Road Trip, Day 5

Before we checked out of the B&B today, Curt decided to go for a run this morning and got a little lost ... er I mean, he had an Adventure. Once he returned, we went for our final breakfast: Curt had very British porridge, Erica tried beans on toast (!), and Nolan fed bits of sausage to Miss Winnie whose belly was dragging even closer to the ground today.

Next, it was time for an Adventure! We were headed to a little French town about 1.5 hours away from Christchurch, called Akaroa. Somehow we found ourselves driving towards the airport before we turned around. And turned around. And ultimately got turned around the right way. It was good to know that we hadn't lost our touch.

On the drive to Akaroa, Nolan liked all the sheep we saw:
9:11 - "Look there's sheep"
9:13 - "Oh my God, there's more sheep!"
9:14 - "Look there's some sheep"
9:16 - "Hey - sheep. You don't see that every day."
It's always good to have Nolan along for entertainment.


After a tasty stop at a cheese factory, we arrived in Akaroa which was founded by some French whalers and has retained some of its Frenchness. For instance, it still has streets named Rue Benoit and Rue Balguerie. Our B&B was located on Rue Jolie which means "pretty" in French (and has nothing to do with Angelina). It was a cute little town on secluded French Bay and is a popular weekend destination for Christchurchians. Visiting Akaroa was as close to France as our recent French graduate (Nolan) was going to get.


Our B&B in Akaroa was run by a spunky little lady named Rosemary. She had a twinkle in her eye and a wry smile, and was full of stories of the locals. One millionaire moved here 10 years ago to start a vineyard, and 3 years later- right when the vines were ready to start producing wine - he disappeared without a trace. Nobody knows where he went or what happened to him. Did he get sick of his life and go back to UK? Was he in trouble? Was he swept out to sea? Later that evening, when Curt and I were walking by the lighthouse, he directed my eyes to a spot overlooking the water.
"See those rocks? that's where he jumped."
Uh huh.
"Look how the rocks are all red. That's his blood."
Gee, thanks, Curt.

We liked wandering around the town - I'm pretty sure I made everyone stop at the ice cream shop ... and at the fudge shop. We even found a wool shop and bought a sweater for Nolan! Maybe he'll stop making fun of all the sheep now. And we wandered around the beach, where Erica found more good shells. She's been acquiring quite a collection on this trip. We ate cheese (from today's cheese factory) and croissants (very French, don't you think?) for dinner on the veranda of the B&B. Rosemary had an incredible garden, with lemon trees and mandarin orange trees and butterflies everywhere. Ah. This is the life.

That evening, we saw an amazing clear midnight blue sky that I will try to describe: Usually the sky looks like it has maybe 100 white dots - stars. Tonight, we could see the same 100 white dots ... plus we could see thousands/millions of other microscopic white sprinkles. It's as if someone sprinkled sugar crystals all over the dark background, and the 100 white spots are still there too, only they're bigger and brighter than the sprinkles. Combined, the sprinkles and the dots were magical and we couldn't stop gazing upward. None of us had ever seen such a clear sky with so many stars visible. Undoubtedly, it helped that we're in a remote area of the southern hemisphere, removed from serious light pollution. Admittedly, we're still not very good at recognising any constellations in the southern sky, even the Southern Cross which is a national symbol and is on New Zealand's flag. But that didn't matter. We were astonished by the raw splendour of it. It was amazingly, wonderfully, staggeringly beyond words.

Living in an Upside-Down World

New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere, but besides the seasons, we keep finding other things that are reversed, too.

Some examples of upside-down-ness:

• Yes, the seasons are reversed. It's January right now and it's 80º here. For a split second, we can't understand why on earth the news is showing so much snow in New York ... oh yeah, it's winter up there.

• The experts say there's different constellations visible down here. I wouldn't know, because I never could find the Big Dipper when I lived in the northern hemisphere, so don't count on me seeing the Southern Cross now that I'm in the southern hemisphere. But the experts say it's there. The Southern Cross constellation is actually on the New Zealand flag, so I guess I have seen it in a way. My niece also wanted to know if we see a different upside-down face of the moon. Beats me. Anyone know the answer to this?

• There's also the popular story about toilets swirling the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere. I'd like to say that I have done first-hand research on this - I actually went to the airplane toilet just after we passed the equator and watched it flush. But there was so little water that I couldn't tell. We also examined the hotel toilet with the same disappointing conclusion. Once we moved into our house, I continued my research without success. Kiwis are very conscious of conserving water, apparently. So I looked it up online and found an explanation on a website written by Penn State's Earth and Mineral Sciences department. (http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html) It says that the direction it drains depends more on the shape of the bowl and the position of the drain than the hemisphere. If we had a perfectly spherical bowl with water draining exactly in the center, we could test it in 2 different hemispheres and maybe barely see the Coriolis effect. It does exist, but it is barely discernible. Mostly, that whole swirl story is urban myth with a little science thrown in.



• You turn on a light switch by pushing the switch DOWN. This explains why I am frequently walking in a dark room, I guess.
(the switch on the right is ON)








• Along those lines, every outlet has a switch on it, too. Which must be flipped down (of course) in order to get power. So you have to turn on the outlet AND turn on the hair dryer to get it to work. If only this could explain my bad hair days. (these outlets are ON)




• The hot water comes out of the right-hand faucet in our house, although I have seen it on the left in other places. Anyway, I keep brushing my teeth with warm water. Ew.

• Since Kiwis drive on the left, they also tend to walk on the left side of the sidewalk (called a footpath). Consequently, we frequently find ourselves dodging other pedestrians whenever we forget to stay on the proper side. We also cause crashes in the grocery store as we drive our "trolleys" on the wrong side of the aisle.









Speaking of which, since they drive on the left side of the road, it ALSO means...

• ... the driver's side of the car is on the right now. When Curt and I are going someplace, I keep walking to the wrong car door to get in as a "passenger" and find myself staring at a steering wheel. How did that get there?

• ... the turn signal is on the right, which is not where I'm used to it being. As a result, I keep hitting the windscreen wiper whenever I'm turning left. I definitely have the cleanest windscreen in the country.

• ... the seat belt is attached to the frame over my RIGHT shoulder. I need to buckle and unbuckle it near my LEFT hip. My instincts still reach to my right hip. At which point I find myself inexplicablly pinned in the car. Help! I can't get out!

• ... the gear shift is on the left. So I have to shift left-handed. Which is not my most coordinated hand. One of these days, I'm going to be in Reverse instead of Park. Yikes!

• ... when we're driving on the motorway, the slow traffic stays LEFT. The speedsters whiz past us on the right. The exits are off from the left, too.