(Te Mata peak below left)
"Kiwi crossing" signs on the highway to Wellington, the N.Z. capital.The most remarkable food I've eaten so far would have to be the mashed potato muffin with mashed up smoked fish...(see below).
Mashed potoato fish muffin pie thingy (with some bites out of it) at an Asian-Kiwi bakery in Warkworth, north island. Amazing the food photography you can get with a cheap digital and a formica table top.
Actually, there's another food called whitebait that's pretty weird. It's a tiny fish that looks sort of like a (yeck) worm that the New Zealanders scoop out of the rivers. Then they fry up their catch in fritters. We finally worked up the courage to eat some whitebait at the Nelson Saturday morning market. It was sort of like a "whitebait omelette" served on white bread. IT was O.K. - but so far my vote is with Canadian salmon or Alaska Halibut.
There are funny birds everywhere in N.Z. - and the feathered ones are a bit odd as well.
Here is Monica's Kiwi ramblings, re-editied from her original "group email":
"We arrived in a fabulous place today - the town of Russell in the Bay of Islands. It is gorgeous here - a very small historic village on the ocean a $6 ferry ride from a bigger, beachy place called Paihia. We made it to town just in time to check into our luxurious camping spot - water, power and a great view and rush to the Duke of Marlborough Hotel (oldest licenced hotel in New Zealand) to catch the running of Australia’s Melbourne Cup horse race. We made it to the bar with a minute to spare. Afterwards, we purchased some ‘kransky' sausages (editor's note - Google defines "kranski" is the Oceanic version of the authentic North Slovenian dish - the kranjska) and went back to the camper to have dinner with some nice red wine overlooking the bay. A double rainbow came out a sunset for good measure.Last night we were in a “Holiday Park”at Mangawhai Heads. We’ve rented a camper van for 2 weeks and are inching our way up to the northern tip of NZ’s north island. Holiday parks are this weird hybrid of permanent trailer set ups, small cabins to rent, sites for trailers and campers and tent sites. Often they are little grassy parking lots with electricity and sometimes water for our tiny Mazda camper.
There are also communal kitchens with usually 4 or more stainless steel sinks and counters, stove tops, BBQs and tables, showers, laundry facilities, and toilets. One park even had a TV lounge and a marquee. It is nice having electricity, as we can make coffee in the mornings before venturing out in public. Overall though, I have to say that camper-vanning is not for me. I don’t like having to take the bed apart and put the table up every day or continually pack and unpack stuff. We are also finding that you end up spending a lot of time inside if the weather is cool (which it has been).We had an interesting looking neighbour at Mangawhai Heads. I called him "Mr. Stylin’" because he was working a real retro look. He was staying in a tiny old trailer from the 50s and wearing small polo necked shirts and pork pie hats with really old school shorts and bathing trunks. It seemed like he lived in the trailer. The only contemporary thing about hs trailer was the small satellite dish on the front.Because it is cool right now I have had to start collecting merino wool clothing. I am in love with the way the light wool feels and have been lucky to get stuff on sale. So far I have acquired a cardi, a tank top, long sleeved top and tights. We have popped in to a few vintage shops and Rod bought himself a traditional men’s jacket called a Swandri (also wool).
Very cool. Mr. Stylin' must be jealous.The food here at grocery stores and farmers’ markets is expensive but very high quality. We‘ve been sampling great local wines, cheeses (especially blue cheese), olives and olive oil and eggs from happy free-run chickens. Kiwi restaurants - even the one that are set up cafeteria style - all seem to have remarkably tasty, fresh food.Although it was really too cold to do so, we went snorkelling at Goat Island Marine Reserve a few days ago. There were some huge fish and I saw two stingrays. I thought of that Australian TV guy who was stabbed in the heart by one and high tailed it out of there. I helped a guy from India learn to swim and snorkel for the first time. He was there with his Samoan girlfriend who just waited on the shore and cheered him on. He was so enthusiastic and fearless, it was amazing. He’d never even been in water past his waist and he was swimming along and breathing through a tube! When I told him there was a stingray ahead he said ‘that’s enough for today’.
We are enjoying learning about Kiwi culture by listening to the radio talk shows as we drive along. People really say what is on their minds. The host the other day called a politician a “moron “and the Australian rugby team “dirty, rotten Aussies”. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of racist talk about Maori people and there was even a lengthy debate the other day about why they couldn’t use the word “nigger” on the air.Yesterday, we did a gorgeous walk along the top of some cliffs by the ocean. Spectacular scenery both looking out to sea and inland. The inland side was rolling, green, farmland dotted with grazing sheep.
Speaking of sheep, we went to a tourist trap called “Sheepworld” a few days ago in search of some more merino wool clothing. They wanted $25 per person for a ‘sheep show’ that involved watching a dog herd some sheep, a sheep shearing and then feeding some lambs. To top it off, there was a ‘nature trail’ which Rod said was only 500 metres long for which they were charging $12 a head! C’mon, mate.
Yesterday I tried to drive here for the first time (on the wrong - no, cancel that - on the OTHER side of the road). It is quite nerve wracking especially since the van has a very flat front so other cars seem to be whipping at one on the wrong side verrrry close! We’ve only turned into the wrong lane after making a right hand turn twice so far! The harder part is that the turn indicator and the windshield wipers are reversed so we’ve been signalling with the windshield wipers a lot! Tomorrow we’re off to scout out a longer term rental in the area as our friend Julie (x of Whitehorse who now lives in Tasmania) will be joining us for a few weeks in December and we’ll need larger digs.
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