Meet the Flossers

Today’s blog post title refers to my parents, who are both standing directly behind me as I type, flossing their teeth. They’re doing it now just to annoy me.

Last night was the best sleep I have had in over a week... I had no one else in my own private bedroom (simply glorious). We also didn’t have to get up early today, as my parents’ Lord of the Rings tour didn’t start until 10:10am, and as such we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of bacon and eggs. (Somehow we have to get rid of that dozen eggs... I’m thinking omelettes for breakfast tomorrow!).

When my parents left the motel at 9:45am, I was officially by myself for another free day in Windy Welly. Oh, how glorious it was to have the day to myself! I’m sorry to say I didn’t go out and do anything wild and crazy, but it was wonderful to only have to worry about coordinating myself and my own likes and dislikes. It is nice to have company whilst traveling, but it’s quite another to be stuck with that company 24/7; this gave me a chance to breathe.

I headed downtown to the post office, where I bought some postcard stamps for the postcards I know my mum is going to want to send, and then wandered down Willis Street into a Borders bookstore outlet. Books are normally highly expensive here in New Zealand ($25 for a trade paperback), so I felt like it was a steal to buy Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons for $5 (about $3.50 CDN). I also went into Unity Books farther down the street, but the front of the building was covered in scaffolding, and after a few minutes inside I found myself unable to relax; I had to leave. My experience in the Christchurch earthquake has left me fearful of buildings showing any signs of weakness or fragility, even though my rational mind knew this building was in all likelihood simply getting a cosmetic upgrade, not a structural one.

After leaving the bookstore I went to the BNZ Centre, where I at last found somewhere I have not been in a long time: the record section of JB Hi-Fi. The name of the store is irrelevant; what I had been missing was being surrounded by CDs, and actually being able to purchase a few! I bought Brooke Fraser’s album Flags, as well as Vertical Horizon’s latest album (which isn’t exactly new; it came out in 2009). I also bought a package of blank CD-Rs so I can burn some CDs for the rental car’s stereo; I figure we could use some road music to help ease tensions as we navigate the North Island.

I bought some sushi at the food court in the mall and brought it back to the motel to eat (surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad). Walking down the street, my shoulder bag slung over my arm and carrying my sushi, it suddenly struck me how much I probably looked like a resident of Wellington rather than a tourist. It’s a nice feeling to blend in, as I’ve been here in New Zealand for so long now that I no longer feel like a tourist (even though I don’t claim to know Wellington very well). Then again, not dressing in head-to-toe nylon and fleece, and not carrying around a map with a camera hung over my neck probably also helps.

After lunch I tried out the spa tub here in the bathroom; very relaxing, if not for the smell of chlorine. It was nice to have a bath again! The afternoon I spent out on the town again; I went out to the Wellington iSite to purchase some postcards (looking very much like a tourist, ha) and then went to the Wellington Public Library, where I sat and read and listened to music to my heart’s content. Sometimes it’s nice to just have a slow day, and not try to cram in any more touristy sight-seeing.

I walked back to the motel around 6pm right in the middle of rush hour, and got to experience for myself some Wellington gridlock. Apparently it affected my parents, too, as they didn’t get back to the motel until after 7:15pm, albeit carrying grocery bags full of dinner (steak and potatoes and corn on the cob). I’m not sure about my dad, buy my mum definitely enjoyed the tour, nattering on and on about the tour guide, Ted, all the places they visited, and the different film clips and poses they struck (I wrote all about my own experiences on the same tour here).

After dinner, we watched two episodes of the Big Bang Theory on my computer (while my dad nursed his fourth beer, much to my mother’s delight; the man keeps buying big cases of the stuff, and then having to drink all of it himself, a burden he seems to eagerly shoulder). Tomorrow morning my mum wants to go to Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand, so I imagine we’ll be spending four or so hours in there before heading up to Napier later tomorrow afternoon. I better get burning one of those CD-Rs for the 4.5 hour car ride... night!

~Carolyn~

Windy Welly Calling

Last night I was treated to the sounds of the cover band of the wedding in the restaurant next door running their way through some of the standard wedding fare, some more successfully than others; "Mustang Sally"  came off quite well, but the final selection of "Dancing Queen" was decidedly painful, mostly due to it not being well-suited for a male rock voice. I don't suppose it mattered very much; the lead singer was all but drowned out by female voices shrieking along in the crowd of dancers.

