initiated a new tradition in New Zealand! Thank you for sharing the fun.
Forever wonderful memories. Judy & Alex were the lone Americans with their group in Sri Lanka and the Australians, Brits and New Zelanders all gathered to celebrate with them. No turkey, but fowl of some type and apple cake was the stand in for pie. We Joslow’s gathered at Sue & Tom’s in Baltimore to traditional fare and rested afterward in a L-Tryptophan state.(jury still out)
XO