I enjoyed posting my last travel musings on here so thought I would get another list going of further things that have occurred while travelling and I'd like to remember. I'm starting this on 28th January and I'll post it hopefully at some point in the future when I've added to it. This post so far has a more New Zealand basis whereas the last one was Australia.
- The New Zealand people we have met out and about have on the whole been friendlier than Australia people. This has continued to be true the longer we are here. Kiwis seem to go out of the way to be kind and helpful and a South African we met said he'd been here 10 years and thought the same when he moved from Aus.
- People in New Zealand also look a lot more normal, mainly because they wear trousers and sleeves at times. Also they seem to be a mix of shapes and sizes and aren't all bronzed.
- Flower gardens - One thing that has struck my while travelling, is the feeling that English Flower gardens are better and more flowery than anywhere else I've seen in the world. I wonder if perhaps I have an idealised version of them, but I'm keen to check it out when we are back. Maybe it's just my grandmas were awesome gardeners so I feel that's how all English gardens are!!
- I'm quite enjoying tree places.
- Two things I was looking forward to in NZ were Grain Waves crisps and refuelling with petrol without holding on to the handle! Both have come to fruition!
- A watch. I've always loved having clocks and telling the time. In Uganda my watch battery ran out. I tried to get a new one there but no luck so thought I'd save it till next country. I wondered about still wearing my watch to see my tan line. But I didn't. And then I decided that maybe this was the time (!) to go without, be a bit more relaxed and go with the flow. And there have been times where we needed to be somewhere at a particular time and it's been frustrating to have to check on the camera. But there have also been lazy afternoons and evenings that have been a joy to be timeless in.
-I have never been one to use public toilets much, mainly because I don't need to go to the toilet that often and I figured I could always wait till I was home. Don't get me wrong, I did go to the toilet away from home, particularly at friends or restaurants but very rarely would I go to a toilet in a park say. Being in the campervan, and with the prospect of driving our toilet waste around and having to empty it ourselves, has meant I've leapt at opportunities to use toilets out and about. And generally I've been pretty pleasantly surprised! I used them in parks, only one of which was pretty bleak and scary! Almost all have had soap and toilet paper. I've even used some long drops. I've just used the first one that wasn't really pleasant at all and that prompted me to write. I will also add that I don't really like going to sleep with out a trip to the loo, or waking up without one nearby!
-Possibly more surprising to me has been my slide into not necessarily showering in the mornings. I had thought that I just had to shower in the mornings, and indeed for years haven't got dressed without showering. Here it started by, 'we're going to an open water place this morning or doing exercise so I'll shower after that', and now it's almost like it's not on my radar at times that we are not at a campsite. This is definitely not something I will be continuing post camper but it's quite useful to have got into the situation of not showering every morning for now!
-Now somehow this one seems almost more gross to me than the last two - I feel I will be judged for recording this so I'm hesitant to... here goes - I've stopped brushing my hair!! I'll put down quickly that I'm still washing it every couple of days, it's just the brushing that's stopped. I was using a comb from the Japanese hotel and one day I didn't brush it early on as we were in the middle of nowhere not seeing people then I just kind of realised it didn't look any worse than when I did brush it! I do feel a bit like a 60s hippie but oh well!!
-I think I'm quite a fan of gorges. Well, at least we went to one that I really liked, so I'll have to test the theory out and see!
-I am quite captivated when driving along to see all the houses apparently in the middle of nowhere. I do so wonder what it would be like to live there. Part of me thinks it must be amazing and attractive and relaxing but then I reckon I'd find it hard being so far from shops and everything. I guess you'd have to be very organised.
I also really like seeing the mail boxes along the edge of the road - especially the unusual ones.
Road names are also really interesting and I enjoy wondering how they came about: Eighty Eight Valley Road, Brassknocker Road, Nurse Mary Lee Lane. Also there were signs which at first I thought were political which said 'it starts here...' and were then followed by a 5 digit number. I wonder if it's some sort of house numbering thing for farms or something?
-We got a free Spotify account with our New Zealand SIM card and we saved a few play lists. One of them was called 'hot country' as John and I have learnt that country music is pretty much the only place where our musical tastes overlap equally. It definitely became our most listened to music of the campervan. We hadn't heard of any of the songs before but soon developed 3 or 4 favourites and I like that whenever I hear those songs again I will be immediately taken back to those New Zealand roads.