This morning we made our way from Kaiteriteri to Picton, retracing our steps along highways 60, 6, and 62. Watching the countryside zip by outside my window, I was struck with the fact that today I was leaving the South Island, and I have no idea when I will next return. The South Island is my second Vancouver Island... and despite my harrowing experience in Christchurch, it feels like home. I have so many wonderful memories of life on the South Island, and it saddens me to think that is all I am going to have until the next time I return. That is, unless someone from the South Island comes up to Canada to visit me.... :-)

We arrived in Picton at 11:30am for the 1:10pm sailing, returned our rental car, and in the process of emptying all our belongings from the vehicle I slammed the car door into my left hip. In a word, OUCH. (The actual word I said was a wee bit stronger...) I now have a lovely purple bruise forming to compliment the slowly-healing ones I received during the earthquake.

After collecting our boarding passes and checking our baggage, we nipped up to the bakery for some pastries and treats, and then ate leftover pizza for lunch (my mom's dinner from the night before) in the warterfront park in Picton, taking in the sights of the miniature electric train traipsing merrily around the grounds, carrying three or four children behind it at a time, and the musical stylings of a poor fiddler in the bandshell playing a cover of The Corrs' "Toss the Feathers", who was actually quite good, but unfortunately falling victim to a rather poor microphone set-up (high amounts of buzzing and static). The last time I had wandered around Picton was with Gary and Jean and Al, when we were all on the Mainline Steam tour; we ate at The Flying Haggis and caught the 10:30pm sailing back to Wellington, arriving at 1:30am. The advantage of sailing that late at night is it is far less busy, as my parents and I discovered when we found ourselves riding a nearly full-to-capacity sailing of the Interislander's Kaitaki to the North Island.

Having seen the current conditions posted as "moderate", and having observed the moving clouds out above the Queen Charlottes, I was apprehensive for our journey across the "roaring 40s". My parents seemed blithely unconcerned, and lightly made fun of my predictions of a stormy crossing. They went out on deck as we threaded our way through the beautiful coastline, making our way out to the open ocean; I sat inside, knitting, preparing myself mentally for what I knew was coming. Sure enough, when we hit the open water, I could see the whitecaps on the waves, and two recorded announcements came over the PA system, informing us that the conditions in the Cook Strait were "less than favourable" and could we please remain seated and use the motion sickness bags if necessary. How reassuring! I put my knitting away, put my head down on the table, and happily enough, I was able to survive the crossing without throwing up. It wasn't as bad as that awful first crossing I had with Mainline Steam, but it definitely wasn't one of the better ones, either. My parents came back and sat down, and although they said they were feeling fine, my mom closed her eyes and lost her appetite for a couple hours, and my dad remarked at dinner tonight that he still felt like he was on a boat going up and down and up and down and up and down....

We arrived safely into Wellington Harbour, and my parents got their first glimpses of "Windy Welly" as we cruised around town in our new rental car, trying to locate tonight's accommodation. While I had a vague idea of where it was, I hadn't taken into account all of the one-way streets that limited our options in the way we could approach things. After five minutes of getting ourselves turned around the right way, we made it to Victoria Court Motor Lodge, where we have a "freakin' palace", to quote my rather unpoetic description upon crossing the threshold. It's not fancy, but we have a kitchen/dining/lounge area, a bathroom with a huge spa tub, and two bedrooms! Believe me, in backpacker travelling terms, it's a palace.

For dinner tonight we walked down to the New World Metro Supermarket on Willis St, and picked up supplies to make pasta, salad, and omelettes (for some reason I felt like an omelette), which means we have a dozen eggs to eat our way through in two days (my dad is gleefully looking forward to making bacon and eggs for breakfast tomorrow). On the agenda for tomorrow is a Lord of the Rings tour for my parents (I already did it back in November), and a day of lazing and relaxing for me, all by myself. Peace and quiet and solitude... it will be a nice change. ;-) Goodnight!

~Carolyn~

Sailing and Walking in Abel Tasman (For the second time)

Apparently Nelson has a deal with mother nature: torrential rain downpours are allowed between the hours of 3am and 7am, but after that the weather has to slowly clear into a gorgeous sunny day. We woke up this morning at 6:30am rather disheartened at the prospect of sailing in the wind and cold, but as we ate breakfast (this time Dave expressed his opinions on WWOOFing and how he thinks WWOOFers are abused by a lot of hosts making them work too much) the skies started to lighten. By the time we were once again on the highway (and AGAIN my dad managed to turn the wrong way when we hit the roundabout for Richmond, which exasperated me to no end), I could see hints of blue sky off to the west in the direction of Motueka.

We arrived in Kaiteriteri at 9:10am in plenty of time for our 9:30am checkin with Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures. Using the BoD ("Bank of Dad", as the sales rep called it) to pay for our reservation, we then parked the car over at the Kaiteri Lodge, where we would be spending the night, and then liberally doused ourselves with sunscreen... coming from a family with boating experience, we all know too well what can happen on the water without sun protection.

