They do.

We have seen sheep and now we have it on authority that they do, in fact, float.

Mrs. Roser, who we stayed with in Picton, grew up on a farm and once had  to pull in a ram who had gotten itself into the lake. How, I don't know, this is her story, I'm just relating it. She said that he was doing just fine at the moment, but wasn't sure how long he'd be able to keep "floating" so they had to row out onto the lake and try to get it in the little boat without capsizing it. They succeeded, and now we know that sheep do float.

Eating

The food here in NZ is pretty much the same as anywhere in the US and the EU. We have KFC, McDonald's, Burger King and more independent fast food joints than you can shake a stick at. We have tons of restaurants here (but none of the good ones like Olive Garden or Mi Casa). We have cuisine from all over the world: India, Thailand, Vietnam, Chinese, Mexico*, et al. But having the RV, we cook for ourselves quite often. As such, we spend a little bit of almost every day in a grocery store. And what do we buy?

Weet-Bix for breakfast.

These come in little bars that absorb three times there weight in milk and become soggy almost as soon as they get wet. I like that but Lewis has taken to biting the dry bar and chasing it with milk. 

Vegemite

Made from the leftover yeast from beer, I couldn't hardly wait to try it. It only took one bite. Vegemite is bitter and foul tasting. After talking with the guy from the brewery tour, we learned that we were doing it wrong. He said that Americans spread it on like peanut butter (which we did) and that is what was wrong. It must be spread on thin with a bit of butter. We tried it again and he was right - it wasn't repulsive, only mildly distasteful.

Cookies

Yes, we were supposed to be on the Atkins diet while we were here, but there was a mutiny upon arrival and I was overruled. Now we are eating our way through the islands' cookie supplies as fast as we can and the Tim Tam is our favorite thus far.

 Pies!

Mince pie, steak pie, chicken pie, chicken and apricot pie, omg we love these things. They are completely unhealthy stuffed with cheese and meat and other fatty goodness, but holy hell they are tasty (and cheap). We eat these almost every day. 

That about sums up what we eat regularly. There have been a few other experiences that are noteworthy, but I'll save those for Lewis to tell when we get home (I can't tell ALL the good stories here! What will he talk about??)

*Note: Mexican food here is often just generic Doritos with chili dumped on top. That's high quality. :(

Rotorua stinks.

We left Taupo this morning and headed into Rotorua. It smells like ass but gawd is it beautiful.

The smell and the scenery are both attributed to the high levels of geothermal activity that permeate the area. Everywhere we turn there are jets of steam seeping up from the ground and they all smell like sulfur. We could smell the town 20km before we actually got here and I think we shall only stay the day so that the smell doesn't have much chance to settle into our clothes and souvenirs! We'd hate to bring that back with us!

 

Huka Prawns

Today, we got up nice and early, had a good breakfast, then drove up the road to spend the entire day prawn fishing.

Yes, we spent $72 and nearly six hours of our lives to catch 6 of these freshwater prawns (that's 4 for CJ and 2 for me). I can't help but think that these prawns cost $12 each. They had better be good.

...and I only hit one curb!

I’ve done it!

Having watched Lewis drive through the treacherous, curvy mountains and now returning to flat land, I mustered up my courage and got behind the wheel. It was glorious.

Driving was fairly easy – I only hit one curb - but what made it so great were Lewis’ reactions. At one point he was looking down at his lap and looked up just as we were heading into a curve. In a brief moment of panic, he jumped and grabbed for the non-existent steering wheel in front of him. That made this whole trip worthwhile because, as you may know, he does not startle easily (or at least he is really good at hiding it) and that makes it all the funnier. I only wish that I had it on camera. 

One-lane bridges abound in NZ. We even shared one with a train track!!

Vineyards are also quite plentiful here, although this explains why some of the wine tastes the way it does...

Sheep!

These little guys are absolutely everywhere. We have been walking on remote trails in the rainforest, on the beach, in the bush and they are there. Wherever we drive, they are there. Wherever we eat, they are on the menu. But they're cute! 

Free WiFi

In the US when you go to a place that offers free WiFi, you are only limited by the amount of time that the place stays open or, in the case of a 24-hour joint,  how long you can tolerate sitting there. Not so in NZ.

Free WiFi generally means that you get 50MB for free and that's it. Time to move on. GTFO. That's enough to check your email and Facebook and upload 4 pictures to the blog and, to top it all off, these places are often few and far between. This means that updating the blog is not easy and it explains why I am not posting as much as I would like.

However, now that we are in Wellington, we have the Te Papa Tangarwea museum that has free, unlimited WiFi. WOOT. Let the photo uploads begin!