Eid, Vegetarian Expo and Other Events

We keep finding lots to do in Christchurch.  Last Sunday we planned to go to the Vegetarian Expo, but then we found out about an Eid celebration happening at the same time.  So, we decided to go to both, taking the bus first to the Eid gathering, and then on to the Vegie Expo.

Eid ul-Adha is the Muslim holy day that concludes the act of pilgrimage to Mecca.  When we got to the Eid celebration, young children, prodded on by their elders, were re-inacting the pilgrimage, with lots of parents filming the action.  Pretty cute overall.  We bought some tasty food, looked at exhibits and continued on to the veggie expo.

Sibgha gave Cindy a piece of candy

Muslim food stalls from many different countries in Asia and Africa

The Vegetarian Expo is a yearly gathering with food and information stalls, movies, speakers and cooking demonstrations.  We know some of the organizers from our last visit to Christchurch.  Here we listened to some talks, again bought food, and watched some cooking demonstrations.  We had signed on to help clean up afterwards – a huge task but with lots of people helping out, it went quickly.

Chef Budhsamudra from the Lotus Heart Vegetarian Restaurant

Earlier in the week we heard that Mark Gilbert, the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, would be speaking on campus, and the University was encouraging U.S. exchange students to attend.  We attended (they let in visiting U.S. faculty too) and enjoyed listening to his speech.  Mark is a former professional baseball player who obviously uses the teamwork, hard work ethic, and other skills that he learned in sports in his ambassador work.  The students appeared interested and asked good questions afterwards.

One of the nights we attended a performance by Jolt Dance – a dance group for disabled and non-disabled dancers.  We were really impressed by the choreography and the inclusion of all dancers.

Kiwi Words

We speak basically the same English as the people in New Zealand but we have some differences.  We made a list and took photos for some words that confused us initially.  We thought we would share them with you.  First off, a Kiwi is a resident of New Zealand; there also are kiwi birds and kiwi fruit.

From the photos below pick out the trundler, trolley and wheelie bin.  No worries (no problem) if you get any wrong.   

A trundler and trolley are the same thing.  Everyone calls the shopping cart a trolley, but some grocery store signs call them trundler.  A bin is our wastebasket or garbage can, but with wheels it becomes wheelie bin.

Lots of things are wee.  From the photos below you get to pick out the bub, lollies, and littlies.  

Lollies are any candy, littlies are any group of younger children, and the wee baby is a bub.  We’ve seen classes for mums and bubs.

Now how about toastie, postie, moggy, buttie and sammie?

A toastie is a toasted sandwich - Paul makes cheese toasties at work.  A buttie, in this case a bacon buttie, is a sandwich made with buttered bread.  A sammie is a sandwich (this one is an egg sammie). A postie delivers your mail, usually on a bicycle but more recently may be on a motor scooter.  A moggy is your cat.

Then there are capsicums, yams, rocket, kumara and miner’s lettuce.

Capsicums are peppers, yams are a small root veggie we don’t have in Wisconsin, rocket is arugula, kumara is our sweet potato and miner’s lettuce is not really a lettuce but a green that miners brought with them to New Zealand.  It grows like a weed here through the winter, is quite tasty and contains vitamin C.  Apparently it originated in the west coast of the U.S.

And not to be left out are jandals and gum boots.

Jandals (flip flops) appeared even when the weather was still cold.  Most people have gum boots (wellingtons or wellies) for wet weather or mud.

Nibbles are snacks and a slice is a bar (think lemon bars, but the cafes serve ones with caramel or ginger too). 

 

If you are told to "bring a plate" you bring some snack food to contribute to a supper.  Supper is a later night snack not to be confused with an evening meal.  Food to take out is takeaways.  Tomato sauce is catsup.  You buy strawberries or yogurt in a pottle (small container).  A section is a plot of land and a paddock is a field where animals graze.  College is high school and after that you attend uni or university.  A judder bar is a speed bump and a panel beater is an auto body shop.  You sometimes need your torch (flashlight) at night.  It won’t be warm enough for either of us to use our togs (swimsuit) at the beach.

Two others we learned recently are long drop (latrine or outhouse) and cow pat (cow pie), both seen below.

And last but not least, the New Zealand national rugby team is the All Blacks, which are referred to as the boys.  This leads to lots of cheeky ads, like the one below, to back the boys who currently are in the Rugby World Cup in England.

If you’ve read all this, good on ya! (well done, congratulations). 

Cheers!  (thanks, good bye or good luck)

Cindy & Paul

Arthur's Pass

Two of our folk dance friends, Katy and Alastair, invited us to spend the weekend at Arthur's Pass (in the Southern Alps) in a cottage owned by Lincoln University.  As the weekend approached we were a bit hesitant as the forecast was for snow and rain storms, high winds, and low wind chills.  But, we threw caution to the wind, Katy and Alastair put extra food and tire chains in their car, and we headed up into the mountains for a three-day weekend.  We were glad we did – the snow storm never happened, and we had some clouds and chilly temps but overall fine hiking weather, while Christchurch had rain.

Our home for the weekend

After arriving at Cockie's Crib (the name of the bach, or cottage), we built a fire to warm the building and headed out for a hike.  The Arthur's Pass area is in a valley nestled in the mountains, and is named for Arthur Dobson, who took the first party of Europeans over Arthur's Pass to get to the west coast.  We walked on the Dobson Nature Walk, then drove a little further up the pass to see the view from the Otira Viaduct Lookout.  The main road across the Southern Alps here goes through the Otira Gorge, and for years the road clung precariously to the side of the mountains.  The viaduct makes driving through safer, though there was a major rockslide closing this road the week after we were there.

Tussock on the Dobson Nature Walk

Otira Gorge Viaduct - you can see the old road path on the upper right (and you can see why rockslides are a problem here)

A few cheeky kea were hanging around the car park at the Viaduct lookout

On Sunday we took several more walks, starting up to the Devil's Punchbowl Falls, where we saw a Rifleman (a somewhat uncommon bird endemic to New Zealand).  We spent most of the rest of the day walking along the edge of the valley through the rain forest on the Arthur's Pass Walking Track.  We finished with a walk to the Bealey Chasm through some old beech forest.

At Devil's Punchbowl Falls

A fantail

On the Arthur's Pass Walking Track

Beech forest along the track

Bealey Chasm

Katy sings to Alastair's tambura, while we listened and danced on the side

On Monday morning the sun came out, and we did a four hour hike up the Bealey Spur, which gave us wonderful 360 degree views of the mountains and high valleys.

View from the Bealey Spur

Ice crystals in the Bealey Spur track

Getting close to the high country

After packing up and heading out of Arthur's Pass, we stopped at Castle Hill - what looks from a distance like the ruins of an old castle are really limestone boulders.  These water-eroded remnants of limestone were formed 30-40 million years ago when present-day New Zealand was covered by the sea.  The front of the Christchurch Cathedral was made from Castle Hill limestone.

From a distance, Castle Hill looks like ruins

Nature's work at Castle Hill

Limestone labyrinth

The end of a fine weekend