Green with NZ

Fin

2008-01-11T13:12:00.000-05:00

So needless to say at this point (not that it's gonna stop me), our travels through NZ and elsewhere have come to a close. It’s hard to believe that the year’s over already; like all things like this, it seems to have gone by so quickly. Since we’ve returned home at the same time of the year that we left for NZ, it’s often felt surreal these past few weeks – did we really go to NZ for a whole year? But then I remember specific moments of our trip, like sitting on the beach enjoying the early Auckland summer, or bottling beer at Brew Moon with Kieran, and I remember, yeah, we were there!

It is a bit of a bummer to return to an east coast winter after the warm early summer in NZ and the tropical heat of Tahiti, but we’re slowly getting used to it. Central PA welcomed us back with a couple of ice storms in our first week back, which I wouldn’t say was a terrific way to get us excited for our post-peripatetic phase, but as they say in Papeete’s roughest neighborhoods, "c’est la vie mofo."

Looking back on all the experiences we had and the awesome (a terrible and overused word, I know, but whatever) people we met in our year of traveling, we can only say that it was absolutely worth the cost and effort, and if we had to do it all over again, we definitely would. On a second run we'd obviously be a bit hipper to the scene, but then again, the discovery and new experiences were what made the trip as great as it was. We'll miss NZ, our year of unscheduled randomness, writing the blog, and sharing our trip with the internet, but are looking forward to our next adventure: reintroducing ourselves to gainful employment.

Before leaving America, I had some anxiety about various facets of our trip – would I be miserable without the familiar cultural touchstones of the US for a year? Could we make the trip without going broke? Would we be able to stand each other’s company nearly all day, everyday for a year? Would our lack of pre-defined plans leave us stranded or unable to figure out what to do next? Fortunately for us, we found we could live without much US pop culture or sports (NZ rugby filled in quite nicely), we were able to be frugal while still eating reasonably, Becky only went slightly nuts at times due to the intense amount of quality time together, and finally, through luck or skill (probably mostly luck) we were usually able to smoothly transition between places and activities. We attribute most of our luck to our travel karma, which is not being repaid at the moment, but which we fully intend to do, perhaps when we get an apartment.

The other day, I was thinking about our trip, the things we did, and how it’s been difficult for me to sum up our experiences to people who’ve asked “So what did you do?” without chastising them for not reading the blog, or offering some answer that didn’t seem to fulfill the question. And when I thought about it and tried to answer, sometimes I'd feel defensive because I wasn't able to make everything sound like the most amazing thig ever - even with all the things that we did do on the trip, you could argue that a good deal of time wasn’t really productive, and so why bother? But then as I was reading through the section of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance where Pirsig is expounding on his definition of gumption, a passage seemed particularly applicable to our experience:

You see it often in people who return from long, quiet fishing trips. Often they're a little defensive about having put so much time to "no account" because there's no intellectual justification for what they've been doing. But the returned fisherman usually has a peculiar abundance of gumption, usually for the very same things he was sick to death of a few weeks before. He hasn't been wasting time. It's only our limited cultural viewpoint that makes it seem so.

I don’t pretend to know exactly what he’s talking about all the time in the book, which I think is a typical reaction, but the above paragraph resonated with me, as it didn’t feel like we were wasting our time at all, even if we weren't doing huge things all the time. Even without being able to adequately explain it, it was the trip we wanted to take. And in the post-game analysis, it was really satisfying to me, which I think is what’s most important.

If anyone reading this is thinking about such a trip, allow us to encourage you as much as possible. Cost really needn’t be a backbreaking factor – we spent less than $10k together, and could’ve spent much less, or worked a lot more, or done an abbreviated version of our trip, and still got to have an amazing time. We met heaps of people who hitchhiked through the country safely, took buses, slept at campsites, or wwoofed even more than we did, and by all accounts were having a blast. If you’re willing to be flexible and/or do damage to your long-term health by eating Ramen everyday, it can be pretty damn cheap. So we recommend that you get out and travel already (especially if you decide to go to NZ because of our blog, because it would be tremendously gratifying to our egos). Having exhausted our list of things to say, this is likely to be our last post here. If so, good night and God bless!

Additional Friendly Hostel Reviews (South Island)

2007-12-30T13:27:00.000-05:00

MARLBOROUGH, NELSON

Bayview Backpackers, Picton

Set in Waikawa, just up the road from Picton, Bayview is a reasonable backpackers, but not as nice as their rating had led us to believe. Our double room was pretty good, I had no complaints there. But there should probably be a better bathroom set-up; in the high season I imagine it seems quite full with only two toilet/shower combination bathrooms to go around. It isn’t a huge place, but there’s probably not enough facilities. Also, Becky thought it was a bit of a mess when we got there, though who doesn’t like homemade bread everyday? Thus, 6.5.

Leeways Backpackers, Blenheim

We’ve got mixed thoughts on Leeways. One on hand, our double room was ridiculously well-appointed for $40 total, with a mini fridge, TV, and DVD player, and was quite nice in general. One the other, the hostel is located on a somewhat industrial, busy road, and the set-up is a bit odd as you have to walk through the shower room to the backyard. Parts were nice but other parts not so much. They did have a ping-pong table, which is a definite plus. Update: we find ourselves here in the winter to do some pruning work, this is definitely a long-termers place, with plenty of people here to prune over the winter, almost all Germans. Bumping up the grade from 5.5 to 6.5ish, but beware it will likely be packed!

Watson’s Way, Renwick

A really nice purpose-built backpackers in Renwick, it was nearly empty when we were there in winter, but could see that it would be really nice in summer as well. Kitchen was spacious, clean, and well-appointed, a large lounge with many chairs and TV, and the grounds were well-kept, looked like there would lots of good places to chill outside in warm weather. They choose not to allow long-termers, which almost certainly keeps their rating up, but their volumes low. Guess they would rather not have that sort of crowd and vibe. Room was a little small for having 6 beds, if there were other people I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much, so consequently it’s a 7.5.

The Bug, Nelson

A warm and inviting hostel located in a house on the outskirts of Nelson city, there’s a lot to like about the Bug. Clean, well-maintained, and attractive in the house, a nice outside BBQ/picnic area, free (if glacial) internet, nice kitchen, and good rooms, from what we experienced. Downsides are the lack of much dining space and a really bad layout for parking. Very nice, but we rate it a little lower than most other backpackers seem to: 8

GOLDEN BAY

The Barn, Maharau

Backpackers/campsite located just a few hundred meters from the entrance of Abel Tasman National Park, which is quite nice. Double rooms were really quite nice, dorms didn’t look as fun since they were right next to kitchen and people were walking through there. Kitchen was fairly nice, nothing spectacular, but location at the park is main draw here, and is good for that. 7.5

The Nook, Pahora

Situated on the road from Takaka to the northern end of the Abel Tasman, The Nook features a hodge-podge of accommodations ranging from a bach-type backpackers to a strawbale cottage to a actual housetruck that sleeps 4. We stayed in the backpackers and had the place to ourselves. Kitchen was good, though the sink is small and tough to clean things in, the dining area was pretty good, living room was cozy (especially with the fire, which got nice and toasty), though it might be a little small with a full house. Bathrooms were also nice and clean, and rooms were good with only doubles and twins in the main house – no cramped dorms here. The real prize here is the setting out in the middle of Golden Bay paddocks, with a property that oozes charm and cozyness. 8

Shambhala, Takaka/Collingwood

A remote Golden Bay backpackers with a bit of a Buddhist twist. Nice place with cool vibe, uses solar power and rainwater for power and water, so that presents its usual challenges. Nice and clean, with great location set off the road several Ks, meters from a rocky beach and its entrance is almost directly across from the famous Mussel Inn. Enjoyed Shambhala a lot. 9.5

The Innlet, Collingwood

As you’d expect in Golden Bay, Innlet’s a wee bit rustic, though charming and cruisey. Set on the road just a bit north of Collingwood at the edge of Kahurangi NP and very close to the beach, it’s got a great location and features a substantial bushwalk in the back of the property. Nice big kitchen, clean and attractive rooms, cozy fireplace in the generous living room, and attractive grounds, complete with streamside hot tubs fashioned from bathtubs. John, the host, is also happy to chat and recommend things in the area, which we liked. 8

KAIKOURA

Adelphi Lodge, Kaikoura

On the whole it was an uninspiring stay at Adelphi Lodge for us. It’s a pretty large hostel, with a bit of a rooming house/Barton Fink in the South Pacific kind of feel. Large kitchen, and really big lounge/TV room, which I thought was pretty good. Also enjoyed the hot tub. Location is good, in the middle of Kaikoura’s downtown, with off-street parking, but the train rolls by several times, very loudly during the night, which is not great. Overall, eh. 6.5

Dusky Lodge, Kaikoura

Located on the highway coming into Kaikoura from the north, it shares a building with a Thai restaurant, which is a bit unusual. Our dorm was nice and clean enough, if a bit spare, though not overcrowded. Kitchen really wasn’t that nice, which was a bit of a surprise since the rest of the common areas looks pretty attractive. Nice wood fires throughout the building kept it warm and cozy in winter, and we took advantage of the hot tub and free breakfast (during winter only). Probably is a 7, but could see giving it an 8 possibly.

Sunrise Lodge, Kaikoura

This is definitely the best place we’ve stayed in in Kaikoura, which isn’t saying heaps as we weren’t impressed by the other places, but it’s still pretty nice. The sleeping quarters are set in a purpose-built building behind the office, which lies on the main road through town, and like every other hostel, seems to be located just yards from the train tracks. Still, not ridiculously loud, so that was alright. Kitchen and bathrooms were good and well-maintained, and the beds and linens were more than satisfactory. The hosts are a hands-on German or Dutch couple, and they help to make the place even more cozy. 8

CANTERBURY

Hanmer Backpackers, Hanmer Springs

A nice, cozy backpackers in scenic, if sleepy, Hanmer Springs. Run by a friendly newcomer to the backpackers business, it’s a solid, if unspectacular hostel. Nothing really exceptional, but good vibe that we enjoyed. 8

Le Gite, Hanmer Springs

A small, cruisey, well-kept backpackers a few minutes of Hanmer Springs proper, it’s a small collection of buildings in a residential neighborhood. Really pretty small and homey with a nice kitchen and cozy common area, the wood fire was quite good on a cold night in Hanmer. Would definitely stay there again, our share room had good beds and it was only a 5-10 minute walk downtown and to the hot pools. 8.5

Marine Backpackers, Sumner

A pretty sizable hostel located a block from the beach in the Christchurch suburb of Sumner. It’s also a bottle store and bar and can get rather loud and busy, especially on weekend nights. During the day and evening we really enjoyed this hostel, as there are two kitchens and a nice lounge area on the first floor, along with a sizable patio/beer garden for BBQing. However, this is not a great place to get a good night’s rest, as the bedding is pretty low-grade (flat pillows, thin mattresses, squeaky beds), noise from the bar is highly audible throughout the second floor, and some of the rooms face the bar’s bright sign, making for tough sleeping. As a result, it’s only a 6.5, and I probably wouldn’t stay here again but for the sweet location.

Canterbury House, Christchurch

A sprawling, medium-sized backpackers on Bealey Ave just north of the city center, downtown is only a 15-minute walk away, which is nice. The atmosphere in the hostel was rather odd, like being at a retirement home or your grandfolks’ house, probably as a result from being owned by an older gentleman, had to be in his 60s. Two Asian women, one who seemed to be his wife, run the place during the day, and it’s a pretty sedate place, except for the Muzak and Christian music that was on most of the time. Beds were nice and everything was clean and well-kept, which was a plus. We were the only ones staying there at the time (early winter) but almost definitely wouldn’t stay there again, weird feel. 6.5

Dorset House, Christchurch

Dorset’s a bright, modern, and spacious hostel located in the northwest area of the city centre, directly across from the park, so it really has a winner of a location. Kitchen was clean and well-sized, bathrooms were good and numerous, lounge was large, with TV and videos, internet, pool table, and plenty of couches, and bedrooms were also just fine. Probably the best hostel we’ve stayed at in Chch so far, which is good, but they don’t put the heat on, which is not great. 7

The Old Countryhouse, Christchurch

The OC’s (don’t call it that) a cute little multi-building hostel located east of the city in Chch, probably Richmond or Shirley somewhere. It’s got a set of attractive buildings with a well-manicured lawn set behind an unprepossessing set of gates in a working class neighborhood. The buildings are nice, kitchen and bathroom facilities definitely adequate, but the beds in the bedrooms are substandard: the mattresses in our dorm were hard as rock and the “linens” consisted of a thin blanket, which was quite lame. The bedding was so lame it makes this place a 7.

Bon Accord Backpackers, Akaroa

Bon Accord is one of Akaroa’s set of downtown hostels, and is composed of several small one-floor buildings in an attractive property next to the stream running through town. In our building the kitchen and bathroom were quite small, which wasn’t a problem in the off-season when we visited, but would be an issue if it were full. Nice little lounge area and the slippers on the bed were an unusual, nice touch, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and guess that they’re clean. 7.5

Chez La Mer Backpackers, Akaroa

Located in downtown Akaroa, Chez La Mer gets a high rating in the 80s from BBH, but not sure exactly why. It does have a great location and is a cute house, but way too small for the volume of travelers. Even in the off-season we found the living room packed, which needs only 5-6 people to do so, and there was nowhere to store food in the house. Bathrooms and bedrooms were fine, nothing special but good. They mean well, but just too small to rate higher than a 6.5

Onuku Farm Hostel, Akaroa

Onuku is located about halfway up a mountainside 6km south of Akaroa, so it’s pretty much in the sticks. Great location when the weather is good, you can get awesome views of the waterway. Offers dolphin swims and kayaks for reasonable prices, other backpackers say they’re great trips. Pretty cruisey vibe at Onuku, somewhat hippie, but the lodge isn’t set up great for lots of people to hang out at the same time. Dorms were OK, cleanliness was good overall, showers all seem to be outside, so if it’s really cold they might not be much fun. Good spot overall, weather wasn’t great during our visit, which was a bummer, but in great weather this place would rock. 8.5

Mountain House, Arthur’s Pass

The tiny town of Arthur’s Pass, really a glorified refueling place between Chch and Greymouth, supports just two backpackers, and of the two Mountain House had the higher ranking, and so we stopped there. Not a bad little modern purpose-built joint, with a number of dorms and other rooms, slightly impersonal but BIG kitchen and dining area, what looked to be heaps of toilets/showers, and a cozy lounge on set above it all on a second floor. Probably your best bet if you need to stay in the Pass, the Mountain House is more than competent and efficient, if a little sterile. Sterile beats the funk in a place with 20+ beds, though. 8

Buscot Station, Omarama

A hostel located in a house on a farm out in the sticks of Omarama, got a very high BBH rating, 93%. It’s pretty nice, but given the number of people staying here, there just aren’t enough in the way of facilities to accommodate people well. With an average-sized kitchen, dining room, and living room, having 20 people stay here at the same time seems a bit excessive. Still, it’s in a nice location with pretty scenery, but it needs bigger and better facilities to handle this much traffic. More like a 7.5, I think.

Tailor-Made Tekapo, Lake Tekapo

Tailor-Made is a bit of a sprawling place, taking up three houses and an another guest lodge in a residential neighborhood above Lake Tekapo. Fairly ordinary accommodations, clean and bright lounge and dining areas, if a bit utilitarian. Nicely maintained yards with hammocks and such. Becky really enjoyed the reading lights, a nice thoughtful little touch which is worth so much. 7

Empire Hotel Backpackers, Oamaru

This is really an underrated place, we thought, especially given the size of the joint. Located in what looks to be an old boarding house (or something similar) in downtown Oamaru, the rooms were nice, warm, and clean, bathrooms were numerous and clean, the kitchens large, and the internet free. It also had a TV room, what more can you ask of a big hostel? We liked it so much we stopped there twice. On our first visit we saw (or rather, heard) blue penguins in a nearby garage, sadly by our second visit they were gone, as one had been runover, bummer. 8.5

SOUTHLAND

Happy Inn Backpackers, Milton

Perhaps the only reason to stay in Milton is the Happy Inn, run by an eccentric, gregarious, juggle-happy, bike-crazy, bread-baking, Buddhist Swiss, Tony, who will not allow his guests to wash their dishes nor seemingly go without a moment of conversation. A very friendly and outgoing chap, Tony regaled us with heaps of stories of biking across Asia, setting up circus tents in Australia, his Buddhist beliefs, and tales of backpackers gone before. He also taught juggling and washed our dishes after we had cooked dinner, a backpacking first for us! It can get a bit much what with him talking so much, but it’s generally fun and entertaining, and overshadows anything else at the hostel, which he converted from an old gym years ago. The lounge is warm and cozy with heaps of books and music, bathrooms are OK, bedrooms were clean and suitable, but your opinion of Happy Inn will largely rest on how much you enjoyed Tony. Might be best when there’s a few other people to distract his attraction, wish we could’ve gotten him to fire up the sauna… Still - 8

Falls Backpackers, Purakaunui

Situated way out in the middle of nowhere in the Catlins, this is a homey hostel located in a separate house on a farm. Actually it’s down the road from the Purakaunui Falls, so not hard to get to, though that doesn’t mean it’s near anything else. The bedrooms were really nice, and the doubles were huge, the size of master bedrooms, and the place could easily be a B&B. The bathrooms are also really quite nice and well-apportioned. Unfortunately the kitchen fails the place, as it’s really too small to accommodate more than a few people at a time, and the lounge falls prey to this as well. Luckily we had the place to ourselves when we were there in the off-season, and so really enjoyed our stay and the ability to stretch out fully there. Free eggs! 8

Waikawa Holiday Lodge, Waikawa

Waikawa is basically sticks-ville, Catlins, so if you’re looking for small-town isolation, this is a good place to do it. The Holiday Lodge is located right across the street from the notable Anglican church, and it’s really best if you think of it as a rustic bach, rather than a hostel, as it’s just a small house with 3 bedrooms and another double in a small adjoining building. Everything in the house is in good enough condition, though it is quite small and in need of an update. On cold nights the fire is quite cozy though, and it can be a good base to explore the Catlins area for a day or two. 6.5

Dolphin Lodge Backpackers, Curio Bay

Curio Bay is an isolated beach in the Catlins, and there’s definitely some amazing natural beauty there, with Hector’s Dolphins, yellow-eyed penguins, and the petrified forest on the ocean. Be sure to buy food in Invercargill, Dunedin, or your starting point before going there, as there’s about one camp store, a takeaways, and a restaurant in the general area. The backpackers is a nice, cozy beach affair, with good views of Porpoise Bay, a spacious kitchen and lounge area, and a number of dorm rooms. Because of the surf and the lessons offered by the hostel manager, it’s popular with both experienced surfers and wanna-bes. Cool, cruisey atmosphere and it’s a good place to chill for a few days away from the hustle and bustle of Invercargill or the like… 7

Southern Comfort Backpackers, Invercargill

A hostel consisting of two houses across the street from each other in a nice residential neighborhood near Queen’s Park in Invercargill. Nice location and the exterior/gardens of the houses were very attractive, in particular. Interiors were also in good condition and facilities appeared to be well-cared for, nice hostel to stay at, with fireplaces in lounges as well. 8

Kackling Kea Lodge, Invercargill

A pretty nice little backpackers on the outskirts of Invercargill, Kackling Kea is literally the larger part of its owner’s home. Good bathrooms from what I could see, and for its size it looked to have a large enough dining/lounge-type area. Free bread in the morning was nice, though not particularly flavorful. Dorms were nice, clean, and the heater generated enough heat in the night. Probably would choose Southern Comfort again if we had to spend another night in Invercargill, but still give Kea an 8.

Stewart Island Backpackers (non-BBH), Stewart Island

Not sure what’s going on with this place, but we certainly didn’t love it. Double was only a couple bucks more than dorms, which probably means dorms are overpriced. We got the double, not a brilliant room or building by any means though. The facility seems purpose-built to reverberate and carry sound, we heard every cough, yell, and especially slammed door in the building. Kitchen is OK but a little ghetto, lounge is spacious but depressing. Bathrooms are outside, a bit below average especially in winter. A high school group was loudly banging around when we visited, which depresses our rating, so it’s not recommended. 4

Barnyard Backpackers, Te Anau

Almost feel bad giving this a pretty mediocre rating, but staying there in winter is not really a treat. Beautiful scenery at its location on a deer farm outside of Te Anau, and the main office/kitchen/dining area/owner’s living quarters is really a great building with character. However kitchen is industrial and charmless, it’s a good hike to your room from the main room, and heating is insufficient in the rooms in the winter. Just enough negatives to make us not choose Barnyard again in the future, could be nice in summer though. 7

Milford Lodge, Milford Sound

The only budget accommodations in Milford, the Lodge is a large utilitarian hostel, with outdoor access to the facilities and rooms. Kitchen is large and useful, and bathrooms are pretty good with great hot water for the showers. The lounge is also good and spacious, plenty of room to spare there. However the power goes off at 11 or so, which includes the heaters in the rooms. In the middle of winter this is really unfortunate, as it can get below freezing quite easily in the Fiordland, making for a miserable night trying to sleep. Thus the Lodge only gets a 6.5.

