Birthday Boy

In probably the best game we have ever seen him play (and we have seen a few), Tyler led the North Harbour Kings to a thrilling win. The best play was caught on video - inbounds play, coast-to-coast, single-handedly breaking a full court press, five spin moves between the legs and around the back, dish to the big man and score! Even the other team hooted and hollered.

Food Service Review

Click on the link to read the article in June's Food Service Magazine.

Conor, Martin, Tyler 

Quarterly Report

The time has come for the supreme commander to issue the Mariposa Corporation Ltd. first quarterly report. The company’s first restaurant has been in operation for about 2 months and things have calmed down to a manageable level. The future looks very bright.

Most people, as they are building their dream restaurant, get so beat up during construction that opening and operating the beast they have created seems easy. It isn’t, it’s harder! Setting up a restaurant this size properly, creating the lines of communication within an organization that operates 16 to 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, establishing the initial marketing plan and develop our company image, getting the food consistent, managing all the wild and wacky personnel, figuring out how business works down here and building a kitchen system that works in KiwiLand is crazy. Our management team is now on the same page and the restaurant operations manual is being built one page at a time, one day at a time.

Enough business! If I knew then what I know now, who knows? Working with the boys has been a real treat and this has been another bizarre experience that satisfies one’s soul. Unfortunately the old golf game has suffered. One game a month, on a tough course equals a 12. Watch out Pink and Bitter-root. People play golf a little different down under. I haven’t had one putt given yet. Grey haired ladies who have been members for 45 years keep explaining the rules of golf, and everyone walks with a trundler.

I’m coming back to Bend in early July to play in the Broken Top member/guest tournament with my great friend Bob Green. Rick, we are signed up, RIGHT. I think I will ride my BMW to LA and ship it to New Zealand. Motorcycles in NZ are expensive and there aren’t many K1200RSs in this country. I really can’t wait until I’m able to explore this country on my scooter, before my buddies come down for their first tour. I think late January to early March is probably the best motorcycle weather NZ.

Adjusting to living in the city has been another interesting facet of our lives. I love our apartment and the view. It’s a little small, but it’s the coolest building in town and a short walk to the restaurant. How many times do you get to live in a luxury hotel in an international city? The restaurants in town are ok and we go out and explore often. I do miss Bend’s restaurants and all those great meals with all our great friends.

We still have issues with how people do business in NZ. Problems with noise from our neighbor have been addressed but not solved in 4 months (they need to move their bass speaker away form our common wall), cash handling charges because if you deposit more than $15,000 a month in your account and cell phone/internet service charges that would blow anyone in the US away.

I’m currently trying to finagle my way on to the Mackenzie Cup Team at Titirangi. Every year the team travels to another Alstier Mackenzie course and competes against teams from Mackenzie courses throughout the world. I may have to rough one of the established team members up to talk my way into the lineup. Maybe I’ll be competing against Pasatiempo some where, some time.

Get your travel plans together for next summer (your winter) and get your butts down here. It’s too great of experience to let slip away. See you soon.
Mel Torme

All Blacks Haka 

Rugby as a Religion

Last night JB, Malcolm, Janet and I watched the All Blacks play their first test (international match) of the 2005 season against Fiji at North Harbour Stadium. Even though the game was decidedly one-sided (All Blacks won 91-0) we were thrilled with the opening Haka performed by both sides and the beauty and grace of the All Blacks. I likened it to synchronized swimming, which Malcolm thought was a bit effeminate for their national team, but it was poetry in motion nonetheless.

Happy Birthday QEII

What do JB, Malcolm and the Queen have in common? Why, birthdays of course. JB celebrated his 58th (can you believe it?) on Saturday, the Queen's (that would be Elizabeth) is the 6th and Malcolm's is the 7th. Oh, wait, we can't forget the Pinkster on the 3rd. Monday is a national holiday, but we will be open nonetheless. In NZ the labor laws require that you pay your employees whether they work or not.

The British and Irish Lions have landed and played their first provincial game against the Bay of Plenty in Rotorua. We had a nice crowd in the restaurant for the game, munching on burritos and chips, drinking margaritas and having a jolly good time.

The weather has turned to winter, but it's not all that bad. We saw a few brightly colored parakeets in the trees at Titirangi, so it can't get too cold. Today JB and I played a very nice parkland golf course in Devonport - Waitemata - which I thought I could handle after getting chewed up and spit out at Titirangi time after time. No such luck. I think I have lost my edge - and my swing. But it was sunny and warm, and there were no hills to climb, so all and all it was a pretty nice day.

The boys have purchased bicycles for their frequent trips to the restaurant. They have had to share the Boobaroo (the new moniker for the Subaru since it has so many dents in it from driving the wrong way) and feel the need for freedom.

