Trip Report

Food
* When I go to a foreign country I always stroll through the grocery store. It's fun to see what kind of wacky things people eat in other countries. For the most part a NZ store looks like an American one. Except for the meat flavored potato chips. Yes, you heard me. Some examples: chorizo sausauge and tomato, chicken, roasted chicken with lemon and thyme, steak and onions, lamb and mint. Of course, we had to try some. I didn't like it, but nbh found it "acceptable".

* They love maple syrup. I do too, so this was a match made in heaven as far as breakfast was concerned. They don't kid around, none of that aunt jemima stuff, the real deal. Booyah. And it's especially good on the french toast topped with bacon and bananas breakfasts I had far too much of.....

* While driving north from Lake Taupo to Auckland to go home (*sniff*) we were feeling a bit peckish so we stopped off at a nursery/cafe that looked inviting. nbh got a carrot cake muffin. It was so good we bought two for the plane ride. Anyway, we were praising it's glory to each other and saw a sign that said, "4th best muffins in New Zealand". I love finding random places like that, makes the trip special.

* NZ is all about seafood (salmon, trout, mussels were plentiful) and lamb. If you like any of that, you'll like your eating choices in NZ. As near as I could tell, there didn't seem to be a "signature dish" for the country. If there is, let me know, and I guess we'll have to try it next time.......

Must visit
* Kaikoura. Spend at least two days there. It is the "Hawaii" of New Zealand. If we'd stayed two days, we would have tried surfing. Whale watching, swimming with dolphins, a seal colony where some of the seals come right up to the parking lot and _show off_ to the cameras (we didn't have our camera with us cause we decided on the spur of the moment to head there after dinner. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Always have your camera.). A seal was two feet away from me. They're cute, but don't let that fool you. They're not known for their sunny disposition.
* Lake Tekapo Mt. John Observatory. You will you get a guided tour of the night skies by an astronomer and they will identify the part of the night sky you'll never see in the Northern Hemisphere. And you get to look through the big telescope. Btw, you still see many of the stars we see in the Northern Hemisphere, except they're backwards. Orion didn't look quite right with his sword in a "raised and ready to fight" position, not hanging from his belt.
* Queenstown. Beautiful. And definitely there's a reason why it's the adventure capital of the world. Do you rock climb? snowboard? parasail? bungee jump? jet boat? And do you want a backdrop of a beautiful lake and snow covered mountains? Yeah. You do. Go.
* Wellington. Reminded me of Vancouver, B.C. If I had to pick a place to live in NZ, this would be it. Walking city, museums, good food.
* Lake Taupo. Convenient home base for things like Rotorua (thermal pools), Waitomo caves, etc. It's got a great selection of restaurants, good walking town.

Lord of the Rings
You were all waiting for me to talk about this. I know it. No hobbit or elf sightings, btw.

* You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a sign telling you what part of the LOTR movies were filmed in that location. We didn't expect this. NZ has done a great job taking advantage of the interest in the movies and their tourism industry. We had one official LOTR thing planned: A tour to Edoras. We figured the hike up and the beautiful scenery would be good and then we could also say we did something LOTRish. It was awesome.
* However, we did swing a dead cat and ended up driving past the mountain that was used for some of the filming of Mt. Doom and on the drive up to Auckland on our last day, we made a side trip to visit Hobbiton. It's the only "set" still remaining and it was actually pretty charming.

International Incident
* As you know, I'm known as J "International Incident" J*r. In my defense, I've never gotten into an accident and nobody has gotten hurt and I swear there were no signs in Munich that the road had turned into a sidewalk. Anyway, I guess nbh decided to take my place on this trip. We were hanging out at a thermal pool. There was a lifeguard. Nbh likes to do the "dead man's float" when he's in a pool. He finds it relaxing. Sucks in his breath and then floats on his stomach. The lifeguard and I noticed he was doing his thing so we're hanging out ourselves, enjoying the sun. You can see where this is going, can't you? Well, someone in the reception area happened to look over and see nbh floating and decides to run out, screaming at me and the lifeguard to do something. Meanwhile a guy walking outside the fence by the pool jumps over it when he hears her and sees nbh floating. At the same time, nbh decides to come up for air. He's looking confused as the lifeguard and I are telling everyone it's okay, he's fine, he's doing this on purpose. I was talking to the lifeguard later and apparently a lot of people like to float like that. I wonder if nbh will think twice before he does it again.......

Anyway, there's more to share, but this'll do for now......