QUEENSTOWN, WANAKA

Holly’s Backpackers, Wanaka

A small-medium-sized backpackers located in a large house in a quiet, older residential neighborhood in Wanaka, a few blocks away from the lake and the main shops. Good location and it’s a nice, bright, well-kept hostel with very friendly management, who we got to know well since we stayed for a long time, over a week. We stayed in an 8-bed dorm in the basement, which was not bad despite the number of people in it. Everything seemed to be clean, nicely maintained, and cheery, vibe was good when we were there. Apparently they get large numbers of Japanese skiers in the winter, so keep that in mind for booking then, if you can get a bed. 8

Matterhorn (non-BBH), Wanaka

A medium-sized hostel right off the heart of town in Wanaka, Matterhorn is OK but certainly not great. Our dorm room was adequate, but sleep was ruined by snoring Aussies and sounds reverberated throughout the building. Kitchen was OK, but there wasn’t much room for eating and lounging for the amount of people in a building of its size. Bathrooms were OK, our bad sleep helps to give this place a 5.

Poplar Lodge, Arrowtown

A small, homey little backpackers situated about a block from ‘downtown’ Arrowtown, Poplar is a nice, relatively quiet hostel spread out over two buildings on a sleepy residential street. Bathrooms were nice, kitchen well-appointed, and rooms seemed clean, not too cramped, and well-kept. Recommended for getting away from the Q-Town hustle-bustle. 8

Deco Backpackers, Queenstown

A sprawling, warren-like hostel located in the hills above Queenstown, near the Gondola, Deco Backpackers was a pretty good value in Queenstown. Though it calls itself ‘Deco’ they are but few Art Deco flourishes on any of the buildings, with utilitarian backpacker facilities more the standard. Facilities are good, with decent bathrooms, sizable kitchen with lots of heating elements, heaps of refrigerators, and a pretty nice lounge/dining area. Given the number of guests, dining area could be a bit bigger, but seems to be no room for that. Our room was a twin, which was nice enough for the money. Would stay again, especially because of the free wifi, which is quite a good feature. 7/8

WEST COAST (aka the Promised Land of hostels)

Beaconstone, Charleston

We really enjoyed Beaconstone, located in Charleston just a bit south of Westport and set in the bush about 5 minutes off the highway. The hosts, Grae and Nancy were really gracious and conversational, the place was immaculate and quite small, and they obviously put a lot of care into building and maintaining it. Also, Beaconstone was eco-friendly as it was off the grid, had composting toilets, and used solar power. A really relaxing and cool place to stay. 10

The Old Slaughterhouse, Hector

Billed as “the best hostel in the world” from a hostel survey, I don’t know if was the best hostel ever, but it was really quite nice. It’s got a tremendous view of the Tasman Sea owing to its location halfway up a mountain from the highway along the ocean. The Slaughterhouse requires a 10-minute hoof pretty much uphill, so you need to scrutinize what you take up with you, but the views and hospitality are well worth, we thought. David and Ina, the couple that own and live in the hostel, were really friendly and fun to talk to, the building is inviting and beautiful, and as I already mentioned the views are million-dollar. Becky really enjoyed the dogs as well. Huge recommendation. 9.5. A second visit six months later only confirmed our earlier opinion. Perhaps some people won’t appreciate the unheated rooms or the walk to the bathroom, but we don’t mind. Has to be a 10.

Rongo Lodge, Karamea

Another really good west coast backpackers. Rongo is a bit different from the first two as it’s set in Karamea so it doesn’t boast great views or a gorgeous building like the previous two, but the atmosphere is really what makes Rongo special. Described by Beaconstone’s owner, Grae (who no one would confuse with a square) as really hippy, we figured Rongo would be eccentric and fun, and it really was. The owners are quite chill, and have built Rongo to have a really friendly, peaceful vibe, and it comes across well when you stay there. Half the people we met there said they “planned to spend one night, and ended up spending four” as they enjoyed the atmosphere so much, not to mention the 4^th night was free. Rongo has its own little radio station, always broadcasting, driftwood fires in the parking lot every night, parties most nights, and its not uncommon for travelers to do dinners together and with the staff. Not the greatest facilities ever, but free (with donation) wifi was great, the atmosphere is terrific, and you’ll feel at home pretty quickly at Rongo. 8.5

Te Nikau, Punakaiki

Yet another nice backpackers, Te Nikau is a bit bigger than the others we’ve stayed at, but still nice in its own way. Located right off the highway in Punakaiki, its set in the bush, and consists of a main lodge and smaller lodges. We stayed at one of the smaller lodges, which was a self-contained sleeping quarters, kitchen, and bathroom. The kitchen was basically a greenhouse, which was different, but nice, as it was sunny but kept warmth in, which was good since it got so chilly and damp in the bush at night. Surprisingly good night’s sleep in the dorm, given how many people were in our room, but it was all good. Te Nikau appeared to have a small army of woofers, which was probably necessary given how big their area of land was and the multiple buildings to clean. Really pretty nice place overall. 8.5. Updated: stayed in another of the buildings with Marie and Alex, a bit different, not in the forest but the kitchen was bigger and better, reiterate our previous ranking.

The Old Church, Ross

I guess this place is an old church, but it doesn’t really appear to be so, especially from the inside. From the outside, it looks like an old house, but that doesn’t really matter. Located right off the highway next to a river in Ross, which is really not close to anything of big interest, which probably hurts it a bit. It does have a nice outdoor area, free laundry, nice-sized kitchen, good lounge, and huge collection of albums to play, which is a nice feature. Overall a good place, it seems to fit an 80% place just right. 8

Glow Worm Cottages, Franz Josef

A larger hostel, probably with 50-60 beds, owned by the same group that owns Adelphi Lodge in Kaikoura, along with some other hostels. Like Adelphi, The Far Side is prevalent, and there again is free soup and a hot tub. Seems to be arranged like a normal motel with rooms circling a motor courtyard. Pretty cheap at $19 with BBH card for a dorm bed, it’s really a bit big for what we like, but it’s what’s available around here. A bit better than Adelphi, but just OK. 5.5

Ivory Tower Backpackers, Fox Glacier

A large hostel in Fox Glacier, the only one in town so it’s not like there’s a lot of choice. When we were there in winter, we found it pretty cramped in the kitchen and dining area, which were full of lots of other stuck travelers. The lounge had a bad odor, the heaters in the room were really bright but didn’t stay on for very long, and the bathrooms weren’t kept up very well. Showers were also iffy at best. Barely average backpackers. 6

Some Friendly Hostel Reviews (North Island)

2007-12-23T17:15:00.000-05:00

As we traveled through NZ this year, we wrote down some thoughts on each backpackers we stayed at so that we could rate them later as part of the BBH (Better Budget Hostels) rating system, partly because we are such civically-minded travelers but mostly because we had copious free time. With our SiteMeter hit counter, we’ve seen that the majority of visitors to our site are searching for specific hostels, particularly Shambhala in Golden Bay and Waikawa Holiday Lodge in the Catlins. Hopefully they’ve found our blog illuminating. Thus, in the spirit of driving more traffic to our site (since we had so few comments, the ever-rising hit counter has served as an affirmation of our hilarious reportage) and to help fellow travelers, we present our thoughts on many a budget NZ accommodation. Bear in mind that these are just the thoughts of one incredibly insightful person, so your mileage may vary. On the bright side these reviews are fully refundable. If you happen to own or love a hostel we didn’t like, apologies, but since our blog is dedicated to the Truth, what can we do?

It’s pretty impressive to look back at all the many backpackers we have stayed at in New Zealand. We’ve been really grateful for the BBH guide, which has been a pretty accurate measure for the different accommodations throughout the country. For anyone spending more than a few weeks in New Zealand, it is certainly worth the $40NZ fee to become a member (plus, you get a great phone card, too). The rating system seems to pretty right on, although we have stayed some places that seemed overrated and a few that seem underrated. But, by and large, they get it right.

Although we’ve visited most of the hostels on the West Coast, Golden Bay, and Banks Peninsula, we typically don’t have much experience with the backpackers in the big cities, as these are the places we were most likely to find Couch Surfing hosts. General tips would be to avoid the backpackers that cater to the large tour groups (Kiwi Experience! We’re looking at you…). Also, if you have your own transportation, the backpackers that are out of the city centers (or indeed far from everything) tend to be the nicest with the most charm and character.

The following reviews are grouped in geographic order, sort of, and are ranked on a scale of 1 (awful!) to 10 (amazing!). These were our general impressions:

NORTHLAND, AUCKLAND, & COROMANDEL

Endless Summer Lodge, Ahipara, Northland

Endless Summer Lodge is in a great location right on the beach. The hostel was spotless and even had a dishwasher (certainly a luxury for many a backpacker)! The building was beautiful with great views from the porch and also a really nice outside dining/deck area with an herb garden. High recommendation. 9.5

Mousetrap Backpackers, Paihia

Moderately sized backpackers, lives up to its name with its winding halls and tucked-away dorms. Clean and not for partiers, but is directly across the street from bars that are quite popular with backpackers, so you may hear (loud) music from there at night. If you don’t want to hear the music, try Captain Bob’s probably. Good recommendation. 7

Verandahs Backpackers Lodge, Auckland

Overall, we really liked this place. Campbell, the host, is a gregarious and friendly guy, with good recommendations and generally helpful suggestions. He put us in contact with Ken, an auto inspections guy who sold us our car, which got us safely around the country for the last 11 months. The backpackers is a 15-minute walk to downtown sights, clean and relatively small so that it’s pretty quiet at night, good for avoiding the party scene. High recommendation for an in-city Auckland hostel, especially if you’re on the look-out for a car. 9

Lantana Lodge, Auckland

Lantana is tucked away off the main thoroughfare in the Parnell neighborhood. Clean and orderly, run by an Indian fellow, Raj, who runs a tight ship there. Free internet, with wireless, which is fantastic and quite unusual at an NZ hostel! Not much happening in Parnell, and the vibe is a bit library-like here, but good for a quiet stay and if you want to make copious use of the free internet. Good recommendation. 7

Gateway Backpackers, Thames, Coromandel

A really nice two-house backpackers on the outskirts of the town of Thames. Run by a relatively young couple, very clean and bright, free laundry (!), didn’t have internet when we visited, but right through the backyard was an internet café. Very nice stay, high recommendation if you happen to be in Thames. 8

EAST CAPE

Maraehako Bay Retreat, Whangarua Bay

We were led to believe this would be a great place to stay by a friend, and by a BBH rating. Sorry, but our experience wasn’t of an 87% place. Location is absolutely great on an isolated bay on the eastern Bay of Plenty, and the building is a great rustic treehouse-looking structure. On the parts alone it would be about a 9. Unfortunately we picked a bad room, a double on the ground floor with a deck above it. Peaceful it was not, with people running back and forth, lots of people coming and going, and just not what we were hoping for from a backpackers for $60/night. Facilities were average, not impressive by any means, location great, but our experience wasn’t the best. Definitely get the top room by the kitchen. 6

TAURANGA, ROTORUA, & TAUPO

Just the Ducks Nuts, Tauranga

Located just across the bridge from Tauranga and Mt. Maunganui, good location for trips to either, but outside the cities. Best for people wanting to be outside ‘the scene’, seemed to be filled largely with long-term stayers working in the area, so has a vibe from that. Generally pretty nice, the upstairs was nicer than the basement lower level, which is more like a cave. 7

Funky Green Voyager, Rotorua

Located just south of the main shopping district in Rotorua, FGV is a nice, well-kept property with a huge kitchen, clean rooms, plenty of room to read, eat, and hang out. The owners and staff are really friendly, eager to recommend things to do or to just say hi. This contributes to a good, chill vibe in FGV. Apparently Rotorua has some crime issues but nothing was apparent while we visited. 8.5

Extreme Backpackers, Turangi

In the Turangi town center, which makes up nearly all of Turangi as far as we can tell, Extreme also has a climbing wall as part of the operation. Friendly and helpful staff, especially for doing the Tongariro Crossing. Rooms were clean and well-appointed, nice large kitchen, TV room, dining room, and courtyard. 8.5

TARANAKI

Seaspray House, New Plymouth

Owing to the energy industry NP seems to be doing alright for itself as the only town worth seeing in Taranaki. Seaspray’s located a few blocks from the city centre and its free museums and galleries, just a couple blocks from the beach. Nice, character house on a quiet street, the parking lot leaves something to be desired in the back but is better than nothing. House is a bit of a warren with various halls and closed doors, but is spacious enough, especially in the living room/dining room area. Kitchen is pretty good, big enough and has what you need. Bathrooms were new and modern, and our room was nice, only three beds in an oddly shaped room, not a bunch just jammed in. Comfortable for a night or two in sleepy NP. 8

Tamara Backpackers, Wanganui

Located in a charming older two-story building just a bit out of the city centre on the muddy Wanganui river, Tamara’s certainly an adequate hostel. Very quiet when we visited in the off-season, doesn’t seem like Wanganui probably ever gets too busy, though. Our double was a really pretty nice little room, clean, decent bed, quiet as we were the only ones on the second floor. Kitchen was also adequate and well-apportioned for a hostel its size, there was a TV room, and a nice lounge/dining room area. Not brilliant but worked, and a decent price. 7

HAWKE’S BAY, WAIRARAPA

Aqua Lodge, Napier

Located in a working-class (read, somewhat gritty) neighborhood about 10 minutes from downtown Napier, Aqua Lodge is possibly named for the swimming pool in its backyard? Sprawling across 3 buildings, Aqua Lodge has a bit of old-person feel combined with being a bit run-down. As it’s in Napier, it’s favored by fruit-picking backpackers in summer, with its 3 houses largely full and its backyard full of campers. Beds were fine, but much of the place showed signs of wear and tear, with infrequent maintenance. Other lodgings in Napier looked similarly worn, so that might just be the case everywhere, but Aqua certainly isn’t a great hostel. 5

Lochlea Lodge, Waipukurau

Terrific backpackers accommodation on a farm near Waipukurau, which is a bit off the beaten track in the Wairarapa region, but if you’re near there, it’s well-worth staying. The Lee family is warm and accommodating, the rooms were spotless, and there was a large kitchen/eating/TV area, especially for the size of the backpackers, which was pretty small and cozy. Great location on their farm, with plenty of area to roam and tramp around. Also has swimming pool, nice place to stay. 9.5

Leeway Motel, Featherston (Non-BBH)

Pretty standard budget motel on the main drag in Featherston with separate backpackers building. No real atmosphere to speak of, a few twin rooms, TV room, kitchen, and bathroom in a trailer-type building. Relatively cheap and clean accommodations, nothing special, but really nothing similar in Featherston. 4.5

We Took The BART In San Francisco (Dec. 7 – 12)

2007-12-19T15:55:00.000-05:00

With one more stop left in our year of travels, we arrived in San Francisco on a Friday morning after an uneventful flight from Papeete (uneventful but for the disconcerting noises the plane made when it hit turbulence… as if little bits were falling off). From there, we caught an airport shuttle to our next CouchSurfing host, Emmanuel. Surprisingly, it had been somewhat difficult to find a CS host in San Francisco, given the large number of CSers in the area, and San Francisco’s laid-back reputation. We thought it would be easy to find a host for our five days, but it proved much trickier, and we sent out nearly a dozen emails before we got a positive reply. Easy to find hosts in Tahiti, hard in SF, who knew? Given the number of people cruising through the Bay, perhaps it makes sense that they’re harder to find there than one of the world’s most remote island groups. Interesting.

We ultimately managed to arrange some couch time with Emmanuel, a native of France who had grown up in Allentown, Pennsylvania (of all places…). As is typical of CouchSurfing hosts, Emmanuel is very friendly, talkative and generous nearly to a fault. During our stay, he hosted an additional five surfers who had been stuck without other hosts. This meant that the floor was usually lined with other surfers (Andrew and I had fortunately “booked” so we were able to sleep on the futon). Emmanuel lives in the really nice neighborhood of Cow Hollow in San Francisco, and we felt really lucky to be able to stay with him. Despite having gotten only an hour or two of sleep overnight on the plane, we went out with some other British CSers to a local bar, a hipsterish dive that had surprisingly cheap microbrews, and hung out with even more CSers who were in town. All told, seven CSers were in attendance that night – a veritable convention!

Posing with Emmanuel, who we called Manny. He's a nice guy.

Before coming to SF, Becky expected to like the city, but I don’t think she ever expected to love San Francisco. We were extremely lucky to come here during a spell of fine weather (five days of sun with no fog in sight!) and spent as much time outside as possible. On our first full day, we walked through the bustling Fisherman’s Wharf to catch a ferry to take us to Alcatraz. All the ferry tours were sold out for the day, so we were lucky to have booked our tickets early in the morning. For once we were happy to play tourists, as the ferry ride provided a great view of the San Francisco skyline from the water. The Alcatraz tour itself was also very good, with a headset providing a self guided tour of the cell block. It almost gives you the shivers to step into one of the solitary confinement cells and know that inmates were formerly kept here for weeks at a time, sitting in the darkness with nothing but a button to occupy themselves.

Alcatraz...Solid as a rock!

The fashion police finally caught up with Becky for her blue sweater

After we returned from the Alcatraz we had the obligatory clam chowder bread bowl and Anchor Steam beer (brewed in SF, natch) before heading to Coit Tower before the sunset. We took in the San Francisco skyline as the sun slowly set. Next we strolled down the stairs of Telegraph Hill looking for the wild parrots of movie fame. Sadly, there were no parrots to be seen, but we enjoyed the stroll through this interesting neighborhood nonetheless. I reckon that if Mt. Gretna was relocated to a San Francisco suburb, it would be Telegraph Hill. We continued on to City Lights bookstore, famed for its role during the Beat generation with Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg putting in regular appearances, definitely Becky’s milieu. We spent the rest of the evening strolling through Chinatown and Union Square enjoying the atmosphere, the people, and the Christmas lights. We hadn’t really had a sense of Christmas’s imminent arrival until we arrived in San Francisco and started to see the decorations out in full force.

The next day we continued our walking tour of SF, visiting the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Famous as the epicenter of peace, love, and hippieness in the 60s and beyond, as it’s reached middle-age the Haight has cleaned itself up somewhat. As with all areas in San Francisco, the Haight hasn’t been able to resist gentrification, and was much less seedy than Becky had hoped. However, Haight St. is still lined with shops catering to the hippie set, and we spent a few good hours at Magnolia, a local brewpub. We really enjoyed the beer sampler (as we usually do) and the food was really good, too. With its laid-back atmosphere, we could really see spending time at Magnolia if it was our local. Later that day we went in search of a good burrito, a staple for any trip to San Francisco. We had done some research on burritoeater.com, which took us to the Mission District. The taqueria had really authentic vibe (as opposed to the tourist traps at Fisherman’s Wharf) and had the good food to back it up. We ended up getting tacos instead of burritos, but they – along with a strawberry soda - were delicious. Carne asada = muy bueno.

Harrrrrrrd to believe this is actually a pirate store, but 'tis

The next morning we had decided to take advantage of the weather by renting bikes to ride across the San Francisco Bridge. Neither of us has ridden for awhile and although we’re both in good shape, I’ll admit to some concerns about our fitness level. It turned out to be fine, as we really enjoyed the cruisey trip to Sausalito, which allows you to take in the Presidio, Crissy Fields, the bridge, and then the downhill trip into Sausalito. From there, you can continue on the bikes to Tiburon, but we decided not to risk the good time we’d had so far, and took the ferry back from there. We continued our biking trip up and down the Embarcadero so that Andrew could check out AT&T Park, home of Barry Bonds and his Giant Head. We had certainly worked up an appetite by that point so we had to hit up In-N-Out Burger, a must-stop in CA. In-N-Out Burger was Becky’s first cheeseburger after renouncing her more veggie-friendly lifestyle before leaving for NZ, so this provided a fitting coda to our trip, we thought.

