Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon
If you thought Saturday seemed like a quiet day, Sunday was even quieter. Debbie set herself up out front on the path to the beach with a book and I did the same at the picnic table (Dean (I'm too good for a middle initial now that I'm famous) Koontz's Odd Thomas for Debbie and The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown for me).
Around 8:00 we headed down to the local pub (cleverly called the Pukehina Local) for some dinner. Our luck with kitchens continued as the dinner rush had passed and the kitchen had just closed. We had a quick drink anyway and then headed back to the cottage for a sumptuous soup and toast dinner.
To fill out this post, I'll include a few additional observations about NZ.
The asphalt roads are pretty decent here, but they incorporate a strange feature. The normal roads are a pretty coarse asphalt, and the tires generate quite a bit of road noise while rolling on it. Whenever you approach an intersection, the asphalt changes to a much smoother type, and the road noise mostly disappears. This feature is pretty uniformly applied, so it must be intentional. My best supposition is that the change in road noise is intended to alert the driver to a possible danger zone.
All of the outlets have their own switch. Here is a pic.
The one shown has a little light on top of the rocker to show that the switch is in the On position, but most of them don't. To add to the confusion, the standard practice is to have the top press of the toggle be the Off position, opposite to what I have come expect in Canada.
Beer shopping is an adventure in guessing. None of the North American brands have crossed the Pacific this far, so there is no brand recognition for me. In addition, alcohol content varies from 4.0 on up for regular beers and below 2.5 for what they call light beers. The only way to find a beer you like is to try a bunch of different ones. Now this might not seem like too much of a hardship, but keep in mind there are a lot of crappy beers out there, and once you've bought it, there's no going back. For the record, the best all-around beer I've found is Waikato Bitter which is available fairly widely in bottles and on tap at the locals.
As far as beer is concerned, Debbie is drinking Corona (imported from Mexico) exclusively, which is also widely available, but a premium priced brand (but she's worth it). With respect to wine, the Kiwi's are crazy about it. Every liquor outlet, no matter how small or out of the way, has a hundred or more types of wine, and even the tiny mom-and-pop hole-in-the-wall bars or restaurants have 20 or more different bottles of wine available by the glass. Debbie is doing her best to sample a good variety of local wines, and has found a few she likes.
The fast food chains are here in abundance, with McDonalds and KFC being the most prevalent though they stick to the larger centres and tourist spots. In the grocery store, there are surprisingly few recognizable brands for sale, and those that are seem to have different offerings. For example, Campbells soup is here, but none of the common types like tomato or mushroom are available by them. Instead you get Thai noodle, or Sigapore curry soups from Campbells. Weird. The local ketchup has some spice that really stands out and is too sweet. Where are you Heinz! Coke has completely overwhelmed NZ. Pepsi can be found if you really look for it, but it can be conclusively determined they lost the cola wars here.
They are mad for traffic circles. While they do take a little getting used to (Look right, dammit! Right!) they are reasonably efficient at maintaining traffic flow without the need for traffic lights (Toronto city planners? Hello? Hear this?).
I was wrong about the coin denominations. They don't have a quarter, they have a 20 cent piece. Tomayto Tomahto.
There are large cicadas here. They must be hard of hearing, as they are extremely loud and persistant.
Other than that, things are pretty comfortable and familiar for a couple of "middle aged" Canadians.
Until next update ...
Don
Around 8:00 we headed down to the local pub (cleverly called the Pukehina Local) for some dinner. Our luck with kitchens continued as the dinner rush had passed and the kitchen had just closed. We had a quick drink anyway and then headed back to the cottage for a sumptuous soup and toast dinner.
To fill out this post, I'll include a few additional observations about NZ.
The asphalt roads are pretty decent here, but they incorporate a strange feature. The normal roads are a pretty coarse asphalt, and the tires generate quite a bit of road noise while rolling on it. Whenever you approach an intersection, the asphalt changes to a much smoother type, and the road noise mostly disappears. This feature is pretty uniformly applied, so it must be intentional. My best supposition is that the change in road noise is intended to alert the driver to a possible danger zone.
All of the outlets have their own switch. Here is a pic.
The one shown has a little light on top of the rocker to show that the switch is in the On position, but most of them don't. To add to the confusion, the standard practice is to have the top press of the toggle be the Off position, opposite to what I have come expect in Canada.
Beer shopping is an adventure in guessing. None of the North American brands have crossed the Pacific this far, so there is no brand recognition for me. In addition, alcohol content varies from 4.0 on up for regular beers and below 2.5 for what they call light beers. The only way to find a beer you like is to try a bunch of different ones. Now this might not seem like too much of a hardship, but keep in mind there are a lot of crappy beers out there, and once you've bought it, there's no going back. For the record, the best all-around beer I've found is Waikato Bitter which is available fairly widely in bottles and on tap at the locals.
As far as beer is concerned, Debbie is drinking Corona (imported from Mexico) exclusively, which is also widely available, but a premium priced brand (but she's worth it). With respect to wine, the Kiwi's are crazy about it. Every liquor outlet, no matter how small or out of the way, has a hundred or more types of wine, and even the tiny mom-and-pop hole-in-the-wall bars or restaurants have 20 or more different bottles of wine available by the glass. Debbie is doing her best to sample a good variety of local wines, and has found a few she likes.
The fast food chains are here in abundance, with McDonalds and KFC being the most prevalent though they stick to the larger centres and tourist spots. In the grocery store, there are surprisingly few recognizable brands for sale, and those that are seem to have different offerings. For example, Campbells soup is here, but none of the common types like tomato or mushroom are available by them. Instead you get Thai noodle, or Sigapore curry soups from Campbells. Weird. The local ketchup has some spice that really stands out and is too sweet. Where are you Heinz! Coke has completely overwhelmed NZ. Pepsi can be found if you really look for it, but it can be conclusively determined they lost the cola wars here.
They are mad for traffic circles. While they do take a little getting used to (Look right, dammit! Right!) they are reasonably efficient at maintaining traffic flow without the need for traffic lights (Toronto city planners? Hello? Hear this?).
I was wrong about the coin denominations. They don't have a quarter, they have a 20 cent piece. Tomayto Tomahto.
There are large cicadas here. They must be hard of hearing, as they are extremely loud and persistant.
Other than that, things are pretty comfortable and familiar for a couple of "middle aged" Canadians.
Until next update ...
Don
posted by Don at
10:14 pm
1 Comments:
Hey Deb,I see you are reading the book I gave you,(doubting thomas) hope you like it
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Anonymous, at 12:46 pm
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