Thursday, December 24, 2009

New Zealand Notes from 1999(?)

The pictures are from our 1994 trip to the North Island of New Zealand. The notes are more rescuees from my old PDA data and the 1999 trip to the "South Island:





Our Great Kiwi Adventure

Flight experiences
    Seated next to 10 month old twin girls Jenna & Anna, Lynne is happy to relinquish custody at fliqht's end.
    Our new eMap GPS tracks ths flight path flawlessly. Jim looks for Hope Arkansas with no luck.
    Continental does a good job.
        Planes fly full and hot
        Sandwich fare
        Pleasant crew
        Movie watchers get a darkened cabin


Travel zone
    one leg at a time  - most are just a few hours
    Cramped feeling - how the future will differ,
        Space to spread
        Leisure  - not hurry
        Cut-off from market  - need reliable wimeless
    Bradley Terminal much-more civilized . But there seems to be a lack of aircraft.
Lady going home to Dunedin after visiting son in San Diego.
    Recommends Waneka and the drive up the west coast.
New Zealand Air
    award-winning seats
    Big 747
    Effecjent
    dinner smells wonderful.
    Turkey or beef
    Southern Cross and thunderstorrms
        Fly straight through a major thunderhead - major turbulence.
        Gps batteries run  too low
    English Breakfast just as big
    Domestic terminal - big wait to find out we need to be waiting there
    Newly - leased plane from POLAND NO ROW 5 plane only half full -the front half still much to sort out for assigning us a new seat.
    We have a ball switching from one side of the plane to the other for the best pictures
    Another nearly full breakfast on board.
        French toast that only resembles a fish chimichanga - but hey ya gots ta love the attitude.
Sprinkles move in. The ride on the plane makes it clear (no pun intended) that clouds and rain are the order of the day.


Keith, our cab driver, talks of the flooding in Queenstown. It's starting to look like we head nort tomorrow.
Christchurch
    The whole place is caught in a time warp - except for the shoes.
        Shoes - vertical steel plates on pumps - major anti-retro.
        Sandals - wear with socks for ultimate cold-weather protection.
    Cars live the brand - they are customized for accessibiliy and ease of use.
    Kaikoura rainy bit a wonderful crayfish restaurant HISSOP'S. Fish chowder half a three pound crayfish.
        Crayfish that make me think of New England without the claws.
    Weather so wet and cold the locals wamt to postpone the hoghloght summer activity - the Santa parade.
    Sunday head further North in search of more sun. Drive through a couple of mountain ranges.
    Havelock for lunch at tne Mussle bouys.  Fresh salmon and green lipped NZ mussels. Beyond comprehension..
    Pohara is the perfect beach (campground)..
        Tonight, Pohara is hosting anEco-challenge (a made for MTV race) Kayaks from the beach in the mornng. A thousand racers tenting down for the night. May prove interesring or annoying.
        Southern Traverse is the Kiwi-sponsored event. Other legs of the contonuous race include biking, hiking/run. white river rafting.
            One team has a new Unimog - nearly as large as a deuce-and- a-half for part of the support team.
    Pohara- has a nesting penguin colony. But the manager knows of no one ever seeing one. The DOC thinks the're there though - they just put up a new sign warning visitors to steer clear.


    We do see several interesting species: blue heron, red beaked oyster eaters, red foted gulls, and larger gulls.
    Hot meat pies for lunch. $2 NZ for a complete meal at the Pohara General Store - on the beach.
    Conspicuous Consumption or Yank demands  come to the Kiwis: A Maui campervan puls in near us with an Electrolux air conditioning unit on the roof.


    Beach tide coverage is enormous. Perhaps up to mile, if today's experience is average.
    In Tekaka, Telegraph Hotel and Restaurant - a major surptise in a region with absolutely no competition. Superb seafood gumbo followed by the dish being entered in the Marlborough Winery Seafood Competion - Golden Bay crab sauteed with lemon and grapefruit zest over herb-roasted  ricotta and served with a glass of  sauvignon blanc.  Hot chocolate cake with cream and ice cream top it off. Tab $26.
        Need an encore performance.

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