Middle Earth Adventures

McCrain's in Middle Earth
A travel dialogue of our adventures in New Zealand

In February 2004, Jim and Kathy McCrain began a five month oddessy in New Zealand. Kathy was transferred to Auckland for a temporary work assignment, and Jim followed her for moral support. (Isn't he just the greatest husband?) What follows is Jim's account of this adventure.

Just Some General Observations

April 16, 2004

All I want to do today is to relate a few general observations I have made while in this country. First, lets tackle the food subject.

Coffee comes in the following styles:
Flat White = cappuccino with milk
Short Black = Single shot of Espresso
Long Black = Double shot of Espresso
Americana = Long Black "with hot water"
Plunger = Made with a French Press. Available, but pricey. This resembles what I drink at Home.
Filter Coffee = nonexistent or at least very hard to find. (Even at Starbucks!)

Snack foods, cookies, crackers:
Bland! Sorry, NZ, but it's true! All cookies are hard and crumbly. (I like soft, chewy cookies.) Snack crackers, (like Cheese Crackers, Peanut butter crackers, etc.) have the consistency of cardboard. (The taste is similar, too!) Regular "crackers" are called biscuits. (So are some cookies. This can make ordering food confusing!) We bought some "breakfast fruit bars" the other day that we literally cannot eat. There is NO moisture in them at all, nor is there any flavor.

Real Food:
The Fish and Chips are superb! I haven't had a bad bite yet! They are cheap, too! I haven't had any "exotic" sea-food, so I cannot judge it. Steaks are pretty good, but not the same as good ol' Texas Beef. (But then again, what IS as good as Texas Beef?) I haven't had any lamb yet, but it is readily available. (Not as prevalent as we had been lead to believe, though.) Burgers are burgers, no matter where you go. Except here, be sure to check for pickled beets and chutney as a condiment. It can really take you by surprise if you aren't ready for it! As in Europe, "chips" are what we Americans call "French Fries." Potatoes are a staple with most meals.

On a side note, I have found it very difficult to "alter" any menu items when ordering at a restaurant. I don't mean substituting one item for the next. I simply don't like my eggs cooked "over easy." Getting scrambled eggs instead is out of the question everywhere I have gone. Getting the eggs "hard fried" is SOMETIMES an option, but more often than not, NO! I have been eating toast and pancakes a lot!

And it took me a while to get used to the phrase: "Is that for 'have here' or for 'take-a-way'?" It seams that you don't order things "to go" but instead say "Take-a-way." (As in "Chinese Take-a-way." You don't order food to "eat in" but you order it to "Have Here." It doesn't read as funny as it sounds, trust me!

And another fun "language" difference is a basic component of the alphabet. In the USA, we pronounce the last letter of the alphabet as Z. (Pronounced ZEE.) When mentioning that particular letter here in New Zealand, it is pronounced as ZED. To abbreviate "New Zealand," you don't say N-ZEE, but instead say N-ZED. So lets see if I can get it right: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, .....Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, ZED. Got it!

One last general observation has to do with celestial objects and the sky. There are a LOT of stars down here that I have never seen before, and many of the old familiar constellations are pointing the wrong direction! (Poor old Orion. He is upside-down!) But the most amazing thing I have seen has been the moon. It is NOT the same moon we see in the Northern Hemisphere. Down here, the phases of the moon are REVERSED! In the North, when a new moon is beginning to wax towards the full, it starts as a small crescent and increases from the right to the left. Here, it starts as a small crescent and waxes from left to right! This really threw me off for a few days until I could confirm it. It is very unsettling to look up at something as constant and familiar as the moon, and have it behave differently.

Spending a long time in a new country, and in a new hemisphere, has been a wonderful learning experience. I wonder how I will view the world, and Home, after this trip?

The Adventure Begins!