Lather, Rinse, repeat.....

Back in New Zealand again, but a very different trip from our 7 month house swap 2 years ago. This will be a 2 month trip, mainly couch surfing, week by week.   Jeannette has been coming back almost every year for about 15 years now, and has collected a wonderful group of friends. I haven't made nearly as many trips, but enough to look forward to the cycle. It is good to see our friends again and revisit our favorite places. Skipping part of our winter to get an extra summer doesn't suck too much either.

On arrival, it was interesting to note what seemed familiar and what seemed different. On my first walk out, I was greeted by the call of my favorite NZ bird, the tui.  The tui has a very distinctive call that can be identified by even a non-birder, bringing back memories of listening to their calls as I worked in my upstairs office during our last stay here. The nature of the bird calls changes from early morning to midday to dusk. I can't identify most of the birds, but the pattern becomes very familiar and comforting.

There are many sights that look very familiar over the years. The vegetation here is very different than what we're used to. A few of the trees were designed by Dr Seuss, and we never tire of seeing them. The tree fern and cabbage tree are very common and distinctive.

Tree Fern

Cabbage Tree

You don't have to travel too far from Auckland and you'll start to see this.... a one way bridge sign. On the South Island, you'll even find these on the major highways. Seems a bit odd at first, but they soon become routine, and they work.

Let the cycle continue.....

Orts, eggs, elephants and beer

Orts: noun. A scrap or remainder of food from a meal.

If you are a crossword puzzle fan, you will come across words that you become fond of, and you will only find them in crossword puzzles.  They are like old friends that you see after an extended absence.  Orts is one of our old friends, and there is a sense of joy when we come across him in the Thursday NYT puzzle.  What does this have to do with the price of tea in New Zealand?  Well, one of the things I have enjoyed about having an extended time as a stranger in a strange land is having the time to observe small things and try to understand where they come from.  These become my travel orts.  So here are some random observations, and as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.

Warm Eggs.
   Here, as in many countries, you will buy your eggs from the un-refrigerated shelves in the grocery store.  In the US, you will only find them in the cooler.  And yet, I don't hear of Kiwis dropping dead of salmonella due to eggs.  Are the chickens different?  No, the regulations, and therefore processes are.  Turns out, there are different views on the best way to keep us safe.  It also turns out, either system works.  In the US, the FDA requires all large producers to wash their eggs before shipping to remove the risk of salmonella being spread.  Once washed, the eggs lose their protective coating (cuticle), which keeps the salmonella and other bacteria out, so they must be refrigerated.  In most of Europe and New Zealand, regulations prohibit the washing of eggs, so they don't need to be refrigerated.

 

Flying Fox.
   At most New Zealand playgrounds, you'll see a flying fox.  We'd probably call it a zip line.  They vary in height and length, but all look like something any US school district would ban in a minute.  Why the difference?  My impression is that there is a different view on the issue of liability here.  Part of that is a mindset, and part is how the law has been set up.  In the 1970s, New Zealand started the Accident Compensation Corporation.  This replaced workman's compensation, and simplified things by covering all accidents, regardless of how or where they happened, and to whom.  This was funded by businesses that would have paid into workman's comp, as well as some funds from general taxation.  The savings come into play since there are no court cases... you can't sue anyone for expenses since there aren't any.  Lawyers are not as pleased with this arrangement.

I imagine every few months someone does take a spill, and may even break an arm.  They would then put a cast on it and get every one to sign it.  And life would go on.  In the mean time, generations of kids have had a great time flying down the hillsides and screaming. And no lawsuits.


Elephants and Beer.
Most afternoons, I walk to the top of Mt Eden.  It's a good workout and provides some great views of the realm.  There is a strange structure on the top, with various plaques about surveyors and geographers, all pretty boring stuff.  I decided to look it up, and found the rest of the story to be a bit more interesting.

In 1870, Prince Alfred, the son of Queen Victoria, traveled to Auckland.  As he was getting ready to leave, someone gifted him an elephant (don't you just hate it when that happens to you on the way to the airport?).  Tom, the elephant, stayed with him in Auckland for the month, and was put to work hauling supplies to the top of Mt Eden to build a trig platform.  Mt Eden is the highest point in the Auckland area and centrally located, so this was used to survey all the surrounding area.  Turns out that Tom was a fan of beer, so  he would be rewarded for his hard toil with buns, lollies and a few beers in the city's public houses.  There are reports in newspapers of the time of him sipping over 4 gallons in a sitting.  That's a lot of IPA.

And that is, in part, the rest of the story.

Labels

We had a great trip to the Auckland Botanical Gardens a few days ago.  I must have read the labels on well over 100 plants and trees, most new to me.  How many do I remember 2 days later?  Somewhere in the neighborhood of one.  A few years ago, that would have bothered me more, but I'm starting to let that go.  As Gary Larson so aptly noted... my brain is full (and leaking a bit) 

I recall  coming to a realization on while snorkeling in Kauai a year ago.  I was floating above a multitude of beautiful tropical fish, and I was hit by the urge to go look them all up so I knew what species they were..  was that a Moorish Idol, or a Saddle Wrasse?  Then it dawned on me.... Bill, you could do all of that work and proceed to forget them in a day, or you could just live in the moment and bask in the beautiful scene in front of you.  The scientist in me rebelled for a short while, but the photographer and realist in me was able to let it go and I just floated and enjoyed the amazing colors and grace of all those fish. 

A year later I don't remember any of names, but I can still picture the yellows and blues of the fish darting in and out of the coral looking for lunch.

Carpe diem, man, carpe diem.  Don't know how many of those diems I've got left, so I gotta carpe as much as I can.

I'm enjoying exploring new places and seeing new things, learning about the interconnections, but not so worried about putting everything into buckets and applying the correct labels.  There are several trees endemic to New Zealand that I see often enough that I will likely remember what they are for some time.

Fern Tree

Cabbage Tree

Sure, I'd love to be able to learn and remember all the genus and species of all that I see, but knowing that isn't likely to happen, I'll focus on what I'm more likely to remember.... the sights of all the different bark textures, the beautiful sound of the tui singing to me in the evening, and smell of the ripening feijoas.  That will stay with me.

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