TASHY TRAVELS

Every Sunday, I am going to upload a post about the different countries I have visited and/or lived in since 2002.

I can assure you of some interesting stories.

NEW ZEALAND 1

The journey through the Pacific Islands, or at least three of them, that were in the preceding blogs were the filling in a New Zealand sandwich. I arrived in New Zealand in March 2005 and left in November 2009. In such a long time I saw an awful lot of the country although much of my time was spent in the north of the North Island, New Zealand is basically two islands, north and south, and of that time a good two and a half years were based on Waiheke Island, 35 minutes off the coast near Auckland.

I am, however, going to take you on a journey through all of New Zealand, starting in the south island and finishing on Waiheke so, let's go. New Zealand is often said to be God's own country and I think when you look at some of the photos that accompany my writing you may agree that it is a very beautiful and varied land.

We will begin our journey in the south east of the South Island. I should point out that I am basically blogging from the notes I made when I was in New Zealand and from an actual journey around the country I made in the winter, their winter, of 2006. However, in this first epistle, I should point out that since I was in Christchurch there was a devastating earthquake in February 2011, destroying many buildings and killing 185 people. My pictures show Christchurch as it was and I hope that it is now restored to its former beauty. My sympathies to those who lost family and friends. The pictures are of the Christchurch I saw.

The two major cities in this region are Christchurch and Dunedin. Both founded about the same time, both in the same country, only about 300 kilometres apart and yet so different. New Zealand is especially interesting because there were no cities at all there until the European settlers came in the mid 1800’s about 180 years ago. Both Christchurch and Dunedin were built close to the sea. That was usual in those days, as everything you wanted had to be brought by boat and they tend to stop when the sea ends. Both started life in about the 1850’s although the actual area had been settled by the Maori for many years before this. Both came about for similar reasons. As we started our journey around New Zealand from there, let’s look at Christchurch first

Christchurch was set up as an English town and it was designed to be a respectable place where the Church of England religion would dominate. The first pilgrims who came in 1850 had to have a form signed by their local vicar in England to say they were sober, honest, industrious and that the family were one of the most respected in their parish. As a result churches can be seen all over Christchurch and the name itself is a bit of a give away. 800 people arrived in those first ships and five years later there were over 3,500 living there. The main road through the city centre curves left and right to circumnavigate the cathedral and the main square is called Cathedral square.

There are no real skyscrapers and the whole city sprawls out into a number of suburbs. My own view of Christchurch was very much how well planned it all was. The streets were so well laid out you could almost think they knew the 21st century would be like this, even if the old trams were still running though now more of a tourist attraction. I hope, when I travel, that some places will give me that certain buzz you feel when you find something, try something, feel something, for the first time. I liked Christchurch but it didn’t do it for me.

We had been told that our drive south, along the coast road, to Dunedin would be flat and boring but actually I really enjoyed it, which may say more about me than the journey. You see I saw things I wanted to find out about. The area is called the Canterbury Plain as it is flat. New Zealand also has about 40 million sheep and a fair few of them live here. But across all these flat fields populated by walking jumpers there were hundreds and hundreds of tall hedges. Some not very long, some stretching 200 or 300 metres. Some very thick, some made up more of a line of trees.

But I wanted to know why and, as I drove on, my little brain began to think. First thought was they were wind breaks. Flat lands get strong winds and the hedges also seemed to go in a general east/west direction. Then I thought that they could also protect against soil erosion. A strong wind across a flat plain tends to take off the top soil. When we got to Dunedin I actually asked someone and, although I was partly right, there was another reason too and this goes back to my mobile jumpers plus the walking milk bottles. You see the sheep and cattle around here need protection from the snow that can affect these parts. The trees and hedges provide this and, according to my informant, there is a law that says that each farm must have some of these. So, if you drive across the Canterbury Plains one winter, expect to see the sheep sheltering under a hedge.

Dunedin came about as a city when 300 Presbyterian settlers from Scotland, led by Captain William Cargill, landed in 1848. Again they came to further their religious views away from their homeland. Dunedin had in fact been home to whalers and sealers before that and even earlier was an area where nomadic Maori moved around. These Maori were the moa hunters. Dunedin was a great place to settle because it had a fantastic natural harbour. The great explorer Captain Cook actually missed the entrance when he sailed around New Zealand in 1770. Dunedin’s population grew from those 300 first settlers to about 12,000 by 1860.

