Eating Our Way Through The Country

To continue our theme of questions that everyone is definitely interested in, we thought we’d tackle just what your average unemployed hobo eats in New Zealand. Fair warning: backpacking through the country on the cheap precludes eating in most restaurants, so we can’t really knowledgeably comment on the overall quality of NZ restaurants. Like that’ll stop us! We’ve had the occasional takeaways meal, but for the most part we’ve been self-catering, which is by far the more nutritious and cost-effective choice.

What have we been eating? It varies. Whether we’re traveling or staying in one place for a while most of our breakfasts consist of muesli, which is pretty close to granola, but not quite, as it’s perhaps more grain-heavy. Since we’re not European we don’t eat half a loaf of bread each morning for breakfast. We’ve seen it many times on this trip, but it still amazes us every time to see how much bread Euro-backpackers will put away in one sitting with a variety of jams, Nutella (basically chocolate icing), and other spreads. Anyway, muesli travels well, provides heaps of energy, and is much more filling than any other cereal, making it perfect for on-the-go food. We’ve eaten boxes and boxes of the stuff since we’ve gotten here, and I’ll probably have had enough by the end of 2007, but it certainly does the job. When we’re on the road, PB&J makes up a LOT of our lunches, probably 75% of the time. It has been pointed out to us countless times that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are so American, but that doesn’t make them any less delicious! Again it’s high in energy, tasty, and the ingredients will basically never go bad. Bread doesn’t have a chance to go bad on us, as a loaf lasts about 3 days maximum. After much trial and error we found Freya’s, a bread that can put up with a lot of beating, humidity, and other abuse and still keep its fitness. You can’t go cheap on bread. Along with PB&J for lunch, we’re digging the chicken-flavored potato chips here, as well as the chocolate-apricot granola bars. Odd-sounding flavors yes, but they’re more than alright.

For dinner, we’ve tried to eat relatively balanced meals with meat, vege, and a starch, and have been largely successful, I’d say. Since we’re in the land of the lamb, we’ve eaten a fair amount of it so far, but in our experience it’s not like people eat it everyday or anything like that. Seafood is pretty plentiful here, so we’ve had our share of that as well. One thing we’ve missed here is the almost-total absence of turkey, especially in the lunchmeat counter. There’s heaps of ham and other deli meats, but no turkey, which as an American is shocking since we're used to turkey-everything.

Traveling as much as we have, we’ve become much less picky about what we eat. That's not to say we were tremendously picky before, but hunger has a way of working on any reservations you may have previously had. Leeks, parsnips, silverbeet, hummus, and couscous have all made their way into our dinner rotations, and wwoofing and Couchsurfing have been good for introducing new foods to us.

We don’t want to give the impression that we’re starving, though, or that we’re eating a monastic diet of muesli, PB&J, and vegetables everyday, because that’s just way off. On the contrary, we’ve tried just about every type of biscuits (cookies) available in NZ, and there are a lot of types. By far the best biscuit is Krispies, a coconut-flavored shortbread-like biscuit that is seriously addictive. But don’t take our word for it, ask our traveling companions Alex and Marie. We introduced them to Krispies in the beginning of their visit, and we scarcely went a day without having some on hand for the next two weeks. We’ll miss them when we leave here. Also, ice cream is ridiculously plentiful here, with Kiwis being the number two country in the world for per capita ice cream consumption. After seeing their ‘single scoop’ cones, you’ll know why. Less than NZ$2 buys you a cone with at least 3 good scoops, and you don’t even want to know what a large serving buys, it’s insane.

Lest you think that we never eat out, we do occasionally splash out and get food from a takeaways joint, which is basically what it sounds like, a place that serves food for you to take away and get the hell off the premises as soon as possible. From our experience, takeaways places adhere to the same rules everywhere here:

1) They have a small storefront, standing area, kitchen, and order counter, absolutely reeking of frying oil. Your heart will begin to palpitate if you breathe in the fumes too long.

2) They sell fish and chips, hamburgers, other deep-fried fare, and some places double as a Chinese food takeout as well.

3) They are uniformly staffed by surly older Asian women.

4) Fish and chips always comes in old newspaper, hamburgers are usually accompanied by an egg and slice of beetroot – that’s a Kiwi burger, mate!

5) You will pay extra for any accompanying sauces. No free ketchup packets here!

6) There will not usually be any tables, and even if there is one you will not be encouraged to eat there.

7) You will immediately regret eating takeaways food, and the gut-bomb will be intense.

