Kia ora in Maori means hello! cheers! good luck! best wishes! Hope you are all still doing well with the isolation. I bet everyone has clean closets and junk drawers; clean fireplaces and beautiful gardens. Not having chores to do is becoming a real bummer for us. I have decided to decline having house cleaning by our air B&B host, so I have something to do by doing it myself. I have also volunteered to work on her landscaping and any other project she may need done. Unfortunately, they also are looking for stuff to do. We are halfway through the lockdown here; hopefully it will not be extended after that. Here they are saying wash your hands 20 seconds often, and only 4 minute showers. There is a drought here too. My daily highlight is a TV workout show every morning that I do routinely. Never know if it is going to be kick boxing, high impact, or pilates/yoga, but I don’t care. So far we have not kicked out a window (knock on wood).
Educational Tidbit
What’s a kiwi? Multiple choice answer
- a fruit
- a Bird
- a person from New Zealand
- all of the above.
Correct answer: 4, all of the above.
The kiwi bird is the official bird of NZ and it is loved. They are about the size of a chicken. It is not very pretty; brownish grey, no variation in coloring at all. Chickens are prettier. Long beak like a shore bird. It has no wings, so terrestrial. They are nocturnal and can’t see very well. Their call is not melodic, screech is a good description . That’s the beloved kiwi.
And then there is the fruit. We all know the exotic, green, kiwi fruit. There is also a gold one and a red one. It is a major export, although the green kiwis we usually see come from somewhere else (even here).
And people from NZ refer to themselves as kiwis. Being kiwi is an endearing nominiker.
Recap of some Highlights of our travels in New Zealand
Since we are obviously not traveling and our life is not the constant input of experience we’ve become accustomed to, I am having to look back and fill in gaps I missed telling you about when we were so busy. New Zealand is a beautiful country and I know it is on a lot of people’s short list to visit. We listened to others for “must-dos.” One of those was the Coromandel peninsula. This was not on our tour itinerary, so we made a point to go there after. It was indeed one of the prettiest areas of New Zealand. Beautiful white beaches and private coves, beautiful overlooks and some rainforest walks. The towns are cool laid-back beach towns. And one unique attraction. Hot Water Beach. (One thing about New Zealand, they are not creative about naming things.) Hot Water Beach has naturally hot water. There is a hot thermal spring just under the sand. You can rent a shovel and dig a hole in the sand and, if you are digging in the right place, you hit hot water. So basically, you dig your own spa. Mark and I got really lucky and hit the hot mother lode. But it was too hot, so we had to let a wave over our moat to get some cold water in. And when it was still too hot, we let other people tap into our hot water source. It was a really unique experience: being on a beautiful beach, sitting in a hot water puddle.
Some of you will remember how much I am drawn to Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc wine. Marlborough is a big wine region here, and the Sauvignon Blanc has gained international notoriety, but it is far from the only one. This little country grows a lot of wine. The biggest and oldest area is Hawkes Bay. Cabernet blends being the main style, with chardonnay second. Marlborough region grows a lot of pinot noir, just not exported like the sauv blanc. And the main grape of the large Otago Region is Pinot Noir. But also grown in NZ are Also Syrahs, pinot gris, pinot noir, and bordeau and Italian style reds. And then there is a small island, only a short ferry from Auckland that is a boutique winery gem. We spent 3 days there, visiting most of these boutiques. If you want to know more about the New Zealand wine world, visit https://www.nzwine.com/en/our-regions/geographical-indications/. New Zealand and Australia have a method for wine tasting that we have found useful: hop on-hop off buses. With an all day or multi day ticket you can catch a lift between wineries. Keeps drinkers off the road, brilliant.
When this lockdown first started was right before crush here (remember we are on opposite seasons from the northern hemisphere). We worried about who was going to pick those grapes! Agriculture is an essential job, so hopefully the grapes were harvested. Typically this job is done by migrant Argentinian workers. Perhaps this year it was out-of-work travel industry workers. After the travel restrictions are lifted in New Zealand, we plan to spend some more time here visiting Hawkes Bay and maybe Otago (Otago is near Queenstown, so that will include more adrenaline). We expect that we will be able to travel around NZ, before we are able to leave the country. The trick is going to be finding another country that is safe and taking foreigners.
Happy Easter everyone.
Vagabonds, Kim and Mark
wine tasting views, party lockdown style (separate bubbles), kiwi crossing ( I don’t have a picture of a real kiwi)