Top Fives!

Hello Reader!

Two blog posts in one day...wow!  Someone is really looking to procrastinate...

Well, I thought I would do a set of top fives for a variety of experiences in NZ, since they are generally fairly entertaining, and will give you an idea of my day to day living.  Without further ado, here they are!

TOP FIVES

Top Five New Zealand public transport moments:

1.  My bus to Midtown/Auckland CBD (think downtown city area) hits a car.  Bus driver mutters something about Americans looking the wrong way, and takes down my info as a witness.  Does not realize I am American.

2.  Crazy bus drivers at high velocities.  With standard traffic and standard number of stops, it takes me about 25 minutes to get into the city once I get on the bus.  This driver does it during morning rush hour in 15 flat.

3.  That moment when the bus passes change format, and the bus driver doesn't recognize your bus pass.  And asks you where you got it.  And not having gotten it yourself (thank you Dartmouth for providing them), you don't know what to say...

4.  When you are getting onto a ferry going to Russell (old pirate port up north) from the Bay of Islands (north of Auckland, beautiful spot), and once everyone is on the ferry, an announcement is made that the ferry will instead be used for private charter, and that you will instead be getting on a dolphin tour boat, which has agreed to make an unexpected stop to drop you in Russell.  Cue confusion and entertainment.

5.  There is an old fashioned train that runs in and out of Auckland CBD.  Rickety track and all.  Cool, huh?

Side note: my computer ran out of battery right as I was writing this blog post, which I took as a sign to go home.  So I got on the bus.  Cue NZ public transport moment #6...

6.  I get on the 221 express to Mt Albert.  I've never been on the express before, and am thinking that this is cool.  I quickly realize the speed at which this man wants to drive.  I am very much okay with that, as it is friday afternoon and I'd like to get home.  Well apparently, he also has an anger management issue, because he stops the bus in the middle of the road during rush hour traffic, gets out of the bus, and proceeds to quite literally scream at two bikers (who were minding their own business in the bike lane, but apparently were too close to the bus anyway) to "get the $&*^$  # ^*%&   ^**%# out the way of the bus."  Then lays on his horn for a solid minute while gunning it up the hill.

oh NZ public transport....

Top Five meals/foods I've eaten outside of my homestay in NZ 

Given the fact that my host family cooks so well, I've got to do top five meals outside the homestay...since there is a lot of great food in NZ on the whole!

1.  Hotstone Tofu Bibimbap from the Atrium (Asian food court)

For those of you that don't know what bibimbap is, I've attempted to put a picture in.  We'll see if the tech gods shine upon me today.  Bibimbap is a korean dish that basically consists of rice, all sorts of vegetables, some kind of meat/tofu, and an egg on top.  In the hotstone variety, the egg on the top is a raw egg yolk, and the dish that the food is in is hot enough to cause it to make a crackling sound.  As soon as you get it, you puncture the egg yolk on top of the food and quickly stir it in, and the bowl that holds the whole thing cooks it instantly.  The great part about this?  It gives the rice a wonderful buttery taste, and helps it stick together, which makes eating with chopsticks a lot easier.

2.  Pearl Milk Tea

Pearl milk tea is essentially slightly sweetened room temperature milk tea with tapioca pearls at the bottom of it.  You drink it through a really wide straw, so that you can suck up both the pearls and the tea at the same time.  The barley pearl milk tea is one of the excellent varietals of pearl milk tea, which has barley in it as well as tapioca pearls, and basically is like eating delicious milk soaked cereal through a straw.  Believe me, it's delicious.  I had the Jasmine pearl milk tea yesterday though, and that was pretty good too.  Decisions...

3.  Shippey's Fish and Chips (Bay of Islands)

This was simply delicious.  Fish and chips freshly caught that day, fried to perfection, and wrapped in newsprint.  Served in a restaurant that is on a boat in the water, and also a surprisingly good deal. Need I say more?  Here's the link to the website where you can see the menu and photos :)

http://www.shippeys.com/

4.  Hummus

As a general category, hummus is done particularly well in NZ, and I haven't the slightest clue as to why.  In particular, Lisa's brand of hummus is amazing.  Sundried tomato and pesto?  Roasted Kumara with pumpkin seeds?  Lemon and garlic?  I think yes.  

5. Ginger Beer

Ginger beer is a NZ thing through and through, as is Ribena (blackcurrant juice), and both of them are delicious.  Ginger beer is a bit like root beer in the States - it is brewed from ginger and is non-alcoholic (although there are alcoholic variants - I hear they taste about the same).  It is one of the more refreshing things I have tasted in a while.  Delish.

That's all for now!

Cheers,

Maggie

Hosted in Mt Albert

Hello Reader!

It's been awhile since I've written something on here, but I find myself having tons of school work to do yet again, so it is of course time for the honored tradition of blogging when I really should be doing something else!

