1. Squirrels - I may be one of the few humans on earth who has a profound love for watching squirrels, and who finds them super cute, but New Zealanders are never even given the opportunity to form any opinion on this little rodent. There are no squirrels here! It is something I noticed initially, but didn't recognize again until very recently. There are plenty of friendly birds to watch while you're sitting outside though.
2. Coffee - Something we noticed from the get-go, but didn't come to understand until, well we may not even fully understand it yet, is that coffee is horse of a different color here. Apparently "New Zealanders take their coffee VERY seriously" (ref. Landlord). It would be rare to see a typical American coffee maker in the house of a kiwi. Your options are instant coffee or espresso (which they call coffee). The typical kiwi coffee order is a flat white, mochaccino, latte, cappuccino, long black, or short black. They are all made with what Americans call espresso. The flat white, latte, and cappuccino are espresso and milk (and even after watching "coffee" being made and serving it for months now, I still don't know the difference). The mocha is the same as home, and the long black and short black are 2 shots of espresso, except the long black has a bit of hot water as well. There is no grinding of the coffee beans and filtering coffee here! You either go big or go home, and sometimes you'll see a kiwi have multiple long blacks in a single sitting... whew! Coffee drinking is definitely not a cheap habit here either. If you thought Starbucks was expensive at home, try paying $3.80 for a long black, and that is the cheapest, with a flat white at $4.50 and up. I am fortunate enough to get free "coffees" at work, but I definitely am not paying money for them.
3. Pretzels - So oftentimes people will go to the grocery store and find themselves in front of a wall of bins filled with nuts and candy, so they can mix and match, and they are generally charged a bit more than if they were to buy a sealed bag. This is about the only way to purchase pretzels in New Zealand. They don't sell them in sealed bags, and they don't sell them as a cheap snack. You'll see a bin of almonds for $1.99/100g and a bin of pretzels next to it for $1.89/100g. It is just abnormal for a person who goes to pretzels as a moderately healthy, cheap snack. I hypothesize their rarity is due to the lack of flat fields for growing wheat and grains here.
Okay, so in the past week I completed my temporary position at the Nelson City Council cafe, which was sad because I really enjoyed the relaxed environment, and the super friendly and informative people. Friday night a friend, from Finland, of ours we met through ultimate frisbee, Markus, came to stay the night because he had a flight out of Nelson Saturday morning, but was currently living south in Greymouth. It was nice to catch up with him and see how he was fairing farther south. We dropped him off at the airport Saturday morning and headed again to Golden Bay, this time to check out the rock climbing. Before getting to the rocks we stopped at the highly recommended Pupu Springs. They are these beautiful pools of crystal clear spring water with amazing flora around them.
Once we actually arrived in Golden Bay, we were exhausted and realized that the rock climbing site we chose to visit was a little bit above our skill level, so we headed to the beach, hoping Sunday would offer more motivation. Pohara beach was beautiful, and the tide was ideal for some wading. As we came back to shore there was a man standing at our towels. He basically said "hey is that your Volvo in the lot across the street?" and we confirmed and he proceeded to tell us we needed to move it because it was a piece of crap. After a quick moment of confusion between Jeff and I he tells us that that is the car he has given his son-in-law Stu to sell for him in Nelson! 2 hours away and in the middle of nowhere (to be fair, New Zealand itself is in the middle of nowhere) the former owners spotted their old car. They said they had it for 17 years, but we were told they upgraded because the wife had her hip replaced and needed something a big higher off the ground. They praised the car, and said how much they missed it, and said its made many trips down south and that it should treat us well. It was so nice to hear that, and confirm all of the things that Stu told us were indeed true, Blueberry had been owned for many years by people who took good care of her. The sun started to set, which meant it was time for... ice cream. Actually, anytime is a great time for ice cream in New Zealand because it is just sooooo good. Then we headed to a campsite recommended by our Landlord as a cheap, neat site. It was a rock climbers site (they don't ask if you actually climb) and it was only $10/night, which is about $3/night less than most in the area. Rain struck as we finished up eating our dinner, and didn't stop for the next 2 days basically. Needless to say, we woke up to pouring rain, folded the tent up in a downpour, and drove home early Sunday morning for a relaxing, dry day home.
Monday was my first weekday off in a while, but Jeff was back at the orchards. I cleaned up what I had been putting off the past 2 busy weeks, and then was finally home on a weekday so I could skype with a college friend, Conor, for a bit. Usually when I get home from work, it's bedtime in the States. Monday I got a call from Coverstaff asking me to work at the airport cafe 7am-2pm Tues, Wed, and Thurs, and of course I said yes, but man 7 am is quite early, despite the fact that I am the last person to leave the house in the morning. It began raining hard Tuesday and I was worried about Jeff and the motorcycle in the rain. Not so surprisingly when I got home, Jeff was already home with a bunch of wet gear. It was nice to have the rainy afternoon to spend together and he agreed to go to his first yoga class ever with me! It was super fun, and there was only one other person at the class which I think made Jeff more comfortable. He has done p90x yoga, and that's pretty legit, so it wasn't anything too abstract for him. (Laura you'd be so proud) I really enjoyed having him there. Wed and Thurs were a lot of work, a lot of reading, and a bit of fatigue. I'm sure I mentioned our library membership, but I must repeat how much I love having it, and I've read about 3 books in the last week. They have a great nutrition and brain/psych section, so I have plenty of reading to do. I will miss it so much when we leave Nelson.
Speaking of leaving Nelson... Jeff and I have made the executive decision to leave Nelson once he is finished in the orchard, so December 24th. We have booked a series of campsites on the Heaphy Track in Kahurangi National Park. It is a track that begins in Golden Bay and goes through the national park to the west coast. It is approximately 80km (50 mi) long, and will take us 4 days and 3 nights. Its uphill at first and then mostly downhill, and the last 25km is mostly flat and beaches. Here is a link to the track profile: Heaphy Track. We will spend Christmas on the track, so I hope to wish everyone a happy holiday before we depart. Until then I will be working for dollars and working for fitness... This is definitely more than I bargained for, but it should be a somewhat fun challenge, at least maybe in retrospect. I know I sound mildly pessimistic, but really I am excited, and the site notes some awesome things to look out for on the trail. (note: showers and bathrooms don't appear too frequently). More on this adventure soon.
Will post more about some interesting literature I have stumbled upon (or has been recommended to me) in the very near future, but for now I must get some sleep.
Hope everyone is keeping warm at home. Sunset was a 9pm today and the high was 68, SOOO if anyone is sick of the winter weather already, please come visit! This is only the beginning of Summer!
Cheers!
