Tuesday 29 November 2016

Breakfast


Things can be quite expensive in NZ especially since we decided to cut off our nose to spite our face and Brexit. Obviously if you take a 6 month tour that's a world of difference to a 2 week holiday and there are things to consider and sort out. In general these are the basics , accommodation , food , transport. On holiday you may hire a car , rent a villa, dine out . Do that for 6 months and bankruptcy looms. Backpackers skimp to a degree where it is uncomfortable . Sometimes a van or estate pulls up where the backpackers have been free camping and then they book into one of the shared rooms (it being the cheapest option and take over the shower and washing machine and kitchen. Sometimes they don't book a room just ask to use the facilities. Some try to sneak in unobserved or wait til there is no one around and get there mates to let them in to use the facilities and leave early the next morning before the manager arrives.
I am too old for rough living , morally I could not steal use of the facilities so I have to pay. However cooking your own food save money so I went to Jans with my ingredients for a fry up and here is the result.




you can cook at backpackers but the kitchen is usually full until ten. If its a bad crowd its also a mess .


Don't let me mislead I am in one of the best backpackers there is. With a good crowd it is better than most hotels I have stayed at but with the wrong crowd it uncomfortable. Groups are bad because they take over. Groups of girls are bad because they are all so excited all the time and leave the bathrooms looking like they have been hosed . They also tend to block the plugholes with hair. But when there is a good crowd in the place seems to swallow them up and it seems empty.



Friday 25 November 2016

Temperate rainforest














Haast Beach




British and still going

The British bike industry has never quite died. Triumph are doing quite well. Norton are specialist and a bit pricy but still making bikes . This though is an original a Norton Commando 750 from I think the 70's. Note how light , slim and restrained a british 750 is compared to todays bikes . There is daylight between frame and engine . Those narrow tyres how did we stay on the road? This one is plainly used for touring though it looked well cared for.



Oamaru

see's itself as arty . This is the heart of the arty sector. Woolen warehouse , bookbinders and stone sculptors.On the corner was a shop selling only whisky. Only whisky of one distiller and a distillery that had ceased trading so each small bottle was $100. The proprietor was a sort of donnish American , wearing the sort of cloths a certain section of Americans think of as English middle class.  Crumpled linen jacket and trousers, checked shirt , brogues , curly hair and black framed glasses. He had the cultivated Boston accent .

There were a couple of Americans in there. The husband asked to taste ($8 a shot) a whisky that tasted like bourbon .