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 3

This time we went up the west coast of New Zealand’s south island, turned right at Greymouth, crossed the top of the Southern Alps, stopped in Hanmer Springs and arrived in Kaikoura, all in the space of a day. One of my ‘seemed a good idea at the time’ moments. It was a total of 500 kilometres on some pretty winding roads. I will leave it to you to decide if I meant the roads were pretty and winding or they were winding quiet a bit. We left Franz Joseph at about 5 in the morning and had got to Hanmer Springs by lunch time. For the greater part of this journey I was the only one awake, which means I did a lot of thinking, especially about all I had seen, and then wrote it down on occasional stops on the way. Then, later on, we visited a place which collected all those thoughts together. The pictures that accompany my little thoughts are all taken from somewhere around Abel Tasman Park, of which more later.

If you listen to the words of the song that I wrote for the intended project, you will know there is a line in it which says, “One World, it’s your only home”. I appear to have thought a bit about this. We can have all these ideas of travelling into space and building communities on the moon but the life we are used to, the type of atmosphere in which we can survive unaided, is only found here on earth. If we, collectively, are going to have somewhere to live in the future, all of us need to look after it and sometimes we don’t do a very good job. We know we have to take care of things like rubbish disposal because litter lying all over the place is really ugly. But it is not just us changing things. Nature, without any help from us, can do quite a bit and when we help, then things can get really bad.

We can’t stop earthquakes, volcanoes or tsunamis. As we have understood them more, we can prepare for them. After the major tsunami in 2004, new early warning systems were put in place. They now construct buildings so that, in places where they know earthquakes could happen, the buildings have a better chance of surviving. But even then things go wrong. It is quite often in the poorer countries, where they cannot afford this new technology or where they don’t have this knowledge, that earthquakes seem to occur.

So natural disasters, with all our knowledge, can still kill thousands of people every year. There are, also, times when we contribute to these tragedies. We build in certain places and weaken the land by altering the flow of a river, which may at a later date cause a flood. We now know that some of the chemicals or fuels that we use do damage to the atmosphere and can alter our weather patterns faster than they would change naturally. There have been changes in weather patterns, ice ages etc, for million of years, long before we starting using coal, gas, sprays, whatever, but we may be making things happen quicker.

Some of the worst damage has been done by changing the vegetation, the natural landscape, of the places in which we live. In many countries, large areas of forests have been destroyed. The trees have been cut down for wood or to clear the land so towns could be built. Nobody really knows what long-term effects this may have. Trees soak up water, they give habitat to animals and all of these things are part of nature’s chain. Take away a link in that chain and maybe, just maybe, eventually the whole structure could fall apart. It’s like building a house with a deck of cards or playing jenga, if you know that game. You have lots of wooden blocks on top of each other and the idea is to take away blocks from the bottom or middle and put them on the top. You can take away so many and then the whole thing collapses and that is just how nature is and we don’t know how many blocks are left before it falls.

Many countries have now designated certain parts of their lands as National Parks or something similar; now you see where all this was leading. These are areas that are considered to be of great natural beauty or places that it is important to preserve, but this produces a paradox. We preserve these areas for man to enjoy, but too many people going there could destroy it and this is why governments try to control matters. Not only can they look after the park, control any building but they can also keep an eye on the number of visitors. New Zealand has, I think, 13 National Parks and all of this came home to me because we made a visit to the Abel Tasman National Park in the north-west of the South Island. It is the smallest of the National Parks but also the most visited and it is beautiful. Some areas have no roads so the only way you can get to the magnificent beaches and see the hills is by water taxi.

We took an aqua taxi up the coast, got dropped off and then walked back through forest and beach to our pick up point. A fairly leisurely 12 or so kilometres. We saw a few properties, apparently this is the only National Park of the thirteen which allows private dwellings, but most of the time we were alone, happy and just taking in the beauty of nature. These are places it is totally right to preserve. Beautiful. Exactly what I would like my children and grandchildren to enjoy. New Zealand is a very lucky country at the moment with only about 4 million people living in an area of about 260,000 square kilometres. Funnily enough, Abel Tasman, after whom the park is named and the man who was believed to be the first European to sight New Zealand, was a Dutchman. At the moment in The Netherlands there are about 16 million people living in 41,000 square kilometres. This means that there about 380 people for each square kilometre while in New Zealand there are only about 15 people per square kilometre. Think about that. How can countries like The Netherlands find much land left for National Parks. Indeed is there much space left at all. Just remember, it’s our only home.

You can see from the pictures, all of which come from the park, that the landscape is rich in forests but they are not all old. You see years ago man got here and burned the land or chopped down the trees and most of the vegetation on the lower levels is either introduced plants or replanted natural ones,. At the higher levels there are still some original trees. In the warmer, more moist areas you would find a lush rainforest while in the drier areas perhaps there could have been beech trees or similar ones who like a dry soil base. And, as I said, it is not only man who has changed the landscape around here. Nature has done her bit. The large number of bays and inlets are there because the sea has worn away the softer rock over thousands of years. The peaks of the mountains are caused by something called weathering where the wind and rain will affect the land. Gorges will form on mountainsides where water and ice have cut a path through the rock.

