North Coast, South Is.
Motueka,
New Zealand
Friday, March 7, 2008
To pick up where I left off, I spent a few days in Wellington. On Sunday, I went to the NZ Academy of Fine Arts where an event called Arts Alive was being held. Basically, it was a chance for artists to showcase their works and allow the public to learn their crafts by trying them. When I walked in, I met a guy who works with clay to make abstract figures. I didn't feel very creative with my clay and after a few (boring) spheres, I decided to just start making something without thinking about it and managed to create some sort of hybrid insect/airplane thing. I did some other stuff as well, and I got suckered into making a bookmark decorated by blueberry stalks. Later, I went to the national museum, which is pretty huge. It seems like it's one big museum to house everything the country has to offer - I guess what would happen if you rolled up all the Smithsonian museums into one place.
The next day I went to the New Zealand version of our National Mall, where I found the Parliamentary Library, Parliament building, and the Beehive (like the White House). I took a tour of the place, and learned some pretty interesting stuff. There are eight political parties, and New Zealand itself is still considered a British dominion which means the British head of state (currently the Queen) has the sole power to sign bills into law. However, as in Britain, she generally doesn't interfere with the legislative process and passes things that are agreed on by Parliament. Ok, enough of the government lesson. I later took the Interislander Ferry to the South Island, and I must say that was the nicest ferry boat I've ever been on. It had a fully stocked bar, and most of the areas looked like the inside of a hotel or maybe even a cruise ship.
I then took a bus to the city of Nelson, and not to be stereotypical, but I've encountered several experiences that made me believe that Germans aren't the friendliest people in the world. However, as I travel more and meet more Germans they seem to be growing on me. I spoke with a girl on the bus ride to Nelson, and she was very laid-back and friendly . I also encountered other Germans later at a hostel, one of which was a big
fan of the NBA and stays up to watch games that start at 2am local
time. Of course, his favorite NBA player is Dirk Nowitski. That first bus experience began a seemingly dominant theme of my South Island experience so far of multiculturalism - much more than before. When I got to Nelson, I met a Canadian guy in the hostel and later went out for a few drinks with him, two Britons and a Swiss. It was pretty interesting talking to them about random stuff from their countries. I didn't do much in Nelson because things seemed pretty far away and I felt like I needed a day of R&R. I at least made it to the Nelson Cathedral, which was pretty nice.
Yesterday, I went up to the town of Takaka in a small region called Golden Bay. I didn't really know what to expect and as usual, I didn't have any real plans except that I wanted to visit the nearby Abel Tasman National Park. Little did I know until I got there that it wasn't a very good departure point. Anyway, I got there, found a hostel, took a nice long nap, woke around lunchtime, ate, and rode one of the free bikes around town to see what it was like. It was pretty small, and I basically did the trip in about ten minutes. When I came back, I was debating whether or not I should go somewhere else by bike. I briefly met an Argentinian girl in my room earlier, and it turned out she was about to go biking to a hiking trail so I joined her. It was a fairly short ride - 9km, and fairly even terrain. It was cool because the bike ride was scenic and on the way we found some Asian (or Korean) pear trees and blackberry plants. Of course she found and recognized all the stuff since my suburban upbringing hasn't taught me to recognize anything. This girl knocked my socks off - or as the Kiwis would say, she's "sweet as" (sort of like saying "so sweet" or "sweet as heck"). She was raised near Argentinian Patagonia, loves to do outdoors stuff independently (like me), likes to cook and make her own clothes, loves learning new languages, etc. Not only that, she is hitchhiking by herself through the South Island, which I was thinking about doing but got spooked out of by that stupid travel guidebook. I had a really amazing time with her that day biking, hiking, talking, and having dinner together. I was also able to practice my Spanish with her, which she liked very much. Like I said - sweet as. It was unfortunate that we couldn't spend more time together but I guess that's the nature of independent travel.
I've been gorging myself on Turkish food lately, mostly on kebabs but once in a while I get this amazing new dish I started eating called iskender. I've been fairly good at sticking to my "two meals in, one meal out" plan, but it's still tough to buy perishable food for just two days. Anyway, today I've backtracked to Motueka and plan to go to Abel Tasman either to bike or kayak for the day tomorrow. Still trying to get those pictures up but no success yet...
