Blog

T oday is an off day in Christchurch. We have been busy busy busy. Elizabeth and Dotty went

to Akaroa to the market this morning. Jim is doing Jim things. I stayed home to ponder the

importance of world travel as well as what we’ve seen, heard in different ways (and at some of

us not at all) and experienced . And rest up!

-The South Island is very different to the North Island. Different not only geographically, but

historically. Many of the good people we encountered on the North Island were Māori, if not by

birth by adoption. The connection is important. All signage is multilingual. South Island, not so

much. We don’t hear so much about Māori in the South Island.

-Besides grapes, much stone fruit is grown on the South Island.

Did I mention the weather is warmer on the north island than on the south?

-New Zealand is a polyglot of cultures with current popularity of Asian influence. We’ve enjoyed

Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Korean, and Indian food…and mostly an amalgam

of all of them. Even a restaurant that bills itself as American food or traditional English affects

the Asian influence by preparation and uses their herbs and spices. Particularly spices, for little

food is plain. Herbs are used sparingly and to enhance the flavor in preparation…thinking our

traditional rosemary, sage, parsley, cilantro, what they call capsicum and which can be a green

bell, or black pepper… Rather it is spicy. And good. Lots of curry and cumin, coriander, chilis.

-And the salads are quite amazing…beet root as well as greens, rocket, garbanzos, celeriac,

avocados, citrus fruits, and of course, kiwis and pineapple.

-On our train trip down along the coast, we saw more lambs and cows. Even some turkeys and

several deer farms…or are they ranches? As mentioned, venison is becoming quite a ‘thing.

’

-Last night we had Mexican…certainly not traditional Mexican or T ex-Mex. Plates were small,

not served with beans or rice, but more like tapas. A 6” corn tortilla (for 50cents extra…mostly

they use flour tortillas) was somewhere around $12-14 NZ),..I ordered the pulled pork with

charred pineapple salsa, cilantro, avocado cream and something else, which I have since

forgotten). It was actually enough. One beef cheek barbacoa, one soft shell crab, and one

veggie taco completed our 4 person order…

-And don’t forget, the American dollar though fluctuating slightly, has held firm at about 1.60 NZ

equalling $1 American. While the prices can seem high, when translated it’s not so different in

cost to what it is in America.

-Many places are cashless which means they don’t lose money on anything, as almost

everyone charges 2-½% for using credit cards.

-We are living in the future. Hard to keep up with the time difference, particularly as Bills’

football will start about the time the children leave for their trip to Hans Josef glacier. I

determined that a two hour hike on ice, even with crampons was probably inadvisable for me.

-by the way, when my grandparents were alive, Daddy used to write regularly to them and sign

his letter,

‘love, the children’

. Of course he began the letter with ‘Dear Parents’

. My little sister

and I always thought it was funny, because, after all, WE were the children…our parents we just

that. This was back in the days of proper letter writing with salutations, closings and all. The

tradition continues today. Perhaps memories are what we think of as eternal life. As long as we

remember the past is still alive.

-The south is more mountainous…at least where we are now on the east side. Tomorrow we head to the west coast and the glaciers and fjords. To be continued.

No matter where they live, however, New Zealanders love where they live.