Our boat today was called Jamarah, and it was a much larger catamaran than the one I was on when I sailed the Abel Tasman with Stray back in November; it's the boat the company normally uses for the overnight cruises, but because of the forecasted rain (which mercifully did not arrive), it was decided we would likely be happier off in a boat with a covered back deck and a cabin. As it was, we were even happier to have beautiful sunny weather, and to be enjoying it on a big boat with a large trampoline area in front, and plenty of seating for everyone without having to worry about being hit by the boom or tangled up in the jib sheets. 

Our sail pretty much followed the same itinerary as my trip back in November: a two and a half hour sail around the shores of Abel Tasman National Park, followed by a 12.4km hike back from The Anchorage to Marahau. It was wonderful to experience the sailing on a warm and sunny day, however, and to not sit huddled together, freezing cold, in the biting wind on the decks of the boat. We were even able to enter into an estuary today that isn't normally accessible to Jamarah, as the rainfall last night had been significant enough to raise high tide to 4.5m (maximum high tide is 4.6m!). My mom especially loved it when we sailed up along the shoreline of Adele Island, which has been pest-free (free of stoats, ferrets, possums, rats, and mice) for two years now, and as a result contains a thriving population of bell birds; the bird song could be heard sweetly and clearly from the boat.

If anything, the one disappointment of the sail was that we couldn't, well, sail that much; the winds were quite small, and seeing as we were sailing in the bigger catamaran going under sail-power would have meant our 2.5 hour sail would have taken 5 hours. We managed to sail under our own power briefly several times, but for the rest of it were using the motor lightly to keep us around 5 knots an hour.

One interesting thing our skipper told us about Abel Tasman National Park is that it is the only National Park in New Zealand to consist of entirely regenerated forest, as well as contain private residences. When the Golden Bay area was first settled, the mountainside was completely logged for timber, and after all the salvageable wood had been recovered was torched to create pasture for sheep farming. After about twenty years of trying to encourage grass to grow on the rocky, granite and quartz-covered slopes, the farming initiative was abandoned, and the land has slowly regenerated to its native bush. However, because parcels of land were sold off privately, and here in New Zealand there is no way for the government to usurp that land (short of paying the owners for it on the open market), there are still many beach and summer homes scattered throughout the park, and these are only accessible from the water (as road access cannot be built through the National Park). It's kind of odd to see beach houses in the middle of an otherwise public place, but combined with the knowledge that the entire park is the result of mother nature naturally regenerating the native bush, it seems fitting.

When we arrived at The Anchorage, we sought out a picnic table and treated ourselves to an oh-so-nutritious lunch: seeing as we hadn't had time to buy supplies on the way up to Kaiteriteri, and seeing as our food supplies were a bit of a hodge-podge, lunch ended up being a very nutritious mix of potato chips, cookies, trail mix, apples, and granola chocolate bars. Oh, well, we likely burned most of it off anyway hiking the trail!

The hike back along the shoreline seemed longer than the first time I did it; perhaps that's because we were going slower, as my mom's pace is slower than my own, but I think my feet were still sore from the 10km trek out of Christchurch on February 22nd, and as such were not happy about being treated to 12.4km of sandy, rocky path. Nevertheless, my mom and dad seemed to really enjoy it, particularly all the spectacular views of the coastline near The Anchorage, and on the tidal flats at the end when we arrived in Marahau.

We had dinner together at the Shoreline Restaurant, and it was the best meal I have had out since starting to travel with my parents; a relief, because after our pseudo-lunch I was definitely in need of some real, nutritious food. Now we are situated in our room at Kaiteri Lodge, and wedding is raging full swing next door (they've rented the entire bar/restaurant), so we'll see how much sleep we get tonight... wish us luck!

~Carolyn~

Tea with Howard and Rosemarie (hey, that rhymes!)

Calling yesterday's blog post "once again in sunny Nelson" inspired mother nature to heights of irony last night... we woke up this morning to pounding rain on the roof, which abated slightly but continued on into midmorning. I certainly hope it's not like that tomorrow when we go sailing in Abel Tasman!

This morning we were treated to a lovely continental breakfast in the dining room downstairs, served by our charming (if highly opinionated) host, David (for an interesting conversation, ask him for his thoughts on the state of Israel), and chatted with several of the other bed and breakfast guests, including the couple from New Hampshire and a woman from Scotland. After breakfast I had a shower, and then performed various trip housekeeping tasks (budgeting, managing our itinerary) while my mom did two loads of laundry and then because of her hatred of dryers proceeded to hang the wet laundry all over the room, such as from the wardrobe door, balcony doors, and bed posts. Mercifully, she hung the towels and several other big-ticket items outside on the actual clothesline, as the rain had stopped and the sky was starting to lighten.

