Poor Planning Pays, eh Spark?

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  Mt. Cook Village, South Island, New Zealand
Friday, September 12, 2008

Neither of us knows why but we didn't sleep well. Debi had a weird dream and I have no excuse. Anyway, when we got up and looked outside, we saw grey. Grey sky, grey water, grey everything. But, at least, it wasn't raining so we went for a walk. Along the Akaroa waterfront, past the lighthouse and to the end of the road and back was just under three miles. We ate breakfast at the Akaroa Bakery and decided against a second night here, opting again to chase the sun. So we set out for Lake Tekapo and, if we were up for it, Mount Cook. The weather improved markedly after about an hour on the road. We're lucky that way.
We had a wine and cheese lunch and then, on a whim, opted to take a gravel road because the sign said, "Hanging Rock Bridge." That sounded interesting and it was only 12 kilometers off the main road. About 8 kilometers down the winding road, we came upon a ewe and her two lambs. They had escaped the fence and offered a great photo op for Debi to shoot through her car window (remember, that's on the driver's side in the U.S

Foggy? Let's move on.

. but on the passenger side here). We scooted the car when they moved back and we scooted the car when they moved forward and Debi got a lot of pictures. Across the road, I spotted many more lambs so I hopped out to take some pictures. Just then, a truck roared around the bend with two people in the cab and two dogs spying over the roof. It was the owners of the ewe and lambs, come to save them from us.
Ann and John and their working dog Spark jumped from the truck and herded those three wayward sheep through the gate and back with the group. We introduced ourselves and Ann asked if we had ever seen a working dog work. "No." Well, then. "Spark. Back," she said. And off Spark went wide around to the right to circle around the sheep. He wasn't going far enough back to suit Ann so she calmly, not loudly, said, "Spark, Way Back." Spark ran up the hill and circled way around, out of our sight momentarily, and approached the sheep from the rear. He moved them into a group and then marched them right up to us. Amazing. Ann said he was, "Mustering the sheep."
Ann grabbed up a lamb and Debi got to get up close and personal and the four of us visited briefly about New Zealand, their recent holiday to Western Canada and more. It was delightful.
"What are you doing out here?" "We're on the way to see Hanging Rock Bridge," we said

Sheep Cavalry Truck Arriving

. "Why?" John asked. "It's just a bridge." A poor plan paid off. It was the highlight of our day meeting and visiting with the Kiwis.
On we went-and it was just a bridge-headed for Lake Tekapo. The tourquoise water of the lake with snowcapped peaks behind made a beautiful sight. We decided to press on to Mount Cook, the highest point in New Zealand at 3,157 meters. It's a long drive around Lake Pukaki to get there and we were the only car on the road for most of the way.
At the end of the road we found the Hermitage Hotel, checked in and took in the sunset.
We covered a lot of ground today and, again, experienced abrupt changes in the weather.
We are having a hard time with the place names in New Zealand, most of which are in the Maori language. It's just like Hawaii where you see a word and then mispronounce it and then promptly forget it. We have no problem with Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Nelson and, of course, Russell. Those are easy and you don't forget them. But Kaikoura, Akaroa, Whangarei and the rest; well, they escape us and we keep asking each other, "What was the name of that place again?"
When the Kiwis pronounce the names of these places for us, it doesn't help. Their accent makes it just that much more difficult

Move them on, Spark

. Simple words sound different. "Yes" comes out as "Yees" (yeast without the 't'). "There" comes out as "Theer." A piece of meat or fish is a fillet, pronounced Fill It. Everyday things are different. A grocery cart is a trolley. Bacon isn't really bacon; it's more like a thin slice of fatty ham. Black coffee is a Long Black. Coffee with cream is a Flat White. A porterhouse steak is just a piece of sirloin. You get called "Mate" a lot. When you go to a bar and ask what vodka they have, for the most part they look at you quizzically and then say "vodka, well let me see, I think we might have a bottle of Findlandia! Although they make a good vodka in New Zealand called 42 Below (named for the 42nd parallel) not everyone carries it here. And don't even ask for a lime, if they say yes, you get a slice or two of lemon instead. I'm not sure where the limes are! When they make a vodka tonic, they carefully measure out the vodka to exactly a shot-glass full and then pour it into a tall glass and put in four tiny ice cubes and top it off with way too much tonic. We've learned to coach them on that. All the wine bottles come with screw caps rather than corks. We're going to need to get used to that. The toilets have a half flush and a full flush button. We'll let you figure out when to use which one. Every room has a French Press to make your morning coffee and they make a big deal out of giving you a half-pint of milk when you check into your hotel. They always insist on showing you your room before you rent it

Can't resist a lamb

. There are only six television channels and two of them show non-stop rugby. Their game show hosts are too slow-they'd last one episode on American television. You don't rent anything; you "hire" it. Parking lots are called car parks. There are no shoulders on most of the roads and on the steepest drop-offs there are no guard rails. I've yet to see a gasoline pump where you can swipe your credit card at the pump itself. There is virtually no Pepsi, only Coke. There is no American beer of any sort. At restaurants, the water for your table is presented in a chilled, empty liquor bottle. There are lots of one lane bridges, some with wide spots in the middle so you can pull over to let the oncoming car pass if you both arrive at the middle at the same time. The people wave and smile. The food is mostly not so good. The white wine is excellent and red wine is almost non-existent. You order your food (in most places) at a counter and take a table number sign and go sit down and wait until they bring you your food and drink. There is no tipping. When you are finished eating, the servers don't bring your check...you go to the counter to pay for your meal no matter how fancy the restaurant is. Pancakes are served with fried bananas and muscles are served in coconet souce. These are just many of the fun facts we have learned about this amazing country. I'm sure we will come up with more as time goes on.

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Good Job Spark	Lake Tekapo late in the day	Mt. Cook at sunset	Mt Cook at dawn

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