First kiwi adventures

Kia Ora!

The long leg of the trip went well. The only glitch being that the seat in front of Joanne was broken and reclined back too far making the already cramped space even smaller. Lou tried reasoning with the woman in the seat but we decided it best not to get into a fight while on a 13 hour flight! (In the “fight or flight “scenario we chose to “flight”!) Aside from that, everyone at New Zealand air was great.  Check out the inflight instructional video!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q

DAY 1.  January 6th. The last flight was a short one and we arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand at about 10:30 AM, 35 hours after leaving home. Jeff and Clare were waiting and we walked out to beautiful summer weather. We were tired from the journey but we didn’t feel jet lag and were excited to be there!  We dropped off our luggage, toured the house, which is on the golf course and across from a wooded park. Keeping in mind that this was Jeff we were visiting, we strapped on our hiking shoes and went for a 10k hike to the beach within an hour of arrival! The water is an amazing combination of greens!  Lou and Jeff then hit 10 holes of golf culminating in one par on the 10^th hole. (We won’t say who got it but it was Jeff) Clare and Joanne sat and chatted. We enjoyed our first meal of Pepe’s  ( Jeff and Clare’s restaurant) and managed to stay up until about 10 PM visiting.

 

Day 2 Jan 7-A rest day! We headed off to Akaroa, a small French Village about an hour and a half from Christchurch.  The road was scenic with lots of sheep on winding mountain roads. There were some issues with directions (Jeff wanted to go one way, Clare knew the right way, so we went Jeff’s way) Three dead ends later (due to continued earth quake reconstruction) we turned around.  No worries mate, things take time around here. Back down the hill, (still some tension between Jeff and Clare over directions) we continued to work our way toward Akaroa. (remember real men don’t take back seat directions). We then went from lost to REAL LOST. At this point we started to run out of petrol. (That’s gas to you Yanks) We had to come up with a plan because we only had 6 hours of daylight left. Jeff’s plan: coast in neutral and ride the brakes down the hill to save petrol.  About 10k’s later, Jeff was insisting that what we smelled was sheep poop while the rest of knew the deference between sheep poop and burning brakes. Eventually we reached the bottom of a long hill, brakes smoking. Getting out of the car, we realized we were in the middle of nowhere. (And a New Zealand nowhere is really nowhere!) The only thing in sight was an old deserted church and an ancient cemetery. While Joanne and Clare went into the church in search of a bathroom and to pray for guidance, Jeff and Lou wandered the cemetery contemplating death. Eventually the guys decided to break the “man code” and set off to the closest farmhouse to ask directions.  The lady of the house invited them in for tea and dessert.  Meanwhile the girls were still back at the church now desperately praying for a place to pee.  Lou and Jeff, over pudding, find out that it’s 20 km (that’s 12.4 miles to you Americans) to the closest petrol station. “Can you handle it?” she says. “It’s a one lane gravel road straight down, and if you encounter another car, you have to do your best to move over.” Man pride kicks in. “Of course we can handle it WE’RE FROM NY, we are excellent drivers”. (Channeling Rainman while inwardly thankful there was only one lane so we wouldn’t have to worry about driving on the wrong side of the road.) About 10k’s later, we encounted our first car.  All of Joanne and Clare’s praying paid off as it was the only spot on the hill that had a small area to pull over. We pull over as directed and stopped to converse with the driver.  He smiles at us and we realize something was missing. We estimate about 28 teeth. 

So much for universal health care.  Friendly fellow but cue the banjo music to deliverance and before we started squealing like pigs we got out of there! Finally we reached paved road, filled up with petrol, crisis averted. She’ll be right mate! On to Akaroa! An hour and a half trip, done in 5 hours flat.  (Cue the music to Gilligan Island.) No worries! It’s all part of  the Kiwi experience!  Had world rebound fish and chips at an ocean front restaurant.  Hit the “cue” just right, beating the line of 3000 cruise ship passengers just off the Princess ship.  (#1094 your order is ready!) We did have to go back to the beginning of the line to get ketchup. (Not really ketchup but a sweet tomato sauce) but luckily we could read the newspaper wrapped around the fish while waiting. We did look for Al and Crystal amongst the cruise passengers but no luck or they saw us first.  After major “discussion” amongst the crew, we decided to go back a different way. By the way, petrol here is approximately $7 per gallons and as you could see, a long way between stations, so fellow Americans, stop complaining about gas.  You have a station at every corner at half the price. We had dinner safe-and-sound back in Christchurch at a Tai restaurant. We sh’ant go hungry here!

Day 3 January 8th. We started the day out with our first New Zealand run through a wooded forest. Clare stayed back on this day so Jeff’s keen sense of direction did not get challenged. Jeff’s now Hobbit sized feet are more accustomed to running in the shire than we are so Joanne especially was slowed down by the ever changing floor of sand, rocks, logs, and pine of the shire. Great run!  Jeff is on the recovery trail from achilles tendonitis so he had a personal best of 11 minutes per mile on the first mile! Eventually he rose to the occasion and caught up to Lou leaving joanne behind to get mauled by an overly friendly dog. I believe she heard the owner call him Kujo!  Lou and Jeff followed the code of “I don’t have to out run the dog, I just have to out run the slowest person”. Joanne considers the scratches and bruises her NZ tattoos and wears them with pride!

Next Lou had his first Thai massage. The custom is clothing optional. The cultural divide showed when Peter was completely naked while Lou showed up in full body armor. While Pete and Lou had their massages, Joanne and Clare enjoyed the hot tub. The 80 year old men of the golf course enjoyed the view.

Lou then created his specialty for a family dinner: eggplant parmesan. (Aubergines to the kiwis) Lou swore to Jeff, who does not let veggies touch his lips, that it wouldn’t taste like eggs or plants so Jeff decided to try it. Pretty sure we won him over. Had a relaxing, though far from quiet dinner with the family. There were 9 of us including two sedate grandchildren.

 

Lou and Jeff did get a round of golf in there between making and eating the aubergines and Lou got his first par in NZ but is still selling his clubs due to the other 17 holes he played.  Lou, who is not a club thrower, did not hesitate to throw his first clubs since they did not belong to him.

Finished off the day with one of Lou and Jeff’s favorite movies, My Cousin Vinny-a Classic in any country. “A simple in and out procedure!”

Kia Ora