-We also got in to listening to podcasts, mostly ones that were new to both of us. Dan Snow's History Hit was probably the one we listened to most, despite how annoyed I got with the poor sound mixing of the production and had to get used to lunging for the volume control at different points. We are becoming more knowledgable on historical things or at least far more aware of how much of history we are ignorant of! Historica! Another one that we kept coming back to was the Five Thirty Eight Elections podcast. We are still yet to learn what the title is about but it is covering the US Presidential Election from a pollsters and numbers point of view and we are quite hooked on this primary season mainly in astonishment at the rise of The Donald.
-I've found it quite special in New Zealand to be in places where I can see no roads. I can't really remember this happening like this before. I was first struck by it on our first cycle near Wellington on the Rimutukas. We had just come out the other side of a tunnel and had a magnificent view into the distance and I realised I couldn't see a road. Wow!
-I've realised that lots of these thoughts and ideas come to me while we are on a walk and sometimes when driving. I guess that's when my mind is free-est to wander.
-This is a strange one but I have been interested in seeing poison traps around the national parks and such places. NZ is very keen on getting rid of introduced pests and there are quite a few signs and warnings that there are various poisons about. It always makes me wonder how they target the pests and not the native creatures. Hmmm?
-Something that has surprised me in New Zealand has been my fear at heights. I've not always been great at heights, but I've often thought I might be putting it on and it should be a mind over matter thing. The first major incidence was climbing up Mt Ngauruhoe.
I found the scramble up really hard and hated looking back down. It got so bad that I burst into tears and had to stop. I felt quite pathetic but it seemed very real. I also felt a similar but lesser feeling when climbing up Mt Robert, not wanting to look down despite knowing I was on firm ground. The other major problem has been swing bridges - I think that's what they are called though it doesn't seem to quite convey the right thing.
Several of them made me nervous as I walked over and I was never sure if it was the height, the width, the water below, that made the biggest difference to how scared I was. The worst was going to Rob Roy Glacier, just 15 minutes from the car park.
We never made it to the glacier and I had such a huge meltdown in the wind of the bridge. Worst ever and made me think I should never criticise or doubt anyone who has a phobia as I know my reaction was irrational but there wasn't anything I could do. Thank you to John for getting me over.
-Think I may have mentioned this on my last travel musings but I shall say again how great my kindle is! I love finishing a book and perusing what's on there before making my next choice depending on my current mood. And it's so great that I can read it without having the light on while John goes to sleep. And I have been using the dictionary feature more and more. Especially useful with older books. Sometimes it's for words that I don't know, often it's for words I'm familiar with but could never define myself.
-Unsealed roads - what's with that?!?!? I spent quite a while going backwards and forwards with my thoughts on unsealed roads in NZ. We definitely drove on a lot of them and it was always anxious wondering if the gravel would chip the campervan. They took us to some great places and sometimes I thought, "it's good that they slow us down so we take our time and appreciate the place and don't rush and it's like being in Anne of Green Gables time and this way places are kept quieter as not so many people go on them". But whenever we turned on to one my actual thought was "Grrrrr"!!!
-I found it interesting to see the fruit for sale at the side of the road around the country. Sometimes it was a small stall outside someone's house and sometimes it was a larger orchard or market. I enjoyed seeing how different areas were big on different crops. There might be lots of signs for peaches and pears, and then a few days later all the signs would be for kumara etc. It wasn't until we got to Tauranga in our last few days that we started seeing kiwi fruit for sale.
Things that I want to incorporate back home:
- In NZ, instead of using a salad bowl, they used a salad plate and it was much more attractive and pleasant to use. I also really liked one time how they didn't mix it, but rather had it spread out in sections so you could pick and choose.
- Dips and crackers platters after work - whoop whoop!
- This is a bit of a strange one, but the last two places we have stayed have had really nice constantly emitting air fresheners in their bathrooms and I've noticed them each time I've gone in. I've often thought them a bit of a waste of time before but am tempted to give the gels that you stick in the toilet bowl a go.
-Keep making chapattis and tortillas as learnt in Uganda and made a lot in campervan.
