I have commented in a previous blog entry how bad some of the roads are here in NZ. It’s difficult to describe them sometimes. There was a commercial on TV before we came away for Peugeot. It was a guy using his sat nav to get to Glasgow but the sat nav was directing him in the opposite direction. In the end he arrived at the top of this valley with his sat nav saying, “enjoy.” Before him lay the Scottish highlands with a twisted gnarly piece of road. That is what it is like here. Not in the highlands, but pretty much everywhere. Don’t get me wrong there are some very dull straight roads here too but on the whole a lot of them are winding and hilly. We have also come across a new road sign out here that reads “WASHOUT.” Now I always assumed that was when something was cancelled. Here though a washout sign means that ahead a part of the road has collapsed and slid away! So not only is it pretty scary driving a 3-ton boat along these winding, twisted, hilly tracks, but also we now realise that the road below us could literally collapse and disappear down a steep hill or cliff at any moment. Great. All adds to the excitement I suppose. The reason I’m harping on about roads is that the drive from Wanganui to the national park was pretty sketchy in places but we made it fairly safely. Unlike a car we saw the other day which was being hoisted from a river by a huge crane. Looks like the driver lost it on a bend and ended up plummeting down a 40 foot slope head first into a river. Have seen quite a few accidents since we’ve been here. Probably due to the difficult roads and to the fact that a lot of Kiwis drive like knobs.
Wanganui was a pretty quiet town. Not a great deal to do that did
n’t involve the large brown river that cuts through the “city.” We stayed there 2 nights and the only highlights were the 8km round trip to the pub that was closed, and discovering that NZ DVDs play on our laptop. Even a trip to the cinema to see Watchmen was average. I liked it though but the extreme violence and explicit gore shocked Kate. What’s wrong with a man getting both arms cut off with an angle grinder? Although I quite liked Wanganui I was quite keen to move on to the National Park and in particular Whakapapa.
Now, in Moari, as I may have mentioned, ‘wh’ is pronounced as ‘f’ so using that logic we are actually staying in the mountain resort of “Fucka- papa.” Serious. The locals don’t even crack a smile when they say it! Now, again, using similar logic, the term of endearment “Muthafucka” is us
ually shortened to “MO FO” therefore I have started to refer to Whakapapa as “FO PA.” It’s also a lot easier to type. Fo pa is in the shadow of 3 mountains. The only pronounceable being Ruapehu. The others all have way too many vowels and result in a face full of spit when someone talks to you about them. They are all active volcanoes too but the last eruption was only 2 years ago so I’m sure we’ll be fine. One of the unpronounceable volcanoes was actually Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings films. The others were also in the movie too but not really being a big fan of LOTR, I couldn’t tell you where.
In winter Fo Pa is a lively ski resort. Not sure how really as there are only 2 hotels and a campsite here. You can drive right up to the bottom of the chairlifts though so I imagine people don’t really stay here but commute in from local towns. In the summer it’s an awesome place to go tramping (hiking) so me and Kate have ventured off for a few tramps while we’ve been here. We did a 3-hour loop yesterday to go and see odd coloured rapids called silica rapids then did a 2-hour loop today taking in Taranaki waterfalls. I must admit that it is beautiful here. Lush heath land and green pine forests all under the shadow of a snow-capped mountain on one side and a huge black volcano on the other. There is also a real mix of people here. I’ve seen some pretty serious outdoor types with their expensive hiking boots, massive ruck sacks and some with rifles strapped to them to people hiking about in flip flops (or jandals as they are called here) and hoodies. Kate and I sort of fall in between the two. I have hiking boots but also wear a hoody and spend most my time blowing bubbles (with bubble gum) and slapping Kate on the bum to speed her up. Kate just sort of grunts a lot and turns bright red after a few hundred metres.
Although Fo Pa is no bigger than a few buildings and a campsite, you can still buy yourself a hot pie. I am amazed with the Kiwis obsession with pies. Back home you can buy yourself a hot pie in only a few locations. Restaurants not included I can only really think of a bakery, a wild bean café and at a football ground. Here there is meat wrapped in pastry everywhere! The local corner shop, every garage and supermarket stock hot pies. In Auckland you can’t walk past more than 5 shops without the smell of pastry hitting you. Not that I’m complaining. I love pies. Look at me, I’m not exactly svelte. I have eaten my fair share of pies and pas
ties. What surprises me though is that Kiwis aren’t all 50 stone. Yes, the Moaris are pretty hefty but I haven’t yet seen any of them walking down the street tucking into a steak and cheese pie. But for near enough every shop and convenience store to sell pies, they must shift a few. So many of the Kiwis I have seen and spoke to pride themselves on being fit outdoor types and to be fair, most of them look in top shape. So who eats all these bloody pies?
