January 22, 2005 - Los Angeles

Goodbye New Zealand!

Well we overnighted in LA since all the east coast flights were cancelled. But we're headed out first thing in the morning.

In the meantime, here are some random musings and footnotes on our Kiwi experience... I tried to use the same format as the Aussie wrap-up:

OK, I was only sort of kidding about this place going volcanic at any moment. All the major mountains are considered active volcanos and all the lakes and bays were formed by huge eruptions in the past. The sand and rock on the beaches is almost all black volcanic rock. I'm worried that Team Birkhead is a jinx, since Montserrat (our favorite island from our honeymoon), went kablam just a couple years later.

In NZ, I kid you not, there is steam and sulfur spewing out from every nook and cranny. You can't drive more than a couple of kilometers without seeing steam or water spewing from somewhere, sometimes from water, sometimes from rocks. The day we drove down to Lake Taupo, we were admiring a mountain from a distance. It looked like it had criss-crossing ski trails going all the way from the top down to the lake. As we got closer we slowly realized: those ain't ski trails... those are huge streams of rising vapor! EVERYBODY R-U-U-U-U-N!!!

BTW - I couldn't help but think the Maori aren't really all that different from the folks who first lived in Hawaii. Or for that matter, the Iroquois or any native Americans. The same sort of legends, houses, weapons, art, music, languages sound similar. What's up with THAT?

Forgot to mention: We drove through the "Trout Fishing Capital of the World" and the "Kiwi Capital of the World." And by kiwi, I mean the fruit. And they had a giant kiwi about 40 feet high next to the town welcome sign.

Forgot to mention: We did see two kiwi birds, at the Maori crafts center. They keep them in a dark house since they don't like to come out in the daytime. They are very fragile and don't breed well in captivity, so it sounds like they're not going to be able to prevent them from going extinct. Bummer.

Forgot to mention: Up in the Bay of Plenty and the Coromandel Peninsula, the roads were lined with silver ferns. The leaf of the silver fern is the national symbol. They look like very fragile palm trees, but with feathery leaves. In fact, they were growing from rocks and sandy beaches and even growing horizontally out of cliffs.

Forgot to mention: People here drive like IDIOTS. (Not to mention they also drive on the wrong side.) They were flying around those hairpins on the mountaintops like lunatics. Yes - lunatics.

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To express Auckland as a North American mathematical equation:

Auckland = (Baltimore X Boston) / Vancouver

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Team Birkhead Kiwi Beer Rankings

5. Steinlager
4. Waikato
3. Lion Red (known as "Li Red" - how cool are we?)
2. Tui
1. Speight's Gold Ale

Did not make the list: DB Draught, Monteith, Export Gold

Footnote1: Speight's and Tui were both better than all the Aussie beers.
Footnote2: The New Zealand beers are overall better than the Aussie beers.
Footnote3: Listen to this - the New Zealand wines are overall better than the Aussie wines. How do you like them apples?

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Mr. Birk's Assessment of Kiwi Sports Popularity:
5. Netball
4. Tennis
3. Sailing
2. National rugby
1. International rugby (and BTW: who knew they were two different sports? with different numbers of players? and completely different rules!)

Footnote1: I really have no idea what Netball is. The Net is sorta like a basketball net.
Footnote2: They like cricket too, but they stink at it.
Footnote3: They just got a new expansion team in the Australian basketball league, but they're in last place.

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Cars
Pretty much the same as Australia, but with fewer BMers and Mercedes and more diversity - Peugeots, Volvos, Volkswagens.

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Internet
Score: 4 out of 10
They beat Australia for two reasons: 1) Internet cafe's all over the place, almost as many as there are geysers. 2) the Qantas lounge in Auckland actually had a high-speed business access.

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FoodScore: 8 out of 10
Don't come here if you're a vegetarian - they'll make fun of you in public. And if you're not a vegetarian, order the lamb. (Trust me on this one.)

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PeopleScore: 7 out of 10

Kiwis are nowhere near as outgoing as the Aussies. They admit it too, and even offer explanations as to why that is. The service was really bad too. It seemed to be related to the personality thing. But guess what - overall, we loved 'em!

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Tourists:

50% Asians, primarily Japanese
25% Germans!
10% Australians
10% Canadians + British
5% Other - we only bumped into a couple other Americans.

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New Zealand Final Logo Tally:

Yanks 7, Sox 2. Same old story. Once again, we didn't see more than one of any other team. What was interesting in NZ is that no one wears shirts or hats with logos. Very few.

The stories behind both Sox logos we saw were kinda funny. The 1st guy was walking down the street in Auckland sporting the full regalia - cap, sweats, and the shirt that says "Why Not Us?" The 2nd was actually a New Zealand vanity plate that said SOX WIN.

Can you believe that?