Look, nerds!

Later in the evening we continued on our beer and food tour of SF, visiting two brewpubs. The first, 21st Amendment, is well known for its Watermelon Wheat Beer, which was unfortunately unavailable on our visit, bummer. The second brewpub, the Thirsty Bear, featured Spanish tapas and a wide-range of brews. There were a few hits and misses – we enjoyed the vanilla cream and the stout, but didn’t love the others.

Our somewhat weak attempt to offset our humongous number carbon miles for the year

The next day we got up early to get an awesome breakfast burrito downtown at El Castillito, then rode the BART subway (by the way the public transportation in SF is awesome, the buses are often not scary at all!), and went out to Berkeley (aka The People’s Republic Of) so Becky could visit the Mecca of liberalism. Conclusion: not a bad place to go to school; at the very least they have a nicer winter than we were used to at Penn State. After Berkeley we crashed at Emmanuel’s for a few hours, as our week of walking around Tahiti and SF had finally caught up with us. It was finally time to go home, as we had a red-eye flight out of Oakland to catch just after midnight. There’s a reason they’re such cheap flights – most sane people balk at making a connection when their body is telling them that it’s 4 in the morning.

"The only thing better than one beer is one sampler tray of nine beers" - B. Franklin

Overall though, our trip to San Francisco was a highlight. We enjoyed great beer, good food (Becky’s new fave is the breakfast burrito!), and good company with CouchSurfers. The San Francisco Bay area is beautiful, and it’s easy to see why so many people choose to make it their home. It’s always great when a place actually exceeds the high expectations that you have for it. Since so many of the books and music Becky loves are from the area, the bar was set pretty high. Well done, San Francisco!

CouchSurf's up in Tahiti

2007-12-10T12:40:00.000-05:00

And so just like that, we left our home for the last year, putting the Land of the Long White Cloud in our rearview mirror, so to speak. It was bittersweet to leave, as we’ve had so many great times, seen so much amazing scenery, and in particular, have met so many tremendous people this year. But at the same time, we hadn’t been doing too much in Auckland besides going to the beach for the past few weeks, so it did feel like time to get back on the road. It’s also tough to feel too bad when you’ve got your ticket punched for French Polynesia, so there you are.

The warm waters at Mahina

Before leaving NZ, we did some cursory research on French Polynesia, which we can sum up for you pretty quickly: it’s composed of heaps of small, remote islands in a big ocean, it’s gorgeous, it’s useful to know French there, and it’s expensive as. To be honest, if not for Couchsurfing, we probably would have been much more hesitant to go there, as the guidebooks are sure to let you know that anything worth doing is tres cher in Polynesia, owing to the fact that everything must come a long, long way to get there.

Stay out of the bamboo!

Thus, when we looked up CSing hosts in French Polynesia, we were pleasantly surprised to see quite a few hosts for such a small and far-flung place. As is our usual practice, we sent a bunch of emails, got a few replies, made plans to meet some CSers, and mostly left it at that. I’ve gone back and counted the times we’ve said this, and this is now the thousandth time, but wow did we get lucky with the people we CSed with in FP. Perhaps it is simply French hospitality or a laid-back and generous attitude due to living in a tropical paradise, but we were blown away by the warmth of all our new CSing friends. Our karmic travel debt continues to mount.

Andrew takes in the stunning coastline

After an uneventful 5-hour hop from NZ, we landed in Tahiti on Saturday afternoon, gaining back the day we’d lost earlier in the year. We’re more than OK with getting it back in Tahiti. We landed at Faa’a airport, where we were to meet our first host, Estelle, who was good enough to pick us up there. Unfortunately, when we went through customs, we didn’t have Estelle and her husband Dan’s address, so we only filled in their town, “Mahina” as the destination for our first night in FP, which was unsatisfactory for the customs agent. He wouldn’t let us leave the airport without meeting Estelle, who true to her word was there waiting for us, and was able to quickly assuage his concerns that we’d be sleeping on the beach, or pulling some other sorts of shenanigans.

Driving through FP’s capital of Papeete to their home in Mahina is a good way of rapidly disabusing one of the fantasy that Tahiti is just a sleepy, lush, tropical paradise untouched by the outside world. Malheursement, mais non! Even though Lonely Planet prepared us for the fact that it is substantially developed and populated place, we were still somewhat astonished at the dirty and congested nature of the town. We were most surprised to learn from Estelle that it can take an hour to drive less than 10 miles from Mahina to Papeete in morning rush hour traffic; congestion in paradise, eesh. Not to say that the whole of the island is all bad or anything, but Papeete isn’t anyone’s idea of paradise and is generally best swiftly passed through.

We spent two nights with Estelle, Dan and their two children Lou (aged 5) and Yanis (aged 2). When we arrived, the family took us to the local beach which was teeming with locals surfing, kayaking, and swimming in the warm afternoon ocean waves. After a year in NZ’s picturesque but chilly beaches, swimming in the tropics is pretty great. We can see why so many Kiwis take beach vacations in Fiji. That evening Dan made us a great chicken dinner and we slept very well. We later figured out that they’d given us their room, which was even more generous when you realize that their other bed wasn’t equipped with mosquito netting.

Becky was grateful to sleep underneath mosquito netting

The next morning Estelle took us and the kids to the local market in Papeete, which was packed with stalls of local fruits, fish, baked goods, and handcrafts. We spent an hour wandering through the stalls and sampling some of the products. Apparently, the market starts very early in the morning and even though we arrived by what we thought was a very reasonable 8:00 AM, many of the stalls had already closed.

The bustling morning market in downtown Papeete

Later in the day, Estelle and Dan were kind enough to let us borrow their car to do a tour around the island. It’s been a bit of an adjustment being back on the right-hand side of the road, but we’ll figure it out before too long. Tahiti gets increasingly quieter and more rural as you venture away from the traffic and noise of Papeete, and seems to be chockful of black-sand beaches filled with surfers catching some of the Tahiti’s famed waves. We went for a quick hike to visit some waterfalls, to the delight of the mosquitoes, who found Becky to be on the menu.

A cascading waterfall in Tahiti

In the evening, we went into Papeete with the whole family to have dinner at the Roulottes, or trucks, in Vaiete Square. In Tahiti, it’s common to see these trucks parked along the roadside, serving takeaway food, mainly fish or Chinese dishes, to the locals. At the square these trucks are concentrated in one area along the waterfront and feature tables with wait service. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of grilled mahi mahi and really enjoyed the ambience of the setting. Unfortunately, a tropical rainstorm brought our meal to an abrupt end, reminding us that we were visiting FP in the beginning of its rainy season, sending us diving under some nearby awnings.

The Roulottes, before the rain

Our stay with the Dellanoys was a great time, and we really enjoyed our conversations with the family in spite of a slight language barrier (it’s always good to have a French-English dictionary close at hand!), and they spoiled us with their hospitality. Between the roast chicken dinner, dinner at the Roulottes, a lunch featuring local delicacies including cru, which is prepared with citrus juice and coconut milk, and allowing us to borrw their car, they went so above and beyond the call of CSing duty! They are just a lovely family and made our first few days in Tahiti a memorable experience.

Andrew and Becky with the Dellanoys

The next morning we mastered the local bus system when Estelle dropped us off at a bus stop on her way to work. We had a lot of luggage with us, so we had decided to unload some of it at the airport instead of carrying it around the islands over the next few days. The rainy season was really making its presence felt, so we felt lucky to be waiting under one of the few covered bus stops. We successfully made it into Papeete but had to change buses to get out to the airport. Unfortunately, as soon as we got out of the first bus, the rain really started to come down. We were soaked by the time we got on our second “bus,” which was a relic of the old “Le Truck” system on Tahiti. These trucks are a throwback to an earlier day in public transportation in Tahiti and are certainly rustic, with a low ceiling and bench rows lining the back of a large flatbed truck. Using our mastery of the French language, “L’airport, s’il vou plait”, we managed to get there and finally unload our bags.

Our next stop was to meet our next CS hosts. When we decided to go to FP our research showed that the best plan is to leave Tahiti for one of the smaller, nicer islands. We had decided to visit Moorea, Tahiti’s sister island, and were extremely lucky to find another CS host on the island. We met Sebastien and Zouzou in Papeete at the pearl shop where Sebastien works. They were another great couple – friendly, enthusiastic, and extremely helpful. Zouzou helped us by our ferry tickets and then we were on our way to Moorea.

Moorea has a much smaller population than Tahiti and is certainly more scenic. There are beautiful white sand beaches, stunning lagoons, and a gorgeous mountain interior. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see much of this during our few days there as everything was quite often covered in clouds and soaked in rain. Still, we had a great time in Moorea, again largely due to our CS hosts. Zouzouz acted as our personal tour guide, driving us around the entire island (which took a little over an hour) and stopping at all the points of interest. When the weather cleared, she took us to the local beaches and other scenic areas. As in Fiji, we enjoyed some snorkeling among the coral and tropical fish just meters from the water’s edge, and soaking in the warm tropical water.

The interior mountains on Moorea

In the evenings, we were treated to Sebastien’s delicious cooking. He likes to prepare the local delicacies, including various raw fish dishes. We’re normally not sushi fanatics, but his cooking, combined with the freshness of the tuna, could convert many people, we suspect. Sebastien and Zouzou both spoke English very well, and they were terrific to talk to, having had their share of travel adventures. We would have loved to spend more time with them on Moorea, and will perhaps have to come back again sometime when it’s not the rainy season, and after they’ve built their modern Polynesian home. We can dream, can’t we?

We enjoy a delicious dinner with Sebastien and Zouzouz

After a few mostly rainy days away from Tahiti, we ferried back and met our third and last FP CS host, Thibault, at the docks. Thibault, who is from Versailles, works as a controller for a subsidiary of a French firm in FP, and his girlfriend, Ellie, makes modern lamps from driftwood found on Tahitian beaches. Cool lamps, but only in FP, as the cost of shipping just about anywhere eclipses the price of the lamps themselves. They live in Punaauia, down the west coast of Tahiti, near one of the few white-sand beaches on the island.

The white sand beach at Punaauia

We spent a day and a half with them, and they were just tremendous hosts as well. We shared Hinanos (local Tahitian lager, don’t worry, I bought plenty of merchandise as souvenirs) with them and their friends on their cozy porch, and Ellie prepared a delicious shrimp curry on the night we stayed there. The next day, our last in FP, was thankfully dry, and we enjoyed the white sand beaches for our last time before our imminent return to the northern hemisphere winter. With a flight at 8:30 pm, Ellie gave us a ride to the airport, where we met up with Thibault and enjoyed a few more Hinanos at the airport cafeteria with them.

These over water bungalows cost beaucoup bucks in French Polynesia

We were sad to get to only spend a few days with our last CS hosts, but we keep finding ourselves saying that these days. Despite having almost no plan for how we were going to spend 5 days in Tahiti, we had a most excellent time, meeting some great CSers and enjoying many of the best parts of FP without having to spend a fortune at a hotel in Bora Bora. We really lucked out in Tahiti and have CSing to thank for it – Couchsurfing, you’ve done it again, cheers to all our new friends in French Polynesia!

Having one last Hinano at the airport with Thibault and Eli

You Stay Classy as, Ron Burgundy! (Nov. 25 – Dec. 1)

2007-11-30T22:24:00.000-05:00

We spent our last week in

New Zealand

wrapping up all our bits and pieces before having to leave for Tahiti on 2 December. These “bits and pieces” largely consisted of throwing away heaps of clothing that was no longer fit to travel half-way around the world (again), picking up the Newmans from the airport after their South African holiday, and selling Ron Burgundy. Ron has seen us through almost 30,000 trouble-free kms around the North and South Islands (if you excuse him for the flat tires and dead battery, and we do), so we’re certainly sad to be parting ways with our trusty steed.

To sell Ron, we used our normal tactic of posting ads on all the free classified websites. This technique had served us well when we were selling our cars back home, but

New Zealand

proved to be a bit different. We got some initial interest, particularly from a finicky South African, but nothing concrete came of it. We did get one really creative would-be buyer who offered us a patio heater in exchange for the car. Hmm….yeah, no thanks.

Eventually, we decided to suck it up and take the typical backpacker advertising route – posting “for sale” signs in the hostels downtown. It proved to be an extremely disheartening afternoon, walking up and down Queen Street posting ads for Ron on bulletin boards already overflowing with other car ads. It did make us appreciate the nicer hostels we had stayed at in Auckland (Verandahs, Lantana Lodge) that were not nearly as depressing as those located downtown. We got a few bites this way as well, but even as we were posting the ads we realized that it would in no way be worth the effort. Moral: stay somewhere away from the city centre and try not to have to sell your car through fliers.

Us, the Newmans, and Auckland in the background

We eventually did manage to find a buyer from an online bulletin board. Our buyer, Bev, got in touch with us and we arranged to meet at her office on the North Shore (anything to save us a drive into Auckland at rush hour!). Not used to driving an automatic, she took us for an unexpectedly amusing test drive around Takapuna. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who was so flummoxed by an automatic transmission, and definitely hadn’t met someone who applied the hand brake every time they approached a stop sign. Anyway, Bev got back to us the next day to let us know she would like to buy Ron. With our departure just about imminent, we took about half of what we paid for the car, $950, which was an OK offer, but I guess understandable given that our WOF was up in a couple months.

"Mushrooms" on top of Mt. Victoria in Devenport

As is always the case, as soon as we agreed to sell the car, we received much more interest than we had the previous days. You have to wonder if we could have gotten a better price (as Ron is certainly a bargain at less than a grand) but with the

New Zealand

dollar currently so strong against the American dollar, we’re making out okay in the end. As long as the funds get us through Tahiti…

Anyway, this marks our final day in

New Zealand

. I’m not sure it’s really set in yet. We enjoyed a great barbecue last night with the Newmans, and they’ve been nice enough to offer to drive us to the airport as well. We’ve been really lucky to be able to spend this time here on the North Shore, getting ourselves sorted before we leave the country. It was also great to get to know Rachel and Shanon better, as we had only spent two nights with them on our first visit. At this point, we almost feel like flatmates. We really do appreciate another couple of terrific people that CouchSurfing has brought into our lives.

One last shot of Ron Burgundy...

This might be the last you hear from us until we’re back stateside in San Francisco. Our plans for Tahiti are a little uncertain, although we have managed to line up several CouchSurfing hosts for our stay, so all we can say for sure is that it should be interesting. Beyond that, we’re planning to soak up the sun and go for some hikes. We’re not sure of how much internet will be available, so there probably won’t be any new posts until we’re in San Francisco. And by that time, we’ll practically be home.

We’ll have lots more to say about New Zealand in future posts, so stay tuned!

Hoppy Birthday and Up To Whangarei (Nov. 17 – 24)

2007-11-24T14:00:00.000-05:00

My birthday arrived amidst a stretch of nice weather last week, here on the North Shore, where we’ve been housesitting over the past few weeks. In NZ one hears a lot of gripes about the weather in Auckland, but it would be hard for anyone to find fault with the streak of warm, sunny days we’ve had here. Warm enough to hit the beach in late November works for me.

Red sunset in the North Shore means more beautiful weather tomorrow

My birthday, much like Becky’s, was a low-key affair for us, though it was without a signature moment (for example, on Becky's birthday we enjoyed a great bottle of Belinda’s wine while eating a bad steak accidentally seasoned with Christmas-cookie spices, because I don’t know how to cook, all the while it was raining like crazy outside the little hostel/shack that we were wwoofing at in the Catlins).

According to an anonymous brown-haired twenty-seven year old American woman currently in New Zealand: “The past few birthdays for Andrew have invariably revolved around beer somehow, and surprise!, this one was no exception.” We did indeed head out to the Hallertau Brewbar way out in the sticks in Riverhead (perhaps Auckland’s best beer place, certainly in the top 3), and tried their products. On the bad side, it was so full it took over 20 minutes to get our beer sampler. On the good side, they eventually made it free, but not before they accidentally added four extra things to our bill, oops. They did make some pretty good beers, but I won’t forget their imperial IPA, a ridiculously hoppy beer that was huge at 10% alcohol. They call it the Stuntman, but even though it is tasty, Masochist might be more accurate. In any event, best to have just one.

Andrew mans the barbecue on his birthday

It’s strange to celebrate my normally late-fall birthday here in the Southern Hemisphere, as Auckland’s unusually warm late-spring has been akin to mid-summer weather in the last place we lived, Vermont. For my whole life my birthday has occurred somewhere at least pretty cold, so it feels odd to be walking around in shorts around on my birthday, but I’ll certainly take it.

Later in the week, we took in a cricket game at Eden Park in Auckland, played between what I think were at least semi-professional sides. Cricket, of course, is the British Commonwealth’s answer to baseball, where it reigns as a hugely popular sport in countries India, Pakistan, and Australia. It’s somewhat like baseball in that a bowler is trying to get a batter out by throwing it past him or making him make an out some other way (e.g. a caught pop-up), but otherwise is way dissimilar. We thought we might as well check a game of cricket out, since it’s probably NZ’s 2^nd favorite sport, though by a such big margin behind rugby that it’s not even funny.

Andrew enjoying the cricket on a sunny afternoon

So we spent most of a sunny afternoon in the company of a few dozen cricket-mad students, pensioners, and people enjoying some time on the dole. It was the third day of a four-day test in which Auckland was destroying Central Districts, taking wickets at what apparently is a tremendous pace. We’d be lying if we said we understood everything going on out there, but it was pretty enjoyable, though it moved slower than even a really slow baseball game. If you don’t have the patience for baseball, you won’t make it through even an abbreviated cricket game. Pitchers take even longer between pitches, they have to run like 50 yards before each pitch, and individual batters can stay at-bat for hours at a time, scoring hundreds of runs. There are often substantial breaks for things like tea. And that’s before you consider that some games are of the 5-day variety, and that many of them end in a tie! That’s right, after 5 days of scintillating cricket action, they can’t even bother to have a winner! Instead, the rules of cricket allow one team to go in a giant stall, for the game to end without a decision, good god. In the end we enjoyed finally getting to see two teams of sweater vest-wearing gladiators go at it on the pitch, battling the proverbial ‘sticky wickets.’

Cricket fever... catch it!

Since we were in Auckland we thought we should go the Museum at some point, so we went one cloudy afternoon. Most of it was just OK, standard museum-type exhibits, but it really shined in its Volcanoes exhibit. Since Auckland is built on heaps of dormant and extinct volcanoes, there is special interest in it here. The museum’s best feature placed you in the scenario of being in an Auckland home as a new volcano explosively formed out your window in the harbor. The show had a convincing TV news program and disturbingly life-like blackout and shaking effects of the volcanic destruction of New Zealand’s major city. All in all, totally worthwhile going there.

Later in the week, we drove up to visit our CSing buddies Matt and Stu in Whangarei. We first Couchsurfed with Matt in January, as we toured the Northland in our first week in the country, and had a great time hanging out with him, his flatmate Stu, and their buddies Kel and John-Boy. Stu, who actually owns the house, has really gotten into CSing as well this year, hosting a bunch of CSers himself while Matt was out of the country. Matt has just recently returned from a six-month stint in Europe, working at a farm in the foothills of the Alps in Germany before CSing his way through northern and western Europe for a few months. We were glad to get to see these guys again after nearly a year, and we got to meet some other interesting travelers there, since their place is basically CSing headquarters.

Back to nature in the Northland

Seriously, these guys are CSing MVPs. On our first visit in January, we were just two of four CSers at their house at that time, and this time they were also hosting a girl from Hong Kong and a young couple from Sweden. The Swedes were very young and as a result were good for a lot of entertainment, though I don’t think they intended it. First, they were positively rapt about Canberra, Australia’s capital, which you don’t hear anything good about anywhere else. Seriously, we’ve met heaps of people who’ve traveled through Australia, and had never heard a good word about the place. We also learned from them that Danes are incorrigible drinkers and smokers, and that we should avoid Stockholm as it was quote unquote “gay.” “I’m from Stockholm and I think I’m so much better than everybody else”, they said in accents that we can only guess hilariously mimic those of the typical Stockholmian. But perhaps best of all, we really enjoyed that they actually pronounced the word jogging with the soft J, just like our car’s namesake, Ron Burgundy.

