Mood:
brightTopic: Asia Trip
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=== Molly speaking ====
Our time in New Zealand has been a trip back to the world that we know. From Asia to a British-baby has taken us closer to home. This is ironic considering that we are further from home than we have ever been. Just to let you know how far: when you all were cheering on the Eagles to the NFC Championship on Sunday afternoon, we were cheering them on to inevitable victory at 11am on Monday morning.
Most of the population in NZ is white and are descendents from a country in the United Kingdom, but there is a native population of color called Maori who live mostly in the North Island. This is certainly not like home for us, coming from DC where we are used to living with diversity, but New Zealand does have a growing population of Asian immigrants who live mostly in the cities.
People are nice.. of course.. people are nice all over the world, but our first week or so seemed to be plagued with miscommunications and terse interactions with New Zealanders. We seem to have gotten over all of that - slowing down our speed, changing our tone, and developing an ear for the Kiwi accent, and now we are having a great time learning about NZ politics, social issues and culture from our many inn keepers.
This is the country of French fries, that is chips, or even a wedge. Wedges are different than a fry of course but who is keeping score when it comes to huge bowls of fried potatoes with large dollops of sour cream on top. Now you may think that I am in heaven, and I have to say, I am a fry expert ever since my childhood days of collecting McDonald's fry bags in my sock draw, but I'm kind of over them. Too much already. No matter what kind of restaurant you go to, or what level of fancy, you can get a bowl of wedges. Now Marisa would say that our rejection of the fry is because of the quality of the "Tomato Sauce" that is rationed out with each order. Marisa always says "French Fries are just a vehicle for ketchup"; and since the ketchup has a brown tint and is only available by request and sometimes at an additional price - - well, what's the point?
I will let Marisa tell you the details of our travels, but a highlight for me was sea kayaking in the Tasman Sea in the Able Tasman National Park. We manuvered our kayak around a small seal colony and had the little buddies swimming right under our boats. We were lucky to have the best of weather while we visited Nelson and the Able Tasman and we spent our second day there hiking one of the famous tramps.
We are now on a two week cycling trip that is taking us from the east coast to the west coast and back again. Another coast to coast cycling trip - but this time a lot shorter! We used a NZ company that has planned the whole trip for us and has geared us up with bikes and panniers. They have supplied us with our route sheets for each day and have booked our accommodations for each night. While this is not the most luxury way of doing it, or the cheapest way of doing it - it is our most luxurious portion of our overall trip.
We are staying in very nice B&Bs and homestays. (pst. A homestay is basically a B&B without the business feel, or amenities... you stay in someone's house.) So far we have enjoyed it! Coming up the West Coast we stopped for a night in a little spot of a town - Punakaki - and stayed at a lodge with woodburning stove and a big wrap-around porch. We stayed with a great couple, Ian and Jan in Westport who had us laughing for hours. Breakfast lasted almost two hours because of our interesting conversations and enjoyment. Later while climbing Lewis Pass, we slept a night at a thermal resort in the mountains. We had a dip in the Japanese bathhouse and a good rest for our climb up the pass the next morning. We had a bright, lovely room in Hanmer Springs that had huge windows that looked out on the mountain. This is where we were visited Pheobe the cat in the middle of the night. She climbed in the window from the roof to say hello. The night before last we stayed on a sheep farm in the middle of the mountains. We were surrounded by 3000 baa -ing sheep who all have a unique voice and there own "something to say".
Tonight we are staying in a historic B&B that is in an old convent, and I think the ghost nuns are roaming the halls at night. We have three more days of riding that will take us back to Christchurch. I think that tomorrow night we are booked at an ostrich farm. How about that?
I will leave you with a few New Zealand phrases that we have picked up.
Good on ya!
Sweet As!
GO EAGLES!!
Regards, Molly
Ps. Actually the NZs could care less about American football. I added the Go Eagles. They are really into their rugby and cricket. I have my fingers crossed that we will be able to find somewhere to watch the superbowl. Marisa has turned her back on her New England roots and is rooting for the Eagles! Love overcomes all.
===== Marisa speaking =====
New Zealand is most definitely the land of open space and rugged and varied terrain. Having spent the past ten days crossing the south island from west to east we have seen a lot, and very close up. We began the cycling trip by taking the TranzAlpine train from ChristChurch, on the east coast, up over the Alps to Greymouth on the west coast. It was pouring rain and bitterly cold, so as we have often said to eachother during these travels -- it could only get better (India was the only place where it seemed it could always get worse!). We rode from the train station to our B&B -- approx. 2 km -- and arrived totally wet to the core. Our lovely host there, and most places, seemed unafraid of our wet, stinky cycling clothes and gracefully offered to do our laundry so we could have clean, dry clothes for our ride the next day.
The next two days we hugged Highway 6 heading north up the west coast. The climbs were steep and curvy often leveling out to incredible vistas of rugged cliffs and rough seas. One km we would be in green, lush rain forest and the next we would descend into a dry farm full of curious cows. We stayed in the towns of Punakaiki and Westport before heading inland to the small coal town of Reefton. Reefton reminded us of some of the small "has been" towns in our own western states we cycled through last summer, except Reefton is a little town (pop. 1000) proud of its history of having the first electric streetlight in the southern hemisphere. We stayed in an old cottage built in 1887 and restored to keep many of the old features. That night, the town was all bustling as the locals, and Molly and I, headed over to the town cinema to attend the "We Don't Know How Lucky We Are" tsunami fundraiser. It was totally organized and produced by local residents with all types of great entertainment ranging from dance troups to poetry to nuns singing "My God" (to the tune of My Guy) etc. In total, the community, which was nestled in the most idyllic little setting among the mountains, worlds away from SE Asia, raised close to $3000 for the Red Cross.
From Reefton we headed deep into the mountains to Maruia Springs -- a tiny resort with hot sulphur pools set amidst the mountains with no other towns for more than fifty miles in any direction. It is owned by Japanese, and so in keeping with traditional Japanese culture, the pools are gender segregated and mandatory no clothes. It was a relaxing way to rest our leg muscles to prepare for the next day's climb over Lewis Pass. The climb over the pass early the next morning was in thick fog, so we couldn't tell you what the view was from the top. Luckily we crossed the one-lane bridges (which are all over NZ roads) near the summit before any car came from the opposite direction, because no doubt they would not have seen us pedaling across. The rapid and steep decent led us into a bright and sunny valley on the other side where we were surrounded for the next several days of riding by rugged, dry mountains and turquoise blue rivers that flowed through slivers of the vast rock beds that carved the valley. We rested in the town of Hanmer Springs, which by my basic analysis looks like an incredible place to purchase property -- a small, but growing resort town going for an upscale appeal, consistent 12+% appreciation of property over the last six years (40%/year during their RE bubble), tons of open land and TONS of tourists discovering this hotbed. Anyone interested, I've got all the property listings in my bike bag. :)
From Hanmer Springs we spend two days climbing through the mountains in the hot, dry sun -- carrying all the food and water we needed on our bikes since there were no services for over 100 miles, just a basic farm stay and thousands of sheep -- to finally land at the Pacific Ocean in the town of Kaikura where we sit today.
Just three days of cycling left. While I know I was put on this earth to do a lot of things, one thing is for sure, I am always happiest when I am riding my bike.