Mikey has moved to the front to help hone our delivery skills. It was a brilliant move because he's right at home chatting up the customers. We have Judy covering the prep work in the back, which frees Mike up to fine-tune the line. Tyler is still the scheduling task-master, and Conor continues to work on marketing. He and Alice (our marketing firm, Radical Alice) have come up with some really creative ideas. We will focus on the "fresh" aspect of our business with ideas like freshly painted chairs and "fresh as today's news" inserts in the Herald. It's true, Alice sees everything differently.

JB and I spent the afternoon with post-golf excursion around Devonport. We are thinking that's where we want to live. The apartment is a tad wee bit small, and we quite fancy the ferry ride into work. We will be calling our real estate guy, Lewis Guy, after the holiday to set up a time for some viewings. Most of the houses are Victorian-era cottages and are so very cute.

And the real zinger for me is Tyler's impending birthday on the 19th. He will be 29. Time does go so very fast!

Cheers!

Rugby at Night 

Eat Out Guide

We are now featured in New Zealand's Eat Out Dining Guide. Check it out! We have also been interviewed by Food Service Magazine for the June issue. We were going to wait for Dan to take food photos for us, but these turned out pretty well, yeah?

Plants, Books and Reggae

Last time I posted I was thinking that our next big rush would be the Lions Tour. Not so. A couple of huge events have delivered our biggest weekend ever: New Zealand Music Month and the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival. Add that to the fact that we are now listed in Google and in the Auckland dining guides, and we have lots of new customers discovering Mexican food . . . and they love it!

JB and I placed 4th in one of the big annual golf tournaments at Titirangi. We were expecting a sleeve of balls or some sweeps, but they do things a bit differently here (seems like I say that all the time!) The prize was a potted plant. I remember Gene Taylor from COCC (he did a job share with a fellow from Invercargill a few years back) telling me that their golf club gave meat as prizes and I thought that was so funny. It reflects the attitude towards golf - it's not a big deal, it's just something everyone does. Greens fees and club memberships are pretty inexpensive, and a round of golf is accessible to just about everyone (providing you can walk five miles over hill and dale).

Tyler has achieved his dream of playing semi-pro basketball by joining the North Harbour team. In fact, they made him captain! Conor and Jen have been doing all of the touristy things, even though the weather has been wet but warm. Tyler, Mike and I found a great little cafe in Devonport last week that serves REAL pancakes. Before that we were stuck with Denny's for our flapjack fix.

Both JB and I have made our return flights for July. JB is going back July 3 for the Broken Top Men's Invitational, and I will be in Bend on the 23rd for a couple of weeks for the Broken Top Classic. We are looking forward to seeing as many friends and family as we can up and down the West Coast.

Conor the Fire Warden 

Rainbow Warrior II returns to Prince's Wharf 

Cinco de Sol

I just realized that it’s been two weeks since I last posted. You guys must think that we have gotten lost somewhere in the South Pacific. Quite honestly, sometimes we feel that way too.

My biggest wake-up call came on Cinco de Mayo (nobody knew what that was) when I put together a playlist of all Jimmy Buffet songs to run throughout the day. I might as well have been playing Martian music because not one person had ever heard Margaritaville. Even our Mexican beer supplier was not aware of Cinco de Mayo, but they were kind enough to play along and provide some posters and banners and a special price for Sol. Speaking of which, Sol beer outsells Corona 5-1.

We have been up and running with no major meltdowns since ANZAC day. Sales are steadily improving and our first marketing campaign – Burrito Bucks – has been a resounding success. We have tweaked our menu a bit already by adding a variety of Danish pastries for our rapidly growing morning tea trade. I am sure we are the only Mexican restaurant in the world where the quality of our coffee brings ‘em in the door! We have also added a mini burrito to better relate to the traditional Kiwi pie.

It has been quite a ride so far. Things that we take for granted are either just not available or require importing from the States. Highchairs? There is one choice, the cheapo metal and plastic variety. I showed our supplier a picture of a simple wooden chair we used at Mexicali and Baja and got the standard answer: “We can have them custom made.” That has been the case for wooden dining tables, saloon doors, stainless steel tables and even the sweet & sour that we use in margaritas. In fact, during our first week we used all of the sweet & sour in the entire country! We now have our juice and produce purveyors coming up with samples of mixes they can provide so we don’t have to worry about running out. We have had to import taco and tostada shell forms and plastic baskets from the States. Thank goodness JB ordered $30,000 worth of beans to get us started or we would be rolling burritos with baked beans.