Them something happened to change Dunedin forever. Someone found gold in the hills and rivers around Dunedin. The population grew from 12,000 to 60,000. 35,000 of those were immigrant gold seekers lured by the thought of making a quick fortune. Some did but their arrival transformed Dunedin. These people needed a life outside of panning for gold and so casinos and pubs were built. Alongside the actual gold diggers came businessmen who also saw the way to financial success and for a time in the 1860’s Dunedin became the most prosperous town in New Zealand. But, as with other places around the world built on an exhaustible resource, things changed when the gold ran out. By the way this sort of thing still happens today. Do you think countries where the wealth is built on oil supplies will still be so rich if the oil runs out or, even worse for them, we find an alternative supply?

So, why else are the two cities so different? Location is one reason. Christchurch is built on fairly flat land. It is a town with streets in a grid form. In other words the street map looks a bit like a sheet of graph paper with roads either going north/south or east/west. The planners were also careful to keep some green spaces in the centre of the town to make it seem and look more pleasant and they were helped by the river that runs through it.

Dunedin, on the other hand, is built on very hilly land except close to the harbour shore where the land is flat and has been reclaimed from the sea in some places. Some of the streets are indeed very steep and we both wondered what it was like to try to walk down them when it is icy. Dunedin, despite having the high hills all around, has not gone down the route of tall skyscraper buildings that other cities have done. Christchurch has a few taller buildings but not that many.

In many countries around the world, you will find a rail system or a metro in the major cities, but neither Christchurch nor Dunedin have this. People have to rely on the roads either in their cars or buses, hence the importance of a good road system. But one thing that seems common to both places is that the planners have taken into account the possibility of rainfall while out shopping. Many streets in New Zealand have a cover over part of the pavement so you can walk in the dry even when it rains.

While in Dunedin, we stayed a night at Larnach Castle, New Zealand’s only castle and you can also visit it, eat in it, as well as stay there. In fact you can, if you wish, do all three. We only had time for two of the three and the room we had booked was in the converted stables. When we booked, we were told it was haunted. “Neigh”, I hear you say, and you may well be right to do so as we felt no presence in our room at all. Note to the staff and owners here, there were no presents in our room either.

Seriously, the castle building was begun in 1871 and it took 14 years to build. It is said that two Italian craftsmen and an Englishman spent 12 years carving the ceilings. The castle was initially the home of William J M Larnach, so you can see where it got its name. He was a respected financier, if there are such things, businessman and politician and he had it built along the lines of a grand Scottish castle. However, by 1967, it was in a state of disrepair. It was then bought by the Barker family, who have spent many years restoring it. And they have done a very good job. The ballroom, which was a birthday present from Mr Larnach to his daughter, has been converted to a restaurant.

One day, while in Dunedin, I went out on my own to visit the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame. It is located in Dunedin’s railway station. It opened there in 1999. Several places around the country tendered for the hall to be based with them but Dunedin won. I guess it was nothing to do with having a hall in a train station, to celebrate the most famous sportsmen, who had only achieved what they did by constant training. The motto that the Hall has on its brochure is to honour, to preserve, to educate, to inspire. Within the magnificent building they certainly achieve all their aims.

When the idea of a hall of fame was inaugurated in 1990, past heroes were inducted in. Other names have been added since and, just recently, there have been two inductees each year. Anyone can nominate a person and then a panel sits to decide on whether or not that person should be inducted. All the famous New Zealanders, names that I grew up with, are there. Colin Meads, perhaps New Zealand’s most famous rugby player, John Walker and Sir Murray Halberg two superb athletes, Sir Richard Hadlee, the cricketer, Sir Bob Charles, the golfer and, for me anyway, a trio who show better than anything what such a small country population wise can achieve. In the 1960’s Formula 1 motor racing sometimes had a grid of around 15 cars. From 1967, for four years, three of those drivers were New Zealanders and one, Denny Hulme, became world champion in 1967. On top of seeing all this I now know how the All Blacks got their name and how Richard Hadlee motivated himself.

