off to australia...
I've just spent the last 10 minutes reading about the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis in southern asia. i was unaffected, here in new zealand, and thank you to those of you who wrote in concern. Our plans as of the moment have not been changed, but they remain flexible and as of yet mostly unmade. all we have confirmed (as of 11:00 this morning) is our flight from sydney to singapore at the end of january and a later one from singapore to johannesburg. the rest of our travel plans in southeast asia were to be made when we got there - some overland and others on cheap asian airlines. now clearly, more investigation needs to be made. i heard briefly of the tsunamis and everything over the last couple of days, but i didn't realize quite how profound the damage was...
that said, i guess i can update you on what we've been up to and the like.
Before we even made it to the penguins and after queenstown: we stayed at a cute little town, Te Anau, for three whole days - three nights at the same hostel felt really good after the rushing around we'd been doing. on nabia's birthday we went kayaking on milford sound, which was beautiful and calm and somewhat brooding. i have to say, i enjoy being the rudder in a tandem kayak. They gave us completely mismatched striped long underwear as well as bright orange fleeces and various other purple and yellow acoutrements (don't worry i took a picture). We had a funny guide who had tons of energy and looked spookily like matthew mconaughy [sp?] and his name was Jayce. He drove us back on the lovely Milford Road for 2 hours after we finished at the Sound (which is actually a misnomer - it's a fiord. they're different. look it up.) and gave us a bit of a tour of various flora and fauna and avalanche country. We sampled a harapito plant - very peppery, but refrained from licking fly-poo off a tree (apparently very sugary) and eating peanutbutter flavored grubs. we also learned about the fuschia tree, which has berries that ferment in the sun and is a favorite of the cool green and white local pigeons. apparently they sit up there knockin' a few back and getting a bit tipsy and then maori hunters who cleverly hung out by the trees would just throw sticks at them and knock them out of the trees. Just whack 'em in the hangi (stone oven) and give 'em a roast - they're already marinated in the fermented berry juice. interesting. also we saw the world's only alpine parrot (kea - huge, green, intelligence of a 3 year old child, playful, likes to peck at the butts of lambs because it likes the fat, and please do not feed the kea.) and teased it with a stuffed animal lamb jayce happened to have handy. We also learned about the many avalanches they have there and the homer tunnel naked race every april first that is completed in the long, handhewn tube with only sneakers and a headtorch (flashlight strapped to the head). jayce had competed the year before and was looking to beat his time next year.
after snoozing on our trip home (we had to get up at 5am to head out there), we bought a few ingredients and went back to the barnyard backpackers (on a deer farm - there they were outside our windows along with sheep and horses and a tiny pony) to cook up some potato gnocci in a sage butter sauce and a lovely salad complete with mesclun greens, avocado, and feta cheese. yum. we dressed the salad with our stolen balsamic vinegar and some olive oil and were quite content.
Next day we headed into fiordland again - this time to doubtful sound a bit further south - we took a boat this time though (not powered by us). we drifted across the lovely lake manipouri and got a tour of the underground power station there - water spins the turbines - cool cool - before taking a bus for a while through the native rain forest there and finally arriving at the completely-different-personalitied doubtful sound. we took the boat all the way out the mouth of the tasman sea and found some blue sky and sun out there. we saw a whole group of bottle-nosed dolphins on our way back in - they frolicked with us in the boat - swimming in our wake and playing up at the front. they came so close. and there were so many. they're beautiful graceful creatures. i'd never seen one outside of a cage. that's so with all of this wildlife - it's really exciting and humbling to see them in their natural habitats instead of the bronx zoo.
in any case, dinner that night was a revamped spaghetti bolognese. ooh. let me back upon this one - it was funny. when we arrived at barnyard backpackers the first night, we cooked up some pasta and wanted to make a bolognese sauce but didn't have all day to simmer it. so we took our mince meat and sauteed it with onions and garlic and poured our chopped up can of whole peeled tomatoes in there, even a fresh tomato for good measure. unfortunately the only herb on hand was thyme... so we cooked and stirred and voila what we came away with was pretty bland. and we had made the whole package of pasta so that we could have leftovers of what was supposed to be our delicious dinner. don't get me wrong, it was nothing to sneeze at with the parmesan cheese on it, but nothing to salivate over either. we thought we might try to sell the leftovers with the bus passes nabia and i had bought before we realized we should just rent a car. so this was the marketing scheme we came up with. we make Tshirts that say "do you get around?" and then in small print: "buy our bus passes." then on the back, they say "are you hungry?" and in small print: "get Mamma Nabia's Pasta Bolognese free with your purchase." we thought it was funny anyway.
