More Observations of New Zealand....

Observations, November 7, 2009

After nearly a week here I’ve made some observations such as the following:

There is still home mail delivery here. The postal box needs to be out on the road or sidewalk, and there are some colorful post boxes. Glad to see that this hasn’t become a thing of the past in this part of the “empire”!

The birds are amazing. I’m still adjusting to waking up in the night and hearing lots of birds chattering in the night. We bought an inexpensive book in Devonport (2nd hand) to give us an introduction and it isn’t nearly good enough, but we’ve observed quite a few new species and so many are amazingly colourful. We love the NZ goldfinches and even though the myna birds are a nuisance (we hear), they are lovely and behave exactly like NA robins. Even sound the same.

The house plants that we grow in Canada appear to grow on the roadsides here. I’m most amazed at osteopernum showing up in the ditches. Impatiens, datura, pelagoriums and monbretia simply grow anywhere. The grasses are lovely, too, and since this is a place with lots of wind it looks very attractive. Enjoying the NZ flax, too! I think my favorite plant has to be the Norfolk Pine, however – always loved the one growing at the Mendel Art Gallery in S’toon. They are so symmetrical and majestic. Today (nov. 7) we saw a 2000 year old kauri tree – most impressive.

Getting reacquainted with lefthand driving – hmmm. Dave seemed to adjust within about 6 hours of driving, I’m continuing to have my issues. The roads are very windy and narrow and the camper van is a bit unwieldy in my opinion. My down shifting needs work. I usually drive on the roads where we can’t go much more than 50/60 kmph so I don’t have to go too fast. I laugh at all the road works. It’s pretty much continuous. There are constant warnings about the shoulder being closed – but there really isn’t a shoulder on any of the roads anyway. Unlike BC, there are very few warnings about a flag person up ahead -–just be prepared. The “works end” sign is very frequent – 500m further down the road is another project that’s underway. Guess it’s a sign of spring – even in a place that doesn’t really get winter.