Our campervan experience has gone swimmingly. We have not been too cold and the tight quarters are not posing a problem. I still cannot get a tight looking bed made; no one offered up any tips for that, but I have gotten over it. I have also gotten over sweeping out the floor every 20 minutes. That being said, we are taking a break from the van: we have parked it next to a cute little cottage on a small farm in the hills. We were getting really tired of waking up to sunrises over the ocean. This air B&B comes with breakfast courtesy of 7 hens laying beautiful fresh eggs we collect ourselves.
I need to mention what “free range” means in New Zealand. In California a zillion chickens may have a 1’X1’ chicken door from the barn to a couple of feet of sun lit space. This constitutes “free range” in California. Truly hideous since chickens are either crowded out and stay there, or too far from the door to ever crowd through the other birds to reach it. That door to an outside dog run is all that is required to call those chickens “free range”. Here, we drive past pastures that may contain 20 chickens. A pasture that could hold 20 horses. Chickens scratching the soil and pecking in the grass. And those 20 chickens could easily fly over the fence anyway. They must have a roost where they prefer to lay the eggs, or the farmer would never find them. Huge difference in animal husbandry here and in Europe compared to what we have. We see pastures containing a few pigs, or a small herd of cattle. Space per animal is huge compared to what animals enjoy in the US. And the meat and eggs taste different for it. I swear, you can tell the animals lived happy, stress-free lives. I have never been a staunch animal rights advocate, but I can see and taste a difference when the animals are given some space. In Ireland, no rancher raises more cattle than the land can support, same in all of Europe and here too. The concept of feed lots has not caught on anywhere but US (thankfully). And the meat tastes so good.
We toured around the east cast of the North Island. A region not typically on the tourist track. It includes the beach where Cook initially landed here, called, of course: Cooks beach. Captain Cook discovered NZ and claimed it for England. Same with Australia and Hawaii. He had run-ins with the native people in all these areas, mostly to the detriment of the natives. Except in his last trip to Hawaii where he was killed and eaten by Kamameha’s crew. He was a master chartologist (map maker); that much I can say for sure. There is a statue of him in the region. We took special note to snap a picture because this statue is not long for this world. The BLM movement is taking hold here too. Like taking down civil war monuments and monuments to confederate icons, Maoris (New Zealand natives) are getting tired of the adulation of Captain Cook and other Europeans that personally killed, or led to the extermination of, native peoples. This area of the country is predominantly Maori, so I am surprised this statue has lasted as long as it has. Every small town has a Maori meeting place, called a Marai. Not a tourist site, but an actual Maori carved house of welcome. They are cool to see. The towns there are small and poor, just like in our native reserved areas. Only difference is here, they are on pristine white beaches and gorgeous harbors.
While hiking: through cattle grazing, rainforest, up and over a steep hill, to a beach (Cook’s Beach), we found a baby goat. We ran into another couple and started talking to them (“how far longer to the beach, etc”). The sound of our voices set this goat bleating. We barely could see it way up on a steep pinnacle. But we coaxed it to come down. When it got into view we could see it was a baby; I mean about a week old. No other goats in sight. There are wild (feral) goats in NZ that are hunted, but very few domestic ones. That this goat was willing to come down to us was unusual. It seemed in good shape, super soft and super cute. The other hiker picked up the cutie and hiked it out through over an hour of tough terrain. The goat quickly fell asleep in his arms. By the time we got to our cars they had named it: Billy. They did not know if it was a girl or boy, but they knew it was a goat, so: “Billy”, or “Billie”. There were farms around that we could have taken the goat to. But there was at least a 50/50 chance that they would put him immediately in a pot for Sunday roast. None of us wanted that. We fed it by soaking milk onto a twisted up wash cloth. Billy(ie) was pretty hungry, so getting it to figure out this mechanism was a breeze. We left the couple with the goat and several wash clothes. They had a beat up car they were camping in, Better than putting the goat in our camper. I don’t know what they were going to do with him, they were tourists like us. But I am thankful for them; I don’t know if I could have left that baby on the trail.
We are in Hawkes Bay now; the first wine territory in New Zealand. We are wine tasting daily. I tell you, New Zealand is a wine drinkers dream. No where in the world is there more wine growing variety. So far we have tasted wine in 4 regions, with several to go. Everyone knows how I love my Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs. We will certainly get to Marlborough, but maybe not soon enough. Crazy, earth shattering revelations: first, I bought a chenin blanc; it was the best wine of the tasting. I thought I would regret the decision when I opened the bottle; I mean who drinks Chenin Blanc. So I opened it a couple days later… and still liked it! And then, even more crazy, I tried some chardonnays (you all know how I loathe the smell and taste of chardonnay). I liked them! I have been tasting (and buying) mostly chardonnays since then as they are the standout of Hawkes Bay. Cold nights in the camper require wine, so I am buying with abandon. Reds in Hawkes Bay are diverse, flagships being bordeaux varietals, but also shiraz, tempranillo, some Spanish grapes. They struggle with pinot noir, but get grapes from nearby Martinborough (our next stop). The granddaddies of New Zealand wine industry have vineyards here in Hawkes Bay, but it is not even the biggest wine region here. For every vineyard here, there is an apple orchard; so we may do some cider tasting one of these days.
Another cool draw in Hawke’s Bay is the city of Napier. We took a day off from wine tasting to go into town today. In 1931 an earthquake leveled the city and then fires ensued for two days. Similar to the 1909 San Francisco earthquake. It killed 1% of the population and left everyone else in refugee camps. The level of the land rose by 6 feet and it completely drained a massive bay. This land change is permanent, the shoreline completely changed. This earthquake also changed the flow of the river by miles, leaving gravely alluvial soil exposed. And this is why the area is so good for wine grapes. They managed to rebuild a couple hundred buildings in 2 years into a planned, modern city. Since the decor of the day was art deco, the town is a snapshot in time with the greatest concentration of art deco architecture in the world. It is a very cool town. We had done the tourist track of NZ before we decided to stay here through the covid pandemic. Now we are off the usual tourist trail, but we are discovering some real gems here. Places I would recommend to anyone else visiting the country.
The volcano is White island. It was a tourist destination until it blew a few months ago killing a load of tourists.
Stay safe everyone, Love Mark and Kim