So. yeah... Mamma Nabia. Say it out loud in your best cheesy italian accent. it's funny, i swear.
anyhoo, we finally left te anau the day after doubtful sound and moseyed down to invercargill (nothing really to see there) and then on the southern scenic route back towards the east. on the way we went through the catlins area - complete with the southernmost point of new zealand - the southiest anywhere excepting the southern tip of south america and of course antarctica - we got within 20 minutes of it, but we would've had to walk the rest in the rain and we felt lazy, so we moved on after snapping a photo; we stopped also at waipapa point where we saw some escaped sheep that were sorely in need of shearing (more photos) and some sea lions (or fur seals - couldn't get close enough to see the ear flaps or lack thereof) that were a daddy and baby duo and very adorable. we stopped to see the petrified forest from 180 million years ago and the couple of yellow-eyed penguins waddling around here at curio bay as well as to take a bit of a walk at nugget point (the weather turned into beautiful blue skies again) to look down at the colonies of fur seals and elephant seals and sea lions again. so cool. we then headed to our next hostel experience: Blowhole Backpackers in Owaka.
It was so cute. we had a whole little house to ourselves. christmas eve had arrived and there was a little tree set up in the living room and a little fire in the wood stove as well. so cute. we dug in to cook lamb chops, roasted kumara and vegetables, and another yum salad. as we stirred and chopped happily away, two more guests arrived: morgan and eva from alaska. they'd been travelling the southern scenic route right behind us and got totally washed out - pushing a foot and a half of water off the road with their car it seems. we did get so lucky with the weather here. here's hoping nature continues to favor us. they couldn't even see the billions of sheep covering the rolling hills of the southern countryside or the Remarkables mountain range at queenstown. we told them to go to fiji for the tropical and the warm. i hope they go. but the five of us had a nice cozy evening and following morning (we got to stay in the cat themed room - they got the celestial themed one.) in the morning we found the owner's husband's long wool socks under the tree - five of them all stuffed with candy bars and candy canes and washcloths and soap and glitter pens. really quite adorable. we took the candy and left the socks.
Moving on. next day we couldn't go to one cave thing because the tides didn't want us to so we stayed in and chatted with the alaskans for a while. they were nice. We drove to a couple of waterfalls and more sights in the area (can't remember more right now) and then up through dunedin with its octagon center and scottish feel and further on to oamaru where we saw the penguins. on the way to oamaru though we stopped at the very awesome moeraki boulders. these are extremely round boulders that are just sitting on the beach like alien pods. they're really cool. some have broken open to reveal veins of calcite that really just make them look more like alien pods. apparently they are formed somewhat like pearls in an oyster, but i think they're alien pods.
Then to the penguins, which i mentioned already. Really they were cool. very cool. and there were so many of them. yay. After the penguins, we had several bites of the hostel's leftovers from their christmas dinner (we hadn't eaten - rushing to see the
penguins) and went to bed. Next morning we walked around town - they have really old victorian looking parts - nabia rode a penny farthing around the street - those bicycles with one huge and one tiny wheel. funny. i chickened out :) - so that was neat. then driving up to timaru.
We called a girl we had met way back in akaroa - mansa - did i mention her before? she's from taiwan and has been in nz for 2 years to study english and then working with her kiwi boyfriend at a dairy farm (well, actually at the neighbor's dairy farm, but no need to get too specific). she was great and we had gone out to dinner with her - she gave us her number and told us to call when we made it around near timaru. so we called. she met us in town (got out of the afternoon milking) and we went to the carnival that was going on. it was like a circus. nabia dragged her onto the "chair-o-plane" - you sit in the chairs and the centrifugal force spins you outward -remember that ride? looked like they had fun for a little while and then it went on a bit too long. they both felt pukey afterwards so we sat for a while and let the welcome sun shine on us. then a walk on the beach where we all collected matching shells and then we had some chinese food dinner and followed her out to her house another 40 minutes north in temuka. she put us up for the night (extremely generous - thank you mansa!!). we got early in the morning to watch her milking the first herd and were truly saddened to find the whole process done by machine and some amount of cruelty performed on the cows. perhaps it was naive to think of someone sitting on a stool and milking into a bucket, but this was not what i expected at all. we found out several things we would have preferred not to know (i'll spare you) then took a short ride each on the big quad bike they use to move the herds and headed back to the house for an emotional chat before we headed on our way again. Mansa, come meet up with us somewhere - it will be fun!
