Here in Rotorura, every now and then you can smell the geothermal sulfer...you can see heat vents and thermal pools when walking along forest trails. The hot acidic ground makes for interesting vegetation...maybe you can see on some pics.
Anyway, insights on NZ...well, Jay and I have gotten used to driving on the other side of the road but we did tend to hug the left hand side of the raod too much at first...and I always turn on the wipers instead of the flasher since the sticks are reversed. The people arou
nd here are really nice and helpful. The food is good...we've been taking advantage of the nice kitchen in the hostel here for the past two days...so we've saved money and cooked up nice meals. Instead of the HI (hostel international) accomodation you see in Europe - here they have YHA (i think it stands for youth hostel australasia). It costs us 60$ NZ for a night between the both of us but we get to cook our food and it's not that much more than the price of sharing a dorm. One night we stayed in the car since its a hatchback...but we froze all night...so no more of that for no
w! We'll be camping later on in our trip...maybe staying in huts when we do longer hikes in the forest.
More insights...i was disappointed that McDonalds, KFC, and Starbucks found they're way to NZ...but happy that the large majority of the produce here is from the island. Supermarkets are pretty much the same as in America but there are a few things that are surprisingly expensive...like garlic and limes. The local kiwis are different than the ones back
home...good stuff. But we didn't see any kiwi birds and probably won't cause they're apparently very rare.
All in all, life is great and we're all smiles ...i'll post more observations later on.
Cheers!
Rachel
Anyway, insights on NZ...well, Jay and I have gotten used to driving on the other side of the road but we did tend to hug the left hand side of the raod too much at first...and I always turn on the wipers instead of the flasher since the sticks are reversed. The people arou
nd here are really nice and helpful. The food is good...we've been taking advantage of the nice kitchen in the hostel here for the past two days...so we've saved money and cooked up nice meals. Instead of the HI (hostel international) accomodation you see in Europe - here they have YHA (i think it stands for youth hostel australasia). It costs us 60$ NZ for a night between the both of us but we get to cook our food and it's not that much more than the price of sharing a dorm. One night we stayed in the car since its a hatchback...but we froze all night...so no more of that for now! We'll be camping later on in our trip...maybe staying in huts when we do longer hikes in the forest.More insights...i was disappointed that McDonalds, KFC, and Starbucks found they're way to NZ...but happy that the large majority of the produce here is from the island. Supermarkets are pretty much the same as in America but there are a few things that are surprisingly expensive...like garlic and limes. The local kiwis are different than the ones back
home...good stuff. But we didn't see any kiwi birds and probably won't cause they're apparently very rare.All in all, life is great and we're all smiles ...i'll post more observations later on.
Cheers!
Rachel
5 comments:
I hate reading you and my sister's blogs... boo! Anyway sounds like you're having a good time, r u sure all those smells aren't your travelling companion?? We're going for some hot Korean bbq tonight to take the edge off some of the winter blues... Take care!
Well,well,well.As Willie the Shake once said"something is rotten in Denmark"but he meant New Zealand.That must be the smell, unless it is all the sheep pies,by the side of the road.Speaking of which,I hope you will be able to bring back some NZ Spring Lamb.(A chop or two'll do)
Ok 'nuff said about about the smells! Jay now's the time to do that reenactment of The Lord of The Rings you've been secretly practicing for months: You be Frodo and Rachel can be Gollum, or vice versa whatever!
Habs won an incredible, thrilling, come from beind 5-0 deficit to win in a shootout last night, they'll be talking about this one for ages!!! I just hope you two are back in time for the 'Cup Parade!!!
Pictures are great.They add a whole new dimension to the blog.Keep 'em coming!(The yellow warning sign by the side of the road,was for what kind of extinct-looking creature? Maybe THAT was what stung Jay)
Hey Guys!! I'm glad you made it there safe and sound. Long flight... Did you try to call someone at home not calculating the time change and woken them up? You look like you're having a blast, have you gotten used to the round'abouts yet, was a bit of a panic when I reached them everytime. Has the atlas been useful? Did you make it to Cape Reinga and the Bay of Islands, it's much warmer there, and has spectacular views. Enjoy every minute, I'm enjoying reading about it!! Take care!! It's snowing yet again here in Ice country
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