These rules seem to be non-negotiable. Even with the associated complications, you can’t help but make the occasional visit to the takeaways. I love how they refer to these places just as ‘takeaways’, it’s totally confusing in the same way that calling hostels ‘backpackers’ is. We’ve found that we can handle a takeaways place maybe once a month, just long enough to forget how we felt immediately after eating there the last time. Morgan Spurlock wouldn’t have made it a month eating only at takeaways, I shudder to think of such an experiment.

Fish and chips really can be quite excellent, especially if the fish is fresh, the batter is good, and the chips are homemade. NZ has quite a few really nice fish and chips places, but these are still too far and few between, with mediocre grease-laden experiences being the norm as opposed to the exception. Still, great fish and chips is a transcendent meal.

In no way does this look like a gut-bomb waiting to happen.

Along with fish and chips, the other food in the running for national dish has to be the meat pie. They’re little pies the size of a small dish, filled with various meat and meat-like substances, and served nuclear hot at seemingly every store in the country. Pies here are ubiquitous in NZ, way cheap (you can get one at the corner dairy for NZ$1, but I wouldn't recommend it), and must be tremendously bad for you. If you eat more than one a week you’re probably almost certainly setting yourself up for a pie-related complications later in life. But they’re good food after a night drinking, can be really tasty (especially the gourmet ones), and are part of the culture here, so we’ve had quite a few. When we return to the States Becky will probably be happy to never eat another one again. I'll miss them.

I believe this is a beef mince and trans-fat flavored pie, mmm...

Another discovery here for us has been the kebab or souvlaki, whatever you want to call it. This is probably our favorite way to spend money on food, as lamb, veges, chili sauce, and yogurt wrapped in a pita makes an awesome lunch. We’re hoping there are some good kebab places in the next place we live, there’s just gotta be. Well, writing this has gotten me hungry, time for lunch!

I Love This New Plan. I'm Excited To Be A Part Of It!

After much debate, Becky and I have finalized our plans for traveling home. We bought our tickets to NZ last August, and since our return was more than a year out, we didn't have the option to purchase return tickets at the same time. Somewhat amazingly (to us at least), NZ's immigration department didn't insist that we have our return tickets when we arrived, possibly because we had working holiday visas good for an entire year. Maybe the immigration agent was being lax, or perhaps he thought that we looked so conscientious that we'd never abuse the immigration system. Whatever the reason, Becky was as shocked as she was relieved.

Since we arrived we've been on the hunt for cheap return tickets, but never managed to find any anywhere near as cheap as those for our entry flight. I believe we managed to fly from Newark to New Zealand with some nice layovers in LA and Fiji for about $800 each, which is a really pretty good deal, I think. Our original plan was to do a bit of a tour of Australia after leaving New Zealand, but our enthusiasm for that has waned, partly because of the cost of flights there and home, but also because we wouldn't be able to do it as thoroughly as we'd like given money and time constraints.

So enter a new plan. We've just booked tickets for a return in early December, but again with a few choice layovers. We leave New Zealand on December 2nd for Tahiti, which owing to the vagaries of the International Date Line, we arrive on Dec 1st, gaining back the day we lost on the way here. If you're going to get a free day, Tahiti seems to be as good a place as any to do it, no?

After a few days in gorge French Polynesia we're off to San Francisco, since Becky's never been there before. I'm sure it'll be a bit jarring to be in Northern California in the midst of early winter after a few days spent drifting in tropical lagoons, but I sense no one will sympathize there. After a few more days in SF, we'll catch a cross-country flight back. Looking at the current deals, it seems ridiculously cheap for a one-way flight across the country for the days we're looking at. $120 each? We'll take it.

In the midst of our working jaunt in Chch we're definitely getting psyched for Becky's mom's visit, our trip back up north through New Zealand, and especially for Tahiti. Hopefully they do pina coladas there; if not I guess I'll just have to drink a few Hinanos.

Strange Fascinations in Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Christchurch (Aug 1 - 23)

Apologies for the lack of contemporaneous posts lately, but it’s been a quiet few weeks with us here down under. In the beginning of August we finally moved out of Kieran and Belinda’s, where we’d been housesitting for the better part of July, and moved into Christchurch, the metropolis of the South Island. Over the past six months we’ve been in and out of Chch more times than we care to remember; all roads in the South Island seem to lead back to here. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it’s a fine little city.

Christchurch as seen from the Port Hills, notice the Southern Alps in the distance

So for the past few weeks we’ve been working, trying to make a couple bucks before Becky’s mom arrives in mid-September. Linda and her friend Don are set to visit for a few weeks and tour the northern part of the South Island with us. At the moment we’re in the midst of working, planning for their visit, and trying to get our act together to head back north through the country in the spring, housesit in Auckland for a wee while, and then we’re homeward bound!