Then we made it back up here to christchurch. ran some errands yesterday and worked on finishing off some of our food. stopped off at a knitting place that had baby alpacas roaming in the front paddock, bought some knickknacks here and there (get ready mom - it's a big one). na and i tried to buy our plane tickets but forgot it was a public holiday yesterday and today here. uh oh. we needed the tix to get into sydney. so i had a slight panic attack and then we decided to just deal with it tomorrow (today). we'd call in the morning. we made some dinner last night from the food we had left: mashed kumara with ginger chunks and carrots along with quinoa with mushrooms and onions and tomato. yummy if a bit mushy. we managed to sell our bus tickets to people who will use them, even though we lost hundreds of dollars in the process. it was that or nothing though, so que sera sera. to sleep in our tiny room in the slightly skeevy hostel and then up this morning early to sit on hold with singapore airlines before getting a hold of the woman who made our reservations that we needed to see for the tickets at her HOUSE and having her come in to the office on the holiday to take care of it for us. so nice. would NOT happen in the states. tied up some more loose ends and now off to the airport.
our time here went so quickly. we covered so much ground but i can't believe the new zealand section is over already. i am sad to be leaving. i could spend a lot more time here. really. i know i've said that other places, but i mean serious time here.
ok. over and out. and love.
amy
email me
that said, i guess i can update you on what we've been up to and the like.
Before we even made it to the penguins and after queenstown: we stayed at a cute little town, Te Anau, for three whole days - three nights at the same hostel felt really good after the rushing around we'd been doing. on nabia's birthday we went kayaking on milford sound, which was beautiful and calm and somewhat brooding. i have to say, i enjoy being the rudder in a tandem kayak. They gave us completely mismatched striped long underwear as well as bright orange fleeces and various other purple and yellow acoutrements (don't worry i took a picture). We had a funny guide who had tons of energy and looked spookily like matthew mconaughy [sp?] and his name was Jayce. He drove us back on the lovely Milford Road for 2 hours after we finished at the Sound (which is actually a misnomer - it's a fiord. they're different. look it up.) and gave us a bit of a tour of various flora and fauna and avalanche country. We sampled a harapito plant - very peppery, but refrained from licking fly-poo off a tree (apparently very sugary) and eating peanutbutter flavored grubs. we also learned about the fuschia tree, which has berries that ferment in the sun and is a favorite of the cool green and white local pigeons. apparently they sit up there knockin' a few back and getting a bit tipsy and then maori hunters who cleverly hung out by the trees would just throw sticks at them and knock them out of the trees. Just whack 'em in the hangi (stone oven) and give 'em a roast - they're already marinated in the fermented berry juice. interesting. also we saw the world's only alpine parrot (kea - huge, green, intelligence of a 3 year old child, playful, likes to peck at the butts of lambs because it likes the fat, and please do not feed the kea.) and teased it with a stuffed animal lamb jayce happened to have handy. We also learned about the many avalanches they have there and the homer tunnel naked race every april first that is completed in the long, handhewn tube with only sneakers and a headtorch (flashlight strapped to the head). jayce had competed the year before and was looking to beat his time next year.
after snoozing on our trip home (we had to get up at 5am to head out there), we bought a few ingredients and went back to the barnyard backpackers (on a deer farm - there they were outside our windows along with sheep and horses and a tiny pony) to cook up some potato gnocci in a sage butter sauce and a lovely salad complete with mesclun greens, avocado, and feta cheese. yum. we dressed the salad with our stolen balsamic vinegar and some olive oil and were quite content.
Next day we headed into fiordland again - this time to doubtful sound a bit further south - we took a boat this time though (not powered by us). we drifted across the lovely lake manipouri and got a tour of the underground power station there - water spins the turbines - cool cool - before taking a bus for a while through the native rain forest there and finally arriving at the completely-different-personalitied doubtful sound. we took the boat all the way out the mouth of the tasman sea and found some blue sky and sun out there. we saw a whole group of bottle-nosed dolphins on our way back in - they frolicked with us in the boat - swimming in our wake and playing up at the front. they came so close. and there were so many. they're beautiful graceful creatures. i'd never seen one outside of a cage. that's so with all of this wildlife - it's really exciting and humbling to see them in their natural habitats instead of the bronx zoo.
in any case, dinner that night was a revamped spaghetti bolognese. ooh. let me back upon this one - it was funny. when we arrived at barnyard backpackers the first night, we cooked up some pasta and wanted to make a bolognese sauce but didn't have all day to simmer it. so we took our mince meat and sauteed it with onions and garlic and poured our chopped up can of whole peeled tomatoes in there, even a fresh tomato for good measure. unfortunately the only herb on hand was thyme... so we cooked and stirred and voila what we came away with was pretty bland. and we had made the whole package of pasta so that we could have leftovers of what was supposed to be our delicious dinner. don't get me wrong, it was nothing to sneeze at with the parmesan cheese on it, but nothing to salivate over either. we thought we might try to sell the leftovers with the bus passes nabia and i had bought before we realized we should just rent a car. so this was the marketing scheme we came up with. we make Tshirts that say "do you get around?" and then in small print: "buy our bus passes." then on the back, they say "are you hungry?" and in small print: "get Mamma Nabia's Pasta Bolognese free with your purchase." we thought it was funny anyway.