For the rest of the morning we headed downtown and wandered along the streets of Nelson, ultimately ending up in the MacPac store, where my dad bought a raincoat, and my mom bought two shirts and a nice blue coat. She's still getting used to the sizing down here, and I don't blame her; with all the media focus on thinness, and being so used to North American sizings, it is a bit of a shock to be buying clothes that say "Size 10" (the average sizes here are 12-16). I ended up getting a pretty merino zip-up hoodie, which I likely didn't really need, but it's a nice colour and warm yet light, so I'll get a lot of use out of it in the fall weather here and the spring weather back home.

Back at the bed and breakfast we had a lunch of meat and cheese sandwiches on the balcony outside our room, marvelling in the rapid upswing in the weather, which had gone from cold and drizzly to warm and sunny; perfect weather for our planned visit to Howard and Rosemarie's this afternoon. Getting there, however... that's a story in itself.

My mom and dad are getting increasingly frustrated with the traffic signage here in New Zealand, or lack thereof. I suppose I didn't think much of it, as I know the way to Howard and Rosemarie's without relying on arrows and placards to direct me there. Unfortunately, the multiple ways to get to Richmond, so helpfully pointed out by a multitude of signs along the highway, ended up causing major headaches for my dad. We ended up at the Countdown in Stoke so I could buy some pavlova and cream for tea, and I called Howard to apologize for our tardiness, saying, "Well, no, we're not lost, but I should be driving!"

At last we made it to their beautiful house in Hope, and after greeting Howard and Rosmarie with a big hug and making introductions, I excitedly showed my parents around the garden, pointing out all the places I had worked and they had read about in my blog. My vegetable patch was a half success; the radishes had definitely sprouted and were doing quite well, but the lettuces were very small, and only growing in the back corner near the fence; I have a feeling the centre patch was just too dry for them (either that, or I didn't sow the seeds to the correct depth). My flower garden looked much as I had left it (to me, at least), but the plants all looked healthy, and even sported a previously feared-lost plant (a lily? I think it was a lily) growing on the very edge of the garden with beautiful white flowers. The vineyard was still mostly weed-free, thanks to the efforts of four Malaysian and two Thai WWOOFers that came after me, and two more sections of the concrete garden path had been poured and set with cobblestones. It was delightful to see all these little changes, even after just one month away; as Rosemarie said, "Well, you'll have to come back next year, just think, everything will be twice as big then!"

We showed my parents around the kiwifruit orchard, and then while Rosemarie took them around the front of the house and discussed topping and taking out the gum tree by the garage Howard and I went inside and got tea ready. He had already laid out melon, strawberries, and a slice of feijoa chocolate cake for each of us, and I added to the afternoon tea feast by setting out the mini-pavlova cakes and whipping up some cream for their tops. Howard was even nice enough to let me use some of their strawberries to garnish them (as is traditional; the Countdown didn't have any strawberries, so we had bought peaches to use instead, but it really wouldn't have been true pavlova without strawberries).

The teatime conversations ranged from the inevitable (the Christchurch earthquake) to the technical (my dad asking about insurance and coverage of WWOOFers working on the property) to the slightly humourous (my mom asking, "How do you get WWOOFers to leave that you don't like?" and Rosemarie answering back, "Well, first the wine stops getting served with dinner, and then the food stops being as good, and then the tasks get even harder..."). It was so nice to be back in Howard and Rosemarie's house again, sitting around the table where I have so many good memories. It was slightly odd to have my parents there - kind of a mash-up of situations in my head - but they seemed to get on well with my gracious Pom-cum-New Zealand hosts.

After tea I took my mom and dad into the rec room to see Howard's train layout, and Howard explained a little bit about how it works (I love that thing. I think it's such a cool idea and a technological marvel; and doubly more impressive because he wrote the code and designed it all himself). I also showed them the model trees I attempted to make for the layout; glorified toilet brushes would be a better description. Perhaps I would have more luck if I tried my hand at programming or model building assembly!

Just before we left the five of us posed in front of Howard and Rosemarie's house for photos, including several in front of the reflective window in the breakfast room, so you can see all of us in the frame (albeit with my dad holding the camera up to his face). I'm sorry for Howard and Rosemarie's sake that I think they haven't seen the last of me; a little part of my heart now belongs to New Zealand, and I know I am going to have to come back here. I would love to come WWOOF again at their house... and the second time around, I will be sure to refrain from purchasing and eating sketchy chocolate bars!

For dinner tonight my parents went for a walk through the gardens and into downtown Nelson, where they picked up some chicken kabobs from a take-out joint; I stayed back the B&B, once again doing more trip planning and enjoying the beautiful sunset from the balcony. I also got to hear the roars and cheers coming from Nelson's stadium; I believe the Crusaders rugby team must have had a game tonight, as there were all sorts of people streaming toward the studio this afternoon, clad in red and black and sporting face paint of the same colour. 

