Today was spent traveling via charter bus to Karapiro where we’ll spend the next part of our trip. Karapiro is located at the top of the North Island, somewhat near Auckland. Last night we had a celebratory dinner and we gave gifts and many thanks to Sally for hosting us at the Makahika. We all appreciated her hospitality and generosity for taking on the housing and feeding of our IPE group.
Since today was somewhat uneventful (40 of your closest international Pony Club friends on an all day long bus ride...) I’ve decided to share some of our random observations about New Zealand.
1. There are a lot of sheep. About 40 million to be exact. This works out to about 10 sheep per person in NZ.
2. There may be a lot of sheep, but there are even more possums. About 70 million possums to be exact. Ponder that for a minute.
3. There is not a word to describe the shades of green in this country. Everything is either grass, a fern, or some sort of evergreen and it is just green green green as far as the eye can see. They seem to have fern moss, fern brush, fern trees, and your average everyday fern. Which leads into my next observation...
4. Everything is so green because it rains. A lot. Like, a lot, a lot. As in every day. (Are you getting the picture?) It usually starts off by raining in the morning so you dress in appropriate clothes and by lunch time the sun has come out and it’s warm. By the time you’ve stripped off your waterproof layers, located your sunglasses and worn them for a few minutes, the rain starts back up again. Rinse and repeat.
5. “Rat tails” are very popular in NZ. They’ve added a twist to the circa 1987 Rat Tail by making it an asymmetric Rat Tail, so instead of the Rat Tail snaking nastily down the center of your neck it is oriented to the side so that when it gets a certain length it can rest on your shoulder. We have seen this phenomenon on boys as young as 3 and on “men” as old as 40. We saw it on an alarmingly frequent basis when we went to the Shannon Rugby Club. 75% of the males were sporting one. I wish I was kidding. It sounds as sexy and chic as it looks. We’ll try to get a picture.
6. The men wear awkwardly short shorts. Imagine very skimpy running shorts. In denim. You will pass road crews working and instead of them wearing work pants like Carhartts they are sporting their short shorts... which causes us all to sing the Nair hair remover jingle "Who wears short shorts?" It’s quite a look.
7. The men also have an affinity for the “wife beater” type shirt.
8. Almost every horse wears a “rug” 24/7. (See Random Observation About New Zealand #4.) The weather hasn’t been that cold but most of the horses don’t have shelter- just some sort of windbreak (usually a tall hedge of evergreens). Most of the “rugs” are the old New Zealand rugs that many of you probably remember from the 80's and early 90's before the synthetic material blankets came out (Rambo was first soon followed by Weatherbeetas.) For those of you that didn’t have the pleasure of experiencing these first hand, imagine a very heavy, very stiff canvas tent with leather buckles that could double as a horse blanket. They weighed about 300 pounds and conformed not at all to the horse’s shape. Nor were they reliably waterproof and the leather straps would get crunchy and warped because of being in the elements. They rubbed mercilessly and the horse would cringe when it saw you coming with the “rug.”
9. New Zealand is not a nation of “foodies.” They eat to live versus many other nations and cultures that live to eat. There is one national food they seem to be especially proud of though: “Hokey Pokey” ice cream.
10. There are a lot of cows. It’s nice to see them out grazing in their natural cow habitat instead of the way they’re factory farmed in the US. Which brings me to the next Random Observation About New Zealand...
11. At one point in time, before the Mauri civilization and white man, NZ was only 5% grassland. The rest was “bush.” (Think ferns & evergreen. There are no native deciduous trees.) Now NZ is 51% grassland. This is not necessarily a good thing because.........
12. Many species disappeared with the bush and are now extinct.
13. New Zealand has more invasive and foreign species than it does native species. They tend to wreak havoc on the native species. See Random Observation About New Zealand #2.
14. Homeland Security is not a top priority here. I suppose I can see why... what are you going to take? Their sheep? Case in point: On the itinerary one day was a visit to the NZ Air Force. We arrived (unannounced I think) and the exchange at the security booth went something like this:
IPE Trip Leader: “Hi! We’re here with The Pony Club! We’d like to tour the Air Force Base!”
Air Force Security: “hmmm.... The Pony Club you say? Well, I guess so, come on in!”
We were then given an impromptu Air Force tour guide who drove us around the sprawling 4 acre compound. The tour went something like this:
Air Force Tour Guide: “Ok, we’re going to get off the bus and we’ll take you into the hangar where the jet is stored. We ask you to please refrain from taking pictures.”
IPE Member at the back of the group: “Did you say we’re not allowed to take pictures?”
Air Force Tour Guide: “Well, you know what? Go ahead, it’s ok to take pictures.”
We enter the hangar and see the jet. The next dialogue went something like this:
Air Force Tour Guide: “Ok, the weapons on the jet have not yet been disabled, so please take care when you climb up on the aircraft and don’t touch anything with a yellow or red handle or button because it will deploy some sort of weapon. Oh, and please don’t touch that button right there when you are climbing into the seat of the jet because that will deploy the ejection seat 200 feet into the air at a very rapid rate of speed. Ok, who wants to climb up and sit in the jet?”
15. Infrastructure is not a strong suit in NZ. Our journey today from Levin (about an hour and a half northeast of Wellington) to Karapiro (southwest of Auckland) appears to be about 200 miles as the crow flies. It took us 8 hours to navigate this distance.
