On the Road to Queenstown (3/13/09)

We spent the last two days working so that we could enjoy this weekend. Today, we got up early today and headed to Queenstown on the “Atomic Bus”, a 7+ hour bus ride. Sounds horrible? Actually, it was not bad at all. We had the front seat of a very uncrowded, comfortable bus and talked the whole time with a very friendly driver while we admired gorgeous scenery (see pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27117889@N08/?saved=1). There was such variety in terrain: farmland, cows, sheep, deer, green valleys, brown valleys, lakes with teal-colored water that looked fake because it was so unreal, snow covered mountains….Once we arrived, we walked around the quaint town, bought souvenirs, and then visited the Minus 5 Bar. It is a bar that is completely made of ice (18-23 degrees), including the drinking glasses (see pictures). They serve ONLY vodka drinks. They give you heavy duty parkas, gloves, etc. and allow you to stay for 30 minutes. We made it for 20. Tomorrow, we leave at 6:30 am (no rest for the weary) and go to Milford Sound and will take a boat ride on a fjord. Stay tuned!

Interesting Combinations (3/10/09)

Foods we have seen and/or tasted:
1) Pizza with lamb and pumpkin (just saw)
2) BLT – the B isn’t really bacon, it’s “Canadian bacon”/ham (tasted)
3) Bacon and Cheese “Big Uns” – big huge “cheese-puffs” in the shape of giant Os or triangles. Smell and slightly taste like bacon-flavored dog treats (tasted, unfortunately)
4) Lamb and mint potato chips/crisps (just saw – we’re not that crazy!)
5) Chili and sour cream potato chips/crisps (tasted – kind of like chili con carde, not chili peppers. Pretty good. Btw, we’re not CONSTANTLY eating chips)
6) Diet Coke that you buy at restaurants or even “take aways” are glass bottles, not plastic. And it doesn't REALLY taste like DC. Kenn's bummed :(
7) Mince meat pie: We ate this at the Shantytown. It wasn’t bad. It was the size of a small tart. It was made of potatoes and minced meat. Not bad.
8) As an aside, we have been eating a lot of international/Asian foods which seems very popular here (maybe because it is close by?): Japanese, Indian, Thai, Burmese. Where are the hamburgers!?!

From the Old Geezers!

Today, we had some extra time in the morning in Greymouth before returning on the train, so we went to Shantytown. Good news: Instead of $25NZ per person to get in, it was only $20NZ. Bad news: TURNS OUT THAT IS THE SENIOR CITIZEN RATE! And the person just told us $20/person, without asking our ages!!! Ok, now that we got that out of the way, Shantytown was actually kind of cool. It was a historic recreation of the “Old West” for the west coast of NZ. Lots of buildings of how it used to be: school, church, post office, jail, hospital…..Sylvia, we thought you’d like the picture for today – it is a display of old bed pans at the Shantytown hospital! While at Shantytown, we also panned for gold the old-fashioned way. Took us about 20 minutes to get about 3 flecks of gold. We would have starved in the old days. We returned to Greymouth; unfortunately, most shops are closed on Sundays, but we still saw a few and had lunch before getting on the train “home.” We're now home and will be working hard this week so we can enjoy next weekend: Queenstown.

Love, the Geriatrics

Westward Ho!

Saturday (3/7/09), we headed out to the west side of the island on the Tranzalpine Railroad. It was a 4.5 hour trip across the NZ Alps, but the accommodations were very comfortable. The scenery was varied and spectacular. We saw farm lands, plains, ice-fed rivers, mountains, and rainbows! We arrived in Greymouth, and once we got our car (yes, Kenn braved driving on the LEFT side of the road), we headed to Punakaiki to see the coastline and the pancake rocks. As you will see in our small set of pictures (http://www.flickr.com/photos/27117889@N08/?saved=1), the coastline was breathtaking and the pancake rocks were very unusual. We then “tramped” down Truman trail through a “subterranean forest.” Pictures can’t capture the lushness of it. When we came to the end of the trail, we were on the coast again at Truman Beach, and Kenn fell in love! There was a waterfall, unusual rock formations, caves, and beautiful breakwater. We felt we had not seen so many different gorgeous natural types of scenery in one day. We sure wish you were all here to share it with us.

P.S. Joan K., if you are reading this, we are sitting in the same hotel you stayed in.

Saturday Morning

Last night (Friday night), we went with some fellow US and NZ faculty to the university Staff Club. It is an old, beautiful house that they turned into a place to eat and drink. We sat out on the veranda, drinking beer or wine, and looked out over the beautiful garden. We then headed to a GREAT Indian restaurant for dinner. It's now 6:45 am Saturday morning and Lynda and I are getting ready to head out for the weekend. We will be going to Greymouth, which is on the west coast. We will be taking the Tranzalpine railroad to get there. It's supposed to be a cool train. Will post more this weekend. K

Thursday, March 5th

Yesterday (Wednesday), we went tramping through the bush! (For you non-Kiwis, that means we walked/hiked through a densely-forested wilderness area). It actually is only a 5 minute bus ride from our place. It is on acreage by the beautiful house you see here (Riccarton House). They also had a “twilight farmer’s market” where we bought fresh, yummy strawberries and tasted a little local wine (they had to twist our arms for that one!). Lynda went on walk with other spouses/partners of Erskine and Canterbury Fellows, touring the Botanical Gardens and an exhibit for the upcoming flower show (more on that next week). Kenn just worked. New language terms we learned: “I’m shouting this meal” means I’m paying for it. “Up to scratch” means up to snuff. Tomorrow is Friday. We both will work hard so we can enjoy our trip this weekend to the West Coast.

More Random Observations (3/3/09)

We've been working hard this week (Monday and Tuesday) so we can enjoy our weekends. So, we thought we'd post some general observations:

1) All the houses in Christchurch are different; different ages, styles, materials....It's nice not to see cookie-cutter type neighborhoods.
2) Kiwi sayings: "give way" vs yield, "no worries" vs. no problem, "I'll ring you" vs call you; "section" or "garden" vs yard.
3) Nobody (or very few) have central heating. At the most, they have floor heating. Mostly, they use space heaters (attached or unattached). We think everyone has electric blankets.
4) Food: We had "kiwi-berries" which are miniature kiwis without the fuzz. About the size of a large grape. VERY good. We also tried blue-lip mussels (in our seafood chowder). They are very popular here and are tasty (but a bit chewy).

Tomorrow, we're taking off about 3:30pm or so to go to a local house and bush (wild/natural area). Will report on that next.