For work Becky’s been working through a temp agency and landed a job with the Chch Convention Centre, helping to set up, break down, and serve conventions and other groups. I’ve been doing a bit of work for yet another brewery, Three Boys, as they move facilities from a one-man show at a small warehouse space to a larger space across the street. It’s a good excuse to try their beers and to see how all the parts of the brewery come apart and go back together again. Becky is definitely working much more than me in this arrangement, which as you can guess she’s totally thrilled about. On more than a few days my most important job has been as a chauffeur.

Our living situation is pretty good as we’re renting a room in a ranch house in Upper Riccarton, which is a bit west of the city centre. It’s definitely better than living in a hostel and is much cheaper to boot. It’s in a pretty good neighborhood near the university and a bunch of shops, and the house is alright as well, although like most Kiwi houses relies on small space heaters and seems devoid of insulation. Currently the propane heater in the living room is empty, making the room pretty much unusable at night, especially since the couches are leather. Freezing!

Our sweet crib for about six weeks

Our flatmate Phil was looking for temporary flatmates until the middle of September, which was perfect for us. He’s a flight attendant in his mid-30’s and before we moved in was sharing the house with his girlfriend. They had a fight and split a little while back, leaving Phil in the house alone until he moves out in September, necessitating renting the room out to us. They must still be amicable because he let her stay for a week when she had a bad case of the flu, whereupon he caught it and stayed in his room for the entire next week, though we’re not sure if he was more sick or bumming. If nothing else this has been an interesting living experience for us.

Becky poses with one of the few Kiwis you'll see during the daytime

What does one (or two?) do in Chch? Since Becky’s been working full-on we haven’t done much besides visiting the beach a few times, going to the movies, and getting around to all the different areas of the city on various excursions. We've been fortunate to get out on some gorgeous "winter" days here, doing some hikes out at Godley Head and in the hills south of Chch where the famed "Sign of the Kiwi" and "Sign of the Takahe" tearooms are perched. We especially recommend the hike around the Sign of the Kiwi. An invigorating hike with gorgeous views followed by a huge ice cream makes for a good day in New Zealand, we reckon.

View of Lyttelton Harbor from the Crater Rim hike near the Sign of the Kiwi

We went out once to the city’s excellent Belgian Beer Café, where we ordered two surprisingly large beers – it was a tasty but pricey round of drinks at NZ$27. Ouch. We’re currently waiting the combination of a good snow before Becky has off on a weekday so that we can go to the main skiing area, Mt. Hutt, before we leave the area. Hutt’s expensive but it does has chairlifts, qualifying it as deluxe around these parts.

Beers as big as our heads...delicious

Since it’s so close to the sea Chch doesn’t really get that cold of a winter, with temperatures rarely ever going below freezing at night. Though paradoxically, we sometimes miss the Vermont winter where people heat their houses reasonably, and you don’t need to wear a fleece and thermals to sit in the living room. Well, wish us the best in keeping warm over the next month as you enjoy the dog days of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and if anything interesting happens we’ll try and let you know, later!

Driving Like A Kiwi

We’ve been thinking about it for awhile, and for the sake of this post, let's say we're sure the one question burning in everyone’s mind is: how do we find driving in New Zealand? And if you weren’t wondering before, aren’t you now? And after all that prompting you’re still not wondering even yet, why don’t you do it just to humor us? C’mon...

Since you ask, we’ve found the driving in New Zealand to be pretty easy on the whole, despite the fact that, in the British fashion, they drive on the left, and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car here. Given how long we’re visiting NZ, buying a car and driving through the country is a necessity, given how rural much of the country is and how little public transport there is outside of the few big cities. Plus, the freedom afforded by having your own set of wheels is just as significant in NZ as it is in the States. Bus tours just can’t compare (on a side note, and this may only amuse us, but every time we see an Kiwi Experience bus, who are infamous for being rowdy piss-tours of 20-year olds through NZ, we feel compelled to shout out “Whoo! Kiwi Experience, whoo!”)

Getting used to driving on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road takes a bit of getting used to, but isn’t that bad really, it just takes some concentration. For my part, I refrained from texting people while driving for our first few weeks in the country. Most tourist accidents result from the tourist entering the wrong lane on an empty rural stretch of road, driving along for a wee while, and then coming around a blind turn to find a surprised Kiwi coming head-on in their lane. With two of us around to warn each other, we’ve been able to avoid such a calamity. In fact, we might have been a bit too vigilant as passengers in the beginning. To wit, when we first got here we found that being a passenger on the left side was quite odd, as we constantly felt like the wheels on that side of the car were going to go off the road. Our first month featured many “Right, right!” yells before we got over that one, thankfully, since we were fast getting on each other’s nerves.

Me driving on the right side of the car. Is this blowing your mind?

