New Zealand escapades...

You'll remember I noted in my New Year post:

"You know how they say, however you spend New Year is how the rest of your year will be? ... if that's the case sol and I have lots of serious kinky times with good friends and great food, to look forward to in 2011 :)"

Well, so far the year is going very nicely indeed.

Last Tuesday sol drove me up to Brisbane airport. You could certainly see and smell evidence of the recent flooding disaster but at least the airport was open. I was headed to Christchurch, New Zealand, and my pre flight munchie was this tiny, pretty cupcake:

Apart from being one very nice mouthful, why am I showing you this? Because it reminded me of the time I turned sol into a birthday cake, covered with mini cupcakes:

So here I was, dreaming of cupcakes and heading to New Zealand.

I was heading over to stay with Steve_C and Sirspuss, the conveners of Southern Exposure, New Zealand's first BDSM conference. Southern Exposure has been on twice now, and I've always promoted and supported it, even if we couldn't travel to attend it. As I wrote in my post Gathering post:

"The first BDSM conference on this side of the planet was Southern Exposure:

"November 2006 saw the first Southern Exposure Conference held in Christchurch. It was an outstanding success with 100 delegates and a full programme of 21 workshops from an impressive lineup of top international and local presenters. Based on that success the organisers decided to stage further conferences every two years."

The second one was held in 2008. The third, this year's, has been postponed (due to recent earthquakes which damaged the conference venue) until Easter 2011. An ongoing event like this is very impressive ... and very hard work. All kudos to the organizers. You can read a great article about the 2008 conference on TheFetishistas here..."

(that's the old logo, by the way, the new one is this:)

TheFetishistas article was very complementary:

"Southern Exposure is still growing and many of the happy sweating and bleeding attendees, were new to it. SteveC and his partner Puss can be proud of staging a totally awesome and very professional event that many feel stands comparison with longer established fixtures in the international world of kink"

And so was Midori, who was a presenter at both the previous conferences and who wrote a great article about the conference and New Zealand scene, titled Kangaroo Leather and Kiwi Kink which includes this great quote:

"Southern Exposure in Christchurch kicked off my tour-de-kink - a sizable group gathered at a lovely hotel for a weekend of classes, socializing and playing. This newborn event was birthed fully formed as a well-thought-out, carefully organized happening with intelligence and heart"

I had long wanted to attend the next "well-thought-out, carefully organized happening with intelligence and heart" and in fact had been the first to put myself on Southern Exposure's Fetlife event page, the moment Steve_C listed it. I was delighted when The Gathering (which I was helping with) and Southern Exposure joined forces last year (a great way to cut huge international airfares for presenters, for a start) and really was distressed for the organizers when Christchurch's earthquake meant the conference had to postponed.

It was rescheduled for Easter 2011. Shortly after, Steve_C invited me to present at the conference. Now I was on my way over to stay with Steve_C and Sirspuss for a few days, and help a little with pre-conference organizing. I was going to do this in some comfort because Steve_C and Sirspuss run Tawse Manor, an "alternative home stay":

"We’re located in rural North Canterbury, 30 minutes from the center of Christchurch and just 20 minutes from Christchurch International Airport.

"We have three comfortable guest rooms available, in a warm, modern house, set in spacious and private grounds. You’re able to hide from the troubles of the world and unwind, in a relaxed and friendly environment.

"We offer a twist or two as well... how many places give their guests a key to a private adult themed fully air conditioned play space?"

Thank God it wasn't snowing as shown in that lovely photo I just swiped from their website, the weather during my trip (between storms) looked like this:

You can see some of the rooms here. My room has this lovely Forever Young sculpture (details here):

And the garden is just a delight:

Steve_C and Sirspuss are as manic about BDSM education as I am (which is why we are all mad and get involved with huge loony undertakings like BDSM conferences) and hold lots of interesting educational events at Tawse Manor, including weekend intensives (for example, this one with Laura Antoniou, just after The Gathering. Actually it was the weekend Southern Exposure would have been on if the earthquake hadn't closed the hotel venue). We have a weekend intensive idea that I might come back over to help with, but that's a story for later...