So. yeah... Mamma Nabia. Say it out loud in your best cheesy italian accent. it's funny, i swear.
anyhoo, we finally left te anau the day after doubtful sound and moseyed down to invercargill (nothing really to see there) and then on the southern scenic route back towards the east. on the way we went through the catlins area - complete with the southernmost point of new zealand - the southiest anywhere excepting the southern tip of south america and of course antarctica - we got within 20 minutes of it, but we would've had to walk the rest in the rain and we felt lazy, so we moved on after snapping a photo; we stopped also at waipapa point where we saw some escaped sheep that were sorely in need of shearing (more photos) and some sea lions (or fur seals - couldn't get close enough to see the ear flaps or lack thereof) that were a daddy and baby duo and very adorable. we stopped to see the petrified forest from 180 million years ago and the couple of yellow-eyed penguins waddling around here at curio bay as well as to take a bit of a walk at nugget point (the weather turned into beautiful blue skies again) to look down at the colonies of fur seals and elephant seals and sea lions again. so cool. we then headed to our next hostel experience: Blowhole Backpackers in Owaka.
It was so cute. we had a whole little house to ourselves. christmas eve had arrived and there was a little tree set up in the living room and a little fire in the wood stove as well. so cute. we dug in to cook lamb chops, roasted kumara and vegetables, and another yum salad. as we stirred and chopped happily away, two more guests arrived: morgan and eva from alaska. they'd been travelling the southern scenic route right behind us and got totally washed out - pushing a foot and a half of water off the road with their car it seems. we did get so lucky with the weather here. here's hoping nature continues to favor us. they couldn't even see the billions of sheep covering the rolling hills of the southern countryside or the Remarkables mountain range at queenstown. we told them to go to fiji for the tropical and the warm. i hope they go. but the five of us had a nice cozy evening and following morning (we got to stay in the cat themed room - they got the celestial themed one.) in the morning we found the owner's husband's long wool socks under the tree - five of them all stuffed with candy bars and candy canes and washcloths and soap and glitter pens. really quite adorable. we took the candy and left the socks.
Moving on. next day we couldn't go to one cave thing because the tides didn't want us to so we stayed in and chatted with the alaskans for a while. they were nice. We drove to a couple of waterfalls and more sights in the area (can't remember more right now) and then up through dunedin with its octagon center and scottish feel and further on to oamaru where we saw the penguins. on the way to oamaru though we stopped at the very awesome moeraki boulders. these are extremely round boulders that are just sitting on the beach like alien pods. they're really cool. some have broken open to reveal veins of calcite that really just make them look more like alien pods. apparently they are formed somewhat like pearls in an oyster, but i think they're alien pods.
Then to the penguins, which i mentioned already. Really they were cool. very cool. and there were so many of them. yay. After the penguins, we had several bites of the hostel's leftovers from their christmas dinner (we hadn't eaten - rushing to see the
penguins) and went to bed. Next morning we walked around town - they have really old victorian looking parts - nabia rode a penny farthing around the street - those bicycles with one huge and one tiny wheel. funny. i chickened out :) - so that was neat. then driving up to timaru.
We called a girl we had met way back in akaroa - mansa - did i mention her before? she's from taiwan and has been in nz for 2 years to study english and then working with her kiwi boyfriend at a dairy farm (well, actually at the neighbor's dairy farm, but no need to get too specific). she was great and we had gone out to dinner with her - she gave us her number and told us to call when we made it around near timaru. so we called. she met us in town (got out of the afternoon milking) and we went to the carnival that was going on. it was like a circus. nabia dragged her onto the "chair-o-plane" - you sit in the chairs and the centrifugal force spins you outward -remember that ride? looked like they had fun for a little while and then it went on a bit too long. they both felt pukey afterwards so we sat for a while and let the welcome sun shine on us. then a walk on the beach where we all collected matching shells and then we had some chinese food dinner and followed her out to her house another 40 minutes north in temuka. she put us up for the night (extremely generous - thank you mansa!!). we got early in the morning to watch her milking the first herd and were truly saddened to find the whole process done by machine and some amount of cruelty performed on the cows. perhaps it was naive to think of someone sitting on a stool and milking into a bucket, but this was not what i expected at all. we found out several things we would have preferred not to know (i'll spare you) then took a short ride each on the big quad bike they use to move the herds and headed back to the house for an emotional chat before we headed on our way again. Mansa, come meet up with us somewhere - it will be fun!
