Geesers and Government IDs

Our journey continued today as we left Cambridge and headed down to Rotorua. Upon checking in at the Kiwi holiday park, the manager gave us a rundown on all the activities in town.

We were a little confused when she started talking about "the park with all the geesers going off". Really, what do you think of when someone tells you that "you can't miss the big Geeser, it spouts at 10:15 am every day"?  Regardless of what kind of event you think it is, this is apparently why people come to Rotorua, to watch the geesers.

Little did we know that we were going to have a chance encounter with a geeser that evening as well. Like any good Canadians, we've been enjoying being able to buy beer and wine in any of the grocery stores. And now that we're in a new town, we needed to refresh our supply.

No joke, when we arrived in the grocery lineup with all of one sixpack and your very basic grocery necessities, the elderly lady at the till decided to ID us. "No problem" I say, pulling out my government issued drivers license with all the security features necessary for a first world country. But no, granny won't take it. Apparently my ID is good enough to rent a car for 26 days, but not acceptable for purchasing 6 bottles of so-so ale.

The woman asks if I have my passport with me. I say no, but luckily, SP chimes in and says he has his. I can only imagine what the folks in line behind us were thinking.

The gatekeeper of the grocery store apparently takes her job very seriously. Either that or she has terrible eyesight. She looks at the passport, back to SP, back to the passport, back to SP. Frowning disapprovingly.

Finally you can see her counting in her head, calculating how old SP is. 1977. She explains that she has to ID anyone that looks under 25. SP and I look at each other, really? She's serious though, this isn't just procedure, she continues eyeballing the passport.

But the story doesn't end there. Nope, now she enters SP's birth date into the computer and advises us that she has to get a manager's approval. I'm laughing, this can't possibly be how they sell beer here. Forget the Geesers in the park, the one at the grocery store will make you erupt.

With nothing less then the most serious of faces, she continues to review the passport. As if SP and I have miraculously disguised our 17 year old selves in the bodies of 30 somethings for the sole purpose of pulling a fast one on the geriatric grocery clerk in Rotorua NZ.

The manager finally arrives, takes 10 seconds to approve the passport, and we pay. At no point in time did the old bag behind the counter take this as anything but the most serious of duties. You'd think she was selling prescription narcotics or something. As we left, you could feel her eyes peering into you, as if to say, "I'll catch you young'ens next time!"

Anyways, tomorrow we will have further opportunities to be confused by the kiwi accent as we'll be visiting the thermal park to watch the geesers explode (and to check out other geothermal activity). 

-E

Update. Below are pics from the Lady Knox geyser. 

Hobbiton

We visited the real estate of middle earth today, which happens to be located close to Matamata NZ. 

42 single family homes located in The Shire, which is a lovely burrow surrounded by sheep on all sides. The community center includes a bridge, the mill house, and at left, the Green Dragon pub.

A close up of the mill house. 

Lake side hobbit holes, the trendiest part of town. Prices accordingly. There are only six coveted units on the water.

A yellow hobbit hole. 

Blue is also popular.

And so is red.

Bag end, of course, is green. Not currently listed, but the standard to which the town is built by.

The shire. Bag end up top.

The back side of the shire. Newly constructed as part of a movie soon to be coming out.

Hobbiton was lots of fun to visit. But I'm not sure if I'd want to live there. These homes are facades mostly. Those that you can get into are very "cozy". Only a few can actually be entered and those that can have already been lived in by sheep (and hobbits too, of course.)

Triathlon Relay Team Names

Looks like next year I'll be taking part I'm the inaugural Challenge Penticton. My girlfriends S and K are doing the swim and run respectively and I'm on the hook for the run.

Forget training plans, transitions or anything else related to getting ready, the most important part of any relay triathlon is picking the team name.

So today we have been back and forth with names, tonight we're getting our mom's to vote - but until then, any suggestions? What's your favorite?