I'm writing this half way through my stay.

I've enjoyed meeting Steve_C and Sirspuss. Apart from wanting to meet them to commend them on the conference, I've often admired their style of play (a rather hot photo on Fet here) and of course puss's genital jewelry is so exquisite I send friends links to her photos. puss is a lady of great style and taste (even hotter Fet photo of her cross dressing here) but I have to be honest here, I love her best for...

Her veggie patch.

You can laugh, but I'm seriously jealous. She has the best veggie patch that I've ever had the joy to hang out in. Here's her strawberry area, for a start:

I'm utterly desperate to get in and pick some, but one thing I've learned as a newbie veggie grower is that you don't go picking stuff without the grower's permission! Here's me picking (pre negotiated) beans for dinner:

And of course everywhere I go in the veggie patch I am accompanied by:

Malteser! Who is excellent company:


Malteser is one of three cats, all three of which I've enjoyed getting to know. So did Midori during her visit, as you can see from her drawing in the Guest Book:

Midori hasn't met Malteser, who joined the household after her visits. I look forward to seeing Midori's version of her :)

We've worked hard on finalizing the conference program:


I'll share more about that with you when Steve_C uploads the final program on the website, but I really think it's got lots of interesting workshops I'd look forward to attending. I wrote in my post Gathering post that:

"Southern Exposure has a real "conference" structure similar to The Gathering. In 2008 it featured two full days of workshops - nine sessions a day, spread over three concurrent sessions or streams. This format will be repeated at the next conference, over Easter 2011"

But in fact there are now four streams, so it's the same as The Gathering. To sustain us during all this work puss created this pie out of veggie patch berries:


It didn't last long:


Then last night we had another wonderful meal, prepared by The Sick Muse: Asian Inspired Beef with Noodle Salad. Lots of chili and lime and fresh veggies straight from the garden.

Today puss, The Sick Muse and I visited the local village shopping area, getting supplies for tonight's swingers party and allowing me a quick explore. Puss took us to one of her favorite seriously weird stores, where I not only got a terrific present for sol that I'll share with you later, I also got a present for Steve_C:


It's a pair of elephant shorts, with the elephant's trunk in a strategic spot allowing one to measure one's bits. I was hoping he'd wear them for the swingers party but alas he didn't agree!

Yes, I said "swingers party" again, and after that there's a kinky party out at a friend's place. And then it's time to head home...

So I was right about the New Year containing lots of good food and kinky friends!

Back soon....

ASIAN INSPIRED BEEF WITH NOODLE SALAD

This dish is based on a classic. The beef and dressing can be prepared the day before and assembled before serving. Adjust the chili to your taste.

Ingredients:
1/2kg to 2 kg eye fillet trimmed of fat and sinew
1 tablespoon peanut oil or vegitable oil
1 zucchini or courgette chopped finely
some red capsican or red pepper, chopped and fried
fresh corn cut from the cob

For the dressing:
4 cloves garlic, crushed
8 teaspoons sugar
6 tablespoons soy sauce
6 tablespoons fish sauce
6 tablespoons lime juice plus finely grated zest of one lime (or lemon)
1 small bunch of spring onions, finely sliced
4 red chillis seeded finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped coriander

To serve:
500 gr soba noodles

• preheat oven to 210C
• heat large hot plate or frying pan over high heat
• rub beef with oil and brown on all sides
• place in a shallow baking dish and bake for 18-20 min until medium rare
• cover loosely with foil and a tea towel
• leave to rest and cool
• mix all dressing ingredients together in a bowl until combined, set aside
• bring a large saucepan of water to the boil add noodles and cook until al dente
• drain and rinse in cold water to cool
• place in bowl and toss with half the dressing
• divide noodles amongst plates
• thinly slice beef and arrange over noodles
• spoon over enough dressing to moisten meat
• top with a few pea shoots

Thank you:
Steve_C and Sirspuss
for their very generous hospitality
and many kindnesses
The Sick Muse
for the seriously good food and the recipe