Tomorrow morning we leave for Abel Tasman National Park to do a half day sail and then a half day walk, so I had best be off to bed. I've been writing this blog entry while sipping the feijoa wine Rosemarie and Howard gave to us when we left (simply delicious, and reminds me of all the evenings I spent there) as well as finishing the complimentary port left here in the room with my dad, so if this blog entry is a little convoluted or disjointed that would be the reason why: I've had a little too much fruit ambrosia. :-) Goodnight!

~Carolyn~

Once Again in Sunny Nelson

Ha, well, going to bed early last night didn't happen... I was banished to the lounge to write my blog entry, and just as I had finished writing the entry the hotel manager came upstairs and joined me, and she ended up talking to me for 1 1/2 hours until 1am. It sounded like she'd had an exhausting day, and needed someone to listen (I guess I was filling in the role of her spouse, who works out of Christchurch, so they don't see each other for four nights of the week). She told me that the tourism industry has really died down in Kaikoura; it used to be a popular stopping point for tourists making their way down to Christchurch, but now everyone is avoiding Christchurch like the plague and travelling down the West Coast of the South Island instead. Case in point: we were the only guests in the (albeit small) hotel that night.

And just as an aside -

I HATE the sound of my mom flossing her teeth across the room. It drives me insane. I'm not sure why; it's one of those things that I can't stand, like the feel of cotton squeaking between my teeth. Maybe it's because she flosses for about five minutes until I'm sure she's trying to rip her teeth clean out of her mouth. Then again, she likely HATES the sound of my fingers clickety-clacking away on the keyboard when she's trying to sleep, so maybe she's just trying to get her own back.

Anyway...

We left Kaikoura around 10am this morning and drove up the highway toward Blenheim, stopping briefly so dad could take a picture of the beautiful Pacific Ocean. I was scrambling down to the beach to take a closer look at one of the rocks when I almost stumbled over a New Zealand fur seal! Thankfully it was feeling more sleepy than angry, and simply gave me a look of annoyance before turning away and hopping down off the rock into a nice cushy pile of drying seaweed. We took a few pictures of him hopping and sunning himself, and then got back into the car and drove on.

In Blenheim we stopped briefly at the New World grocery store (this particular New World can probably claim the title of "worst-designed car park and traffic flow corridors in all of New Zealand") to pick up some luncheon meat and such for a picnic lunch, and then continued on SH6, heading for Nelson. We traversed our way across the Marlborough region's "Golden Mile" of vineyards, and once in the hills stopped at Pelorus Bridge for sandwiches, hokey pokey cookies, and a little L&P to drink. I'm slowly introducing my parents to classic Kiwi foodstuffs, although I've yet to have them try Marmite or pavlova... I'm thinking the latter might go down better than the former. :-P

After a long and windy descent over the mountains (much loved by my mom.... I put my head down and had a nap) we arrived in beautiful, sunny Nelson; it was just as beautiful as I remember it being when I was here just over a month ago. We checked into our B&B, a grand old heritage conversion called Sussex House, where each of the five guest rooms is named after a composer; we're in the Beethoven room. My mom and dad went out shopping this afternoon for a new suitcase so they don't have to keep hauling everything in plastic bags, and also bought new slip-on sandals apparently make right here in Nelson, which have been giving them blisters for the rest of the evening (my mom said they'll break in... I hope she's right). I stayed behind here in the room to work on my blog; I finally have the post up about the Taieri Gorge Railway from two days ago.

For dinner we wandered downtown to Café Affair, which wasn't actually all that great in my mind, but proved to be an interesting meal as my mom ordered a steak cooked on a stone slab: they bring out a square piece of stone, about 15 x 15 cm, heated up super-hot, and then one cooks one's own steak or kebabs on the stone at the table! It certainly was more tasty than my lifeless Thai beef salad.

After dinner we went to see The King's Speech, as my mom wanted to see it in Dunedin but there just wasn't enough time. Armed with a small package of Jaffas, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie; I can't believe it was almost two hours long... the time just flew by, I was so engrossed! Granted, I don't see many movies, but I thought this one was beautifully written and acted and certainly deserved the Academy Award for Best Picture. Colin Firth was simply stunning in the role of Prince Albert, and Geoffrey Rush's performance as Lionel Logue was perfect as well. The art of elocution is something sadly lacking in modern speech, and for that (and because I am a linguistic English nerd) I certainly enjoyed an entire film devoted to curing a stammer.

Anyway, it is past midnight now, and tonight I'm really going to try to go to bed before 12:30am. Really. Goodnight!