We have been sharing our Subaru Legacy for three months now and it has gotten to the point where JB and I need our own wheels. It’s either that or give up grocery shopping and golf. Well, you gotta eat and you gotta play, so after much research we have purchased a Prius. It’s a 2002 and imported from Japan. Well, you might be thinking, all Prius’ are imported from Japan. Nope, this is REALLY from Japan. All of the instructions, buttons and displays are in Japanese. We are hedging our bets against the day that petrol becomes another one of those commodities you can’t get here. We pick it up on Wednesday and then . . . it’s off to the golf course!

Conor’s projector on the outside wall has been a huge hit with rugby fans all along the wharf. I cannot believe how it draws people from the ferries. It’s provided us with an interesting situation, however. The Float bar next door charges a cover to watch rugby, so all of those customers are stopping by our place to watch the game for free. On the other side are the deros from Provedor who have been swilling $3 Heinekens all night and stumble over to watch while drooling on the new glass windbreaks and creating general havoc. Grant from Float is probably not a happy camper, although he hasn’t said anything yet. Any time you cast a wide net you run the risk of getting some bottom feeders, so I’m sure Richard from Provedor doesn’t mind us entertaining his troops.

Next up, Lions and Tacos and Beers – oh my!

Dinner at the White Lady 

Sharing a margarita with Bob & Arlene Mayfield from Redmond

ANZAC Day

Monday is ANZAC Day and we will all finally get a chance to take a breath, have a meeting, and do a little more staff training because we will be closed. It has been a wild ride over the past week or so. Let's see . . . We have had a near drowning, a sign code showdown, a fire evacuation and, biggest and baddest of all was a total plumbing failure. I'll wait for Tyler to tell the story of the near drowning and his heroics. Conor can relay the sign code saga and his coming of age JB-style. The fire evacuation was not such a big deal, other than it disrupted everything for about an hour on a busy weekend evening.

The plumbing. Oh my. Late Thursday night we got a call at home from Conor saying the drain under the steam table was backing up. JB said told him to call a plumber and went back to bed. The phone rings again, Conor was pretty insistent that this was more than a plumber call. All of the drains were backing up in surges. JB walked down to the wharf at about 10:30 pm and I didn't see him again until 4:30 am. He, Mike, Conor and Tyler spent the entire night sucking sewage out of the pipes with the shop vac, using buckets and brooms. There was a major blockage, and we are the fortunates at the end of the line. Security was called, Prince's Wharf Management showed up, the wharf plumbers we pressed into service . . . it was one gigantic mess. In absolute desperation they finally cut the pipe under the wharf to relieve the pressure, even though they had 3 big pump trucks pumping all night long at the entry to the wharf. We had to close on Friday because it took 14 hours for the enviromental cleaners to do their thing and to get the restrooms working again. (You have to have working restrooms if you have a liquor license.) Turns out there are 4 pumps, but one was on the blink. PW Management didn't take care of the problem. I guess they were too busy hasseling Conor over the signs.

We are ready to begin marketing Mexicali Fresh, and will begin distributing "Burrito Bucks" at the University this next week. Nobody knows what Cinco de Mayo is, but we are planning a celebration. There are enough Americans around who will want to party. We are going into the slowest season of the year, but have the British Lions Tour (Rugby) coming in June. When the All Blacks play, everyone says it's like the Super Bowl for weeks. Many of their supporters will be staying on a cruise ship docked off our wharf, and ground-central for the Lions is next door at Float. It is estimated that 15,000 Brits will descend upon Auckland for those 5 weeks. We are looking ahead to some exciting times.

Thanks to everyone for all of the positive wishes - we can feel your vibe all the way down here in Middle Earth.

Hamish and the finished mural. 

Hamish beginning the mural 

Open for Biz

We opened Thursday morning, April 14, 2005. We had some issues with power that prevented opening on Monday or Tuesday, then we opted to do another day of training on Wednesday, so Thursday was the day. We started out slow, then got slammed for lunch and have been going full tilt ever since. All we have done is set out a sandwich board, so all of our business is just locals from the Wharf. That's just fine for now until we get our speed up.

On Wednesday night JB and I went to see the Neville brothers - a concert that we had purchased tickets for over a month ago. We were so tired we almost bagged it, but ended up taking a cab at the last minute - dirty clothes and all. Wow. When Aaron Neville finished with Amazing Grace and a beautiful rendition of Bob Marley, we were both energized.

Malcolm and Mike have been covering the mornings, Tyler and Conor have been covering nights. JB in conquering payroll and the books, I am paying attention to our personal bills for the first time in 2 months, as well as teaching two online classes at COCC. We are getting busier every day, but things are going pretty darned well. All of us have finally gotten a little sleep, and it's starting to have an effect on short-term memory and the bags under the eyes.

We have such a great team. Words just can't do justice to everyone's contribution: Mike, Malcolm, Tyler and Conor. Wow, what a team! JB and I just look at each other and grin.

The Laptop Brigade