It is disappointing to see so much of the country clear cut. Sometimes the land is left naked, much is converted to grazing, and some is planted with the same, dark green, conical conifer, which I think is Douglas Fir, a pine from the U.S. The beautiful biodiversity of the mountainsides is marred by these monoculture scars of light green grass and patches of homogeneous trees. We keep paraphrasing W’s inane description of terrorists: “They Hate Treedom”.
November 12 we had to get up way too early to get to the wharf by 7:30 AM for the ferry to the South Island. The three hour passage across Cook Strait was smooth and sunny. We saw a few flotillas of Australasian Gannets (a life bird) and Shearwaters, although I’m not sure which of the 13 species of Shearwaters it was.
From the ferry in Queen Charlotte Sound, on the way to Picton on the South Island.
Last winter, one of the ferries got caught in a bad storm. In addition to passengers and cars, the ferry transports trains (tandem trailer trucks). The sea was so rough, one of the trains fell over and squashed a few cars. The ferry had to hide behind an island for hours, and the whole ordeal took eight hours.
At Te Papa museum in Wellington, we were able to go below ground to look at the base isolators, said to “put the brakes on earthquakes”. Because the museum is located on a major fault and contains national treasures, it was designed to move independent of the ground in an earthquake, which will reduce the chance of that the museum would collapse. The base isolators are piers made of rubber and steel layers. The Kiwi innovation is the lead cylinders inside the piers, which improves the flexibility of the isolators.
In the museum, we saw a dog skin cloak, worn only by the highest Moari chieftains. We saw a movie about the dedication of the museum in which the Anglo politicians were also wearing what appeared to be dog skin cloaks.
In an Indian restaurant, the menu said we could request our meal seasoned mild, medium, Kiwi hot, Indian hot or English hot. I asked what was the difference in the heat. The waiter said Kiwi hot is 6, Indian hot is 7 and English hot is 9. I said I was surprised the English would want such spicy food, because their food is typically bland. He said the English drink so much, they can’t taste their food. I got the feeling he was sick of explaining this.
November 12 and 13 we stayed at Accents on the Park in Nelson. This backpacker is two blocks from downtown in a Victorian house. Across the street is a cathedral in a big shady park. In addition to huge trees, the park has octopus agave and a red flowering century plant. We paid NZ$92 for a queen ensuite with a refrigerator. We had to pay an additional $NZ3 per day to hire a space in the car park.
Nelson is a pleasant town with good places to eat. I especially liked Lambretta’s, a bar and restaurant where I got a potato and kumara (sweet potato) roesti (pancake) with pan fried fish and a rocket (spring green) salad with capsicum (bell peppers). Some cool vintage Lambretta scooters are on the sidewalk and inside.
We were close to Tasman Bay and went for a long walk at sunset on Tahunanui Beach. We met a young couple walking their red bull terrier. They volunteered that they knew that pit bulls have a bad reputation in the States, but said it was completely unjustified. They were optimistic about Obama’s election, but this was the second time someone told us they hoped he wasn’t killed by skin heads or the KKK. It always makes me sad when people tell us about the racist or ugly parts of our country.
Lambretta’s is next door to Possibilities, the now age (sic) bookstore. Above Possibilities is the environmental engineering firm Golder Associates. We thought of going in and dropping the names of people we know at Golder in the States, and see if we could get work as field techs, but decided we really don’t want to work if we can avoid it.
Golder Associates in Nelson
Across the street from Golder is Falafel Gourmet, where we had a delicious Israeli version of falafel. The thick pita bread was really delicious, having been brushed with oil and lightly toasted with sesame seeds and some sort of finely chopped herbs, maybe dill.
The northwest part of the South Island is said to be the sunniest part of the country, and so far it has also been the warmest. The weather was beautiful for our drive up to Abel Tasman Park, where we tramped in the forest high above the Tasman Sea, then went down to Appletree Bay to eat lunch on the golden sand.
The birds were very tame. We almost stepped on a California Quail and a Silvereye (life bid) on the track and got within six feet of a Tui eating the flowers on a flax plant. A Fantail flittered just above us in a tree, and a Chaffinch wanted to be fed on the beach. We also saw Canada Geese (a first for the New Zealand list) swimming around. A Black Back Gull nested on driftwood on the beach. A pair of Pied Stilts seemed to be building a nest. One of them rapidly tossed leafy mud clots over his shoulder while the other quickly patted them into place.
We can tell when we encounter someone on the track who is from a country where traffic drives on the right side of the road. Kiwis and Aussies walk on the left side of the track, and the rest of us end up in a dance as we trying to get past them on the right.
We haven’t figured out why this would be the case, but the moon seems to be upside down here. In the northern hemisphere, the moon waxes from right to left, but here it waxes left to right. [Our rock scientist friend Tom tells us this is because, being Down Under, we were looking at it upside down].