Amazingly, Matt and Stu had had 8 people staying at one time earlier this week. Most people would mind stepping over 8 people sleeping in all the available spaces in their house, but Matt and Stu can’t get enough, and are almost unable to turn anyone away. They also often go out of their way to show people a good time: Matt took us to his parents’ farm on our first visit, and Stu had just taken some CSers waterskiing earlier this week. On this trip, we caught up Matt, Stu, and Kel, and had a nice time hanging out in Whangarei for a few days. It really is a beautiful area, and after being in Auckland for awhile, it was nice to be in the more-rural NZ we’re used to. All in all, we just can’t say enough about their hospitality, friendliness, and generosity: cheers, guys!

Matt, Andrew, Becky, and Stu enjoying some quality "couch" time

Hello Auckland My Old Friend (Nov. 7 – 16)

2007-11-16T13:22:00.000-05:00

So after ten months of traveling, exploring all of

New Zealand

’s nooks and crannies, we’ve finally made it back to Auckland, the Big Smoke, as it were. The first thing that hit us as we approached the sprawling metropolis from the south was that there was an actual highway. Miles and miles of 4-lane (and sometimes more!) motorway, divided by a median – okay, maybe I’ll skip my usual harangue. Not that the highway is all beer and skittles, as Auckland pretty much has the country’s only traffic, and how… As we slowly drifted into the city in mid-afternoon congestion on a typically cloudy Auckland day, we began to have some brief moments of sadness at leaving the bucolic and traffic-free hinterlands.

But we had important house-sitting duties to do, so slogged on we did. As we’ve mentioned previously, we’re house-and-cat-sitting for our CSing friends, the Newmans, in their new crib in Auckland’s North Shore for a few weeks in mid-November. Fortunately the North Shore isn’t like living in the city, and the city’s ghastly traffic can be largely avoided, unless we need to go south on the motorway for any reason. We try not to find reasons.

This is about as close to Auckland as we like to get! At the summit of Rangitoto...

With our first week here in the bag, I’d say it’s gone about as well as we’d have hoped, as we’ve gotten out a few times, but mostly we’ve done nothing but lounge around. The lounging and temporary lack of responsibility for trip planning has been quite good, but I think more than a few weeks not doing much would drive us nuts. To be honest, it’s been kind of great to have our own space for awhile while we’re here, and much like when we house-sat for Kieran and Belinda in Canterbury, we’ve found traveling to be great, but you can forget how nice having your own space and sleeping in the same place for a few weeks can be.

Another gorgeous day on the North Shore. Some might say, picture perfect...

Although maybe I’m short-selling us a little bit, because we did get out of the house a bunch. We went up to Shakespear Regional Park, which lies out on the very end of Whangaparaoa Peninsula on the North Shore. Somewhat oddly, it shares a border with a military facility which warned of firing range activity on the day we were there. It seemed like a good idea to give that part a wide berth. The park was nice, with heaps of just-flowering pohutakawa trees (often called NZ Christmas trees) but what really impressed us is that they had such a big park taking up some ridiculously valuable oceanfront real estate. Good on ya, North Shore.

A pohutakawa tree in bloom

We also took a ferry out to Rangitoto Island, a dormant volcano island that lays in Hauraki Gulf, not more than a few miles from Auckland’s waterfront. We nearly missed our ferry since we underestimated how much time it takes to get into town around 9 on a weekday morning, who knew there would be rush hour traffic. It was a pretty good hike to the top, though the crater was disappointingly covered by trees. Auckland is built on something like 6 or 7 old volcanoes, and we hear the museum has a pretty frightening multimedia display on what it will be like if there’s a geologic rupture leading to major volcanic activity in the area, which the city is apparently overdue for. Auckland will not be the place to be when that happens.

The outline of Rangitoto in the distance

Lastly, yesterday we got to Piha Beach, one of Auckland’s picturesque black-sand west coast beaches. It’s a haul out there, but it’s well worth it to see the site of one of our favorite NZ TV shows, Piha Rescue, which is like Baywatch, except that it’s real, and there’s no Pam Anderson, nor almost as sadly, The Hoff. West coast beaches, and Piha in particular, are notorious for their dangerous rips, which suck out heaps of tourists, who have to be rescued by the life saving club, thus providing the show with heaps of material. Based on our unscientific survey of Kiwis, most of them say they wouldn’t swim there since Piha is well known here. Most episodes of Rescue bear that out, with Aussies and surprised swimmers of various Asian nationalities having to be saved. We skipped the surf on our visit, as we’ve enjoyed the nice beaches on the east coast, but caught quite a show from the lifeguards in training.

The wild coastline at Piha

Well it’s been a tough week, and we’ve got a couple more to go here. We’re in the process of selling Ron Burgundy, maybe trying to sell some beer if we can gin up some motivation to go into the city, are working out our Tahiti and San Francisco plans, and want to go up to the Northland one last time. Add in my 28^th birthday tomorrow, and I know I know, it’s sounds like a ridiculously busy schedule for the next two weeks, but someone’s got to do it.

Ambling Aimlessly To Auckland (Nov. 4 – 7)

2007-11-13T17:50:00.000-05:00

We were sad to say goodbye to the East Cape, but our days were running short before we were due back in Auckland to house-sit for Rachel and Shanon, our first CS hosts in New Zealand. We had made plans with them months before to watch their cat Jessie and their house for them while they went on a safari holiday to Botswana and South Africa. With less than a week until their trip, we had to decide to how to spend our last few days before returning to the Land of Jafas (Just Another…Friendly Aucklander). Originally we had planned to visit White Island, an active volcano in the Bay of Plenty, but those plans fell through. Strike one. Then we thought we’d hike the Pinnacles in the Coromandel, which we had tried to do at the beginning of the year but were dissuaded by a DoC ranger who insisted we wouldn’t have enough time to finish the hike (she was clearly unaware of our amazing fitness). But with a long rainy front hovering over the island, that quickly became strike two.

Last view of the East Cape before we turned inland

However all was not lost. We had the good fortune of finding a very nice CS host in Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty, not too far from the East Cape. We only spent a night with Ayesha, but she was very friendly and welcoming as all our CS hosts have been. Ayesha is a hardcore surfer but had been disheartened by the lack of waves in the area for the last few weeks. Since she was stuck in the house with us chickens, we spent the evening chatting and trying to commiserate with her and her surfing pal, Luke.

The next morning we still had yet to decide what we’d do over the next few days. With the weather still crap, we thought we’d head towards the last sort of “tourist” area that we had yet to visit – Raglan. Raglan’s a world-renowned surfing destination on the North Island’s west coast, about two hours south of Auckland. Though neither of us surf, we thought we should see its famous right-hand break (Though we don’t really know what that means, either). Heading to Raglan meant heading back west across the island, making our path north through the island even more unorthodox, as we’d first gone west, then east, and now had our sights set for west again. Maybe doing this broke all the rules, but then maybe rules ain’t our thing.

En route to Raglan, we crashed with a few CSers in Hamilton, basically the only city in NZ that’s not on a coast. Sam and Hazel are a chemist and student aide with the university, respectively, and above all, are huge gamers. They certainly enjoyed their World of Warcraft, which wasn’t necessarily our scene, but we had a nice visit with them, as I can’t remember the last time we had anything in fondue. In re: Hamilton: it’s a pretty nondescript town, and we found not much to do there but visit the city’s impressive gardens. However, we can’t recommend the American Modernist garden – surely we can do better than a kidney-shaped pool, faux-Frank Lloyd Wright cantilevered patio, and a fading Marilyn Monroe pop art mural?

Raglan’s just a short hop from Hamilton, so the next afternoon we left to meet Leon, our CS host there. Leon’s a video store manager and is a few years younger than us, and is really into working with local teens in his church’s youth group. Much of his house was a testament to this, which he described as a “bombzone.” We were his first CSers, so he was quite keen to make a good impression and show off his home time. We’ve met a lot of great people through CSing this year, and Leon might’ve been the genuinely nicest guy we’ve met, which is saying a lot. We ended up having a really good time in Raglan despite iffy weather, and have Leon to thank for much of that.

For starters, he shouted for our dinner our first night there, chicken rotis, a local specialty. They’re basically chicken, crispy potatoes, a creamy sauce, and tomato sauce, all in a tortilla wrap. We ate them at the beach while watching the surfers tackle the point break, and found them messy but fantastic. He also insisted on making breakfast both days we were there, whipping up a huge Kiwi breakfast our last day there. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten 3 large sausages at breakfast before, but you do what you have to do.

Becky works her way through the big kiwi breakfast: eggs, sausage, toast, and baked beans

One of the best perks of staying with Leon was that he got free DVD rentals from work, and with good DVD weather, we took the opportunity to catch up with some of the pop culture that we’ve missed out on this year. Verdict: Pan’s Labyrinth was excellent, Blades of Glory was surprisingly funny, Children of Men was alright, and we never need to see Transformers again. Ah, to be watching new movies again…

Leon and Andrew in downtown Raglan

Our last night with Leon was quite memorable, as we went out to the local hot springs with him and a couple kids from his youth group. Moral of the story: Leon has done his research and read a bit of our blog. The hot pools were nice, but the best part was the possum-hunting expedition the ride home became. Let’s just say that they did their patriotic duty in ridding the country of a few destructive possums, though the road may be a bit worse for the wear after some of the boys’ misfires. Now all that’s left is to actually go back to Auckland, hopefully we can handle the big city after nearly a year out in the back blocks.

Around The Horn, Er Cape (Oct. 31 – Nov. 3)

2007-11-11T03:42:00.000-05:00

When we decided to leave Taranaki, we got in touch with Belinda’s sister Julia, who lives on the East Cape with her partner Gordon. Like Kieran and Belinda, she and Gordon had recently signed up to be Wwoof hosts as well. Unfortunately and somewhat amazingly, they happened to be hosting their first two Wwoofers (a pair of Californian college buddies) during the same period that we were in the area. However, they graciously offered to put us up for a night or two in their home in Tokamaru Bay on our way through the East Cape.

We left Gisborne on Wednesday morning and set out to complete the first leg of an allegedly tres windy drive through the East Cape. The weather was once again stunning with clear sunny skies highlighting lush green hills and a dazzlingly blue ocean. This part of New Zealand is Whale Rider country, as the movie was filmed on location at a marae north of Gisborne. Though we wholeheartedly recommend the movie (an eloquent parable about the Maori in modern times), we didn’t actually stop at the filming sites, mostly because they had removed the road sign causing us to miss the turn, but also because we’ve heard that tourist visits have annoyed the locals in the small town. And so we skipped that stop and continued north to Tolaga Bay, which holds the distinction of having the longest wharf in New Zealand (660m), a structure that’s at once scenic and depressing. The decay of the wharf echoes the Cape’s fall as a center of economic activity, and even though it’s seen better days, it’s a nice place to stroll and fish.

The Tolaga Bay wharf takes a pretty picture, but we probably shouldn't have stood this close to the railing

Next stop was Tokomaru Bay, described by the guides as a ‘picturesque and crumbling’ town. True to the description, Tokomaru Bay used to be home to a large freezing works but has fallen on tough times since it closed. Now the area is home to the retired, the unemployed, and the holiday homeowner. The beaches here are lovely and more than make up for the paucity of most other amenities.

We arrived at Julia and Gordon’s in time for an evening fishing trip. We all hopped on board the boat and, per the traditional Kiwi method, were towed down to the water using a large tractor. It was a bumpy ride over the large rocks, but eventually we got ourselves in the ocean. It was great to see the coastline from the water, and we really enjoyed our time cruising around the bay. The actual fishing trip was less successful, but still good fun. Gordon had forgotten to bring along the anchor, so we ended up using some crayfish pots to anchor ourselves. Julia had managed to catch a fish within seconds of throwing in the first line, and so we thought this was going to be a breeze, but the rest of us were less successful. All told, we caught one snapper, one kahawai, and two sharks. The sharks weren’t very happy about it and did a good job of thrashing around on the deck. Perhaps they were attracted by my contribution to the fishing mission, as I managed to lose my lunch on a second consecutive day (the acrobatic flight causing the first loss).

The view from Gordon and Julia's porch - obviously they have it rough on the cape

The next morning, with such nice weather around and no place to be any time soon, Andrew and I took Julia and Gordon up on their offer for us to spend another night with them. As such, we felt we should do a bit of wwoofing work to cover our room and board (and to not inspire mutiny among the other Americans). Andrew got to work helping Gordon with some chainsawing, and I dug in to my specialty, weeding. The weather turned pretty scorching by the afternoon, so Andrew and I eagerly knocked off and headed to the beach. Hey, it’s not going to be nice when we get home, better soak it up while we can.

Hey, we remembered to get a group shot this time

By the following morning, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. However, it was time for us to get back on the road and continue our trip around the East Cape. We arrived at the lighthouse after a few hours of driving along a typically windy road. The climb to the top of the lighthouse was steep but worth the trip to the top.

You think we'd talk about seeing a lighthouse and not have a picture? For shame.

Back on the road shortly after, we finished the last half of the East Cape drive fairly quickly. We really enjoyed this last bit of the trip, from meeting Tanya and Cozzie in Gisborne, Kelly and her high flying family, Julia and Gordon in Tokomaru Bay, and then the lighthouse… it was a bit of a let down once we were done, because now we’d essentially visited all the places we were compelled to see in New Zealand. The gray weather seemed to suit our mood as we holed up for the night at a backpackers in Whanarua Bay. Now all of our attention was focused on the few days remaining before we had to be back in Auckland for our stint of house-sitting for Couchsurfers Rachel and Shanon. How to kill a few more days, that’s a good question.

Pondering the big questions from Whanarua Bay

Gisborne Golds And The Wild Blue Yonder (Oct. 29 - 31)

2007-11-03T23:34:00.001-04:00

After our premature departure from Taranaki, I managed to convince Andrew that we should take in the final bit of the country we had yet to visit – the East Cape. Jutting out into the Pacific Ocean and isolated from much of the rest of the country, the East Cape is definitely not on the major tourist routes, which, to be honest, is almost always a plus for us. However, it had been described to us by some as “hillbilly country,” which put us off during our first pass through the North Island. Other more reliable sources later told us that the East Cape was not to be missed due to its sunny weather, stunning coastlines, and relative isolation. It’s also home to a large Maori population, providing more of an authentic cultural experience than, say, a touristy hangi in Rotorua. Plus, there is a lighthouse to visit, so say no more… East Cape, here we come!

Earlier in the week we’d arranged to stay with a young couple in Gisborne, a pair of Wellington refugees who’d fled its windy weather for the sunny climate of the east coast. They’re there for Tanya’s early childhood education university program, while Andrew (her partner, also known as Cozzie) works variously as an artist, house painter, and tennis coach. In Gisborne, they’re able to rent a house a block from the beach with a guest bedroom, sleep out, garage, and large yard. We arrived early on a Sunday afternoon and quickly settled in to get to know one another over an adult beverage or three.

Basking in the sunshine in Gisborne - we're not totally looking forward to the upcoming N. hemisphere winter

The next day we made our requisite pilgrimage to the local brewery, Sunshine Brewing, who make a range of quite reasonably priced and well-made brews. A rigger and a pint glass later and Andrew was one happy beer geek. We also ventured up to the lookout spot over Poverty Bay at Kaiti Hill, featuring one of the heaps of Captain Cook statues (though it apparently isn’t actually him) commemorating his first landing in the area. We were loving the blue skies and beautiful weather and returned back to Tanya and Cozzie’s to enjoy some time in the sun in their backyard and to partake in our recently procured Gisborne Gold. Unfortunately, Andrew, Tanya, and I finished off the beer before Cozzie got home from his afternoon tennis lesson. He was a good sport, though, and went to the grocery store (three times) to restock and get supplies for that evening’s barbecue.

Tanya, Marley, and Cozzie - no points for guessing that they're reggae fans

That evening we were treated to a proper kiwi barbecue with several of Tanya and Cozzie’s friends from the area. The evening featured a jam session with a guitar and drum circle. There was also some fire dancing, as Tanya and Cozzie showed off their skills on the poi and staff, respectively. Once again, we felt really lucky for meeting such incredible people through CouchSurfing. Cheers, guys!

The next day our outrageous good fortune with CouchSurfing continued when we met up with Kelly Thompson. Kelly had shifted (moved) to Gisborne years before and had recently signed up with CouchSurfing to spread the good word about her adopted home. Although she does not have a couch for people to surf, she is quite happy to show them around the area. As such, we met up for an afternoon with Kelly as our tour guide.

She first took us on the (naturally) very windy road to the Morere Hot Springs where we spent several hours lounging in the natural hot pools. Even though it was a Tuesday afternoon, the pools were filled with a veritable united nations of people, with representatives from New Zealand, the U.S., Holland, Scotland, and England. I always enjoy the natural thermal areas, and they’ll definitely be missed when we return to the States.

Next, Kelly took us to the Gisborne airfield for the highlight of the afternoon (and one of the highlights of our entire trip). Her husband Glen is an aircraft engineer who also builds and flies his own acrobatic airplanes. He had offered Andrew and me the chance to go for a scenic ride in the open cockpit bi-wing airplane complete with acrobatic tricks. Andrew and I could hardly say no to such an opportunity, although I was a bit hesitant about the acrobatic tricks portion of the flight. My Dramamine supply ran out weeks ago, and I had forgotten to pick up the ginger tablets recommended by Clare, our CouchSurfing host in Taupo. Anyway, I agreed to go first, and Glen and I discussed hand signals to be used during the flight (two thumbs up = great time! Give me more!, two thumbs down = land this plane immediately!). He also gave me a plastic bag, in case I decided to be “unsociable.”

Becky doing her best Amelia Earhart impression

As we sat in the plane getting ready to take off, I kept thinking, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” My previous small plane experience consisted of taking a 40-seat puddle jumper from Harrisburg to New York, nothing like flying in a two seat open aircraft! Glen told me to not be worried as he made his way to the runway, “I have to drive like I’m drunk because I can’t see where I’m going when I sit in the back.” Minutes later we were taxiing down the runway and were in the air.

It looks like a bug, but it's just us, doing stunts at a couple thousand feet

The scenic part of the flight was amazing in itself. Andrew and I have never really had the opportunity to see New Zealand from the air (unlike Mom and Don who took a flight from Auckland to Christchurch). The landscape is amazing from up high, and we had perfect weather to appreciate the view of the land and the sea. I had responsibly decided not to bring the camera with me due to the second part of the flight – the acrobatics. Glen informed me over the radio what was to come next – barrel rolls, spins, and flying upside down. It’s hard to describe the intensity of being in airplane that is seemingly defying the practical rules of aviation. It was incredible, and Glen got lots of “thumbs up” before we returned to the earth. Fortunately, I also managed to remain sociable until we were back on the ground and discreetly sneaked away to leave my lunch behind the building.

Andrew was up next. It was a good thing that I went first, otherwise I would probably have never agreed to get into the plane. It was amazing watching the performance from the ground, and Andrew was definitely given a much more intense performance than I was. With his thumbs permanently stuck in the “give me more” position, Glen was more than happy to oblige. When they finally returned to the earth, Andrew immediately laid on the ground to try and recover from the ride. The adrenalin rush, even more than the continuous loop-the-loops, is enough to twist one’s stomach into one hell of a knot. Even with all that, Andrew managed to keep his lunch down - well done.

This is actually the 'after' picture, after we had some time to compose ourselves

So cheers to Kelly, Glenn and their two girls for showing us a terrific time at the Gisborne Airport. We were seriously lucky to come across them on CouchSurfing, and won’t ever forget them, or the death-defying rides in the family plane. Something tells me this is going to be a tough CouchSurfing experience to top, whew!

Top Of The Mountain In Taupo (Oct. 26 - 28)

2007-11-02T18:43:00.000-04:00

Bidding Taranaki farewell, we turned our sights east. Since we weren’t going to spend our remaining pre-Auckland time in Taranaki, Becky reckoned that we should really see the East Cape, a heavily forested, quite rural, and strongly Maori region on the opposite side of the island from Taranaki. Much like New England, there really are no direct east-west roads on the North Island, so it’s quite a haul, making a stop in the center of the island a good idea. We had tried to Couchsurf around there with a couple in February, but they’d been away in the States when we passed through. We had heard nice things about them, so we figured we should try again. When we emailed them they said they could host us over the weekend, so we thought great, and got on our way.

The amazing blue water at Huka Falls outside Taupo

We arrived in Taupo around mid-day, and promptly ran into some Red Sox fans on the street, who informed us that the World Series was on that day. With nothing on the agenda for that afternoon, we thought we should catch the end of the game. Funnily enough, we know where to see American sports in Taupo: the same sports bar where we watched the Super Bowl in February on our last pass through. We got a kick out of the randomness of the whole thing, but I think some times you just have to accept that the universe obviously wants you to watch sports. I certainly wasn’t going to fight the universe on this one.

