Pollywogs!

Where to begin…

Hopefully, as you read this a new batch of photos has been uploaded to Flickr for your viewing pleasure.

Today feels about two or three days long already (10pm local time at this moment, Sunday Feb 12th).

After nailing down all of the little gremlins and wrapping up yesterday, we slept early in order to wake at 6am to catch a bus. Actually, I napped till about 3am, from then on I woke up every half-hour or so in order to not be startled to death by my cell phone, which I had set an alarm for with the ring tone of ‘Psycho’ (you know, the knife-stabbing music, very very loud…turns out excellent subconcious motivation to awake well ahead of time in order not to hear it…).

So…6am shower, then a mile walk to the bus stop with a daybag packed (my carry-on is my laptop, loaded it up with a change of clothes). 7:30, on a little 14 person bus and a four hour drive over the mountains down here. The east coast, as you might have seen, is ‘relatively’ dry. Going up the hills, it gets a little drier, looking somewhat like Arizona. Rather suddenly, it begins sprinkling and the hills are noticably greener. A little further on, and you realize those aren’t shrubs on the hillsides, its a rainforest. We stopped in the little town where you might have seen the ‘Keas’, a paticularly evil breed of parrot known for tearing the weatherstripping off of cars (and according to the local we met, the kidneys out of sheep). A sandwich and a Smirnoff Ice later (the lady working the counter said it was the earliest she’s ever seen someone drink, at about 10:30am…and here I thought NZ was serious about their alcohol (as long as its past noon I guess)), back on the bus. We have a couple good pics, but it doesn’t really convey the wetness.

Arriving in town (actually, passing through Greymouth onto a smaller town of Hokitika (Hokitika being the third largest city on the west coast, about the same size as Jersey Shore…)), we secured our room at a local hotel. Another hotel with no internet service…apparently the English don’t bring laptops (the local said English are among the most numerous tourists, along with Asians). Had lunch in town (if the locals tell you Whitefish is a delicacy, tell them thanks but I’ll have something else, reminded me of squid bleh), met up with the local Jon (who owns a mill here in town, works with a lot of Red Beech, hopefully our next target here in NZ). Jon took us out on a quick tour of the area…first to the lake and small forest path, and then onto the gorge and swinging bridge. I’ve never been in a tropical rain forest before (driving through the one in Hawaii doesn’t count, I didn’t get to get out and walk around very much), I really liked it a lot. The sense of isolation is profound: there is no air traffic overhead, no highways, no sound other than birdcall (and not much of that). Just ancient, virgin rainforest, looking exactly the same for thousands of years. I liked it a lot.

Kell and I played phone tag for a while, but it wasn’t bad once I got in touch with her. Cell phones are amazingly useful, how did we ever get on without them? Being in touch no matter where I go, priceless…

Had dinner at a local restrauant, tried monkfish in a filo pastry and a coconut cream sauce. Not bad, but not the best fish I’ve had (the top two being from Tierras del Sol and Degree). Guess what else I had. Go on, use a wild guess. Pumpkin soup. Yep, imagine pumpkin pie, but instead without the sugar and in cream soup base. Actually, with some salt and pepper it wasn’t bad. My horizon was expanded tonight, for sure. I hear pumpkin is quite popular cooked in a variety of manners round here.

Sorry I don’t have my A game tonight, I am feeling the effects of not getting enough sleep (I know my A game is disjointed and difficult to follow…).

Onward tomorrow, back on a tour bus to reverse our trip, back to Christchurch to sleep, then on a plane to Napier with a short layover in Wellington. We’re having an impromtu and informal semi-board meeting, since nearly everyone will be available. That should wrap it up here in NZ. I might have one or two additional blogs left in me, definately more pictures, but I don’t think much more thats interesting…

Hope you’ve enjoyed following me around!