The copper ten cent piece is the smallest denomination. The stores use the Swedish rounding method. If the price ends in 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, the price is rounded down. If the price ends in 6, 7, 8 or 9, the price is rounded up. I imagine people in the U.S. would accept this about as well as they did the metric system. Kiwis managed to join almost everyone else in the world in going metric 10 or 15 years ago, but we occasionally see old interpretive signs that give elevations in feet.
Thankfully, the Kiwis pay their employees enough so that we are not expected to tip. The Goods and Service Tax (GST) is 12.5%, but hotel rates are quoted with the GST included. Food is not taxed, but other things are.
November 14 we drove from Nelson to Westport on the west coast. It was a boring town, so we continued a few kilometres south to a four room hostel called Beaconstone, set on 120 reclaimed acres with a distant view of the ocean. This place was built eight years ago by a woman from California named Nancy and her Kiwi husband Grae. It has a very mellow feeling. We have a king bed and shared bath for NZ$75. It has composting toilets and solar power, which we are asked to conserve, so we are updating our journals tonight at the Jack’s Gasthof restaurant down the hill.
Beaconstone is almost completely free of utility bills. Rain water is collected from the roof and pumped up to a holding tank on the hill using solar power. Water in the pipes set in the concrete floor is heated by the wood stove, keeping the floors warm. Gas is used to run the refrigerator and cook top, and will heat the water if the sun doesn't come out for a couple days.
We misunderstood Nancy and thought we were supposed to use the outdoor showers and composting loos. It was cold out there, and we only took sponge baths in the outdoor sinks, fighting off nasty little sand flies. This experience was enough to convince us that no matter how lovely the setting, we would not spend another night here. Only after we had packed up and made plans to move south did Nancy say she hoped were were taking our "bird baths" in the outdoor sink out of choice. We realized that we could have used the indoor loo, sink and shower next to our room.
The exchange rate continues to improve. Now it’s NZ$1 = US$0.57. The price of petrol has dropped to NZ$1.54 per litre. Multiply by US$ 0.57 and multiply that by 3.85 litres per US gallon to get the price: US$3.35 per gallon. Last summer when the exchange rate was NZ$1 to US$0.57, it was about NZ$2/litre or US$5.88/gallon. Of course, the whole world thinks it's absurd the way we drive Yank Tanks and whine about the cost of petrol.
When Steve cashed some traveler’s cheques, he got some larger note denominations. The NZ$50 note is purple and orange and has Sir Apirana Ngata on the front. He was an early twentieth century Maori lawyer who served in Parliament and promoted Maori language and culture. On the back of the note is the Kokako, a large grey finch. On the North Island, he has blue wattles and his wattles are orange on the South Island. He makes a very loud rich mournful organ-like note. Unfortunately, we missed our chance to hear him sing at dawn on Tiritiri Matangi, one of the few places that stands between him and extinction. I hope we are able to go back there and camp on our next trip so we can hear the morning song.
The NZ$100 note is pink and orange and has the Mohua or Yellowhead, a rare native bird like a sparrow. If we are lucky, we may see him in Fiordland. On the front of the note is Lord Rutherford of Nelson, an atomic scientist.
Each denomination is a different size, which is thoughtful for people with impaired vision.
The green kiwi fruit is especially tasty here at its source. We tried the golden kiwi, which has a hairless skin that doesn’t need to be peeled. It’s good, but not worth twice the price of green kiwis.
On the drive to Westport, we encountered some white-haired Australian pensioners, the first people we’ve met who aren’t thrilled by Obama’s election. Mr. Aussie asked me what I thought Obama was going to do for America. I said for starts, he will end the war, which will save us lots of money, and help get the economy back on track. Steve said the war was based on the false claims that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and that Saddam Hussein was involved with Al Qaeda. Mr. Aussie didn’t seem to think those claims had been proven false. He asked what we thought of New Zealand and I said we had been told the South Island is much different from the North Island, but so far we still see lots of logging trucks and grazing livestock. Mr. Aussie said logging and grazing are the backbone of New Zealand, and the Greenies want to replace the grazing with vineyards. I said maybe wine is more profitable than wool, but he said the Greenies wanted to stop the grazing because they claim it causes pollution.
Eventually we reached the edge of the Kahuranga National Park and followed the Buller River through its deep granite valley which is so steep that it is unmolested by loggers and sheep.
Next to the road outside of Westport, we saw a sign like the signs in the U.S. warning of cattle or deer on the road, but this had a silhouette of a running chicken bird and warned us about Wekas. Soon enough, one of these flightless brown fowl ran across the road in front of us. Another bird for the life list.
