• Vegan horror movie! Me and my travelmates will never forget the sight of the hearty “salad” bar we encountered in Te Anau…replete with raw meat cuts all ready to take to the cooking counter…Mongolian “barbie”, as they say in these parts. The British influence was also evident by the other selections, which included pickled onion bulbs (mmm mmm) and hard boiled eggs (or so we think; it was a bit tough to find them floating underneath the pools of curry).
• Please adopt me!! We fell into our best accomodations yet at Ian and Sue McCracken’s marvelous Bay Vista House in Pohara outside of Nelson…simply dreamy — the photos are accurate (even if you can’t se the lavender that adorned each window overlooking the bay or hear the birds that chirped each morning!).
• Proprietors Ian and Sue are the parents we all want…they even handmade our raspberry jam each morning AND are related to the famous Kiwi who invented the Tantrix board game sensation here. But you need to be comfortable with a personable, cosy setup: the guest manual instructs guests to “shout loudly” in the event of a fire in order to notify the management.
• The hottub at the aforementioned locale was worth the hour windy drive to and from our kayaking locale on Golden Bay, because, after a full day of kayakaing (ask Lisa to tell you about my paddling prowess, which I of course make up for in my DJ skills), we were able to return to a hot tub. The only lamentable issue was Julie moaning that her arms were too tired to hold up her Pinot Noir glass….the horrors of wealth.
• Hiking Abel Tasman Nat’l Park wasn’t so bad either — especially when God re-did the Hannukkah thing by making our insufficient supply of petrol last the windy, precarious drive back (had it not, however, we were well-prepared for doom by Christine, who told us exactly how we things would feel just before we veered off the mountain).

A country of extremes — weather (from rainforest torrents to extreme sun and heat), topography (from mastestic, towering snow-capped mountains to deep, extensive, verdant valleys), temperament (from “no worries mate” Spacolli-like surfer laidback-ism to high-adventure bungee jumping off of several-hundred metre cliffs)…and service: The same country whose police officers allow us to take photos with them after a friendly issuance of a moving violation (payable at your local bank) is also a place where the scrumptuous, freshly made food cannot be served in less than 20 minutes — even when it is pre-made! A mystery which continues to elude us.

Freshly arrived to New Zealand after miraculously sleeping on the 12-hour flight from Santiago. Initial impressions:

• Vast, majestic mountains, lakes and greenery that make one feel one is surrounded by a national park – constantly.
• Everything is pure and pristine, clean and new: the mountains, lakes and air, as well as the buildings, food and the people. Which is surreal…where is the poverty?
• Is everyone really this content and mellow and pleasant all of the time?
• Switzerland — but laid back and adventurous. The sun is SUPER bright (thanks to global warming?).
• My travel mates did the bungee jump from the bridge over a crystal-blue river that was the birthplace of bungee.
• And the most shocking factoid from this culturally…interesting?…place: Kiwi refers more to the furry animal than to the fruit — woo hoo!

Signing off so my travelmates and I can usher in 2006 before you all! 🙂