The mandatory photo of thermal activity at the Rotorua mud pools

After the cosmically predestined game we headed out to Reporoa, where our Couchsurfing hosts Brad and Clare live. As they live on a mountainous section of her family’s property, we saw that they had a nice, long driveway. As Becky says, we’ve found that we always have had nice experiences with people who have long driveways. Brad and Clare’s was certainly no exception, as they came out to give us a ride up the really washed-out top part of their drive in their ute.

Brad and Clare's mountain hut - check out the view!

When we reached their home, a hunting hut perched on top of a small mountain, we were awestruck by the view and tremendous location. It seems that everywhere we go, the places we stay just get more scenic by the day. Once again, Couchsurfing comes through, amazingly. The hut was originally built by Clare’s dad as a hunting retreat, and on the rustic interior it shows, with bunks and hunting trophies the main adornment. But the view is really the thing with their place.

We spent a couple nights with Brad and Clare, and had a great time just chatting and hanging out in the mountain chalet. They’re just really cool and outdoorsy people, so Brad knew everything about hunting in NZ, and on his day off took us touring around the property in his ute, showing us how to track various wildlife. Clare is a former adventure tourism worker who can tell you all about the ups and downs (well, mostly downs) of abseiling. They also had some cool experiences, as they’d lived in Haast, on the west coast above Fiordland, and in Chch.

The view of the valley on our 4x4 tour of Brad and Clare's property

They were also keen about the States, as they’d Couchsurfed in the US and Canada for almost five weeks on a massive snowboarding trip earlier in the year. All in all, experiences and people like this are what make Couchsurfing such a great way to travel. Yeah, being able to stay places for free is a boon to any traveler, but getting to stay somewhere amazing like this, learning about the area from the locals, and just getting to meet really cool people is what makes the whole thing magic. Cheers, guys!

Becky, Piper, and Clare at the mountain hut

You Can’t Handle Tom Cruise’s Tepee! (Oct. 22 – 26)

2007-10-30T13:53:00.001-04:00

Leaving George and Wellington behind, we headed north, which is appropriate since there’s nowhere to go but north from windy Welly. In our brief dash through the North Island in the summer we missed the west coast pretty much entirely, so we decided to go that a-way. Fifteen minutes out of Wellington we were instantly taken back to our memories of the N Island; rolling green hills littered with cows, hot and sunny weather, and hazy plains stretching from the sea to the far-off mountains in the center of the island. We drove through the black-sand resort towns of Waikanae and Paraparaumu, where we encountered traffic, of all things, which came as a great shock to us – the South Island doesn’t really do congestion. By the end of the day we were knackered as we reached one of the rural Manawatu region’s big cities, Wanganui. Not much going in Wanganui on the Labor Weekend; it’s not the kind of town that has to be on anyone’s must-see itinerary.

The beautiful "Three Sisters" north of Urenui

The next morning we were off further north to Taranaki, where we had lined up some wwoofing work at an organic brewery, White Cliffs, just outside of New Plymouth, the area’s only major city. As you can probably guess, Taranaki’s another really rural region, basically a remote western peninsula with many, many cows. The region is most notable for the eponymous Mt. Taranaki (or Egmont, depending on who you ask – Taranaki sounds cooler so it’s our preferred nomenclature), a conical snow-capped volcanic mountain which rises out of the center of the Taranaki ring plain to dominate the skyline.

Ron Burgundy is ready for his close-up

We’d been keen to see Mt. Taranaki since we’d been here for nearly a year without spotting it, but we’d heard people say that on remarkably clear days it could be seen as far away as the South Island. We haven’t been that lucky, so we figured we had to go to the source. Even while we cruising along Taranaki’s Surf Highway that runs along the peninsula’s western edge, the mountain was only 10 km away but obscured by a heap of clouds on an otherwise clear day. When Taranaki finally emerged as we drove into NP, it was an amazing sight – if for some reason John Madden was describing the area he might say: you’ve got a lot of flat plains and trees, and then all of a sudden, boom, there’s a mountain right there, amazing.

We began wwoofing at White Cliffs because I’m always into seeing how various breweries do things, get another notch in the belt, etc., so we drove out of New Plymouth, after staying there a night. NP’s a nice little beach city, and judging on the big free museum, art gallery, and big public sculpture on the beach, has a fair bit of money coming from the offshore oil and gas discovered nearby in the Tasman Sea. The brewery is in nearby Urenui, which is a typically rural, bush-covered N Island town: this island was built to grow vegetation.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect from White Cliffs since we’d had only brief contact with the owners beforehand, but they turned out to be two generations of a South African family who’d bought the brewery only 4 months earlier. The husband and wife, Ron and Jill, were the owners, but his parents Mike and Rina, originally from Zimbabwe, did the brewing and much of the day-to-day operations. They were a bit older but had to work, owing to the weakness of the South African rand compared to the kiwi dollar. With the white lab coat, Mike got called ‘The Doctor’ a lot, though we reckon that the short shorts (certainly not uncommon around here) should give him away. The brewery was an interesting little set-up: just a tiny operation where they had a little retail space, tanks, refrigerator, and storage space in the equivalent of a big two-car garage. For our part, Becky and I puttered around for a few days there, helping mostly with the bottling, but not really doing too much else. At this point we’re packaging experts.

The good doctor poses with his tonic to cure all "ales"

Our living space was amusing, as we had a little shack set in the back of the property, in the midst of a wee avocado orchard. It certainly was peaceful and tranquil. The only bummer was that the kitchen and toilet was on the other side of the grove, requiring a 5-minute walk through chilly, wet grass. But our favorite aspect was that in the middle of the orchard, the brewery’s previous owner had bought and placed the tepee used by Tom Cruise in the filming of The Last Samurai, much of which occurred nearby. Even if he’s become a crazy Scientologist, we still had to chuckle when we walked past his tepee every morning. The Taranaki terrain was apparently a good stand-in for rural Japan, especially Mt. Taranaki, which looks like Mt. Fuji from a distance.

Our migrant laborer shack amongst the avocado grove

Overall, it was a reasonable enough place to WWOOF, but it certainly didn’t blow us away, and after a few days we began to get keenly aware that our time in NZ is quickly coming to a close, and there is more we’ve yet to see. It was an unusual WWOOFing situation in that they weren’t feeding us there, but instead were paying us for some of our work. That’s alright, but wasn’t what we anticipated. In addition, I didn’t reckon there would be much that I could learn from them, as they’ve barely had more brewing experience than I’ve had. Thus, we decided to leave after four days. Even though this WWOOFing place was no Arapawa Island, don’t feel bad for us – it’s not every day you get to share a yard with Tom Cruise’s tepee…

I LOVE this tepee!

Dispatch From The North (Oct. 20 – 21)

2007-10-28T17:21:00.000-04:00

Andrew has insisted that I finally take a turn at this blog writing thing and suggested that I write the “farewell to the South Island” post. It’s not his worst idea, actually, as teary goodbyes are one of my specialties. We had a nice send-off from Arapawa with all the remaining Radons waving goodbye from the wharf as we sailed back to Picton (all except for James, who was already pre-occupied with the blue motorbike).

Andrew and I say farewell to Arapawa Island

From Picton we headed to Blenheim to spend one last evening with the boys from Renaissance Brewing, barbecuing with Brian, his fam, and Andy and his giant children. Seriously, who is going to cook for us on the North Island? Brian made a very nice toast to Andrew for all his efforts to spread the Renaissance beer gospel on the South Island. It makes us feel as though we’ll be missed on the Mainland. Here’s hoping the Renaissance guys make a good fist of it, and if/when we return to NZ, we’ll return to an even bigger operation.

The next morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast, and spent a few hours entertaining the kids (OK I entertained the kids while Andrew watched the Springboks beat the Pommies in the Rugby World Cup final) before heading through Picton once again, this time to catch our ferry back to the North Island and civilization, more or less. Several months ago I would have really been looking forward to the trip back to the North Island, since the closer we got to Auckland, the closer we would be to our trip home. In June, while toiling in the vineyards of Marlborough, I had decided that I had had enough of the backpacker lifestyle. I even made a few teary phone calls home and started making alternate (albeit implausible) plans to go to Oktoberfest or Barcelona. I managed to stick it out, however, and now our departure date of December 2^nd seems to be approaching all too rapidly.

Andrew enjoys the calm seas on the ferry

All in all we spent eight months traveling around the South Island, north and south, east and west, looping over track numerous times. We didn’t really have a set-in-stone itinerary, which becomes painfully obvious when you look at our Jauntlet map. But for us much of the adventure of the trip was in not really having a plan. People have asked where we spent our time in the South, and all we can really say is “all over.” I tried to retrace our route in my mind while the ferry slowly moved through Tory Channel, but only got as far as our flight from the dirty flat in Wanaka before I was distracted by our final trip past Arapawa Seafarm (second house from the end as you head into Cook Strait). For the most part, time has seemed to move very quickly, although we could look at certain pieces of the trip (see Lemon Tree Cafe) as being interminably long. The details will soon start to fade, and soon we’ll only remember the good bits.

Our final glimpse of Arapawa Seafarm as we return to the North Island

Moving away from more philosophical ponderings, arriving in Wellington again it was a bit surreal to find ourselves back on George’s doorstep (see CouchSurfing) after having first met him in February. We stayed with him shortly before our departure from the North Island, when all the best parts of our trip were still ahead of us in the South Island. Now we have less than two months to go until we leave New Zealand for good (or at least until the 2011 Rugby World Cup). George was just as we remembered him: friendly, talkative, enthusiastic. Since we saw him last, he had visited the states, went kayaking in Fiji, had a relationship, switched departments at work, and torn down all the gib (drywall) in the guest bedroom. He even found the time to sew a prototype of his new blanket, which we are certain will turn the blanket industry on its head for years to come. What have you done with your last eight months, whew! We spent a cruisey night in the capital splashing out for thai takeaways and chai gelato for dessert (this counts as really living it up for us).

George's amazing blanket! (patent pending)

After watching Borat, Andrew and I crashed on our respective couches. On our first visit George’s living room was dominated by a queen-sized bed set up to accommodate guests. It has since found a new home – in someone else’s home – so we took the couches, making this perhaps our first actual “couch” surfing experience in NZ). The next morning we woke up early to beat the morning crowds at the local cafes. George knows all the best places for brunch with a view and took us to Maranui Surf Club Café for pancakes with bacon and banana (an NZ specialty… you should try it!). Then we hit the road north. We’ve had to say quite a few goodbyes in this country already, and I’ve already shed quite a few tears. I can only imagine my reaction when we get on the plane in Auckland. But we’ve got heaps of time til then, literally weeks!

A couch with a view, from George's living room window

Marlborough Sounds Like A Good Place to Wwoof (Oct. 3 – 19)

2007-10-25T21:18:00.000-04:00

Sometime in the past few months, as we were living in Chch, we began to line up our post-Linda and Don plans for our last two months in NZ. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here for nine months now, and that we’ve now got less than two months to go. It’s hard to effectively describe it, but at some moments it hardly feels like we’ve been on the South Island for eight months now. On the other hand, there are times when I feel acutely aware of how long we’ve been here. But I digress, since this is making me sound like an old person.

Anyway, we became intrigued with the idea of wwoofing somewhere in the Marlborough Sounds, looking for some isolated place accessible only by boat, where we could soak up the natural scenic beauty, etc. etc. Our recent trek on the Queen Charlotte track with L&D only heightened our anticipation of wwoofing on a lush green island in the middle of Marlborough’s rolling submerged mountain ranges. Thus we were excited to find a wwoofing accommodation with a family living on Arapawa Island.

Arapawa is an island located on the Tory Channel at the northeastern tip of the Sounds, where the Wellington-Picton ferries cruise past every hour. The family with whom we’re staying farm and dive for paua (NZ abalone), and also run a few sheep and cattle on their sprawling island property. When we first contacted them they were keen for us to get there as soon as possible after Oct. 1, so the best we could do was to get there on the 3^rd, after putting L&D on a plane the previous night in Chch.

Back at the ranch on Arapawa Island

We met the husband, Mike, in Picton, where he was making a paua delivery, and rode back with him in their small boat, which is basically the family’s only means of transportation to reach the outside world. As the family lives at the northern end of Arapawa at the end of the Sounds, it’s a bit of a haul to their place, about an hour or so. In fact, from their house on a clear day you can see right across the Cook Strait to the Wellington Hills of the North Island. For those familiar with the Wellington-Picton ferry, their property is the second one on the right as you enter the Sounds, with the red and white maritime markers.

Becky boards the "Freedom" on our way to Arapawa Island

Always prone to motion sickness, Becky had skipped lunch before we boarded, which was smart, as the chop in the Sounds was fairly intense. Arriving at Arapawa we had our most exciting wwoofing induction yet as we had to toss our packs up onto the wharf and then leap from a wildly rocking boat. We narrowly missed a good soaking and lost luggage when a massive wave washed over the wharf right behind us. Antonia quickly came out to meet us on one of their 4x4’s with two dogs and one kid in tow. She then hopped onto the backhoe to pull Mike and the dingy out from the roiling waves. Whew!

The view from the wharf on a calm day

Both Mike, who’s from California, and Antonia, who is a Kiwi, are tremendously keen divers, and met in California some years ago while diving professionally. They’ve been at Arapawa for about 14 years now, and have 3 kids: 9-year old twins Sarah and Jacob, and a 5-year old, James. The kids are tremendously energetic. Mike is often in the States fishing or diving professionally, leaving Antonia to manage the farm in his absence, often with a team of wwoofers. Much like Belinda, she left us amazed at her incredible energy level. There simply aren’t enough hours in a day for her to accomplish everything she’d like to do between teaching the kids, running the house, and all the various tasks in raising paua and running their farm.

Wwoofing at Arapawa gave us an opportunity to do some unique work that we haven’t done previously. Since living on the island requires the family to do correspondence school with their kids, Becky’s background in education came in handy – she helped Antonia in the family’s schoolroom on many days. That was typically followed by sundry household activities (cooking, cleaning, child-minding, pet-minding) until the day eventually wound down around 7:00 PM.

My tasks were generally more varied than Becky’s. In times of better weather, their other wwoofer, Hidei, and I would often go out on the property’s steep hillsides, weeding tarhwini plants and spraying that most hated and invasive plant, gorse. Hidei, who was from Japan, was a good sport and a hard worker, and we got along quite well. Though he spoke almost no English, we communicated reasonably well, which I attribute largely to my excellence in the art of mime.

I’d say I also earned my forestry merit badge at Arapawa, wielding a chainsaw to carve up firewood, which can become tiring, but which I rate as excellent work. It’s surprisingly satisfying to stack up a huge pile of freshly cut firewood. Mostly I was keen to do any job that required use of one of their several 4x4’s. I never mastered backing up a 4x4 with a trailer on the back, but riding around the property, up forested hills and through shallow creeks, I could easily see why you’d want one, or three, as they had at Arapawa. Actually, I think many of their chores might just be convenient excuses to go for a ride on the 4x4…

Andrew's a lumberjack, and he's okay

Sarah and Jacob negotiating turns to ride the blue motorbike

Becky and I both spent heaps of time in the paua farm, especially on the many rainy spring days we endured at Arapawa. If anything, the weather at the edge of the Cook Strait is changeable – some warm, sunny, 20ºC weather interspersed with rainy, cold, 10 ºC days. And the wind is really something there as well; maybe not Canterbury bad, but when a southerly gale is blowing through the Sounds it certainly les you know. On the paua farm our specialty was in separating and sizing small paua, a yearly task that was well-suited for bad weather. We got pretty good at it – I can tell a 45mm paua from a 50mm one by sight.

Becky measures some paua at the farm

We ended up staying with the family for 16 days, and besides a few trips out on their inflatable dinghy never left the island in that time. It’s a unique experience living on an island, and I was interested in how the family lived their life on an isolated island with only a couple neighbors. Though with modern communications, biweekly mail boat visits, and ferries going by every hour, the isolation certainly isn’t complete. They even had broadband Internet and Sky (cable) television, certainly not regular fixtures in all Kiwi homes. We certainly weren’t complaining that they had those things.

We have to say that it was perhaps the most remarkable place we’ve wwoofed at. Between the Sounds, a sprawling property on a relatively isolated island, the outdoorsy 4x4-loving kids, a paua farm and hatchery, and hosts that dive for paua for a living, there were so many interesting things going on. We were properly immersed in the family’s life, even joining them on a family picnic to the “Knob,” the highest point on Arapawa Island. Loaded up on two four-wheelers with two dogs in tow, the eight of us traveled to the Knob for lunch and to take in the views, which were spectacular.

Enjoying our picnic lunch at the Knob

Also, many of the things about wwoofing at Arapawa were top-notch. Antonia is an excellent cook, preparing roasts, cottage pies, and heaps of other tasty dishes at dinner. And don’t even get me started on desserts – they took dessert very seriously, which I was happy to see. There was always a cake, cookies, or a crumble around. Mike says he gains ten pounds when he’s at home, and I could certainly believe it. If I hadn’t been running around as much as I was, I probably would’ve gained weight as well. Additionally, the family had a very good set-up for having wwoofers, as we had our own very nice ensuite room in a small building off the house. Hidei had his own ensuite room separate from the house as well. You could hardly ask for better food or accommodation in a wwoofing arrangement.

After some sub-par wwoofing experiences (see Lemon Tree and the garlic farm), Arapawa Island proved to be the wwoofing tonic we were looking for. We were made to feel a part of this amazing family and learned a great deal during our time here. They benefited from our efforts and 6+ hours of work a day while we enjoyed comfortable accommodation and delicious food. Becky’s cooking will have improved after our stay here, and I’ve learned new things as well (most importantly, I’ve learned I should try and figure out how to get a 4x4 when I get home, hehe). It’s been a great way to spend a few weeks this spring before our quickly approaching departure from the South Island. Cheers, Arapawa!

A final farewell from the wharf

Guest Blog: Linda & Don on the South Island

2007-10-17T02:41:00.001-04:00

Well, everyone, Don and I have survived our trip to NZ, and have traveled well. Andrew and Becky have since effectively covered our vacation in their blog, but they seem to want something from us too. Why would that be? They do such a grand and thorough job as it is. Nevertheless we will give it a whirl.

Don takes in the view from the Old Slaughter House

There are some aspects of the trip that B&A can’t touch, such as the flight into Chch. Since B&A landed in Auckland and took the ferry across, they missed all the magnificent views from the plane. Don and I were mesmerized even before we landed in Auckland. I, a lover of sunsets and sunrises, was blown away by the sunrise as we approached Auckland. My only disappointment was a lack of a picture window on the plane. Surely the transportation industry is missing the point when they don’t market the views from the skies, as no one else is able to compete against them.

Linda and Don enjoy the sunset (over the Tasman Sea, not the Southern Alps)

Once we resumed our short trip from Auckland to Chch, Don and I were glued to the window, both fighting for the best view. The scenery was unrivaled and unending. The Southern Alps, which NZ is famous for, were often beyond our vision during the land trip because of the cloud cover. Not so in the skies. These tall peaks, covered with snow, jutted through the clouds trying to reach out to the plane. They were absolutely glorious, and a good welcoming to the South Island. Beyond the mountains and the clouds we were greeted by the vineyards, sometimes covered with red netting, and remote roads, seemingly going nowhere for miles and miles. Only in the air can you really see how unpopulated and unspoiled NZ is. New Zealanders have a paradise, and they know it.

B&A also introduced us to the world of hostels. For those of you who are not familiar with this term as used in NZ, a hostel, or BBH, is a larger home with many bedrooms which include singles, doubles, and dorms. They provide, if you are lucky, multiple bathrooms, and kitchens. Sometimes you are asked to leave you shoes at the door, and always to clean up the kitchen after your meal. We were more often than not able to stay at the best hostels, and once, Becky informed me, our hostel had the best rating in the world--that would be the ‘Old Slaughter House’. This hostel, built on the side of a steep hill, included a ten minute hike up the hill in order to reach it. We were fortunate as our host, David, brought our luggage up on his four-wheeler, saving our backs and our lungs.

