So we’ve been camping a lot lately :/ … hence the long entries with long intervals. I ended the last entry with the boys going skiing and the girls driving, and well, the existence of this entry should be enough to tell you the girls can handle themselves in the Rhino, and surprisingly, the boys could handle themselves skiing on a real mountain.
While the boys were skiing, Bethy and I were on motel duty, which turned into a complete disaster. To start, we only told them it was the 2 of us (because at the time it was, and frankly $35 per person for this crap motel was not worth it) and to end, Bethy set off the fire alarm with her blow dryer (not her fault), and we had to evacuate the whole motel (just bethy, one other lady, and I. I did mention it was a crap motel right?) But to make it all worse the owner lady came out to us two on the porch (I was in a towel and a winter coat), and instead of moving me somewhere warm, accused us of smoking in the room (as if!). This was the rudest encounter we had in New Zealand, and probably ever within the hospitality industry.
Jeff’s first blog entry…it took two weeks to come about, but I have finally decided to sit down and write part of a blog entry. Rather than a simple recap of what we have done, I plan to write my thoughts/feelings and observations of the country thus far….here goes nothing
Observation #1: People in NZ are just as fat as people in the United States.
Since this country is the adventure capital of the world and hiking and outdoors activities are plentiful, I figured I would be walking into cities full of extremely fit people. This, however, was not the case at all. People like to overeat in New Zealand just as much as they do in the states and when city folk get working a 9-5 job, the belly just keeps growing, simple as that. I will say that these cities so far have been significantly cleaner with hardly any homeless folk and no one gives you the evil eye when you’re just cruising around town.
Observation #2: The most obvious sign that you are a tourist is the inability to walk on the left side of the sidewalk.
Now this one may seem rather strange, but since driving is on the left side of the road (passing on the right) the sidewalkers also expect fellow walkers to stay to their left side of the path. You know those awkward moments when you square off with someone who popped into your path of travel and you need to decide which way to move in order to, hopefully, avoid a catastrophic collision that would have you blushing for 10 minutes afterward???? Well the New Zealanders go left. This will take some getting used to…
Observation 3: Rugby is way more popular than you think!
I consider myself a pretty big sports advocate….I grew up playing four seasons of sports a year and still play year round sports to this day. I enjoy Basketball, Football, Soccer, Hockey, Baseball, Curling, Track, Swimming, Darts, Table Tennis, Pool, Horse racing, Lacrosse, Field Hockey….well Field Hockey may be a stretch, but you get the point. This observation is to alert the world that Rugby actually has rules and people in this world really do care about it. The national Rugby team in NZ are the All Blacks and they are playing for the Rugby World Cup Final on Sunday at 9pm. Even at home I have never seen a nation support one team as much as I have New Zealanders support the All Blacks. The players are like national spokesmen and their merchandise litters the tiniest towns to the main cities. Now that we have journeyed the entire North Island of NZ, I have only once (today) seen someone shooting a basketball on a hoop with a backboard, and the only other sport I have seen is some soccer on TV. It kind of amazes me while at the same time it kind of disappoints me. It is very common to just see small groups of kids on the tennis courts bouncing rugby balls and tossing them underhand to each other. This may be me venting just as much as it is a worthy observation, but I have to let the citizens of America know! RUGBY DOES EXIST (who would have thunk)!
Alright, well as interesting as Jeff’s entry was, I am going to get back to fact-based stories…So after the night at the awful hotel, we camped on the beautiful Lake Tutira, outside of Napier (East coast of North Island, on Hawke’s Bay). It was my second favorite campsite, trailing only shortly behind the beach at Uretiti (look for some of those pics!). Here the boys encouraged us to climb to the top of the VERY LARGE HILL that ran along the campsite, promising a view of the bay and the lake on either side. When a hike promises a climax like that I generally agree, but when you dodge cows and sheep to get to the top only to see more rolling hills and rain, well then I’m just wet and very angry. Needless to say it was good exercise, and there was a beautiful view of the lake.
This brings us to Sunday, which to a New Zealander means RUGBY!!! We got a motel room so we could cook chicken tacos (we miss Mexican food a lot!) and drink some booze and watch the All Blacks beat Australia! Now they play France in the finals. Sunday should be nuts. The next day we went to the beach for a while, then headed to the Ruahine Forest Park, about 2 hours south of Napier.
Tuesday we decided it was time to keep heading south to Wellington, or “Windy Welly”, the capital of New Zealand. On the way we stopped at the Tui Brewery to try some really good beers and tour the factory. I found it very interesting, and actually liked a few of the beers there. They also made me a “shandy”, which was sprite and beer mixed, a little sweet, but very delicious.
We eventually made it to Wellington and camped outside the city. This campsite has lights so we stayed up past sun down and played some cards and saw the most amazing, twinkling stars. (side note: I can’t win a card game to save my life, and for anyone who knows me they know this is not a new revelation, but so frustrating!) And disappointingly enough not one of the five of us could remember the game of Go Fish!
Wellington was beautiful, and we all enjoyed it much more than Auckland, with its more reasonable prices and tourist friendly activities, like the Te Papa museum. It was a very neat, free museum that featured the only displayed colossal squid, and an awesome exhibit about the Haka “Ka Mate”, which is the somewhat tribal call the All Blacks do before every rugby match. Wellington offered great insight of the history of New Zealand, and how eclectic its culture is.
We left Wellington last night by the Interislander ferry (even the Rhino came!). We saw the sunset by boat, and enjoyed a somewhat luxurious ride through the Cook Strait to the South Island! There is lots to look forward to here, and we are constantly being told the South is the better island, so here goes nothing!
Until next time! Cheers!
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