A Day In NZ

Quiet, today.

The Nelson region of NZ, where we're camping, has a strong local foods culture, with plenty of roadside signs for vegetables, kumara (sweet potatoes), and craft beer. You can even buy pastured eggs at the gas station.

At $4 US, the mixed dozen is a bargain

Netting over fruit trees. The Nelson area is New Zealand's second largest apple-growing region. It also has a burgeoning wine industry.

Signs of spring.

Remarkably, the one restaurant in Kaiteriteri is excellent. You can sit outside and stare at the water while you fend off the gulls, Tippi Hedren style.

Largest blueberry muffin ever 

(and a flat white)

Speaking of food (and we're always speaking of food around here), we have a small fridge in the caravan, but the back of the Rover serves as a mobile pantry. Art checks the alcohol stash.

Two bins are devoted to produce, the cool nighttime temps ideal for vegetables and fruit.

We drove the short trip to town today to make a deposit for ten more days in the caravan and picked up some lamb chops along the way. Though we see cows on the green hills, lamb is one of the only meats that's reliably pastured. The rosemary on these chops came from the organic garden in the Golden Bay region.

John Dory (before and after)

 "MacGillivray, William John Dory". Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MacGillivray,_William_John_Dory.jpg#/media/File:MacGillivray,_William_John_Dory.jpg

Unfurling fern has a hairy exterior, which it sheds as it stretches...

 ...into this.

Good day, all

Reading In Public: Queenstown Edition

Road Trip! Driving To Golden Bay

Cadging from Fodor's: The road into Golden Bay over the Takaka Hill rises 2500 feet before plunging again to sea level to the tiny township of Takaka. The road is a continuous 40-minute climb of twisting corners, steep drop-offs, and occasional passing lanes. Don't be tempted to check the views while you're driving.

Spot on, Fodors.

Here's the map (click here if trouble viewing). Note it's the only road, bisecting Abel Tasman National Park to the east and Kahurangi National Park to the west.

A mere 39 miles, and yet a solid hour and 15 minutes to cover the intestinal road, much of it with no edge and only the merest hint of a fence to keep livestock from straying onto the road.

The vast terrain is hard to grasp.

The road goes on and on. 

 Sea level feels good. We arrive at Pohara, where there's a long and lovely view across Golden Bay.

Today's field trip was a kind of trial run to see if we wanted to ferry the caravan up and over this challenging road (of course Art wants to) several days from now. Plus we stopped at the grocery in Takaka for provisions. And found an organic community garden, where I picked kale and herbs for tomorrow's breakfast.

We had a little lunch and returned. The road didn't seem that much easier, but it was a beautiful day.

More Kaiteriteri

Laundry day today, plus hard-boiled eggs and some killer sourdough rye from the Motueka farmers market (is there a better meal?). Oh, and butter from NZ's Lewis Road Creamery. After five months here, when we go to the grocery I now know what I'm looking for.

Kaiteriteri's population is listed at 735 people, and in these pictures you'll get a sense of how they're spread out along this warm and inviting seaside coast. This first shot shows pretty much the entire town, composed of campground, restaurant, and a tiny grocery standing in for the larger one currently being built.

Yesterday we walked to several nearby small beaches, linked by slender spits of rocky land.

Not 12 hours after I published the blog post "Kaiteriteri: Sunniest Spot In NZ?" we had our first cloudy day here. Saturates the colors nicely, though.

The walk winds steeply up and down. Art's fitbit reported we'd climbed 50 flights and I believe it.

Not a rose...

On a side note, aren't these Penguin Little Black Classics beautifully presented?

I picked them up in May at Scorpio Books in Christchurch. Four years after the crushing Feb 2011 earthquakes, the bookshop is housed in a shipping container in the re:START area, where many wrecked shops from the central business district pulled themselves up by the bootstraps and re-opened. More here.

On Tuesday we walked high atop a hill behind the campground for even wider views.

Worth noting:

In January of 1936, a small parcel of land was set aside as public domain for camping at Kaiteriteri, and placed under the oversight of a board of prominent locals. 75 years later, the Kaiteriteri Recreation Reserve Board is responsible for managing and administering, not only the beach itself, but also the campground, local store, Shoreline Café & Restaurant, and now 250 hectares of reserve land.

Astonishing, really, to gaze down on the campsite and know it's protected from development. Can you find us down there? During the warm Christmas holidays this place is packed to the brim.

Zoom view: our happy Rover and caravan, with a million-dollar view out the window.

Birds of NZ: Listen to the Tui

I've posted about the tui before, but I likely didn't know it would become hands-down my favorite NZ bird. Tui makes me laugh every time I hear its song.

Tui are considered to be very intelligent, much like parrots.^[10] They also resemble parrots in their ability to clearly imitate human speech,^[11] and were trained by Māori to replicate complex speech.^[12]

 "Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae -Waikawa, Marlborough, New Zealand-8 (2)" by Sid Mosdell from New Zealand - Tūī on HarakekeUploaded by snowmanradio. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prosthemadera_novaeseelandiae_-Waikawa,_Marlborough,_New_Zealand-8_(2).jpg#/media/File:Prosthemadera_novaeseelandiae_-Waikawa,_Marlborough,_New_Zealand-8_(2).jpg

In this quick vid (trouble viewing click here), you'll hear some hammering in the background, the result of winter-months home upgrading in Kaiteriteri.

Otherwise, the tui owns every single vocalization, and there are many. Along with clicks and raspberries, the funniest sounds to me like a yappy dog followed by a sweet little melody. It's almost spring--are the tui twitterpating? Turn up your audio full blast and hear what we hear...

Kaiteriteri--Sunniest Spot In NZ?

Craving the light just as we do in Chicago come late winter/early spring, Kaiteriteri is the place to be. It's said to be the sunniest spot in the country, or at least in the sunniest area, Tasman. Sunday was farmer market day back in Motueka, so we scooted up and down and over the hills late morning for provisions.

Organic bok choy and Chinese broccoli, meals in a bag.

Art and this guy got into a deep discussion about something in a box of bits.

When we passed through Motueka in May, we stumbled on this same market. Today approaching the display cabinet of The Cheese Lady, Art and I both remembered her. How could you not? She's just lovely. Listen...(trouble viewing click here).

I stopped the video just before she asked where we were from. When we said Chicago she said (in her inimitable voice) "Chicago! Home of the blues--but I adore the blues!" (The Cheese Lady also recommended a beach campsite on Golden Bay, where she grew up and where we're heading next.)

Organic avocados, hard as rocks. They'll ripen on the counter, right? I asked the man selling them. The birds think they're already ripe, said he.

Back in Kaiteriteri, a pair of Datsun 1600s on the beach. Nice day for a ride with the top down.

Or pretty much anything.

We walked over to the secret beach we'd discovered last time (as guided by a blind woman--that still amuses me) to find it unchanged.

  

Outside cooker on a campervan here

Sitting in the sun is good for the soul. A gin lemon fizz only adds to the party. Cheers!