What Exactly do You Mean by "Boil"?

We awoke at dawn our third day on the South Island to the sound of a loud banging on our tent. For those of you that camp you can probably relate, it's always in the back of your mind....you're vulnerable to outsiders. Quite startled, I, Krissy, let out a scream and Norch looked at me just as alarmed. Norch moved quickly attempting to unzip the tent door, but not before we felt another punch. I just sat there frozen. As Norch got the tent open and prepared to defend us, we looked out to see a pint size tike who yelled "daddy" and ran off. A few moments later as we were laughing about the whole ordeal, the little boy came back for round two, but this time his dad stopped him and apologized after the first blow. Since we were up so early we figured we might as well get a move on it. Plus we didn't want the chaps we chatted with the night before to think we were actually going to take them up on their whitebait breakfast offer. I can't speak to the taste, because these undeveloped fish look more like embryos and we don't have the stomach to try them (see pic below).

Whitebait

We drove along the coast through Kaikoura where we saw sea lions perched on rocks alongside the road and enjoyed amazing views of snow capped mountains parallel to clear blue beaches. The drive along the east coast is a must for any future visitors! From there we headed south through Christchurch to an old French town called Akaroa for our first week of WWOOFing. We arranged with a local to help him prep his dolphin tour boat for the summer season in exchange for free accommodations at a local hostel (run by his business partners). The deal was actually quite sweet because we worked a total of about 10 hours painting and sanding and got a free tour of the harbor. So we had plenty of free time on our hands to explore the area, take in the community touch rugby league (to which Norch declared it was weenie and pales in comparison to flag football), and enjoy lawn bowling with local retirees (not to be confused with bocce).
We go to know the other, mostly international, WWOOFers at Chez La Mer hostel pretty quickly, especially when we bonded over the best YouTube videos (double rainbow has gone worldwide) and differing rules to playing kings aka ring of fire. One of the funniest moments was when David, one of the Germans we befriended, tried to explain that the tabloids in his country were reporting Lady Gaga had a "boil" and was actually a guy. After several confusing moments of trying to translate what he meant, he finally stood up and used his hand to depict a "boil"....at that moment we realized he meant boner. We had conversations with a bit more depth talking candidly about our countries. The question on the everyone's mind was what we thought about Bush. After making it clear that not everyone was a supporter of Bush it opened the gates to talk about more touchy subjects...namely World War II and Hitler. The two Germans talked about how they spend a lot of time studying the war and what happened. Mein Kampf is actually banned in the country and can only be read in University libraries but not allowed to be checked out. One said that his grandfather was a general at the time and had no idea about concentration camps or half of the atrocities that were taking place.

Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula

Pongo - a Chez La Mer regular

Our last day in Akaroa we gathered mussel along the harbor for our send-off family dinner at the hostel. I was picking what I thought were good sized mussels till I found Norch with mussels as big as my hand. And he came across a paua, which is a large snail found in New Zealand and considered a delicacy among the Maori. As luck would have it, a local Maori woman was patrolling the area to make sure no one was illegally harvesting young paua. She was quite a feisty lady and tried to convince us to eat our paua raw; we declined, thanked her for her tips on how to shell the mass and went home to cook it up with butter and garlic. It tasted a lot like octopus and was surprisingly delicious. That night we enjoyed our mussels which were cooked by one of our new friends and ended the night at the bar dancing with everyone to some kiwi tunes.

Mussel picking

Local Maori explaining how to shell the paua

Chez La Mer family dinner

Grey Skies Are Gonna' Clear Up...

Norch here, which means the worst and possible end to our trip is currently underway: Krissy is driving. All those who thought her last posting depicting my European style driving abilities (or lack of), rest assured, Krissy is no better. Dare I say she quite possibly could be worse if basing my judgment on the 12 minutes it took for her to start the car (to her defense, the steering wheel is placed on the right hand side of the vehicle making it much more difficult to locate). In hopes not to see the cruel ending what will inevitably be a head on collision involving our Honda and a sheep (since there are roughly 40 million in the country - 10 times the human population), I have decided to bury my head into this laptop until Krissy impression of an Asian-American (woman) driver has ceased.