--You just got chicked...
--The Tritaniums
-Challenge Accepted
-Run Ginger Run
-Flying Red Heads
-The Trifectas
Tri-XX
The Triceratops
... and we can cook
Team Triage
Team Challenged Chicks
Team Discovery Channel
The Tri-Sexuals
The Guild of Calamitous Intent
Go Team Venture
Sabrina's McRideOuts

ITU Auckland, women's world champs

Congrats to all the athletes today at the ITU grand final in Auckland. 

A few pics below.

Heading around for lap two.

Go Canada! Lauren Campbell our lone Canadian starter.

Two of the NZ. Kate McIlroy and Debbie Tanner.

Course favorite Erin Densham had a hard go of it today.

Stepping off the bike at about half way.

Juri Ide pushed the pace on much of the run.

In the end, Anne Haug of Germany brought home the gold.

Cycling the "Adventure Capital of the World"

I've been perusing the Lonely Planet book "Cycling New Zealand" lately. The book continuously requests cyclists to avoid the city of Auckland proper. After having been here for a few days though, I'm not exactly sure why.

The book is aimed at lowest common denominator cycling, you know, those folks that think the granny gear is always the optimum selection.

But really, despite the boring exterior, this city does have a Portlandia feel to it (flight of the concords, anyone?) Cycling should be second nature. They also seem to have more coffee shops per capita than Seattle, no small feat.

Surly Aucklanders know that the little flag sticking out of the top of the recumbent creates high visibility and also that those riders of fixie brakeless conversions can't actually slow down. (Why on earth would you want to do that?)

So as a well provisioned triathlete (more on that later) I could certainly safely navigate these streets.

Auckland has a bit of old world charm. Cobblestones grace many streets. Though instead of granite they are a slippery volcanic basalt. And the curbs continuously vary in height, making it entertaining to watch pedestrians trip into the streets.

Back to the old world charm, city engineers circa 1860 built single lane roads and later they simply repainted the lines to make them two lanes, without adjusting the width. That makes perfect sense of course. The shoulders of roads just accumulate rift raft anyways. If you're a seasoned commuter from a city like London or Paris, these sidewalk free roads will relieve some homesickness for you.

But none of this should deter the optimistic cyclist. As long as commuter angst makes you feel alive, you should have no problems here.

Auckland drivers see things from a different POV. As a cyclist, you must be OK taking your life into your own hands and aggressive drivers are simply helping you get that adrenaline rush you've been seeking. Or you can think about this from a scientific POV. You have a cyclist, a caffeine crazed driver, six traffic lights per intersection and finite space. Just remember to look left.

My solution to these things is that drivers should just slow down and share the road (which I think is a charmingly Canadian way of looking at it.) I therefore encourage riders to take to the streets of Auckland. They have a highly accredited hospital right downtown and it is "the adventure capital of the world" after all.

-E

Cheesy NZ

We like cheese. Perhaps more than average folk. It's very gouda.

We've discovered that in nz, the cheese is plentiful and reasonably priced.  And because of this, here we are on day 3 of our nz trip and our tiny hotel fridge is home to a lot of cheese. I guess cheese is an emmental part of the culture here.

Each one of us basically bought our own brick. We are sharing, but you can't help a quip - what do you call cheese that isn't yours? Nacho cheese. But seriously, a chedder, a colby, some edam, a feta, swiss cheese and a farmers soft cheese. All excellent.

All of them are from the regular supermarket. Little did we know that nz brie-ds award winning cheese. Maybe the better question to ask is why doesn't Canada have such a plentiful and delicious selection? Maybe it's because our cheese is pasture-ized and our cows are not. (I actually don't know the answer to that.)

Moving on, the NZ cheese brand Mainland is so popular, that it's exported around the world and it made the news this week when an OZ grocery store pulled it in flavor of a local brand.

According to Wikipedia, every year an average of 3 kilo's of cheese per person is consumed. I'm definitely living up to my queso. As we continue our whey around NZ I'll share our continued cheesy adventures. (And I don't give edam if you don't like my punny post.)

Resources

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese

Tropical fish (scuba not required)

The 5 of us visited the Auckland Aquarium today. A few select photos below. (Warning, large files)