As wonderful as the North Island is I have decided to fly directly down to Queenstown so that more time can be spent exploring the Southern Alps and hiking the Milford Track.
Driving from Rotorua back to Auckland I experienced a horticultural marvel, which it turns out is quite common in New Zealand, the over 20 foot hedge. In person it is really impressive. :-)
The flight down was a very quick 90 minutes, with amazing views of the Southern Alps, which stretch almost the entire length of the island. The entire range is still being formed by the uplift of two tectonic plates pressing together.
Our approach to Queenstown was more of a strafing run than the traditional gradual descent. The pilot needed to bank hard around one peak and then drop sharply into the valley. Amazing!
Queenstown, itself, is an alpine resort haven. There was a Spring Jazz Festival underway in town, which is perched on the hills surrounding a deep alpine lake. The lake is actually so deep that at its bottom fathom it is below actual see level.
Tonight marks the first true “Backpacker” experience in a shared room with two other fine gentlemen. One is from Cambridge, England and the other from Wales. There are two distinct personalities. The learned Brit was a great source of literary discussion. He was convinced that the Da Vinci Code defined pure literary crap. Structurally I have to agree with him but it sure was great “brain candy”. The other roommate, Kevin, was a young, gap toothed/toothless, Welsh brick layer with a classic personality. He couldn’t be more friendly and ready to chat. The only problem was I couldn’t understand a word he said. Kevin was a patient sort and would slow things down and actually consciously introduce consonants into his speech, given my Anglo auditory deciphering handicap. Haaa…
How to speak Kiwi
• Use of the word “as” – Utilized when someone asks you a qualitative question like “How are you?” Proper response would be “Good as.” That’s it. I guess it is up to the questioner to figure out what you are as “good as or maybe it is short for “Good as it gets.” “As” is also used as a term to show approval, such as “Sweet as”. So if you see an especially cool car or beautiful person you might respond “Sweet as”. If something is not difficult, then it is “Easy as”.
• If there is a slippery step and you fall, you have taken a “mean whippa”.
• If one thing is more expensive than another it is said to be “more dearly”.
• If there is a large quantity of something, there are “loads” of it.
• “Wee” is used to add emphasis as to how small something is, as in the double adjectives “wee little”.
• Small pieces are call “bits”, even small segments of time as in a “wee bit of time”.
• Highly Redundant Qualifiers: “I reckon” is used in general speech, as in “I reckon it will rain today”. “I tell you” is used when telling story and added at the end of just about every sentence of the story, as in “The chicken crossed road, I tell you. Just so he could get to the other side, I tell you.” I reckon the Kiwi’s must be very leery of the potential for verbal plagiarism.
• “Crap” – The generally non-offensive derogatory adjective is used to describe anything that is sub-standard. “My crap car is always breaking down.” “We are experiencing a bit of crap weather today aren’t we.”
• “Marvin” – To be really hungry, as in “I missed lunch today and now I’m so marvin.”
• Tramping – a.k.a. hiking, but usually in reference to a multi-day expedition
• Track – a hiking or mountain biking trail
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