To date Ron Burgundy, our hot 1992 Subaru (say sue-BAR-ooo to avoid confusing the locals here) Legacy, has performed really well for us (knock on wood), squiring us through about 20K km so far with very few problems. Ron doesn’t have a manual transmission, which is good since that might’ve been a bit hairy in our first few months here, especially for Becky. Somewhat confusingly, in NZ the turn signal lever is on the opposite side of the wheel as we know it, resulting in an unintentionally clean windshield for a lot of our turns. Because of this, I expected that the manual gear shifts might be backwards as well. However, they are the same as in the States, with 1^st gear in the upper left, which seems a bit awkward for some reason. Luckily the clutch pedal is in the same place.

Crossing the street also really screws you up at first here. I’ve had “look left-right-left” when crossing the street hammered into my brain for my entire life, and reversing that concept freaked us out the first few days we spent in Auckland. Seriously, we were doing triple and quadruple-takes crossing the streets there, running across mostly empty streets because we were convinced cars were going to just materialize behind us, making exotic turns with which we were unfamiliar.

As for the roads, we’re currently on the Canterbury Plain on the South Island, where the roads have the luxury of being relatively straight and flat. And paved (or tar-sealed in the local lingo), which is nice as well, as when you get out in the sticks a surprising amount of the roads are of the rugged, gravel variety. One thing that is nice is that there’s very little motorway here, probably less than 50 miles of true Interstate-like highway in the whole country. It really isn’t needed beyond Auckland and other big cities, and most of the main highway is two-lane, with the occasional passing lane thrown in. As an example of how un-American NZ highways are, the main highway in the South Island which runs along the sea between Kaikoura and Christchurch has fords to allow rain to run off the mountains above. Not the kind of Fords you’re used to seeing on the road in America. Rimshot! Thank you, I’ll be here all year.

Crossing a river, NZ-style!

Once you get out of the large metropolitan areas, especially on the North Island, the roads turn ungodly twisty on the hills, and in a refreshing change, are largely un-guardrailed. We’ve determined that this is actually probably how NZ most effectively enforces its Warrant of Fitness (WoF) auto regulation. If your brakes aren’t good enough to pass the WoF, they sure as hell aren’t good enough to stop you coming down a mountain pass at 50 kph through the switchback-laden roads. What might be even more amazing is how fast Kiwis love to drive through them. We’ve been passed so many times on ridiculously curvy and steep roads that we can only conclude the country is full of F1-racer wannabes, or that this country has an amazing resistance to motion sickness.

It may seem counterintuitive, but trust us, the key is to take the curves as fast as possible.

In a possibly-apocryphal tale from Matt Pedersen’s father, we’ve heard that the crews that built the roads in NZ were paid by the corner. If you drove the roads here for even a week, you’d be inclined to agree that that was plausible, especially after seeing numerous examples of relatively flat road sections having extra turns where they don’t seem necessary. At this point, we find that curvy road signs are largely superfluous. Some of them look more like a question mark than any road you’d be familiar with. Quick test: are you driving on a straight road? If yes, then you probably aren’t in NZ. Therefore, we humbly propose that NZ change its flag to a Union Jack with a curvy road sign. We kid because we love, but seriously, that wouldn’t be a bad idea. Or if you really wanted to go all the way, have a sheep with a kiwi on its back, holding a rugby ball and jumping over the curvy road sign – even better.

New Zealand does have one truly confounding local traffic oddity: the Gentleman’s turning rule, introduced about 20 years ago to confuse everyone not from here. Basically, if you’re making a left-hand turn and an oncoming car is turning right across traffic, you’re obligated to stop and allow him to go ahead of you, ostensibly for the purposes of keeping traffic moving more smoothly. If you don’t allow him to go, he’ll likely crash into you because he was expecting you to yield to him. For our first few months here, I’d guess about 95% of the Kiwis we met felt obliged to explain the rule to us, even after we swore we understood it. We’ve seen ample drawings, illustrations, walkthroughs, and more than one example utilizing salt shakers as they’ve endeavored to clarify it for us. The GTR is also more than a little unpopular; if we’ve met anyone who’s been in favor of the rule, I certainly don’t remember it. The opinion of Kiwis we’ve met seems to be that it’s a silly rule and NZ is not ahead of the rest of the world on this one.

As a result of the GTR, I’m completely paranoid, looking all over the place for someone who might be turning anytime I’m making a turn. In one of my first weeks here I did remember to wait for the other driver to turn, and in response he just looked at me with a completely puzzled look as to why I wasn’t turning. At that point I thought, “Ha, newbie!”, which I’ll probably have to file under: disturbing signs you’ve gone native…