Okay, end of thoughts, back to journey. I said, if you can remember back to paragraph one, that we stopped at lunch time at Hanmer Springs. It would appear that my thinking and note taking, which I do remember doing at Hanmer while eating, resulted in little or no notes about the Springs themselves. I think it used to be a sanatorium or a nunnery. After lunch, but not too soon as mother told me it was wrong to swim straight after eating, we spent an hour or so relaxing in the pools. I know in the old days they had segregated nude bathing and an article of clothing, skirt or trousers, would be hoisted on a pole to show which sex was in the pool. But, apart from that, I have nothing noted but I would recommend a trip there because the water is lovely and hot, even in winter and very refreshing after a long drive.

Last time I told you that nature fascinated me. I said how weird it was to know that the Franz Josef Glacier retreated or advanced when it decided, not man. This week nature had two more tricks for us, though this time more everyday ones. Our time in Kaikoura was supposed to include a trip out to sea to watch for whales but the weather did not allow that to happen. Then, we planned to take the ferry across to the north island one evening but the weather, by then, was even worse and no sailings left Picton for 24 hours.

We didn't stay at the beach all the tme and did fill in the time by making a couple of visits to a few of the numerous vineyards around here. If you look around the world, you will see certain countries seem to produce certain goods. In many cases, climatic conditions, or the terrain, dictate this but, in recent years, globalisation has come into play. To me, globalisation has two sides. Firstly, the good side, where we can, through as free a trade as possible, all help each other. If I have a bad crop and you don’t, then you help me and vice versa. We can trade what we need with those who need what we have, if that makes sense. But there is a downside and I’m afraid that organisations like the World Bank seem to make this worse. I believe, and don’t quote me, that in certain cases, it has been suggested to some countries to concentrate on one crop and provide everything for the world. So, Brazil, for example, is told, you grow coffee, Sri Lanka, you grow tea etc. That’s all very well until the bottom falls out of the coffee market, Brazil gets less income and can’t afford to buy the goods it no longer makes. That’s enough economics, unless the bottom falls out of the boxer shorts market, and I will return to where I was headed.

The wine makers of the world were, in olden days, France, Italy and Germany. They grew the grapes, they made the wine. It was, however, really only climate that made them such great producers. Now it’s changing and other parts of the world are moving into making and selling wine and New Zealand is just one of these. There are several areas where vineyards abound and the Marlborough region of the South Island has become, in a very short space of time, quite famous for its wines. If you drive down a particular road just north of Blenheim you will see vineyard after vineyard or for reasons I don’t quite understand, winery after winery. You see you grow grapes on vines so vineyards seems logical. What you make is wine so winery doesn’t fit quite so well.

The climate around here is good for grape growing with plenty of sunshine and not much rain. Now I don’t pretend to be an expert on the different types of wine but obviously the grape you plant makes a difference to the taste, as does the time you harvest and, so they tell me, the type of soil. I believe how long you let it ferment and how long you leave it all affects the taste too. But leaving the technical stuff aside, the fact is that, in a very short space of time, New Zealand has become a leading producer of quality wines. Someone had a really good idea about 40 or so years ago and now it’s all happening. Maybe there are some other countries around the world that could learn from this. Look at what you don’t make or grow and see if you can.

Your dining experience this time is amazing. Bacchus is the god of wine. He wasn’t Dutch. Marcel Rood is; well not rude but Dutch and a bit of a god of food or at least cooking. When my girlfriend walked into his restaurant in Blenheim and asked if he could feed us one night, he not only agreed, saying he would be happy to cook for us, but he also decided exactly what we should eat. We never saw the menu till we left and for one of us this was perfect. She didn’t need to make a decision. As we had six courses, if she had been choosing, we would have been there for at least three days. Each course was served with a glass of wine and we were just so beautifully looked after we could never really say thank you enough. It was a wonderful experience.

But, unlike us, you needn’t be surprised by each course as I will tell you what we enjoyed and you can eat when you go there. We started with the Bacchus Classic, which is a smooth chicken and peppercorn pate, complemented with a full-bodied blackcurrant savoury jam and a selection of breads and crackers. Fantastic. Then we had a baked filo parcel filled with Feta cheese and marinated aubergine, drizzled with Manuka honey and resting on a beetroot and balsamic relish. Fantastic. Next came Marlborough Salmon (and I thought Marlborough was only famous for wine) cooked slowly in citrus oil, served on winter roquette and dressed with cardamom and orange vinaigrette. Fantastic. Are you getting the picture, or perhaps the flavour, here?

Our main course differed, but only slightly. My girlfriend had veal loins with stroganoff sauce and Maori potato cake while I had very young calf veal braised with sauce. Then came the dessert. For me a Dutch (what else) Granny Smith Apple Tart placed on cinnamon anglaise and served with vanilla ice cream. For my girlfriend, Affogato. I now know that when I get too old, a velvety walnut ice cream served alongside an intense espresso and a shot of frangelico may be a possible substitute but of course, far more expensive and only available once a night.

So that is what we ate. We drank a Kir Royale Aperitif, a glass of Fauhall Downs Pinot Gris, a glass of Nobilo Icon Sauvignon Blanc, a glass of Drylands Pinot Noir, a glass of Matua – late harvest muscat and then, with the coffee a Johanneshof Marlborough Edelbrand grape brandy. We walked home. The meal took about three hours and afterwards we sat and talked to Marcel and he explained his love of food and cooking. He also gave us a copy of a book he had worked on showing his dishes in different surroundings. Good but not as good as the real thing in his surroundings.

If you want to experience any of this, you know where to go. Good luck, bon appetite and enjoy. It’s an amazing place with quite sensational food and wonderful people.

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