Don discusses his latest journal entry with Becky, while Andrew enjoys appetizers at that evening's backpackers

David had other amenities not offered by most hostels. Of course, the best one, as far as I was concerned, was the sunset. We could watch the sun as it sank into the ocean from David’s wrap-around porch high on the side of the hill. He also offered hot water bottles to keep us snug as a bug at night. Did I mention before that these hostels do not have central heat? Well they don’t. No comforts like home! Some supplied small electric heaters; others fireplaces. But not David, he supplied hot water bottles, and I am going to run out and buy them for my girls to use this winter when they come home for visits. They’ll just love it.

Living in a hostel also gave us the opportunity to cook and enjoy all our meals together. Thanks to Becky this usually came off without a hitch. Most kitchens, as far as I was concerned, only had the most basic supplies. But Becky managed to cook varied and healthy meals. However, she expected Don and me to take turns with her and Andrew. This included, not only the cooking, but the planning, the buying, the storing, the dishwashing, etc. etc. Most meals came off pretty well, but then there was the night of the omelets. What a disaster that was! I won’t even go into it. Thank God there were nights we eat out or had smoked salmon, or mussels at David’s or the nights that Chris and Belinda cooked for us. Those were great nights! Chris made us a traditional NZ pavlova cake. I tried to replicate it last night for my friend Pam. It was nothing like Chris’s. In fact, I had to make it twice. The first time it just fell apart; the second time it did again, but I was forced to use it. The only saving grace was the whipped cream, strawberries, and kiwis. Anyway, Pam acted like it was great. Thank goodness for friends.

Unlike some of our friends, who have toured NZ via a cruise ship, we were fortunate to tour the country in B&A’s Subaru, affectionately called ‘Ron Burgundy’. Because of this reliable hunk of machinery, we saw places most tourists never get to see. It took us up the highest mountains and to the most desolate beaches such as Gore Bay, where we saw our first bull kelp. If you don’t know any better, when you see it floating in the ocean, it looks like a seal. Ron took us to Farewell Spit, a narrow peninsula consisting of sand, seals, and a Gannet Colony. This peninsula, much like the 90 mile beach on the north island is restricted to one tour company so it is vastly desolate.

We wade across a tidal pool to make our way to the gannet colony at Farewell Spit

Did I mention that Ron only knows how to drive on the left hand side of the road? Don was able to experience this first hand, the day he volunteered to drive. The ‘golden rule’ according to Don is keep the driver in the middle of the road; left turns are like right turns and right turns are like left turns unless it is a gentlemen’s turn (ask Becky or Andrew for clarification). And, then there are give ways, round-abouts, judder bars, and one-lane bridge give ways. Also, New Zealanders are speedsters, never staying within the posted speed limit, always looking for the opportunity to pass you.

Don behind the wheel of Ron Burgandy

We had fun; let’s do it again in 2011.

Running On Fumes Down The West Coast (Plus Other Exciting Things I Have No Room For In The Title) (Sep. 28 – Oct. 2)

2007-10-09T18:30:00.000-04:00

Leaving Golden Bay, we proceeded toward the West Coast for a quick jaunt down the coast before heading back east to Chch through Arthur’s Pass. Friday brought our longest driving day of 5 hours or so, as the driving distance to the West Coast is substantial and because it takes awhile to traverse the many switchbacks up and then down Takaka Hil in GB. To break up the drive we stopped in Buller Gorge, home of the “longest swingbridge in

New Zealand

”, which is a bit touristy, but what the heck. Don especially enjoyed the gorge because as a civil engineer he appreciates a good bridge and also because he opted to spend the extra bob and take the Superman zip-line back across the river.

The longest swing bridge in New Zealand

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a civil engineer!

Once on the West Coast we took L&D to perhaps our favorite hostel, The Old Slaughterhouse, in Hector. TOS, of course, requires a 10 minute bushwalk up a hill to reach the hostel, but with such good accommodations even L&D didn’t mind a little hike. With our second day of good weather in a row we were able to see the sun set over the Tasman Sea, quite possibly the strongest of TOS’s many selling points. L&D had been asking about a sunset for days, so it was good, as professional tour guides, to be able to deliver. It’s tough to beat eating freshly collected and cooked mussels while watching the sun set over the sea from a deck perched about 100m above the beach. We realize we have it tough here, but we persist.

Mom and Don enjoy the sunset from the porch at the Old Slaughterhouse

On the next day we drove south to Punakaiki, for what became our third trip to the Pancake Rocks. Once again we didn’t see any blowhole action there (Becky claims she saw a blowhole when we were there with Marie and Alex, but we’re all skeptical, frankly). Linda was a diehard, camping out for about an hour at the notorious spot where Becky saw the Loch Ness Monster…er fantastic blowhole action last time, but alas, no joy for her on this particular day.

Beyond being the scenic drive it always is, our brief tour down the West Coast was pretty uneventful except for the fact that we failed to fill up with gas before we left Westport. This became an issue because we had less than a quarter tank as we left Westport, and there’s no petrol for about 100km between there and Greymouth – I must have been wearing my Bad Idea Jeans. However, miracle of miracles, we somehow coaxed more than 580km out of one tank of gas, which is a certainly a record for Ron Burgundy in 2007. Our previous high mileage total had been in the low 500’s, so you can imagine it was quite a white-knuckled drive for us that day.

Always read the road signs - they're not fooling!

The worst part of the drive was that it had to last so long, since I was driving a bit slowly and coasting downhill whenever possible to conserve petrol. We can say in all honesty that we’ve never been so excited to see Greymouth. I’ve never run out of gas before, and wasn’t keen to do it along an isolated road on the NZ’s west coast, so the success of this trip represented a huge victory for the forces of good. I don’t want to read too much into this particular episode, but I think you can safely say that the universe thinks we’re living right.

Karmic deliverance notwithstanding, when we hit Greymouth we made a left turn directly east, heading back towards Chch, and promptly rejoined the poor weather that has been tormenting the South Island the past few weeks. That evening, staying in Arthur’s Pass, we were pounded all night by a ridiculously windy rainstorm. The next day we took L&D into Chch, which was surprisingly warm and sunny, for a little sight-seeing and souvenir shopping. You can’t go wrong with a hike at the Sign of the Kiwi or Chch’s botanic gardens, but Cathedral Square, as always, leaves a bit to be desired. Which is a shame really, since it’s the focal point of the city and should be a happening location.

Punting down the Avon through a sea of daffodils

That evening we stopped in with our good friends Kieran and Belinda in Amberley, where they offered to put us all up for the night. Belinda made a roast, and there was plenty of good beer and wine to go around. However, the highlight of the evening was probably Don donning cricket gear and facing a few pitches from Oscar in the middle of the dining room. He’d been asking Kieran heaps of cricket questions, so they thought an object lesson was probably the most appropriate way to show him. Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty hilarious. After a good day of driving and sight-seeing and an evening of good food and wine, not to mention cricket, we were set to crash.

Cricket, anyone?

The next morning, with just two more days left in L&D’s New Zealand experience, we took them out to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula, another of our favorite spots on the South Island. Since Don is a really avid golfer, he was keen to golf in NZ, where owing to the small population it has some ridiculous number of golf courses per capita. We promised to get him on a course at some point, and after driving by countless courses over the past two weeks, finally got him to the Akaroa Golf Club on his penultimate day in NZ. Akaroa, as you might expect, has a nice, hilly course, though a number of the fairways would be best described as claustrophobic. They certainly don’t have a surplus of real estate there. Don’s quite good and easily beat my over-100 round, though for not getting out on the course in the past year I felt like I swung the sticks pretty well.

Don feels more at ease with a golf club than a cricket bat

For L&D’s last blast on Tuesday we ran them back into Chch, where they saw kiwis at the Cathedral Square aquarium, bought more souvenirs (including some cool maps), and went to the Chch Casino. Our advice would be to skip the Casino, unless you’re a slot machine or roulette nut. The Casino doesn’t seem to offer much else, much to Linda’s disappointment, as she was hoping for some good video poker action. I would’ve liked to play some craps for my dad, but no dice (literally or figuratively) there either. After seeing their requisite Maori cultural performance, it was time to put them on a plane home. Overall, a very good two weeks with Linda and Don, thanks for visiting, you two! Now…who’s next?

Golden Oldies in Golden Bay (Sep. 24 – 27)

2007-10-08T00:49:00.000-04:00

Terminology note: during our visit at Chris and Martin’s, Martin off-handedly referred to Linda and Don as our “oldies”, and for better or worse the term caught on with Becky and I. L&D haven’t seemed to mind much, so that’s good, but we enjoy it so much that we’d probably use it either way, we might just be more circumspect in our usage. With that in mind…

From the Sounds we took the oldies to Nelson, which is generally sunny, but wasn’t exactly cooperating for our day there. While in Nelson, we didn’t seem to get heaps of input on activities for the day, and so we took it pretty easy after our long hike the day before. I did take the opportunity to highjack our trip for a little while for a beer-related activity, diverting us to Founder’s Park for a mug at the brewery in the afternoon. I’ll cop to that being a danger of traveling with me. Otherwise, we took it easy in Nelson, enjoying the free-but-glacially slow internet at our hostel and playing cards.

Hot "tubs" by the stream at the Innlet

On the next day we headed out to Golden Bay, the hippie-rific rural beach area north of Nelson. You may recall our earlier visit to Golden Bay, where we stayed at a really cruisey Buddhist-inspired hostel, Shambhala. Unfortunately Shambhala was still closed for the low season this time, but Golden Bay seems to have good hostels all over the place, and we found one, The Innlet, and had it to ourselves for two nights. That’s the beauty of traveling in off-peak seasons here, and it’s tough to beat.

Hardhats are required for the tour at Ngarua Cave

Though the weather didn’t cooperate much of the time in Golden Bay, we were able to make the best of it, stopping at Ngarua Caves, a cool limestone cave formation with a tour guide who was a dead ringer for Albert Finney. We also stopped at a farm zoo/eel attraction that was highly recommended by Chris and one of Becky’s convention center workmates. It was surprisingly fun to feed eels pieces of raw meat, but Becky really got a kick out of feeding a little pig that followed us around the park – he looked so much like her sister’s dog that she began to call him Mickey as well. We also got out on Wharariki Beach that day and were able to find seal pups there again, but had to hurry and wade back to the beach before the tide got too high that afternoon.

Feeding the eels mince (otherwise known as ground beef) at the farm

Andrew suspiciously eyes the llama, who we called "Snarfy"

Becky makes friends with Mickey's swine doppelganger downunder

The next day we took a guided tour out on the Farewell Spit, Golden Bay’s unique sand formation that stretches towards the North Island. The Spit is basically a long sandbar extending from the tip of the South Island, and is formed from sand that is washed down rivers on the country’s West coast and subsequently carried by the strong northward current along the coast. It finally makes its way to the Spit, where it accumulates in a largely straight line, now about 24km in length. The Spit is a strongly protected environmental area, and the only way to get to the end is on a guided tour. Becky seemed to regret not taking the tour last time we were in GB, so I suspect we went there because of her as much as Linda or Don, but it was really good so no complaints by anyone.

The amazing upclose view of the gannet colony at Farewell Spit

Much like our tour on the North Island’s 90-Mile Beach, the Spit tour was an interesting drive down a dune-filled beach to a scenic lighthouse. Luckily, our tour this time was much smaller (only 6 of us), and our tour guide, an enthusiastic German, Kersten, was heaps better than our Cape Reinga driver, who prattled on for over an hour on the gory details of the local fishing competition. The highlight of a tour of the Spit is the gannet colony at the end, which is the only known one in the world not perched on a cliff. The gannets are a beautiful and colorful bird, and being able to get really close to a huge group of them was worth the ride and cost.

The Farewell Spit lighthouse

Of course no visit to GB is complete without a pilgrimage to the Mussel Inn, home to NZ’s most out-of-the-way, and some might say best, brewpubs. We can heartily recommend the mussel chowder with a Captain Cooker manuka beer to wash it down. We were fortunate to arrive when we did, as it had only re-opened for the spring the week before, having been closed for about six weeks in the winter. Driving around to various attractions we found out that to be the case for more than a few places, so good timing Linda and Don!

On our next and last day in GB we went out sea kayaking in the northern part of the Abel Tasman National Park. We’d been to Abel Tasman our last time in GB, where we did a hike and sail excursion, but again Becky seemed to regret not doing the kayaking. Since Linda is a keen kayaker back home she was keen to kayak in NZ, though she wasn’t so sure of doing it in the sea as compared to a placid lake. In the end it turned out to be a great kayak though, with sunny weather and generally calm seas around Tata Beach, where we put in. We got a few hours to paddle around rocky islands containing shag colonies, and saw a few seals to boot. The shags are another cool bird to see, but you definitely don’t want to get too close to them, as they seem to be more than happy to poop on you. Judging from the stench around the island, it’s not something you want to wear.

Andrew avoiding the shags while kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park

Alas, after 4 days our time at GB was up, but despite the bad weather on several days, this visit only cemented its status as one of our favorite places in NZ. You stay cruisey, Golden Bay.

Marlborough, From the Hills to the Sounds (Sep. 22 – 23)

2007-10-06T02:40:00.001-04:00

On Saturday morning we awoke to the smells of Chris preparing a huge proper Kiwi breakfast for us. I’ll stop saying how nice they are because it probably embarrasses them, but damn. Eggs, bacon, tomato, potatoes, toast, you get the idea. It was fantastic. Full of a tasty breakfast, we made our way out to the Omaka Air Heritage Museum, highly rated by our brewing pals, Brian and Andy. It’s a nice museum featuring original and replica WWI-era aircraft. After the museum we went to the Wither Hills Farm Park, where we did a nice little hike in the hills above Blenheim. It was a good example of the sun-baked hills common to Marlborough as well as giving a good view of Blenheim. Parenthetically, the housing lots on the outskirts of Blenheim seemed ridiculously pricey to us: NZ$150,000 just for a decent lot, whew!

You could be the lucky owner of this fine piece of real estate

From Blenheim we drove just up the road to Picton, gateway to the Marlborough Sounds. The Sounds is an amazing bit of NZ geography at the top of the South Island: a range of rolling mountains half-submerged in the sea, creating an intricate waterway maze full of nooks, crannies, and hidden coves aplenty. During our time in Picton we learned that the Sounds make up about 1/6 of NZ’s coastline mileage, which is amazing considering it takes up a rather small area overall. Just as when we took the ferry from Wellington to Picton in February, we were again captivated by the unique beauty of the area.

I guess you could say the view of the Sounds from the harbor is 'Pictonuresque'

Our main purpose for taking Don and Linda to the Sounds was to do a portion of the Queen Charlotte Track, which in its entirety is a 71km walk along the ridges and coasts of the Sounds. We only had a day to hike so we took a ferry out to the farthest point on the track, Ship Cove, and did a 5 hour walk to Furneaux Lodge, one of the many lodges along the route. Though we didn’t really have gorgeous weather for the walk on Sunday, it really didn’t hurt much, as we were under canopy for a large portion, and the skies cleared markedly by the time afternoon rolled around. Though Queen Charlotte isn’t considered one of NZ’s Great Walks, it’s definitely a marquee one, and well worth the cost of the boat in Picton.

A rare moment of good weather on the Queen Charlotte track

After the largely flat but surprisingly long day’s hike (about 14km) L&D were pretty well bushed, so I think we accomplished our goal there. The ride back on the ferry was a welcome break, and we chatted with the boat captain at length on our way back. He showed us points of interest on the Sounds and took us by a local salmon farm that has been having heaps of seal trouble since its inception. Seals don’t usually live in the Sounds, but the lure of the tasty salmon has brought them there, where they’ve managed to outwit the aquaculturists many times over the past few years. They’ve also become aggressive, leaping into the workers’ quarters and chasing the workers throughout the facility. Sounds like a fun job, eh? Anyway, after a good day of hiking it was nice to have Linda prepare a home-cooked-ish meal, a roast beef (you can probably guess how many times Becky has ever made that) before we all passed out in our beds.

Mom and Don are on the run from the chickens

It Isn’t Easy Going Back to Green (Oct. 8)

2007-10-04T22:36:00.001-04:00

As you can see we’re no longer All Black With NZ, meaning that either NZ has won the Rugby World Cup or has crashed out of it. If you’re following the RWC at all you know that the latter has unfortunately happened, the All Blacks having lost a crushing defeat to the French in Cardiff yesterday morning, 20-18. Like the rest of New Zealand we’re gutted by this loss, as it was a heartbreaker.

Heavily favored to win this year’s RWC, the All Blacks came in looking like world-beaters, having lost only 5 matches over the past four years. After a far-too-easy first round RWC group, however, the ABs hadn’t had a challenge in beating the likes of Portugal and Romania in what were little more than glorified exhibition matches. The doomsayers were correct that this was poor preparation for a game against the French, a side that shocked the ABs in the 1999 semifinals.

In the past few weeks, no one from the sports media to the NZ public rated the French as having much of a chance, especially given their surprise loss to the Argentines in group play. Additionally, the ABs gave a visiting French side several sound thrashings in their NZ tour earlier this year. Having never lost before the semifinal round in a RWC, it was also unthinkable for the boys in black to lose this early.

However, the French didn’t read this script and came out defiant, standing up to the ABs’ haka, and giving no quarter, especially on defense. Though they were undoubtedly aided by some very questionable refereeing, especially on a yellow card on the ABs’ Luke McAlister and a missed call on a terribly blatant forward pass on what was France’s winning try late in the 2^nd half, the French certainly played hard enough to win. In the end the AB’s didn’t get it done, and the French were jubilant. From our perspective, it was one of the most nerve-wracking sporting events I’ve watched, and when the French showed life in the 2^nd half I began to have a sinking feeling, like it just wasn’t the ABs’ day.

At the moment, we’re out on an island in the Marlborough Sounds but I’m sure the rest of the country is in a serious funk. They love their rugby and their ABs here, and I imagine most of NZ will be having a ‘case of the Mondays’ tomorrow. Expect heaps of recriminations and self-flagellating commentary here, but all I know is that we’re bumming. Between the Penn State-Michigan game and now this, it hasn’t been a good few weeks for us in sport, and this certainly is not the way we wanted to go back to Green. I’d say c’est la vie, but it just might be too soon to use a French phrase ‘round these parts. For now, All Blacks fans will have to wait another 4 long years until the 2011 RWC, which will be held here in NZ. Where there’ll be no pressure on that squad, I’m sure!

More Guests for Becky (Sep. 20 - 21)

2007-10-02T06:29:00.001-04:00

Pre-script: We’ve been meaning to get some of these posts up for awhile now, but internet access isn’t always constant in NZ, you know how it is. For more details of our trip with Don and Linda, click here .

On Thursday morning, after months of planning and back-and-forth emails and calls confirming various travel details, we welcomed Becky’s mom Linda and her dance partner/friend/(someone think of a good term to describe middle-aged boyfriend), Don into NZ at the Christchurch airport. After about 26 hours of flying from the east coast of the States, they were happy to finally arrive at their destination, though they looked no worse for the wear. Having picked up and dropped off people on five trips so far, we’re getting to be old pros at the Chch airport, though that doesn’t mean I managed to park in the best lot. However, I am getting closer, so if anyone else wants to visit, I promise to park in the most favorable lot next time, in case that might sway your opinion.

Linda and Don are all smiles as they arrive in Chch

Luckily for L&D the weather over the South Island cleared up in time for their arrival, affording them great views of the Southern Alps from the sky as they flew in to Chch. We’re getting to think we should’ve flown out of Chch at some point to get such a view of the South Island, as it sounds lovely. Our lot is so tough… Anyway, congrats to Don, as this is his first time out of the country, and he had to finally get his passport to make this trip. I guess if you’re going to wait this long to come overseas, it’s good to do it in style and fly all away around the world. Good on ya, Don.

Also fortunate for our visitors is that they weren’t very jet-lagged, having slept a good portion of the LA-Auckland leg of their flight, as we had a good drive planned for the day of their arrival. Since they’ve come to visit while we we’re still on the South Island and we’ve frankly driven around the southern circuit enough by this point, we’ve planned an itinerary to take them around the northern part of the South Island. And so on the first of their 12 days in NZ, we had a drive along the east coast planned, up to Kaikoura, just a few hours north of Chch.

Along the way to Kaikoura, we made a few stops, dropping by Kieran at the Brew Moon as he was brewing up a batch of his black beer, and then out to Gore Bay, a prototypical NZ beach – secluded, empty, full of cliffs, and largely undeveloped. Out in Kaikoura, the weather was again cloudy for us. We’ve driven through Kaikoura 4 or 5 times now, and all but one time it was cloudy, which is really too bad because the town is really something when the weather is favorable. Unfortunately, we can’t believe that that happens much of the time there. Still, we managed to take in a walk and see a few seals (mostly sleeping, but still) along the way before dinner. All in all, a pretty full first day for our new arrivals.

