The long drive

Posted on by

I left Kerikeri this morning and started my return trip out of Kerikeri in the Northland – it was a 230km drive today, which I figured would take about 2.5 hours.

It took nearly 3.5 hours. NZ roads don’t have many straight sections. Makes for interesting and involved driving though, no nodding off at the wheel for me. But at the same time it doesn’t allow one to enjoy the scenery quite as much as I might like – you have to be focused on the upcoming turn in the road. I do think this is probably the most common street sign I’ve seen in NZ:

Thankfully my Honda is a pretty decent drive, for a station wagon. I certainly miss my Mazda 3 for these kind of drives – tons of hills and curves with nary another vehicle on the road.

I’ve actually now left the Northland region and crossed back into the Auckland region, though I’m still 50km north of Auckland. I’m going to be WWOOFing for 6 days at an exotic fruit farm – they’ve got a very nice place up in the rural area north of Helensville, on the west side of the island. Hopefully I’ll get out to the western beaches once or twice this week – they are black sand beaches. Not going to go swimming anytime soon though – a wee bit too cold for that still! BUT, they do have thermal pools in this area. That might be a better option.

I met my new hosts just after noon and got to work after having a tasty avocado sandwich for lunch (eating vegetarian for a week – I will eat healthy!). Work will be outdoors once again – I was helping to clear brush yesterday and today will be pruning raspberry bushes. I just hope the weather will stay pleasant!

Colin and the Chocolate Factory

Posted on by

Notice the middle word there – Tasting. Oh yes, there was tasting involved. I probably could have renamed this blog as ‘Colin likes Chocolate’, ‘I went to the far ends of the earth for chocolate’ or the like and it would be a pretty apt description of some of the things I’ve done so far. I swear, I’m not obsessed or addicted to the stuff. I can quit any time.

Continue reading →

1 step forwa….nope, just 2 steps back

Posted on by

Another enjoyable day here in Kerikeri. I have one more day of work and on Tuesday, I’ll start heading south again. But for today, I got to work on a slightly different computer project today:

A digital turntable! This converts your LP into mp3s. Setting it up thankfully wasn’t too difficult, and I converted the first record in about 40 minutes – you have to play the record from start to finish to record it to the computer, and then spend time editing the music into seperate songs (if you so choose), add mp3 tags, and save the files. All in all it was relatively intuitive thankfully, just time consuming.

After my work for the day was complete, I took off to nearby Aroha Island.

Continue reading →

I aim to please

Posted on by

I have to be a bit more careful with how I phrase certain things here in New Zealand. In Canada, we simply call Kiwi Fruit, Kiwis. However, down here in New Zealand, Kiwi either refers to the bird or the people. You have to use the full ‘Kiwi Fruit’ name for things to be understandable. Which led to confusion and a ‘Soylent Green is PEOPLE!’ kind of moment this evening.

Previously I had mentioned picking up Whittaker’s Chocolate Caramels (and have been enjoying them immensely…and in moderation), and that Whittaker’s had other, slight more unique flavours. One was Chocolate with Kiwi Fruit, which others have expressed curiosity in, so in the name of science, I had to experiment.

When I got home this evening with the chocolate in tow, I asked my hosts if they had tried ‘Chocolate with Kiwi’ in it before. They expressed their confusion – that didn’t sound very appealing and weren’t sure exactly what I was talking about. It could have been in the shape of a bird or something they thought. At least they didn’t assume I’d already taken to eating the kind folk of New Zealand, covered in chocolate. After clearing up for me that Kiwi and Kiwi Fruit have to be specified down here, we gave the chocolate a try. Now I understand why Whittaker’s prominently puts the FRUIT with the Kiwi name on it’s packaging – don’t want to have any potential worry of nibbling on your fellow countryman.

The consensus? Pretty good, but not great. The chocolate itself is fantastic – Whittaker’s makes GOOD stuff. The bits of kiwi fruit are quite akin to raisins – not exactly what I was expecting. I do enjoy chocolate covered raisins quite a bit, so I still enjoyed the Chocolate and Kiwi Fruit, but I know many *hate* raisins in food, so I can see it being a pretty big disappointment for some.

Sunny days, sweepin’ the clouds awaaaaaaay

Posted on by

I’m getting used to not seeing many clouds during the day. Bright blue skies, light southerly breeze (unfortunately keeping the region a bit colder than usual), and plentiful sunshine. Today, upon the suggestion of my host, I took a bit of a drive away from the coast and headed inland. I headed to the Puketi Forest. It’s the same place that I visited the Kauri trees on my way up to Cape Reinga last week.

I headed off around 3pm and took some back roads. Along the way, there was a delay due to cow crossing. Cows have right of way on the dirt roads here. Or at least, I imagine they do.

Continue reading →

Stones and Rainbows

Posted on by

Back to my slightly longer walks today, with a bit of a twist. This time, it was a one-way only trip. I dropped my car off at the end, and my host gave me a lift to the start of my hike, at Rainbow Falls. I completed my work for the day around 2pm (all computer based, so no pretty before/after pictures this time! Unless you want to see excel spreadsheets…), and then headed into town to start my hike (about 6km, all said and done, mostly flat).

It was a beautiful day today – blue skies and about 16C. The Falls are only a short 5 minute hike.

Continue reading →

Wonderland

Posted on by

I’ve now been staying in my new WWOOFing homestay, and this was where I was responding to emails this morning:

I’m just outside of Kerikeri, which is a beautiful small town in the far north of New Zealand. It’s often a vacation spot in the summer, and during the winter is usually one of the warmest places in New Zealand. If the picture of my hosts place is any indication, you can imagine that I’m staying at QUITE the beautiful house. The family designed and built it themselves, and used many of the native woods on the land they own here – it’s absolutely *gorgeous*. High vaulted ceilings, a huge amount of windows, and a very unique design. Oh, and I get my own bedroom, bathroom and living room (though I spend my time with them in the ‘main’ living room – wonderful older couple). All in all, remarkably swank and comfy.

Continue reading →

This is how things go from bad to worse…

Posted on by

While down here in New Zealand, I’ve kept my chocolate cravings in check by frequenting the supermarkets for deals. 3 for $3 and 4 for $5 for various chocolate bars from Cadbury or Nestle. Apparently though, I’ve been doing it all wrong. Yesterday was my last night in my hostel in Paihia, and the place was pretty much deserted – only myself and a gal from Scotland left. This was after nearly 70 people were staying there during the weekend, so it felt empty! Anyways, we got onto the topic of chocolate, since she loved chocolate as well. When I told her of my snacking on Cadbury/Nestle chocolate, her response was (and I quote): ‘Why are you putting up with that shite, they have Whittaker’s here!’ When she came down here she was much like me – enjoying Kitkats, Mars bars and the like. Until someone down in Wellington showed her the light – Whittaker’s is a New Zealand made fine chocolate. available everywhere.

While I love my Kit Kats and the like, I was intrigued. Investigation on their website showed many standard types (milk, caramel, multiple varieties of dark), and some non-standard, like Chocolate Kiwi, Fruit and Nut, or Coconut. Either way, I was naturally intrigued. Today I found myself in a grocery store in Kerikeri, and my curiosity got the better of me.

250grams is the standard size for these things (in other words, monstrously large). At under $4NZD, Whittaker’s is actually a better deal per gram than buying the Cadbury/Nestle that I had been in the past.

Of course, none of that matters if the chocolate tastes poor. So how did it fare?

I’m in trouble.