But the best part of all the time I spent in that area was a trip on the Taieri Gorge Railway, which is said to be one of the world’s greatest train journeys. In length it doesn’t compare with the Trans-Siberian Railway but in its 45 kilometres it takes you through some superb scenery and makes you wonder how on earth it was ever constructed, especially since it happened over 100 years ago.

The route for the railway was chosen in 1877 and work began in 1879. However it wasn’t until 1921 that the line finally reached its intended destination in Cromwell over 235 kilometres away. It then operated successfully until 1980, when the end part of it was closed and it was finally closed down in 1990 but then bought by Dunedin City Council on the proviso that the community could raise NZ$1 million to finance it. Luckily for you and me, they did and so everyone can now enjoy the journey up to Pukerangi and back. And, whilst you can sit back and enjoy the views, you also have the chance to stand outside the carriage, or at least, I did.

Your journey starts crossing the flat, sheep-filled plains just outside Dunedin but, pretty soon, you are into some of the most stunning scenery I have ever seen. The train is slow, thankfully, and you get the chance to really savour the whole journey. There are lots of stories from places you pass on the way. but nothing can actually beat the views you get nor the thoughts you have as you travel. You go through tunnels, across bridges, over viaducts, at times you can almost touch both sides of the gorge as you pass down a narrow section of track.

You see stations built to service a couple of sheep farms, places where the old steam engines would stop to take on water and all the time, pass through, along, under and round, the beautiful scenery of Otago. One of the viaducts is, so they tell me, the southern hemisphere’s largest wrought iron structure. Interesting, but when you can have the views, the scenery, the experience does that bit matter. The train makes several stops, even letting passengers off and then crossing the viaduct so you can get a really good picture.

I don’t think my words could really convey the full beauty of it but I hope the pictures go some way toward it. Better still, go there and do it. You may be able to guess that I really liked Dunedin and the surrounding countryside, particularly our ride on the Taieri Gorge Railway. That was a fantastic experience. Dunedin is also a student town and so pretty lively well into the night. We all know how hard students’ work and how important it is for them to relax after this work or in some cases before it or even instead of it. Whatever, the student community makes Dunedin come alive and add that to the natural beauty and friendliness, and you have somewhere very special and all this at the start of our trip.

I am finishing with your little appetite-whetter. As a way of sponsoring our work and to give publicity to local businesses, we would try an arrange a couple of evening meals in restaurants around New Zealand. Each establishment was then given a brief write-up on our website. Here is the one from Dunedin.

I phoned a restaurant called Table Seven. It was owned by two guys, Steve and Michael. It was Steve I spoke to on the phone; he sounded a good laugh, offered us a meal and then said he wouldn’t be there as he had another restaurant somewhere else. But he left us in the capable hands of Michael, who welcomed us and immediately offered us a cocktail. Michael is a bit of an expert on cocktails as well as an experimenter; more of that later. As soon as we tasted the cocktail, we decided we liked Michael. Then he sat and talked with us before showing us to our table, which seemed to like us too. Well at least it didn’t leave.

We told Michael we would be guided by his suggestions when it came to order, but he said no, choose what you want. However, we should watch his facial expressions, because he wanted us to have the best possible experience. Unfortunately, he made a different expression each time, so we never knew if we were right or wrong. I started with barbecued scallops and prawns while my girlfriend took the three tastes of the sea. She probably thought it would be salt, salt and salt.

For the main course we shared, as we so often do. The choices we got right, I think, were the Fish of the Day steamed in banana leaves and served in a cute little wicker pot and the seared lamb rump served on a cute big china plate.

We finished with a plate of chocolate, I still think it was made of china, and I scream for ice cream.

Michael was so pleased he then experimented on us. He served us a cocktail that he had only made up a few days before. He said it was OK as he had tried it and I now knew what those strange facial expressions were. Anyhow we did try it, it was good and I’m just beginning to stop winking at everyone I see. The guys at Table Seven have a great sense of humour and their cocktail menu demonstrates that. They had just introduced the seven wonders of the world cocktails but before that had the seven deadly sins. So you can try, envy gluttony, lust, anger, lust, greed, sloth, lust and pride. Sorry did I get carried away there.

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