Then we made it back up here to christchurch. ran some errands yesterday and worked on finishing off some of our food. stopped off at a knitting place that had baby alpacas roaming in the front paddock, bought some knickknacks here and there (get ready mom - it's a big one). na and i tried to buy our plane tickets but forgot it was a public holiday yesterday and today here. uh oh. we needed the tix to get into sydney. so i had a slight panic attack and then we decided to just deal with it tomorrow (today). we'd call in the morning. we made some dinner last night from the food we had left: mashed kumara with ginger chunks and carrots along with quinoa with mushrooms and onions and tomato. yummy if a bit mushy. we managed to sell our bus tickets to people who will use them, even though we lost hundreds of dollars in the process. it was that or nothing though, so que sera sera. to sleep in our tiny room in the slightly skeevy hostel and then up this morning early to sit on hold with singapore airlines before getting a hold of the woman who made our reservations that we needed to see for the tickets at her HOUSE and having her come in to the office on the holiday to take care of it for us. so nice. would NOT happen in the states. tied up some more loose ends and now off to the airport.
our time here went so quickly. we covered so much ground but i can't believe the new zealand section is over already. i am sad to be leaving. i could spend a lot more time here. really. i know i've said that other places, but i mean serious time here.
ok. over and out. and love.
amy
email me
posted by theonetheycallamy at 12/27/2004 07:46:00 AM
7 Comments:
You girls are amazing and we miss you.
You are making the most of everyday ! I
Have great fun in Sydney and Happy 2005 !
Hi sweetie
As usual, your descriptions of the food, scenery, wildlife, natives and fellow travelers totally entertain me!! It sounds like New Zealand was truly a wonderful, positive part of your trip.
I know you are safe from the horrors in Southeast Asia, but I'd be lying if I told you my insides aren't a bit unsteady when I think about you out there, and where you might have been. Earthquakes and tsunamis were certainly NOT on my list of concerns!!
I hope you all had a safe trip to Sydney, and look forward to hearing from you soon. Off to more exciting adventures!
Love, mom
Phew!
Big relief for me too princess. Was concerned about you three but never heard a word about NZ or Australia so assumed you were OK.
It's So SAD!
More people died in those few hours than all the US deaths in Vietnam or in a full year of car accidents in USA. Adds to the sadness of those places. Future repercussions as well - medical and community.
Anyway, glad to read more of your continual great adventure. You truly write so well.
Try some Tasmanian salmon - quite good.
HAVE A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR'S EVE IN SIDNEY and continued fond wishes and thoughts.
Unc B.
hello amy!
i have just caught up on your whole blog and am so glad to know that you were safe from the tsunamis. may you continue to have safe travels.
reading about your matt mocon (forget spelling the real name - wesleyan had the best abbreviation for that mouthful) look-alike makes me wonder whether you're resurrecting the man-a-month calendar - june could use some company! you have lots of material for a calendar with a monthly cute tour guide, local recipes and animal of the month. you could sell it and finance future trips to new zealand!
enjoy sydney! - blaura
Dear Amy,Jordan,Mama Nabia,
Can't wait to eat at Mama Nabia's. New Zealand must be quite a place. Could tell that all three had a great time there in spite of the "bus pass" incident.
Thanks again for the vivid decriptions as it makes me feel that I'm traveling along with you.
Been reading up on Australia. I'm sure it will be nothing short of phonenominal.
Wishing all of you the greatest of New Years.
With Love
Uncle, Cuz, and hopefully the first patron at MN's.
Steve, Steve, Steve
Hey - I need a calendar and some new recipes, too!
Put me down for a dozen - they'll make great presents.
Unc B.
Amy:
Great to hear about your journeys and see your pictures. Your mom introduced me to your blog and I am smiling. You are a courageous person. (I'm so glad to hear you were entirely unaffected by the tsunami.)
Life in the USA is status quo... I'm still photographing, Maggie's finishing school & wondering what to do next (sound familiar?) & Natalie's interning at the Village Voice. And it's been snowing (how wintery!)
Wishing you more fabulous and safe adventures.
love, Paula
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