Don is king of the world at Gore Bay

On the next day we headed out of Kaikoura since there wasn’t much we wanted to do there. To wit, most of the activities in Kaikoura revolve around whale-watching (which is expensive here, causes Becky and Linda sea-sickness, and which they’ve done back home), or lobster eating (which is also quite pricey and which Don doesn’t enjoy at all). So heading north towards Blenheim really made the most sense.

On the way out of Kaikoura the weather really improved, allowing us to see the snow-covered mountains to the west and the sea stretching forever on the eastern horizon. This gave Don an opportunity to make good use of his new video camera. He has since filmed heaps of tape; hopefully he gets a good editing program or his friends and family are in for a long evening at some point in the near future, hehe. After a few hours on the road, twisting and turning through the mountains we made it into Blenheim.

With a good afternoon to kill in Blenheim we went and did the Wairau Lagoon walk, recommended by Becky’s 202 Great Day Walks in New Zealand book. It was a nice little walk which lived up to its billing of “elegant flatness”, though I don’t believe the book mentioned the charming sewage treatment plant on either side of the park’s carpark. Still nice overall, though. After the walk we stopped by to see the guys at Renaissance, where Brian showed us his new flash bottling and labeling machines and insisted we take a box of beer along, which I agreed to only so that we could show Linda the beer we’ve been selling. Yeah, that’s the ticket, for Linda.

Andrew and Becky enjoy the elegant flatness at Wairau Lagoon

A few weeks ago when Becky was planning the itinerary she emailed Chris and Martin, the couple we Couchsurfed with in Blenheim in late June, and asked them if they’d like to get together for a coffee when we were in town. They replied by saying why didn’t we all just come to stay the night? Eager to show L&D the wonders of CSing, we took them up on the offer, and arrived late in the afternoon. In yet another gracious turn Chris prepared a proper Kiwi dinner for all of us with a lamb roast followed by pavlova for dessert. Just heavenly.

Chris puts the finishing touches on a delicious pavlova

A good part of the reason that we headed towards Blenheim with L&D so quickly was that they’d wanted to see a rugby match while they were in the country, and that Friday’s Tasman-Canterbury match in the Air New Zealand Cup series was the only one that really worked with the itinerary that Becky was working on. After our huge meal we headed to the match, and it was a real cracker. Since the teams are rival clubs (both feed the Crusaders, Chch’s professional team), Lansdowne Park was just about packed, and the local Makos (“Go the Makos!”) came out really firing against a much bigger and talented Canterbury side, even taking a lead into halftime. Unfortunately for the locals Canterbury exercised its muscle in the second half and took home an unconvincing win. Still, a great night for rugby, and we were glad to get to a provincial match out in the country, far from the glamour stadiums and more antiseptic atmosphere of the bigger cities. After another full day, we started the drive back to Chris and Martin’s, where everyone passed out nearly as soon as we were home. I foresee a busy 10 more days ahead.

Go The Makos!

Good Times, Bad Times

2007-09-29T15:50:00.001-04:00

Well our time in Chch has finally come to an end. And in the end, it was a mixed bag. Not as much work at Three Boys as I would’ve hoped, and the accommodations left a bit to be desired, but we did some fun things in Chch and made a couple bucks, which made us feel better about not just spending heaps of money this year.

One highlight was getting to Mt. Hutt to get a good day of skiing in. As opposed to the club field at Lyford, Mt. Hutt is a proper ski resort in the style we’re used to, complete with a quad and a six-seat chairlift. On the day we went it was a gorgeous, sunny day with little wind, near perfect conditions for a day on the slopes. We met a bunch of people who said it was probably the busiest day of the year, though it didn’t seem more than an average weekend day in Vermont. The snow was pretty good that day, with a little bit of powder to enjoy, and with the lifts we probably got more skiing in in an hour there than we did in four hours at Lyford. Our only misstep on the day was to miss a moderate blue square trail for an icy, rocky, and really steep double black diamond run, which took us forever to get down. I looked really cool sliding down a couple hundred meters on my butt.

From the mountains to the sea, a typical view from Mt. Hutt

Even though Mt. Hutt is a more polished (and definitely more expensive) resort, you still have to drive about 14km up an unpaved, potholed road that winds along a mostly-unguardrailed road on the mountain. We found out later that a number of cars have been blown off the road in really windy weather. Great. Luckily for us, there was no snow on the road, meaning we didn’t have to use our chains.

Andrew takes a break between practicing his 360 jumps

One quick drama to relate about our landlord/flight attendant, Phil. By the time our last night in Chch rolled around, we’d grown rather annoyed at him, mostly due to his refusal to provide heat for the common areas, and his reneging on our agreement to lower the rent when he brought on another roommate. As expected and as he detailed in his memo, he had the balls to approach us on our last evening and attempt to pocket two nights of rent from us for one extra night’s stay. I’d just like to know where he buys his sporting equipment.

At this point we were tired of feeling taken advantage of, so we let him know that on principle, there was no way we’d pay him for two nights. He wouldn’t back off, however, and acted all indignant like we were the ones trying to screw him, so we packed up all of our things and left as he sat at the kitchen table, pretending to read his orientation manual for his new job in customs. He looked a bit shocked that we had our stuff largely ready to go and that we would just leave; the look on his face was pretty satisfying. We left that evening and found a hostel for the night, and though it cost us a couple extra dollars to stay there as opposed to Phil’s, not giving him the money felt good to us; if a couple bucks was the price of satisfaction for us there, so be it. With a good night of sleep and I guess what we’re calling a moral (if somewhat pyrrhic) victory over our nemesis Phil, we were ready to welcome Becky’s mom and Don to NZ!

A kea at the ski field... at least he's not eating our boots!

On The Road Again

2007-09-24T00:02:00.000-04:00

Howdy from Nelson, thought I'd do a quick post to say that all is going well on our trip through the northern part of the South Island with Linda and Don. Since arriving here Thursday we've been through Kaikoura, Blenheim, Marlborough Sounds, and are currently enjoying the sunny north. Linda and Don seem to be having a good time and are holding up well on Becky's demanding trekking tour. It's nice to have other people cooking dinner for you every once in awhile. Look for more updates in the near future!

In other news, the ABs continue to whomp their competition in France, beating an undermanned Scotland 40-0. Actually, the match was in Scotland, not France, giving the Scots an odd home game in a tournament that is ostensibly set on the continent. Weird. NZ has had a ridiculously easy opening group in the tournament, leading to a month of non-competitive games before the more trying quarterfinal round begins. This in turns has caused the whole country to fret that they won't get enough good game-time action before they face a real test. Here's hoping that's not the case.

Last, we highly recommend this recent NYTimes article on Couchsurfing (go to www.bugmenot.com if you don't have a nytimes.com account, though they are free). It summarizes the CS experience quite nicely, we think. Maybe we'll be able to convince at least one of our friends/family to get involved with the website. We'll be holding our breath from down here!

Kiwi Jams

2007-09-14T23:42:00.000-04:00

While in NZ we've been trying to listen to as much Kiwi music as we can. Here in Chch, that means listening to RDU, the University of Canterbury's college radio station. It's a pretty good station in our opinion, playing a decent amount of indie rock as any proper college radio station should. It also plays heaps of NZ music, of which a surprising amount is dub and drum n'bass. Dn'b might be a predominantly college or Chch thing, as we hadn't it at all in first stint in the N. Island, but dub is definitely popular all over NZ.

Dub is probably best described as a really cruisey bass-heavy reggae variant, and given that NZ has a pretty strong Pacific island influence, I guess it's not surprising that it's really popular here. Coming from America though, I can't really think of any dub bands of note back home. The following are some interesting Kiwi bands and tracks that we've heard over the past nine months here. Some I like, others are included mostly for educational value, as always your mileage will vary. Enjoy!

Salmonella Dub – one of NZ's biggest dub bands, they've got a big following here, mon.

Shapeshifter, Tapestry - Kiwi dn'b group from Chch, obviously very popular here. I'm not the hugest dn'b fan, but the song 'Tapestry' has got some soul.

Cut Off Your Hands, Still Fond - If you’re into Franz Ferdinand and other bands of the ‘white crunk’ ilk, you’ll probably dig this song.

Liam Finn, Gather To The Chapel - Recommended for all fans of Iron and Wine, Sufjan Stevens, and other acoustic balladeers, Liam brings the pathos on this song.

The Checks, Take Me There, Riding the currently hot retro/blues/garage wave are The Checks, and this is a good straightforward rocker.

Motocade, My Friends - I don’t have many emo moments, but this is a pretty good dancey emo-ish number from an Auckland group, nice and catchy. My friends think I'm stupid for liking you, but I like you, indeed!

Tommy Ill, Bill Cosby - Haven't heard too much NZ rap besides Scribe, who didn't do much for me, but this song is a great, feel-good hip-hop party song.

Black Market Art, Yell and Yell - a little Cantabrian indie rock never hurt anyone, this maybe reminds me of Pavement.

The Brunettes, BrunettesAgainstBubble - We actually saw this band in Vermont, supporting Clap Your Hands Say Yeah; this song is irresistable.

Fur Patrol, Hand on an Anchor - We saw the chick lead singer from this band play with some other guys in Chch, and even though the show was hardly overwhelming, we had to say she had a great voice. It shows in this song.

The Exponents, Why Does Love Do This To Me - Apparently these guys are a classic Kiwi band, as this song must be ten years old but is heard everywhere. An appropriate analogy might be if America was really proud of Hootie and the Blowfish or a similar band.

Myspace has clearly been supplanted by Facebook, but it clearly still is useful for music purposes, good on ya Myspace!

Countdown's On In Christchurch! (Aug. 24 - Sep. 14)

2007-09-14T02:53:00.000-04:00

So we've been in Chch for about six weeks now, working and chilling, getting ready for the last three months of our trip. It's been good to have a bit of a break from traveling, earning a couple bucks, exploring Chch and whatnot, but we're about ready to get back on the road and get traveling again. Luckily Becky's mom Linda arrives next Thursday for a tour around the north part of the South Island, and we're psyched for her visit. As the title indicates we've been counting down the days until we're able to put Chch in the rear-view mirror.

As far as our working is concerned, Becky's been putting in major hours at the Convention Centre, sometimes working hard, sometimes not. She's learned that just like plants, people at conventions apparently need watering, and that if a package can be misplaced between the time the courier drops it off and it gets to the convention floor, it almost certainly will be. She's also feeling a bit like Gunther in The Life Aquatic as she's been entrenched on the B Team there, though it sounds like the package-receiving department will fall apart when she leaves.

As for me, there wasn't as much work at Three Boys as I'd hoped, so I've been doing a bit of temping as well, mostly casual industrial work. I was a runner on a garbage truck for a week, which I suppose I'll have to file under "Interesting Life Experiences". It wasn't that bad actually, as half the time I just rode around in the front of the truck, trying not to slow down the driver on his run. In nice weather riding on the back isn't terrible work and you will get fit doing it, though the smell does have something to be desired. I've also been doing some work at a powder-coating factory, which has been OK but awfully strenuous when it hasn't been tedious. I have learned that entropy doesn't favor the guy trying to vacuum up powder in such a facility, however. On the other hand, I now know how to spot-weld.

Our living situation has been a bit odd here in Chch. At first, we thought Phil was an alright guy, though the experience over the past few weeks has changed that, and we now would describe him as a cheap, opportunistic hermit. Cheap because he refused to buy more propane to heat the living room, even though the temperature has often hit freezing at night, making the living room pretty unhospitable in the evenings. It's also not a pleasant experience being able to see your breath indoors at the breakfast table in the morning. As a result we've spent more than a few evenings watching DVDs in bed on my computer. Phil didn't mind the lack of heat in the living room since he's spent the majority of his time at home in his room. Watching TV, sleeping, eating, you name it, he does it in his bedroom alone. It's more than a little odd, thus the hermit part.

Our major gripe with Phil is that when we moved in he promised he'd reduce the rent if he took on another tenant. Unfortunately, after a few weeks he rented the spare room to a Korean English-language student, and then refused to lower the rent as he had earlier promised. It wasn't so much the monetary aspect of his reneging on the deal that really bothered us (a token amount off the weekly rent would certainly have sufficed) as it was the fact that he was bent on taking advantage of us once he had us in a compromised position. In a hilarious example of Phil's anti-social and somewhat greedy nature, he wrote us a memo informing us that if we wanted to stay another day at the end of our stay (Linda arrives on a Thursday and the final day of our rent cycle is a Wednesday), we'd need to pay for two days, even though we'd be staying just one extra night. It would seem that hotel management is not in the cards for him. In any event we've chosen to ignore his fuzzy math and will find alternate accomodations for that night.

As a result of Phil's shenanigans we think little of his character and have endeavored to use as much internet and electricity as possible in our time here. We're doing our best not to think badly of all male flight attendants now, but I guess we'll have to be wary in the future...

All Black with NZ!

2007-09-08T23:19:00.000-04:00

In honor of the Rugby World Cup and in support of the

New Zealand

national team, the All Blacks, we’ve gone all black, at least for the time being. To do that we’ve had to ditch our previous template, as it was seriously tough to modify for a couple of HTML-neophytes like ourselves. At the end of the RWC, we’ll probably be faced with a difficult decision whether or not to go back, but that’s another story. Most of you are probably unaware (and we would be, too, had we not come here) that the 6^th RWC has started in

France

, and will continue for the next six weeks or so. Rugby hardly rates a mention in the States, but in NZ it’s practically a religion.

We’ve touched on it before, but

New Zealand

is absolutely mad for rugby (the Union form, as opposed to League, which is a different beast that’s much bigger in Aussie), with other sports hardly comparing in terms of popularity. You can hardly swing a dead possum anywhere in the country without hitting a set of rugby goalposts. On any given weekend heaps of Kiwis are either playing or going to ‘the rugby.’ We’ve gone to a few games and found it to be just as entertaining as any football game back home. You have to admire the power, agility, and fitness of all the players on the field, and especially the abuse they take. No playing only half the game or wearing huge pads here!

The countdown to the RWC was on in Auckland when we visited in January

At the peak of rugby and NZ sporting are the All Blacks, probably the best rugby team in the world and the subject of the entire country’s focus and support. If baseball is American as apple pie, rugby is as Kiwi as No. 8 wire, or the haka, the Maori war dance that the team does before each match. Rooting for the ABs is practically a patriotic duty here; it’s rare to find a New Zealander who doesn’t. Being from

America

this is a pretty novel concept, as we don’t get behind any one team as a country, except for maybe a few times in the Olympics. Here in NZ we’re struck by the absolute devotion shown by Kiwis for their team nationwide, and obviously have caught the fever ourselves.

Ever since we arrived in NZ in January, the RWC seems to have been on many Kiwi’s minds. Being a sports junkie but generally uninformed about rugby, I’ve brought up rugby in conversation countless times this year, and nearly everyone has mentioned the RWC and how they reckon the ABs should be poised to bring home the Cup this year. The ABs won the inaugural Cup in 1987 and have been favored to win it a number of times since, but have been snakebitten in their last five attempts. It’s quite a sore spot for many here, and even though the ABs have been the best team in the world for the past couple years and are heavily favored for this Cup, I suspect that many are trying to engage in a ‘reverse jinx’ by playing down the team’s chances.

The ABs perform the haka against S. Africa in their Tri-Nations match in Chch in July

If anything, the country may be too wrapped up in the RWC and how the ABs are doing. Over the last few weeks, there’s been little actual sporting news, but they manage to fill the allotted time by reporting on every detail of the ABs’ health, practice regimen, potential lineups, off-field activities, and most hilariously, changes to their breakfast schedule. I like sports as much as the next bloke, and living here I realize there are a lot of slow news days here, but that’s some serious overkill. Perhaps NZ takes the whole thing a bit too seriously, like countries in South America tend to take the World Cup in soccer. Hopefully Kiwis don’t take success or failure at RWC as a referendum on the country’s worth. You guys are alright, seriously.

We meant to get this post up a couple days ago, before the RWC started, but technical difficulties got in the way. The ABs have already had their first game, beating Italy 76-14 in a romp that got out of hand in the first ten minutes. In other news, the US played a valiant game, losing to defending champion England 28-10, a heartening outcome for the Eagles, who the bookies have at the longest odds of the tourney, 5000 to 1. It’s going to be a bit of a struggle watching many of the games live as they start around 12-4 am in NZ, but I’ll give it my best effort. Who said being a fan was easy?

Eating Our Way Through The Country

2007-08-31T17:51:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-08-23T00:14:00.000-04:00

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)

2007-08-20T03:35:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-07T03:50:00.000-04:00

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…

She Works Hard For The Money (July 9 – 31)

2007-07-31T21:10:00.000-04:00

After traveling for what seemed to be the vast majority of our trip in

New Zealand

, Andrew and I are temporarily hanging up our hobo bags to once gain join the real world of the employed. Although it is easy to believe that one can go unemployed indefinitely, it turned out to not be the case if you value your sanity. Seeing our bank accounts dwindle while the Kiwi dollar has done nothing but go up over the past few months, we decided it was finally time to do what our parents did… get a job, sir!

Finding work in New Zealand is really pretty easy if you put little value in a) the type of work to be done, and b) the location of said employment. Like our brief adventure in the Marlborough vineyards where everyone seemed to be hiring, it took only a few days of “job hunting” before I was able to secure a position in Christchurch. My rather lackluster job hunt consisted of sending off my CV to several job agencies and waiting for the best. Although I would prefer working at a restaurant, the pay rate is far better for office workers, and I figured without the motivational boost of tipping… Anyhoo, I had received a few phone calls by the end of the day and quickly lined up several interviews with job agencies around Christchurch.

I guess it’s good to know that I test well at these things. Both agencies were wowed by my typing ability, which at 90+ words per minute and less than 1% error was “the best they’d ever seen” but considering that there are only four million people in all of New Zealand, I suppose the potential applicant pool really isn’t that big. Thank you, 7^th grade typing class! I also managed a slam dunk on the Microsoft Office applications and even managed to pass the spelling test. Don’t laugh, it’s a surprisingly tough task in the Age of the Automatic Spell Check… The one major concern that the agencies had was with my wardrobe, which is funny since the ad I responded to was specifically targeted to backpackers.

Had I brought professional business wear to New Zealand, they wanted to know. Hmm, let me see, I’ll just check my backpack?!? As a side note, I actually wouldn’t have any professional business wear even if I was working out of my closet at home… Apparently, not bringing a suit was a bad choice as that would inevitably limit the offices I could work in and probably reduce my pay rate (you can’t make the really big bucks without nice shoes). Regardless, within several days of incessant phone tag with the various chipper personalities at both job agencies (apparently the key pre-condition for these positions is to be over-caffeinated and hyper-perky) I had lined up a job working for an engineering firm in Christchurch.

It’s scary how similar working in an office in New Zealand is to working in an office in the States. Things are run pretty much exactly the same way. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but when you travel half-way around the world, you get to thinking they might have a different phone and filing system. I’m currently filling in for a few weeks at an engineering firm while a permanent staffer takes her annual leave in Perth, Australia. Unfortunately, they don’t actually have enough work for a temp to do, so my main task is to answer the phones and “look busy.”

It turns out that I’m terrible at looking busy (luckily I wasn’t tested on that at the agency), so I end up spending most of my day pretending to look like I’m not surfing the web (which I’m quite good at). When given tasks to do (mostly filing), I tend to get them done pretty quickly, because to be honest, they’re pretty uncomplicated. My fellow administrative assistant marvels at the speed at which I get things done and has even commented “we’re going to have to call the temp agency back to tell them to send someone who works slower the next time.” If you can hear a slight thumping sound, that’s probably just me, whacking my head against the desk.

Meanwhile, Andrew’s been doing casual labor for a bottling company in Amberley. It has worked out really well, as it still gives him time to get the chores done around K&B’s and at the brewery. Speaking of which, we’re still at Kieran and Belinda’s these days. They took a holiday to the States and suggested that we watch the house for them while they are gone. I love it here, so even with the hour commute to Christchurch, we quickly agreed to the arrangement. We agreed to split the cost of a load of firewood (the only means by which they heat their house, so it’s important to have some); otherwise, we feed the chooks (chickens) and collect eggs, feed the horses, split firewood, keep the place tidy, and make sure to keep the cows out of the vineyard next-door… Andrew’s also been keeping an eye on the brewery in Kieran’s absence. He had to make a few deliveries, fill a keg, and make some beer shipments, all of which has gone really well. It’s been a little surreal having a whole house to ourselves after months at backpackers, CouchSurfing, WWOOFing. We haven’t taken to walking around the place naked or anything, but we could! We continue to be amazed by K&B’s generosity and couldn’t feel more lucky that we met them during our travels.