 　
New Zealand, the land of changing climate and topography; one hour you can be in a desert surrounded by patches of snow and the next in a temperate forest in a dry heat. New Zealand is the worlds youngest country (physically) and you can tell just by driving it. It seems the land has not yet decided what it wants to become; a luscious tropical paradise similar to the Gold Coast of Australia or a rolling hillside filled with mountains and valleys similar to Ireland. To suffice both worldly desires - New Zealand has become both and much more.

Appropriately enough, our first encounter of the attractions New Zealand has to offer is it's geothermal activity. It's appropriate in a sense because this is exactly how New Zealand itself began - through growth by volcano, similarly to Hawaii. Driving through the North Island, you can literally see the volcanic steam arising out of vents in much of the region. In fact, there are so many geothermal vents, fissure and heated pools that New Zealand is yet to sell each feature off to commercialize them - yet. Most of the really popular geothermal pools such as Wai-o-tapu are pretty expensive to get into but luckily for us (me), we (Krissy) did some research on some cheaper options such as Kerosene Creek (pic. below) which is a warm spring somewhat in the middle of nowhere.

　

After driving a bit further south past Rotorua and Taupo, we came to Tongariro Crossing, a famous mountain pass that is frequently tramped. Regarded for it's difficulty and beauty, the pass is a major tourist spot. Unfortunately, after two days of waiting, the weather never cleared and the pass was impassable, so we ventured southward.

After 5 days in the north, we were completely tired of the rain and cold, so we packed up our gear and headed south. We may plan on heading back up north to take on the stubborn island later in our trip.

Our shot in the dark attempt at nice weather panned out right from the start of our South Island adventure. After a crazy late night drive to our campsite down what has to be one of the steepest and windiest roads on earth, we found a beautiful site along the water in the Marlborough Sound. When we woke, the clouds parted and the sun came out, what a great start!



More postings to follow very soon!

Norch's 15 Minutes of Fame in Fiji

Squints McGee & Cousin It (Fiji)

Bula Bula! We've arrived in New Zealand sun burnt yet refreshed on the heels of our Fiji adventures to find the "spring season" is closely akin to a rainy winter day in the states. As soon as we got off the plane we had to bust out our fleeces and are still half considering returning to Fiji to wait out the good weather. Fiji was awesomeness afterall. And Norch is a local celebrity after getting quoted in the newspaper by a sports writer saying Fijian rugby makes American football (or grid-iron as they call it) look like it's played by little girls. While visiting we caught the biggest game we caught the biggest game of the year where Nadi challenged Nagro for the cup. Neither of us had ever seen rugby live (or really understand the rules to be quite honest), but it was an exciting game with a lively crowd that kept roaring "boom". Norch has decided he's man enough to learn to play. I just want to learn how to make roti stuffed with curried potatoes which was sold at the game and tastes like heaven.

As I'm writing Norch is driving along in NZ and almost just killed us for the 10th time while making a turn into the right hand lane instead of the proper left. Perhaps one day he'll get the hang of it. At least he didn't turn on the windshield wiper blades instead of the turn signal again. And I just saw a sign for sheep poo for $5...curious.

Back to Fiji. One of the highlights of our time in Fiji was the local market where we bought delicious fruits, veggies and spices from farmers. And had our first taste of the infamous Kauva. Kauva is a traditional drink made from grinding up the Kauva root and adding water. It was described to us as medicinal, which we can only assume is the fancy way to say it numbs your tongue. Norch tried to capture the excitement of the market with lens, but was quickly asked to stop by some young street pharmacist who said that we were making those buying and selling weed uncomfortable. So much for the classic market photo.

The most educational part of our trip was getting to know the locals and realizing despite our western perceptions they were genuinely kind and never had an agenda such as selling us something or asking for money. Whenever we needed directions or other assistance no matter who we approached they were welcoming and overly helpful. The Fijians still have a tribal lifestyle with more of an emphasis on day-to-day happiness than working hard to save money to buy stuff down the road. They can live off the land after all with plentiful seafood, bananas, coconuts, papaya, etc. all around and have close knit villages full of large families and neighbors. It's quite the life in a beautiful country.

Our near future plans include my on-going quest to hug a baby lamb and Norch's desire to reenact Lord of the Rings L.A.I.R.E. style. Oh and our accents are coming along quite nicely.

Cheers!