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!

Beer Tasting in Taranaki!

While most people think of the visual senses (landscapes) when it comes to New Zealand, there is plenty to entrance the other senses as well: songs of odd birds and the crashing of waves (hearing), wild flowers or hot pools (smell), texture of boulders or sand through your feet or grass under your feet (feel) and last but not least: food and drink (taste)! There is some excellent cuisine to be had in many restaurants and cafés around the country, but the most interesting way to tempt your taste buds is by visiting the small wineries or breweries and see where the wine/beer your enjoying is being grown and talk to the people involved in it!

When I was here 3 years ago we stopped at Rimu Grove winery in the Nelson region and ended up buying several bottles of the delectable red and white wines we tasted. 

 

This time it was an organic brewery that crossed our path, so my sister and I pulled into their driveway and decided to try Mike's Premium Organic Beers (from left to right: dark mild Ale, malty Lager, Bohemian Pilsner and the hoppy Double India Pale Ale, with a glass of cider as a bonus -clicking on the names takes you to their tasting notes-):

Here's the result of that tasting:

Oh, perhaps I should have told you that I HATE beer? lol!!! So don't judge them by my faces (full screen is even scarier)... my sister said they were fabulous, particularly the ales! All I can say is: thank God there was a delicious light apple cider to wash it down with! ;o)

And as a bonus, here's what I thought of their blue cheese:

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)

Diving Knights

Ahhh... what a great way to start a trip! With a couple of days in one of New Zealand's best Marine Reserves right after Christmas. FA-BU-LOUS!!! :o)

The Poor Knights Marine Reserve was created in 1981 and was New Zealand's second Marine Reserve. It extends 800 metres offshore from the Poor Knights Islands, volcanic remnants which are located off the west coast of Northland (northernmost region of NZ), just off the harbour town of Tutukaka.

map up on a viewpoint overlooking Tutukaka harbour

Since the water around these islands is sub-tropical (temperature in the water was 22ºC when I went in!) there are a lot of sub-tropical species of fish and invertebrates that you don't see elsewhere in New Zealand. Also, since the islands basically end in steep cliffs that dive down into the ocean (sometimes to 100m depth) there are plenty of vertical walls to explore for invertebrate species, isolated columns or underwater archways which are a lot of fun to play around!

We headed out of Tutukaka Harbour early in the morning, under a beautiful sky and no wind, and quickly surrounded by a pod of playful bottlenose dolphins who were entertaining the local kayakers! :o)

After hanging around for a bit we sped away from the coast

and towards the islands.

As you can see, the sea was flat as a pancake! HUGE improvement on my previous trip here with my sister 3 years ago. The sea was so rough then I got seasick even in the water and actually vomited underwater! Not a pleasant experience, although I was compensated by being immediately surrounded by fish! lol!

On this map from New Zealand's Department of Conservation you can see our two dive sites for the day: Northern Arch and Middle Arch on the NW coast:

Northern Arch was both scary and fun!

northern side of N.Arch, I dove towards this shot, then around the head back to the cove

It's considered a premium dive spot but very difficult because of the strong currents through the Arch and around the headland. In fact it was all I could do to keep myself within the arch long enough to shoot a photo of this fabulous sponge,

and this scary yellow moray eel!

On the other side I found myself popping up through a beautiful green forest of stalked kelp:

Peaking through the kelp to the rock hidden beneath was rewarding since I spotted (among many other critters) a camouflaged scorpion fish:

this fabulous firebrick starfish:

Even better was coming up out of the kelp at one point and practically bumping into this short-tailed stingray! lol!

  
Was a short dive (1/2h) because my air ran out sooner than usual since it was such an effort fighting the current to get around the headland. In fact, I'm not sure I would have been able to make it around in a couple of points if I hadn't been pulling myself along with the help of the kelp! Now those are some sturdy stalks! ;o)


The second dive was at Middle Arch,

and since on this one I went down with my sister and her boyfriend (they were free-diving at the first spot), we mostly stayed under the arch so we could all practice our underwater macrophotography, or taking pictures of each other like this one my sister took of me at the entrance to the arch:

I enjoyed taking in all the details, like this school of fish following the archway up to the surface,

or this stalked kelp outlined in the blue waters:

There were some gorgeous sponges and gorgonias like this one:

and a several more moray eels hiding amongst the rocks

Also among the fishies, yummy (according to my sis) pink mao mao

and blue mao mao:

But the highlights were definitely all the small nudibranchs (small shell-less molluscs) we were searching for on rock and algae surface. Like this little (~5 cm?) clown nudibranch:

or these interestingly active Verco's Tambja nudibranch (huge! almost 10 cm!):

You can get a better idea of their size in these two pictures my sister took:

Then there was the fun of chasing after stingrays trying to get a decent photo, only got one, but it ain't half bad! ;o)

Almost as good (and lots of fun), following a trail of bubbles down the wall, into a little cave, and finding myself in an air bubble!

Awesome!