Little known fact: real farmers wear pajamas out on the farm.

So we’ve been managing to keep ourselves pretty busy between working, commuting, chores, and the brewery. We also managed to squeeze in a trip to see the All Blacks play the South Africans in Christchurch. Although it was a rather uninspired match, it was still a lot of fun to see the All Blacks play a live match. I think the haka (Maori war dance performed by the All Blacks before every match) is even more impressive in person, but Andrew liked it better on TV. That might just be because they were facing away from us when they did this one. Apparently, the South Africans are looking to revive a Zulu war dance they used to perform in the 1920s for the upcoming Rugby World Cup. It’ll be interesting to see, but I can’t imagine that it will come close to the ferocity of the haka.

And one for the kids...

Immediate P.S.: Well, we'd hardly gotten a chance to post this latest installment and already our circumstances have changed, making it hard to keep the blog up-to-date at this rate. Kieran arrived back from the States a few days ago, and Andrew helped him do a brew and some bottling early this week while I went into work. Unfortunately, they seem to have figured out that they don't really need a temp, so they told me I should start looking into new assignments ASAP, putting me out of work until a new position opens up, hopefully soon. And to think that last week they were considering asking me to stay on longer to sort their long-ignored and hugely-unorganized files! I guess that's how it goes in the thrill-a-minute world of temping... We're moving into Chch today to rent a room for six weeks, and Andrew should be starting to do a wee bit of work at a new brewery, Three Boys, very soon. Keep tuned for further details and keep your fingers crossed so that I can find a new job to do nothing at in the near future! Oh, a note for anyone who's been dissuaded from commenting due to the onerous sign-in requirements: they've been lifted so now anyone can post, with or without a Google account. I hope we can trust all of you not to abuse this, hehe. Adios, muchachos!

Skiing, New Zealand Style (July 5 - 8)

2007-07-28T18:11:00.000-04:00

After dropping off our visitors, Kieran and Belinda invited us to stay on for a few more days, as they had other visitors dropping by, and reckoned the more the merrier. A winemaker friend of Belinda’s (look for ‘Blocks’ in your local wine store sometime in the next few years!) and relatives of some of their American friends popped in over the weekend; you can’t stop K&B from entertaining, you can only hope to contain them! For a few days I helped Kieran with bottling, labeling, and other bits and pieces in the brewery while Becky helped out around the house.

With the southerly dumping snow in the nearby mountains, we took a day to do some southern hemisphere skiing at Mt. Lyford, a small ‘club field’ in the mountains north of Canterbury. Getting to the field was as much of an adventure as the skiing itself, as the field lay a good five miles up a snowy, at times steep mountainous road from the highway. Chains were definitely needed, and while we had a set in Belinda’s car, one of the hooks was bent, causing the chain to pop off, so we had to hitch our way up the mountain. For K&B’s son Oscar and the other Americans, they had no problem getting a ride quickly, but Becky and I had to hike for a half hour before we were able to flag somebody down, not good times. However, the family that gave us a ride to the field were really nice people, and as we would soon find is typical of just about everyone we meet in this area, knew K&B.

Andrew looks happy to be at the ski field (instead of walking to the ski field...)

So finally we made it to the top and got skiing in the afternoon, which was great. NZ skiing is different in that it’s all above the treeline, so there’s few natural boundaries and no glades, not that we’re good enough to dodge trees; my skill level is restricted to making it down with only a few falls and negotiating the chairlifts. Unfortunately, since it was a club field, Lyford didn’t have any chairlifts, only T-bars and tow ropes. For skiers, these are just fine, but they are definitely not made for snowboarders. Having never really used either device, I fell off them at least ten times on the day. Let’s just say it’s frustrating to fall on your way up the mountain, a new and exciting experience I’m thrilled to share with you all. It was easily the most humbling day on the slopes I’ve had since I learned how to ride, and I’ve had my share.

In the end, I did figure out how to use the T-bars pretty well, but it involved jamming one end of the bar about as high up my crotch as humanly possible to keep me stable as I wobbled up the hill. I may not be able to have children in the future, but I did get up the hill! And even that didn’t work every time. The ropes were even worse, because as a snowboarder you basically have to wedge the disc at the end of the rope behind your front thigh and hope it holds in place til you reach the top. Verdict: not easy. I’ve decided that both the T-bars and tow ropes can smell fear, and they will show no mercy to rookies. Using them made me unexpectedly nostalgic for the steep and often icy run-outs at the ski fields in Vermont.

Andrew finally masters the T-Bar

Since it was really early in the season, there wasn’t heaps of snow, and the runs were really short, especially when you take into account the work involved in getting up the hill. But it was good to get riding for the first time in a good year and a half, and the views were just great, making it worth it overall. After an exhausting afternoon (at least for me), we had to hitch our way back down the mountain. Oscar and the Americans just caught a ride with the same fellow who gave them a ride up, a new snowboarder who had at least a moderate case of OCD and a predilection for odd porn/tribal/screechy/British/techno music. We caught a ride with a couple of normal-seeming Kiwi blokes about our age.

It seemed like a fine idea at the time, but we got part of the way down and had to wait for their buddy to ski down the back side of the mountain to the road, where he thought it would be a good idea to snowboard alongside the car like a young Marty McFly. That didn’t work out so well, and he picked up some nasty scratches on his board from the gravel. His buddy then proceeded to drive down the mountain like a maniac, doing about 60km/h with chains down a snowy road with no guardrails. More than a little frightening, especially when he did an accidental 180º on one of the corners. Nothing like losing control of the car with a snowy precipice lurking only a few feet away. Luckily that calmed him down and he drove at a reasonable speed the rest of the way. Unfortunately, I think I can still see the nailmarks in my leg from where Becky grabbed me during the spin.

Enjoying the mountain view

From The Catlins to Christchurch (June 30 – July 5)

2007-07-24T21:39:00.001-04:00

Once we made the journey back across the Foveaux Strait and crossed Stewart Island off of our ‘Official List Of Things To Do In New Zealand’ checklist, we were off to the Catlins, as Alex and Marie were keen to visit the area. Becky thinks that probably has much to do with their appreciation of remote and untouristed areas. To wit, the guidebooks’ description of the Catlins largely consists of calling it “enigmatic" and leaving it at that.

Look at the smile on this man's face, he couldn't be happier to be in the Catlins. Maybe you should visit us, too.

Driving through the Catlins for a few days, our lucky streak for weather continued and we got some relatively balmy, sunny weather, which was fantastic considering that it was essentially the middle of winter, and it had snowed the week previous in the Catlins. The weather in the area this time around was actually much better than our previous WWOOFing stint in early April, when we stayed through nine days of nearly unceasingly cold, grey, rainy unpleasantness.

He's just sleeping, right?

In our experience, the Catlins really is best when you consider it to be a natural zoo area, where wildlife can be seen (pretty regularly) in its natural habitat. This jaunt through the area definitely had that in spades. We saw heaps of seals and sea lions and even managed to spot two yellow-eyed penguins making their exit from the sea at Nugget Point. With beautiful weather and only two days to spend there, even Andrew and I found ourselves enjoying the Catlins this trip through.

A pair of yellow-eyed penguins - unfortunately our camera battery died just before they started tap-dancing, truly an amazing thing to witness

Making our way further north, we stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders again, and took Alex and Marie, our inveterate nature-loving co-travelers, to see the blue penguins at Oamaru. Unfortunately, with breeding season set to begin very soon, the penguins weren’t very active outside of their nests, so they only saw one lone penguin as they walked home from the penguin center. We had hoped to at least catch the penguins that nested in the garage near our backpackers, but the lady at the desk told us that a few weeks ago a backpacker had accidentally run over one of the little penguins, squishing it. The rest of the penguins then left for safer nesting areas; a tragedy as well as a bummer.

Marie and Becky want to know what the big deal about Moeraki Boulders is

Our last major stop with Alex and Marie was to go to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula near Christchurch. We tried to stop in Waimate for a wallaby pie, as recommended by Lonely Planet, but the guy at the counter seemed surprised that we were looking for one, as they only make them at a few special occasions throughout the year. Bad info: yet another reason to ditch your guidebooks as soon as you’re able to. We stayed in Akaroa for a few days, doing a little hiking and kayaking, and taking in the scenery once more. As a volcanic crater filled in by the sea, it’s unlike any other place I’ve ever been. The place really is magic and we were glad to get back there again.

An unseasonably warm and nice day on the Banks Peninsula

Leaving Akaroa, we made our way to Amberley on July 4, where Kieran and Belinda graciously put us all up for the night and even made us a turkey dinner. It was a delicious corruption of the typical American celebration that was certainly appropriate for the cold Canterbury winter night. We taxied Marie and Alex to the Chch airport the next day for their flight back home (they had about a full day of flying ahead before they got to Connecticut, then they were heading on another flight the very next day to Belgium!), and if you know Becky then you know she was a-blubberin’ as we dropped them off at the terminal. After ~2500 km of driving over to weeks, heaps of great experiences, and thousands (literally) of pictures taken, our whirlwind trip around the South Island came to a close. Whew, I think we need a couple days off now…

Stewart Island Is For The Birds (June 28 – 30)

2007-07-22T15:56:00.001-04:00

After leaving the Milford Sound, we continued our southward march to Stewart Island. Stewart Island remained uncharted territory for us, as we had scrapped an earlier trip when a southerly storm made the prospect of traveling across the Fovreaux Strait highly unappealing. The weather continued to be surprisingly cooperative this time around, as evidence of the “big snow” never materialized, and the snow chains we had purchased in Te Anau becoming increasingly irrelevant.

We drove into Invercargill for the night to prepare for our crossing the next day. Invercargill was probably the first “real” city Marie and Alex had seen since leaving Christchurch, and they were pretty nonplussed (which isn’t really surprising). As Lonely Planet might put it, it’s best to think of it more as a service town in which one can stock up on food and petrol, as opposed to a destination in and of itself.

A gorge day on Stewart Island

Prior to this trip, I had read how the ferry crossing to Stewart Island is notoriously rough, and with my reliable motion sickness I was concerned that it could turn into a brutal morning. Luckily though, there were flat seas and half of a Dramamine was enough to knock me out for the majority of the ferry ride. This was good as it allowed me to miss the nonstop chatter of a group of teenage girls also onboard. Marie was pretty adamant about not wanting to stay at the same backpackers as the group of schoolgirls, but we weren’t that lucky. On our first night we endured hours of constant high-pitched cackling and their screaming match with some locals (how they met them and managed to have such a loud row so quickly is beyond us). Happily, the next morning they were gone on the early ferry, most likely shipped back by their majorly pissed chaperone.

Parrots abound on Stewart Island - Taking hundreds of pictures, you're bound to get a few good ones

As for the island itself, Stewart Island is pretty remote even as far as

New Zealand

standards. And traveling there in the off-season only jacks up the remoteness quotient, as many shops and restaurants have closed up for the winter. Perhaps it was because it was the slow season, or maybe we’re really looking like grungy backpackers these days, but we stopped by one small restaurant, knocked on the door, and asked the owner if we could see a menu, to which he responded “What for?” We regret that we did not have a suitably snappy comeback, for shame.

We get up close and personal with a weka, these birds know no fear

One of the nice things about Stewart Island is that even though it’s farther south than the rest of the country (the sun rose at a ridiculously late 8:30 AM while we were here!), the ocean keeps the temperatures slightly warmer than on the mainland, so that for a few days we were once again able to shed our thermal layers and feel our jeans against our skin. It’s really the small things in life, isn’t it?

Marie attempts to disappear into the Stewart Island woods

We were interested in visiting Stewart Island (if only to satisfy any completist need to do everything worth doing in NZ), but Marie, and especially Alex, were really excited to get there. We hadn’t realized before they arrived, but Alex is a hugely keen nature photographer, and he seems to like birds most of all. As Stewart Island is famous largely for its birdlife, this was a match made in heaven.

Most of our stay consisted of hiking on the numerous trails around the only town on the island, Oban. The trails lived up to their muddy reputation, and I’m not sure that my footwear has recovered yet. We saw very few birds in the forest, but came back to town and saw heaps of parrots and other small birds carrying on around peoples’ homes. The bird noise was absolutely tremendous, with squawks, screeches, and whistles the dominant sounds.

We should really be able to say what kind of bird this is

We also spent a lovely afternoon on Ulva Island, a nature reserve where the good folks at DoC have removed all the introduced predators (opossum, rats, stoats, etc.) that threaten the natural birdlife and plants. As a result, Ulva is a birdwatcher’s dream, and we spent several hours slowly meandering along the paths on the island in hunt of another bird sighting. We managed to see wekas, kakas, wood pigeons, and Stewart Island robins, but sadly had no luck trying to spy the elusive kiwi, even on Stewart Island where they are quite numerous.

As Dennis Miller would say, Alex the Birder is definitely in his milieu, babe!

And so, after a few days of getting our birdwatching on, we woke up the next day for the early ferry at 7:30 am, and made our way back to the mainland. Where to next? Well, Alex and Marie are keen to see the Catlins, the remote stretch where Andrew and I spent a desultory, rainy week in April. Guess we’ll be giving it a second try, wish us luck…

A Special Report from the Field (Guest Bloggers)

2007-07-13T23:16:00.001-04:00

A two week trip to New Zealand is for most a dream that usually stays a dream. However, circumstances were in the favor this year of your two faithful scientists, Alex de Kerchove and Marie Schreiber. First, we passed our respective graduate school defenses [we thought it would never happen], which gave us something to celebrate. Second, we had had heard that two wild Hobosum uncommonus were seen running around these two islands on the other side of the world. This very rare subspecies of Homo sapiens, originally from North America, is known for mastering the “hanging-around” behaviors that we always wanted to study in greater depth. We thought that with a little bit of skill, and a lot more luck, we would catch sight of them and observe them for two weeks in their natural habitat. This study would allow us to then write a final report, which could help further protect the whole species! They had almost escaped our observations by taking a “Job,” which, as a rather repressive form of captivity, would have most likely killed them. Luckily, Marie has strong powers of persuasion and brought them back to their senses by convincing them that working could be fatal and most certainly unnecessary. Thankfully we have been able to save these two Hobosum uncommonus from an unkind fate, which allowed us to plan our two-week expedition by their side.

Alex looks deeply troubled by the scientific research he and his partner, Marie, are about to embark on

Surprisingly, we found the two individuals quite easily in the wilds of New Zealand. There was a Male and a Female Hobosum uncommonus that we named A, as Andrew, and B, as Becky, respectively to facilitate their differentiation. A and B were docile and hanging around in the airport as we arrived in Christchurch. We felt extremely lucky not to have to track them for days through the mountains and rainforests before finding them. A was friendly, but skinnier than what I was expecting; B was very communicative and slightly louder than A. Our plan was to stay as quiet as possible to avoid disturbing their natural behaviors and follow them wherever they went in the hope that they would lead us to their favorite habitats, and maybe let us encounter other individuals from the same or similar subspecies. The main goal of this research is to gain a basic understanding of the typical behaviors of the Hobosum uncommonus, such as communication, feeding, and reproduction. The following short report includes our direct observations and our thoughts on how to protect the species properly in the future, with extensive support from more that 800 photographs (which can be seen on request).

Becky stalks her prey through the New Zealand wilderness

General Behaviors

We quickly realized that bathing was not a priority for these two individuals. We tried to adopt the same cleaning schedule so that we would be able to maintain a similar corporal state. This behavior would suggest a strong aversion to water; however, B showed us early in our trip that she highly liked hot springs, even in freezing weather. We tried to stay in these warm waters as long as she did, but unfortunately failed and left after wrinkling like a prune. We wouldn’t be surprised if in few years we find B back in captivity working in her own spa.

Alex and Marie keep their distance after a few days without bathing...

Additionally, changing clothes twice a week was considered good. Understanding this behavior to be environmental friendly (by saving water), we adopted the same behavior so as not to frighten A and B … and we loved it! It also made our life easier and we almost regretted bringing a whole bag full of clothes [Note for future explorers: bring only one of every thing].

Enjoying a rain shower, while we also wash our clothes!

The Hobosum uncommonus were able to hike very steep climbs typical of the mountain ranges in New Zealand. There are no gradual grades. We were surprised by their very quick hiking speed and apparent high endurance; we were unable to keep up! But we will understand this as a result of us being graduate students, which obviously made us soft.

On top of the mountain at Nugget Point

Social Behaviors

At night, the Hobosum uncommonus would find places where other Hobosum would regroup and interact. A and B were commonly very interactive and liked collecting stories from others in order to strategically plan their route according to the weather and other Hobosum preferences. We highly enjoyed sharing their meal at night and further social interactions with others from the species. However, we are afraid that we affected their natural behaviors by having forced them to eat later than usual and having introduced them to the Aperitifs (snack and drink before dinner) and intensive chocolate consumption.

We had the chance to spend most of our nights in New Zealand sharing the same room as A and B and had the opportunity to observe the absence of any peculiar nocturnal behaviors. However, strong differences were observed between A and B in their required sleep length: B would always be up first in the morning to start the morning meal, while A would only come out of his duvet when food was ready and coffee on the table!

We also got the opportunity to meet wonderful Kiwi friends of the Hobosum uncommonuss: Belinda and Karen. A and B had developed a strong relationship with these Kiwis while wwoofing at their particular, an activity specific to the species. We highly enjoyed spending the Fourth of July at their place and shared one of their turkeys for dinner, sampling endless varieties of beer and wines: a social behavior that I (Alex) particularly appreciated. After experiencing the hospitality of these Kiwis, we finally understood the real draw of New Zealand.

Another form of kiwi spotting in New Zealand

Feeding Behaviors

For morning meal, the Hobosum uncommonus was satisfied with muesli and banana slices, which was sometimes completed with a slice of toast with jam. Indispensable was the instant coffee that allowed our bodies to wake up and warm up after the freezing nights – indeed, Kiwis are very “environmental friendly,” and, with their limited resources in energy, they reduce their house heating to the strict minimum, as it is of common sense that heating a room is a luxury.

For midday meal, the Hobosum uncommonus has a strong preference for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pretzels, and apples: a menu that seems rather appealing until it was repeated over several days in a row. An urgent need for a ham and cheese sandwich would then develop and satisfy us for few days before returning to PB&J.

For evening meal, we were surprised by the excellent diet adopted by the Hobosum uncommonus. The meal that any mother would be proud of would consist of fruits, veggies, meats, and a starch. We had the pleasure of experiencing their cooking skills and sharing our cooking skills with them, since we would alternate cooking duties every other day. We also appreciated the great interest of the Hobosum uncommonus to accompany dinner with a bottle of local wine or beer, which allowed us to become familiar with the New Zealand I very much enjoyed sharing A’s passion for tasting local lagers, ales, and stouts from the small breweries encountered on along our way. beverages. We also toke advantage of the developed knowledge of the species on microbrewed beer.

Rest assured, Alex didn't only take photos of the Hobosum uncommonus!

Reproductive Behavior

Not observed! Reproductive behaviors remain unknown. Photographic evidence suggests, however, that physical contact between A and B exists and is important in their relationship.

Conclusion

During our two weeks in New Zealand, we were very lucky to be able to see for ourselves all of the fun and excitement that A and B are having while they discover New Zealand as a country. We were able to finally understand their desire to constantly be on the look out for Kiwis: the people, fruit, and, most importantly of all, the bird. We were also finally able to understand how it felt to live in such an undeveloped and untouched habitat. We found that each discovery lead to more beautiful beaches and mountains that one could only imagine. But most importantly, we were able to travel around with A and B for two weeks altogether, which was definitely an adventure worth having.

A Report by Alex de Kerchove & Marie Schreiber

At Long Last, Andrew's Bungy Jump

2007-07-12T00:53:00.001-04:00

A few months ago I did the Nevis bungy jump when we were traveling through Queenstown. At the time I promised to put up the video as soon as I could, but of course I soon forgot about it. Even when I did remember, converting a DVD to a computer file and uploading it is a bit of a pain, especially without free, constant internet access. All of which is to excuse my laziness. But you need wait no longer, since we're enjoying some free time and a good internet connection at Kieran and Belinda's home as we house-sit for them while they visit the States. 3 months after my jump, we finally present the video, enjoy!