~Carolyn~

Cadbury World and the Day of Driving

We started today with a little bit of fun: a visit to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory here in Dunedin! Well, to clarify, my mom and I went to Cadbury World, while my poor dad went downtown, signed the agreement for our new rental car, drove it back to the hostel, took the old rental car down to the petrol station to fill up, and then drove it back to the hostel as well. I certainly didn't realise cars were going to be such a headache on this trip.

The Cadbury Chocolate Factory is located at 280 Cumberland Street, almost right in downtown Dunedin, across the from the train station, and just a block down and over from the Octagon. The factory stands on the site of the first chocolate and coca manufacturing plant in the Southern hemisphere, started in 1884 by a man named Richard Hudson. The present factory became affiliated with Cadbury in 1930, and in 1991 became known as Cadbury Confectionery Limited. Today they manufacture all sorts of chocolates and goodies, from Cadbury chocolate bars to Roses and Jaffas and Buttons and huge amounts of chocolate crumb, shipped overseas and used in the chocolate manufacturing process in other Cadbury factories.

Chocolate crumb is a vacuum-dried mixture of cocoa solids, milk, and sugar; at most chocolate factories in the world, it is the base product for making various chocolate products. However, because the Cadbury factory in Dunedin is located so close the dairy cows of Otago, which produce all the milk for the factory, the Dunedin operation does not use chocolate crumb in its chocolate manufacturing process: instead, they use fresh milk (one of the reasons, they claim, their chocolate tastes so good!). Nevertheless, they continue to manufacture and ship chocolate crumb to other factories in Asia, as New Zealand has a plentiful supply of milk and milk powder.

As a result of no longer needing to stockpile chocolate crumb for production, the large silos at the factory have been given other duties: one has been demolished, one is being turned into a water recycling facility for the factory, and the third has been turned into a giant chocolate waterfall. Yes, a waterfall! Apparently, one of the board members is fond of the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and after reading how Willy Wonka mixed his chocolate by waterfall, decided Cadbury needed to have one, too. This one is strictly for show, but what a show it is: standing at the very top of the silo, we chanted, "One, two, three, chocolate!", the tour guide pushed a button, and one tonne of chocolate poured down from a storage container in the ceiling, splashing with a deafening roar into a vat below. It took the tonne twenty-three seconds to fall, during which those of us standing too close to the railings were splattered with warm, gooey chocolate. That being said, we didn't exactly want to lick it off; the same chocolate is pumped back up to the storage container, and falls again and again for every tour group. Once a year, the whole thing is drained, cleaned, and a new tonne of chocolate made by the factory to service the waterfall for the next twelve months.

Cadbury World consists of several rooms of displays detailing the ingredients, origins, and some of the lore surrounding chocolate (i.e. that it is an aphrodisiac). In a mock jungle set-up room they had roasted cocoa beans for us to try cracking open and tasting; I definitely wouldn't eat one of those and think that it could be turned into delicious chocolate, as I found it very waxy and bitter. We were a little rushed through the display rooms, as our tour started just after 9am, but my favourite part was the animatronic puppet displays, which made me think of Tim Burton's movie adaptation of Roald Dahl's books.

For the tour itself we had to don very attractive hairnets, and remove all of our jewelery and watches (no explanation was given; I'm assuming it's just standard practise for a food manufacturing plant). We were also forbidden to take pictures inside the factory itself, which didn't surprise me. What did surprise me was how warm it was on the operating floors; to keep the chocolate in a liquid form, steam heat is used, and the room temperature was around 35°C, with a high humidity. I also liked seeing the maze of pipes that send different types of chocolate all over the factory; each type is colour-coded into its own pipe, be it white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, etc. It was fun to think that flowing over our heads was rich, creamy deliciousness! I also liked how so many of the machines were labeled (sometimes it seemed almost to the point of redundancy); it reminded me of the batcave circa the 1960's TV show.

I didn't realise how much of the factory would still involve human assembly; while the Dunedin factory did fully automate a few assembly lines two years ago, we witnessed some of their Easter candy production that was being done by hand: workers were hand-gluing chocolate buttons (using chocolate glue, of course) to the fronts of chocolate bunnies, and packaging them with easter eggs before sending them on down the conveyor belt.

In the end, the tour was a lot of fun; we got to see several floors of the factory, watch several short DVD presentations on how the chocolate was manufactured and assembled into different products, and got a bunch of free samples from our tour guide ("Trick or Treat!" I called out every time she dropped something into my goody bag).