'Twas a fabulous day! Wish we could have gone again but the weather was against us the next day so we only went out in the afternoon along the coast for some free-diving and spear-fishing for the spearos...

I'll have to see if I can get another dive day in when I'm in the South Island! (if I can afford it, gulp!)

Sources:
Wikipedia
NZ-DOC
Interesting little video on the DOC website.
Want more info/photos/stories? Seafriends NZ

Haere-mai Aotearoa!

Or in other words:

WELCOME TO NEW ZEALAND!!!

Welcome to a land proud of its Maori heritage.

To a land of magnificent beaches,

Karekare beach

Musical London, a Mamma Mia! evening

Fabulous! :o)

Seeing a Musical in London is one of "the things to do", if you're lucky enough to be able to get a ticket, 'cause most of the popular ones are sold out every weekend. Fortunately with a sister living in the area one has easy access to the right info (lastminute.com!) and so once train tickets were purchased a month and a half ago, tickets for the show were acquired just a couple of days later!

On previous visits I'd seen Chicago (leaves you feeling totally jazzed!) with a couple of friends, The Phantom of the Opera with my dad (10 years I'd been wanting to see that! Read the book as a teenager several times, knew most of the songs by heart...), and then Wicked when I came to visit my sister last summer (well, 2009), which as she kept saying was "wicked awesome!". :p

This time I finally got to see ABBA extravaganza Mamma Mia!

ABBA for me is my childhood. Some of my earliest musical memories are listening to their songs 'cause my parents were fans, and "Thank You For The Music" is one of my all-time favourite songs.

We started out with pretty good seats (for the price we paid) in the very back row, where we could see everything.

But since the room wasn't packed and one of the balconies was empty... we were able to switch to a balcony overlooking the stage during the intermission and got an even more intense experience!

I couldn't stop myself from singing along, and at the end everyone was on their feet clapping and singing and dancing. FUN! :o)

I've seen the movie lord knows how many times, and I'm still amazed at how the women behind this could bring together all these songs and weave them into a story! I'm not going to compare it to the movie, since they're two completely different animals. But I can say the singing is better! :p

Here's the trailer for the London show (the two leads I saw were blonds! so different cast?):

damn! I can't get the youtube video to embed for some reason so just go see it here.

Why London, why now?

Why London? That's easy! My sister lives just outside of the city so I get the double pleasure of hanging out with her, plus continuing my ongoing exploration of the British capital! :o)

So, how come I get to take a nice long weekend to come to London? 4 days off work just because???

Nope! In Belgium (and France) November 11th is a holiday! It's Armistice Day, commemorating the end of World War I in 1918. I was surprised it wasn't a holiday in England, considering World War I is still called "The Great War" and all that... but it turns out even though they don't take a day off, they still commemorate it as Remembrance Day, sometimes called "Poppy Day" 'cause everyone wears red poppies to honour those fallen in the line of duty (in various wars, not just WWI).

You can find people spread out across the city (all week my sister says!), exchanging these poppies for a few coins.

My grandfather served in WWII, but he died before I was born, so I've never talked to anyone who served in a war. I look forward to some future when they will no longer take place. I may be naïve, but I have hope in humanity that that day will come. In the mean time, here's to those who serve(d) and died fighting to defend their countries!

London calling...

I'm off again! I love it when a holiday lands on a Thursday and the University grants us an extra long weekend... (I believe they're granting a recuperation day since May 1st was a Sunday this year) So 4-day weekend, here I come!!! :o)

logo by S.Walker

One can't be expected to stay home with 4 marvellous days ahead, can one? Not unless friends are visiting (like 10 days ago for All Saint's). Which means... I'm out of here!!! Here being Liège of course. And Belgium. I'm crossing the Channel!  Going under it actually (I love the Chunnel!). I'm going to spend 4 full days with my "little" sister who lives just outside of London. We'll head into town a couple of days and catch a few sights I haven't seen on my previous visits (I've lost track, I think I've been to London at least 6 times. Or is it 7?), catch a musical, a few movies and then visit a few other spots along the North Sea coast or in the countryside. Dunno yet, nothing planned except for Mamma Mia! Thursday night. But I have to make to St Paul's Cathedral this trip. It's the one big monument I haven't visited yet! In any case I'm just looking forward to spending time with my sis, everything else is a bonus.

I'm scheduling this post to be published right when I get on the Eurostar from Brussels to London. And I'm also "activating" a couple of posts I imported from I other blog. I wrote them after my last trip to London in summer 2009 when I did the "touristy" thing of going up the London Eye for the first time, got really frustrated because I wasn't allowed to take pictures in Westminster Abbey, and got to visit a Norman castle (with Roman ruins under it!) in Colchester. I'll see about writing while I'm there, if not I'll tell a few tales when I get back. I might also dip into my photographic treasure box and pull out a few older tales... ;o)

In the meantime the draft posts I haven't finished about visiting Roman cities in Germany (Trier) and Belgium (Tongeren) will have to wait. *sigh* Too much to write, too little time! :p