This particular posting is about the fantastic people that are my host family, and my quietly enjoyable life with them in the western suburbs of Auckland, in a little place known as Mt Albert.  My host parents and my host sister (let's refer to them as M = host mom, D = host dad, S = host sister) are some of the most welcoming people I have met in a long time, and have a fantastic sense of humor, spectacular culinary skills, a beautiful home, and an adorable cat named Kipper.  M works as a manager of an adorable little boutique in town, and D works for a large American company, and recently went to Bangkok on business (cool!).  S is in year 11 (equivalent to 10th grade in the US, but is like 9th grade in the sense of being the first year of "serious" study), and is a cheerful 14 year old who bakes fantastic cupcakes and always brings one to me in my room when I am studying (cue the "awwww" response).  Better yet, she does this about twice a week - she gives me one, gives her mum one, eats one herself, and then takes the rest to her friends at school, simply because she is very kindhearted.  I love spending time with her!  Last night (Valentine's Day here), I went to Silo Park to watch The Princess Bride projected onto the side of a silo (they play a movie every week during the summer) and invited S and her friend to come along.  We had so much fun, although I think she got a little cold with the wind coming off of the water.  Hopefully we will do it again soon!

Anyway, back to the homestay.  I feel so blessed to have ended up with another wonderful family (my first wonderful family being in Paris last spring - Juju et le petit Raph, je dois vous remercie mille fois pour votre hospitalite pendant mon sejour a Paris!).  The first night I got to my homestay, we had a barbecue out on the back deck and chatted until late.  Recent meals have included pesto pasta with kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes, mixed seafood over udon noodles, and chicken satay skewers on the barbecue.  I am in food paradise!  Better yet, D likes to maintain a glass house out in the backyard, which grows green onions and tons of tomatoes!  The tomatoes are by far the best ones I have ever tasted.

But truly, even though this blog post has turned into a rambling about delicious food, I am so grateful to be with a group of caring and loving people, who have welcomed me into their home as if I am family.  Makes me want to host foreign students some day!

Cheers for now!
Maggie

Waitangi Day

Dear Reader,

Out of all the things that I should be doing right now - sleeping, writing an essay, writing a different essay, researching for another essay - writing a blog post is low on the list.  Which is, of course, why it brings me great pleasure to do so; today's post will offer up a narrative of Waitangi Day here in NZ, celebrated on the 6th of February.

Waitangi Day is not quite like Independence Day in the US, but in some ways it has a similar feel.  It is a day off of work that people often don't truly appreciate the significance of, it is right smack in the middle of the NZ summer, and it is characterized by barbecues, outdoor concerts, beach parties, and apparently cruise ships - there were two of them docked in port today, and the poor fellows found much of Auckland closed for the holiday (which was presumably a rather bewildering discovery on a Wednesday).

The significance of Waitangi Day is that it was the day in 1840 on which Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed by Maori chiefs and British representatives of the Crown.  I say Te Tiriti o Waitangi (written in Maori) and not The Treaty of Waitangi for two reasons: firstly, Te Tiriti was originally written and signed in Maori, and secondly, The Treaty of Waitangi, the English "version" of Te Tiriti, is in fact a bastardized version of the original document and bears little resemblance to it, nor is it recognized as valid under international law.  Details...(said with heavy sarcasm)...we'll deal with these another time...

On this important national holiday, I decided to make my way to the Waitangi Day Festival at Bastion Point. Bastion Point is east of Auckland between the aquarium and Mission Bay (cute little newly upscale beach town).  Deciding that we wanted to get to the festival early to stake out a good seating site for the concert, myself and three friends arrived at Bastion Point at about 9:45am, and spent a bit wandering around the various shops and food stands set up around the main concert stage, and also took a look at the wharenui (the main building on a marae; for sleeping).  Bastion Point is technically a part of the marae of Ngati Whatua, the iwi (meaning tribe/nation) that used to live in and around Auckland, and the Point is the site of a historic confrontation between the NZ government and the Ngati Whatua culminating in a protest march at the Point in 1978.

After wandering around a bit, and eating a few freshly made mini doughnuts, we wandered down the hill a little to the official entry for the concert area and proceeded to set out our beach towels and do some relaxing in the sun as the first set began to play.  The sun on my face, my giant floppy beach-mom hat, the reggae music playing from the stage, and the friends I was surrounded by made me wonder if I could be living in any more an idyllic moment (the answer was no) and made me forget all about the snowy cold winter that is blasting the States at the moment.

By the time all was said and done, there were 16 Dartmouth students that attended the concert, spread out on a motley variety of beach towels and surrounded by sunscreen.  Some of us, myself included, danced to the music up near the stage for awhile, and got autographs from one of the musical groups.  I was there from 9:45am to 4:15pm, and would have stayed longer if time had allowed.  Food highlights of the day included  the aforementioned doughnuts, chicken kebab wraps and shaved ice type drinks, and the musical highlight for me, at least, was listening, dancing, and singing along to the group 1814's set.  They were amazing!  I've posted some of their song lyrics below and a link to one of their videos.

A fantastic day, in sum.

Next up for blog posts will be: a recap of my day on Waiheke Island, the Bay of Islands trip, and moving in with my AMAZING host family!

Cheers from NZ (prnounced "en-zed" here)
Maggie



1814 Songs

http://www.myspace.com/1814official/music/songs

The link above is a link to some of their top songs - listen and enjoy!

And here is their website: http://www.1814.co.nz/index.html