Kiwi Bites! vol.3

• Ouch! I’d forgotten about the “Roaring Forties” :s Crossing Foveaux Straights from Bluff into Stewart Island made me feel very queasy! You’d think crossing that region (and back) two years in a row to the Antarctic would have taught me that lesson… Thankfully the one trick I did remember –getting fresh air and eating an apple- did help. Felt better real fast, and the sea spray in my face was fabulous! As were those sooty shearwaters (called muttonbirds here) flying just above the waves.

Muttonbirds flying over the waves of the Foveaux Straights

• This trip is confirming my previous assessment from 3 year ago, that (most) Kiwis are some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met! Whether it be the girl at the Te Anau DOC centre talking about Fiordland penguins and other birds and the advantages/disadvantages of their various Nature guidebooks, or the skipper on the dive boat who used to work on fishing boats out of Bluff telling me fishing tales and good tidbits about Stewart Island. Ditto the 3 bus drivers today who conveyed me from Te Anau to the Stewart Island ferry at Bluff. They helped clear some of the confusion about not being on "the" bus I had booked (but one run by a different company) and being passed along to another bus twice (when we thought we had a direct “drive”). The 2nd driver was particularly fun. I sat behind the drivers on all three rides and he was chatting with me most of the way, talking about his job, things along the route, the beauty of Stewart Island where he’d live if the missus would consent! ;o)

• On the other hand I think I’m going to stop listening to the advice of the STRAY bus drivers on places to stay… ‘cause this backpackers I’m in now at S.I. is pretty bad! No internet (even though they say yes on the website, but 2 old computers who don’t work well don’t count! I'm in the bar of the gorgeous little South Sea Hotel using their Wi-Fi and drinking cider), problems with the gas oven and stove… and outdoor access to the bathrooms in a place where it’s very chilly!!! :s

• LOTS more sheep in the fields crossing Southland… rolling hills with good pastures it seems. Ditto with deer. Still seems weird to see those behind a fence like cattle!

• Stewart Island is FABULOUS! Great place to relax… and wait ‘till I tell you about the birding paradise that is little Ulva Island, and going kiwi spotting at the beach at night! :o)

gazing across the harbour of Oban, Stewart Island's main township

Stewart Island Shags nesting on a rock in the harbour

Kiwi English:

• A dish towel is called a “tea towel” (but Brits use that as well, I never did get it…)

• You leave your car in the car park, and you don’t rent a car, you hire one!

Kiwi Bites! vol.2

Argh!!! Blogging problems… travelling with a “local” (i.e. my sister and friends) means staying in all the good spots, off the beaten track… but with no internet access! Add to that exhaustion at the end of the day and socialising (i.e. hang out with people and not glue yourself to a computer and completely ignore everyone else) means I’ve been behind in my blogging about this trip pretty much since Day 1! Sorry ‘bout that. But I’ve been making little notations in a notebook I carry on me, and whenever possible copy them out onto a Word doc and choose the photos in iPhoto so that when I do have internet time I can spew out (hopefully) interesting blog posts about this adventure! And I’m “back-dating” them to the date I would have written them if I could, so don’t be surprised to see posts appearing dated before this one. Namely posts on the Tongariro Crossing, Mt Taranaki, the Forgotten World, Veil Falls, beer tasting, surfers in Raglan or Cathedral Cove in Coromandel.

As of tomorrow I’ll be travelling on my own which means nobody to hang out with (sniff!!!) so more time for the blog. I’ll try whenever I connect to post something recent and something “late”.

Kiwi English:

• Tea towel -> dish towel

• Slips are rock falls or land slides on the road
  
  
  
  

• A Dairy is a small convenience or grocery store

Random shot from the road:

sheep in a quarry!

Kiwi Bites! vol.1

Random kiwi thoughts:

• So much for the stereotype, I was here for a whole week before seeing a single sheep (today)! Saw lots of these instead:

             Including road warning signs:

• Kiwis drive like madmen!!! And on 2-lane roads where in most places a reasonable speed limit would be 80 km/h - tops!-, but here the speed limit can be 100 kph... and you still get drivers speeding past you!

curves in deadly Dome Valley

• Oh, and apparently you also have to watch out for strange things on the roads here, lol!:

Kiwi English:

• flip-flops are called jandals

• mosquitos are mozzies

• a bach (pronounced batch) is like a second (holiday) residence... traditionally just a roof over a place to sleep and cook, sometimes without running water or electricity etc., but can be a fully equipped place as well.

More Kiwi English in future Kiwi Bites! For Americans, I've come across a blog chronicling a Round the World Trip with an interesting post on US vs Kiwi English. ;o)