Along side a lot of the pies in the numerous hot glass cabinets I have also noticed a sort of orange looking thing. Kind of like those old Findus crispy pancakes you got when you were a kid. On further inspection I noticed too that they were called lasagne. Odd, I thought until I tried one. They are so lush! It is basically a Findus crispy pancake stuffed with pasta, bolognese and cheese. Don’t really sound appetising eh? Just try one. You’ll be hooked. I had hoped to loose a bit of weight while I was here but I’ve already had a lamb and mint pie for breakfast and a lasagne for lunch today. Just trying to soak up the 9 pints of lager from last night though.
So, we are heading further north tomorrow to Lake Taupo. The biggest lake in NZ and also the home of the most sky dives in the world. They do around 30,000 jumps a year there. It’d be stupid to go to the skydiving capital of the world and not do it, wouldn’t it? Kate is not convinced. I’ll let you know how we get on.
Peace
D
XXXX
Wanganui was a pretty quiet town. Not a great deal to do that did
n’t involve the large brown river that cuts through the “city.” We stayed there 2 nights and the only highlights were the 8km round trip to the pub that was closed, and discovering that NZ DVDs play on our laptop. Even a trip to the cinema to see Watchmen was average. I liked it though but the extreme violence and explicit gore shocked Kate. What’s wrong with a man getting both arms cut off with an angle grinder? Although I quite liked Wanganui I was quite keen to move on to the National Park and in particular Whakapapa.Now, in Moari, as I may have mentioned, ‘wh’ is pronounced as ‘f’ so using that logic we are actually staying in the mountain resort of “Fucka- papa.” Serious. The locals don’t even crack a smile when they say it! Now, again, using similar logic, the term of endearment “Muthafucka” is us
ually shortened to “MO FO” therefore I have started to refer to Whakapapa as “FO PA.” It’s also a lot easier to type. Fo pa is in the shadow of 3 mountains. The only pronounceable being Ruapehu. The others all have way too many vowels and result in a face full of spit when someone talks to you about them. They are all active volcanoes too but the last eruption was only 2 years ago so I’m sure we’ll be fine. One of the unpronounceable volcanoes was actually Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings films. The others were also in the movie too but not really being a big fan of LOTR, I couldn’t tell you where.In winter Fo Pa is a lively ski resort. Not sure how really as there are only 2 hotels and a campsite here. You can drive right up to the bottom of the chairlifts though so I imagine people don’t really stay here but commute in from local towns. In the summer it’s an awesome place to go tramping (hiking) so me and Kate have ventured off for a few tramps while we’ve been here. We did a 3-hour loop yesterday to go and see odd coloured rapids called silica rapids then did a 2-hour loop today taking in Taranaki waterfalls. I must admit that it is beautiful here. Lush heath land and green pine forests all under the shadow of a snow-capped mountain on one side and a huge black volcano on the other. There is also a real mix of people here. I’ve seen some pretty serious outdoor types with their expensive hiking boots, massive ruck sacks and some with rifles strapped to them to people hiking about in flip flops (or jandals as they are called here) and hoodies. Kate and I sort of fall in between the two. I have hiking boots but also wear a hoody and spend most my time blowing bubbles (with bubble gum) and slapping Kate on the bum to speed her up. Kate just sort of grunts a lot and turns bright red after a few hundred metres.
Although Fo Pa is no bigger than a few buildings and a campsite, you can still buy yourself a hot pie. I am amazed with the Kiwis obsession with pies. Back home you can buy yourself a hot pie in only a few locations. Restaurants not included I can only really think of a bakery, a wild bean café and at a football ground. Here there is meat wrapped in pastry everywhere! The local corner shop, every garage and supermarket stock hot pies. In Auckland you can’t walk past more than 5 shops without the smell of pastry hitting you. Not that I’m complaining. I love pies. Look at me, I’m not exactly svelte. I have eaten my fair share of pies and pas
ties. What surprises me though is that Kiwis aren’t all 50 stone. Yes, the Moaris are pretty hefty but I haven’t yet seen any of them walking down the street tucking into a steak and cheese pie. But for near enough every shop and convenience store to sell pies, they must shift a few. So many of the Kiwis I have seen and spoke to pride themselves on being fit outdoor types and to be fair, most of them look in top shape. So who eats all these bloody pies?Along side a lot of the pies in the numerous hot glass cabinets I have also noticed a sort of orange looking thing. Kind of like those old Findus crispy pancakes you got when you were a kid. On further inspection I noticed too that they were called lasagne. Odd, I thought until I tried one. They are so lush! It is basically a Findus crispy pancake stuffed with pasta, bolognese and cheese. Don’t really sound appetising eh? Just try one. You’ll be hooked. I had hoped to loose a bit of weight while I was here but I’ve already had a lamb and mint pie for breakfast and a lasagne for lunch today. Just trying to soak up the 9 pints of lager from last night though.
So, we are heading further north tomorrow to Lake Taupo. The biggest lake in NZ and also the home of the most sky dives in the world. They do around 30,000 jumps a year there. It’d be stupid to go to the skydiving capital of the world and not do it, wouldn’t it? Kate is not convinced. I’ll let you know how we get on.
Peace
D
XXXX
No comments:
Post a Comment