16. NZ has some incredible geological features. One of the “places of interest” we stopped at yesterday was Huka Falls. Google it b/c nothing I can describe can come close to doing it justice. See if there is video footage of it.... incredible.
Janna
Since today was somewhat uneventful (40 of your closest international Pony Club friends on an all day long bus ride...) I’ve decided to share some of our random observations about New Zealand.
1. There are a lot of sheep. About 40 million to be exact. This works out to about 10 sheep per person in NZ.
2. There may be a lot of sheep, but there are even more possums. About 70 million possums to be exact. Ponder that for a minute.
3. There is not a word to describe the shades of green in this country. Everything is either grass, a fern, or some sort of evergreen and it is just green green green as far as the eye can see. They seem to have fern moss, fern brush, fern trees, and your average everyday fern. Which leads into my next observation...
4. Everything is so green because it rains. A lot. Like, a lot, a lot. As in every day. (Are you getting the picture?) It usually starts off by raining in the morning so you dress in appropriate clothes and by lunch time the sun has come out and it’s warm. By the time you’ve stripped off your waterproof layers, located your sunglasses and worn them for a few minutes, the rain starts back up again. Rinse and repeat.
5. “Rat tails” are very popular in NZ. They’ve added a twist to the circa 1987 Rat Tail by making it an asymmetric Rat Tail, so instead of the Rat Tail snaking nastily down the center of your neck it is oriented to the side so that when it gets a certain length it can rest on your shoulder. We have seen this phenomenon on boys as young as 3 and on “men” as old as 40. We saw it on an alarmingly frequent basis when we went to the Shannon Rugby Club. 75% of the males were sporting one. I wish I was kidding. It sounds as sexy and chic as it looks. We’ll try to get a picture.
6. The men wear awkwardly short shorts. Imagine very skimpy running shorts. In denim. You will pass road crews working and instead of them wearing work pants like Carhartts they are sporting their short shorts... which causes us all to sing the Nair hair remover jingle "Who wears short shorts?" It’s quite a look.
7. The men also have an affinity for the “wife beater” type shirt.
8. Almost every horse wears a “rug” 24/7. (See Random Observation About New Zealand #4.) The weather hasn’t been that cold but most of the horses don’t have shelter- just some sort of windbreak (usually a tall hedge of evergreens). Most of the “rugs” are the old New Zealand rugs that many of you probably remember from the 80's and early 90's before the synthetic material blankets came out (Rambo was first soon followed by Weatherbeetas.) For those of you that didn’t have the pleasure of experiencing these first hand, imagine a very heavy, very stiff canvas tent with leather buckles that could double as a horse blanket. They weighed about 300 pounds and conformed not at all to the horse’s shape. Nor were they reliably waterproof and the leather straps would get crunchy and warped because of being in the elements. They rubbed mercilessly and the horse would cringe when it saw you coming with the “rug.”
9. New Zealand is not a nation of “foodies.” They eat to live versus many other nations and cultures that live to eat. There is one national food they seem to be especially proud of though: “Hokey Pokey” ice cream.
10. There are a lot of cows. It’s nice to see them out grazing in their natural cow habitat instead of the way they’re factory farmed in the US. Which brings me to the next Random Observation About New Zealand...
11. At one point in time, before the Mauri civilization and white man, NZ was only 5% grassland. The rest was “bush.” (Think ferns & evergreen. There are no native deciduous trees.) Now NZ is 51% grassland. This is not necessarily a good thing because.........
12. Many species disappeared with the bush and are now extinct.
13. New Zealand has more invasive and foreign species than it does native species. They tend to wreak havoc on the native species. See Random Observation About New Zealand #2.
14. Homeland Security is not a top priority here. I suppose I can see why... what are you going to take? Their sheep? Case in point: On the itinerary one day was a visit to the NZ Air Force. We arrived (unannounced I think) and the exchange at the security booth went something like this:
IPE Trip Leader: “Hi! We’re here with The Pony Club! We’d like to tour the Air Force Base!”
Air Force Security: “hmmm.... The Pony Club you say? Well, I guess so, come on in!”
We were then given an impromptu Air Force tour guide who drove us around the sprawling 4 acre compound. The tour went something like this:
Air Force Tour Guide: “Ok, we’re going to get off the bus and we’ll take you into the hangar where the jet is stored. We ask you to please refrain from taking pictures.”
IPE Member at the back of the group: “Did you say we’re not allowed to take pictures?”
Air Force Tour Guide: “Well, you know what? Go ahead, it’s ok to take pictures.”
We enter the hangar and see the jet. The next dialogue went something like this:
Air Force Tour Guide: “Ok, the weapons on the jet have not yet been disabled, so please take care when you climb up on the aircraft and don’t touch anything with a yellow or red handle or button because it will deploy some sort of weapon. Oh, and please don’t touch that button right there when you are climbing into the seat of the jet because that will deploy the ejection seat 200 feet into the air at a very rapid rate of speed. Ok, who wants to climb up and sit in the jet?”
15. Infrastructure is not a strong suit in NZ. Our journey today from Levin (about an hour and a half northeast of Wellington) to Karapiro (southwest of Auckland) appears to be about 200 miles as the crow flies. It took us 8 hours to navigate this distance.
16. NZ has some incredible geological features. One of the “places of interest” we stopped at yesterday was Huka Falls. Google it b/c nothing I can describe can come close to doing it justice. See if there is video footage of it.... incredible.
Janna
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