My other main excitement today was driving the Nissan rental car by myself from Dunedin to Ashburton; my mom and dad took the new Toyota Camry that we rented here in Dunedin, and then I drove the Nissan so we could return it to the rental dealership in Ashburton before continuing on to Kaikoura. My mom was pretty nervous about me driving by myself, but I had a great time; I put on the radio, turned on the A/C (there's a lot of dust blowing around, so opening the windows wasn't really feasible), and enjoyed the three hours or so of solitude. Driving on the left doesn't bother me; what did bother me was the very strong westerly winds plaguing the Otago and South Canterbury regions today... I was nearly blown into opposing traffic several times.

Tensions were running high in the car by later this afternoon; all three of us now in the Toyota, we were slowly crawling our way through the outskirts of Christchurch, which (understandably) are still congested and generally not a very fun place to be. I can tell my mom is getting tired of being away from home already; she gets cranky, and when my dad and I are tired from driving our fuses are fairly short (not to mention my mom and dad have been having trouble adjusting to the traffic flow and signage around here; I'm used to the traffic flow and think the signage is more than adequate, but they've been getting confused). My mom also hates two-lane roundabouts, finding them horribly confusing.

By the time we got into Kaikoura at 7:30pm, we were all tired and hungry. We checked into the Pier Hotel (which is quite a funky old building; all accommodation is above the restaurant and bar), my mom went to have a shower, and my dad and I went in search of fish and chips. Unfortunately, Cooper's Catch closed just as we pulled up in the car, but we ended up eating at the hotel restaurant instead, which was tasty and delicious, so everything worked out (my mom even perked up after eating a green salad... I think she was missing fresh vegetables).

Tomorrow we are driving from Kaikoura to Nelson... I'm getting tired of driving, but at least after this we will have several days to relax in the beautiful northern end of the South Island. Goodnight!

~Carolyn~

The Taieri Gorge Railway and Railroad to Gold

A Taylor family vacation wouldn't be complete without at least one train ride. Seeing as neither the TranzCostal or TranzAlpine are running until at least March 4th (to keep the railway free for shipping of supplies and goods to and from Christchurch), I'm glad we were able to experience the Taieri Gorge railway.

I booked my parents and I on what is called the "Railroad to Gold" tour: unlike the Taieri Gorge Railway excursion, which runs every day, the Railroad to Gold runs on Tuesdays and Saturdays only, and incorporates a train trip from Dunedin to Palmerston, a gold mine tour, and then another train trip back from Pukerangi to Dunedin. The trip from Dunedin to Palmerston is called "The Seasider", and was a considerably smaller train than the Taieri Gorge train: four passenger cars as opposed to eight or nine. The seating was assigned, and my mom and dad were across the aisle from me at a two-person booth, and I was seated at a four-person booth with a middle-aged man and his (very) old parents, all from Australia, and all off a ginormous cruise ship that had docked in Dunedin last evening.

The Seasider train is a 66km journey from Dunedin to Palmerston on the Main Trunk Line of the South Island. The trip takes about two hours, cruising at a nice easy speed of 40 km/hr or so. The track from Dunedin to Palmerson was completed in 1879, but it wasn't until 1945(!) that the Main Trunk Line was completed to allow rail transportation all the way from Picton to Bluff (top to bottom). We started at sea level and reached a maximum altitude of 120 metres, with a maximum gradient of 1:50 (2%), which for early steam engines would have been hard work, but for the (relatively) modern diesel pulling us was a piece of cake.

Thankfully, the awful rainy, windy weather that was supposed to materialise did not, and we had instead a lightly cloudy (if slightly muggy) morning, which provided beautiful views out and over the Otago Harbour and up the coastline. We passed through what is called the "lifestyle block" in the outskirts of Dunedin (what we would call "hobby farms" in Canada), and through four tunnels, including the Mihiwaka, which at 1323m is the tenth-longest tunnel in New Zealand. The guard provided commentary on the PA along the way, pointing out places such as Blueskin Bay (named by the Europeans in the 1830s in reference to the Maori chief Te Hikutu, whose tattoo covered his face and made his skin blue), and Seacliff, once home of the Seacliff Mental Asylum, largest sanatorium in New Zealand (amazingly, no jokes were made that I should have been sent there).

Once arriving in Palmerston (which wasn't much of anything special; a farming community and highway town), a small tour van from Oceana Gold Tours picked up my parents and I and four other people participating in the Railroad to Gold tour. The tour guide's name was Graham, and he introduced himself as being from the public relations department of OceanaGold. Combined with the fact that he was carting around a psychology textbook, I found myself having a hard time trusting what came out of his mouth (although to his credit, he seems like a very kind, level-headed, down-to-earth person).

Our first stop was Dunback, where we enjoyed a roast beef lunch with kumara and roast potatoes, and chocolate mud cake with berries and whipped cream for dessert (yummy). Then it was back in the tour van, and on to the town of Macraes, where after the DVD player in the welcome centre crapped out we moved across the street to Graham's office, and I saved him from further embarrassment by getting the DVD to run on his office mate's 24" iMac. Suitably indoctrinated with Oecana Gold's corporate welcome video, which included and overview of the mine and extraction process, it was back on the bus and on to the Macraes Flat Mine itself, which is the largest gold mine in New Zealand. It's primarily an open-cast mine, with a network of 28km of underground tunnels as well. The size of the mine is almost awe-inspiring; looking north, all the hills we could see were actually piles of waste rock from the mine, trucked over and now re-shaped and planted with grass to look like rest of the surrounding hills. The land around the mine is leased as farms, and sheep and cows could be seen munching away on what was essentially a man-made mountain.

The equipment used to extract the gold is also impressive: a collection of hauling trucks, backhoes (with buckets large enough to fit a small family car), and blasting equipment, it really does look like they are trying to dig a massive hole to China. What is even more incredible (or appalling) is for every payload carted by one 789C haul truck, which have a carrying capacity of 191 tonnes, consume 372L of diesel fuel per hour, have a 1900hp engine, and giant pneumatic tyres that cost $35 000 NZ each, only 2 teaspoons of gold will be contained in and recovered from the mined ore. And that's not even taking into account all the tonnes and tonnes of waste rock (non gold-bearing ore) that have to be carted out of the way first!

The immense size of the operation seemed even more ridiculous when we learned that all this land, ginormous equipment, and high-tech extraction technology produces just one bar of gold a day from all the mined low-grade ore. Amazingly, all this is still profitable, as gold is worth $1430 an ounce, and the bars are 400 oz, or about $570 000 US each! It just seems so incredible that we humans put so much time and effort to recovering gold, even when it is present in such tiny quantities. However, I know gold has important roles to play in medicine and technology because it doesn't oxidise; it's not just all for banks and jewellery.

At the end of the tour Graham took us to see the Golden Point reserve, in the river valley where the original gold rush gold mines were situated; the site still contains several of the sod houses (the area has very little timber) the miners lived in, as well as a working turn-of-the-century quartz stamper and a gold mineshaft we were able to walk into. Unfortunately, the area is still contaminated with high levels of mercury and other chemicals the miners used to separate the gold from the quartz; in the present day, Oceana Gold is legally bound to follow strict environmental laws set down by the New Zealand government, and must render inert the cyanide and arsenic used in the chemical extraction processes before they can bury them in the ground.

Back on the bus, it was an hour's ride to Pukerangi, a tiny train station quite literally in the middle of nowhere, where the Taieri Gorge Railway train came and picked us up at 4:30pm. I watched as the diesel uncoupled and then recoupled to the front of the train for the return journey; I was tempted to go up and try and weevil my way into a cab ride, but figured there were so many tourists (and extremely pushy old men!) I would have little chance of succeeding. Oh, well, it was just a diesel... for a steam train you can bet I would have been more bold.

The trip back along the Taieri Gorge definitely earned its moniker as "one of the world's great train trips": we were hugging the side of the gorge, a "rugged canyon of sheer schist rock cliffs and overhangs, dark peaty pools, wild whitewater and many tributary streams". Constructed from 1879 to 1891, the Taieri Gorge Railway's route was chosen because of the seven proposed routes considered in 1877, it offered the fewest engineering difficulties and was the most direct route to Dunedin. With the gold rush in the Otago area slowly abating, the railway was seen as an excellent way to improve access to crown land (and therefore, expand farming), as the roads were notoriously poor. The railway was integral to the development of Central Otago, shipping goods, produce, building supplies, and providing passenger service to and from Dunedin. 

I wish I had been able to get better shots of the gorge than I did; unfortunately, I felt like I would have needed a police riot baton to secure myself a place on the viewing platform at the back of the carriage, as it was stuffed with fat, grumpy, retired men with huge cameras. As it was I settled for simply admiring the scenery from inside the carriage, including the incredible Wingatui Viaduct, which at 197m long and 50 metres tall, is the Southern hemisphere's largest wrought iron structure. Sadly, because we were only doing the return trip down the gorge, and the commentary was only spoken on the first half of the journey, we were left to read our pamphlets and wonder where things were. One that was obvious was the brief photo stop we made at a bluff called "Arthur's Knob", which as I'm sure you can imagine had us all snickering. We took a photo for my brother.

After waiting for a track warrant to rejoin the main line, we arrived back in Dunedin at 6:30pm, and went for a short walk to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner at my mother's suggestion (which I thought was very adventurous of her; good for you, mom!), so now I am well and truly stuffed with the deliciousness of ginger chicken, beef soup, and jasmine tea. Off to bed for me... goodnight!

~Carolyn~