The Journey continues...

With summer ending this week, Andy and I decided to venture off and explore more of the South Island while the weather is still nice. Carol's partner, George, was kind enough to lend us his van for this adventure (which means no setting up and taking down our tent everyday- yes!)

We have left Nelson (with plans to return in about a month or so) and are working our way south along the west coast.

Can't wait to see what lies ahead!

Hopgood's

Hopgood's was one of those places in Nelson that was on our “things to do after we get jobs” list. It was rated as the #1 restaurant in Nelson on Tripadvisor, had great reviews on a number of other sites, and won numerous awards including “Outstanding Chef,” “Outstanding Restaurant,” and “Outstanding Ambiance.” Needless to say, our expectations were quite high. As was the price tag. This is not backpacking on a budget (and it is probably a good thing we don't drink wine). But with Valentine's Day just last week, we had the perfect excuse/opportunity to go!

So we made reservations, got dressed up in the best clothes we had (which is not saying much... we are backpacking after all!), and went all out.

The interior of Hopgood's

(This one was taken after closing)

We started off with two amazing appetizers...

Bread selection, warm olives, truffle butter & 'Frogs End' extra virgin olive oil

 Crispy garlic & chilli prawns with a pulled pork quesadilla, spiced avocado & tomato salsa

... continued on to an incredible main course...

Andy's "Twice baked goat's cheese souffle with carmelised onion, pear & candied walnuts"

My "Pure Angus beef fillet with a mushroom & polenta crust, spinach pistou, fried garlic & red wine"

... and even finished off with some dessert!

Carmelised apple & almond tart with vanilla ice cream

Chocolate truffles

Most of the time we eat out, Andy and I devour our food within minutes. But this time, we took our sweet time and savored every last bite.  So much so that we stayed at the restaurant for almost TWO HOURS.

Our dishes at the end of the night

I'll just end this post by quoting Andy when he said “This might've been the best meal we've ever had.”

Working at the Maitai - Part 2

In the last post, Andy wrote about all the projects he's been working on here at the Maitai. If you were able to follow along, congrats! (most of it goes over my head). In this post, I thought I would just share a bit about what I've been doing at the camp as well, over the past several weeks...

The main office at the camp

The last time I worked at the Maitai was for the Youth Festival held over New Years.  During that event, I was able to interact with a lot of locals (and learn a fair amount of their lingo in the process). This time, I get to meet and interact with backpackers and tourists from all over the world! This brings the language barrier to a whole new level, but that's a different story...

In any given night, we receive up to 120 backpackers staying at our camp from a number of different countries including: Canada, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, England, Scotland, Latvia, France, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Hungary, Slovenia, Israel, Australia, Argentina, and of course the U.S.!

My main responsibility is to book them in and enter them into our system. This includes getting to ask them what country they're from, which usually leads to an interesting discussion about what brought them here to New Zealand. As a result, I often get to hear a lot of cool stories. For example, one American couple I met is biking their way around the country. When I say “bike,” I mean bicycle, not motorcycle. Their plan is to travel through southeast Asia next, and eventually bike from Seattle down the west coast. Sweet as!

Another backpacker I met was a Canadian who had toured the North Island before, but returned to New Zealand to explore the South Island with his girlfriend. They had already done the fruit-picking thing and are now looking for more opportunities here in the Nelson region. This is pretty common among the backpackers that have come in. Many of them are here on working holiday like us, and looking for work in the area. Some have just arrived over the past few weeks and others have been traveling around for the past few months. My favorite part of my job is getting to hear their stories.

The front desk where I work

In addition to booking in backpackers and directing them to their sites, I also receive rent payments from the permanent residents, run the camp store, and answer a lot of questions (in person and on the phone).

On slow days, I get paid to surf the net and play with Carol's two dogs:

                                    Riley                                                                   Jess

Just kidding... sort of.

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Just for fun, here's a little demographics game for you:

*Note: This is not representative of the tourist population in New Zealand, but only of the campers we have received at the Maitai.

You would think that most of the backpackers that come to NZ are from England (their mother country) or nearby Australia. However, we have had a surprising majority (at least 30, if not 50 percent) from:

a.) France

b.) Germany

c.) Czech Republic

d.) Canada

If you guess correctly, we will mail you a special treat (it's made in Australia, but still... it's delicious!)

If you don't guess or you guess incorrectly, don't worry. If you are in the Seattle vicinity, you will probably get one anyway (I am hoping to bring a luggage full of this stuff home).

Working at the Maitai

As we mentioned before, we have postponed our travels over the past few weeks to replenish our funds and help our new found friends. During this time I have been working with the management to reduce costs and make things easier. The first project involved making an easy-to-read camp map. I used a GPS tracker and a satellite overlay from Google Maps to come up with this:

The project I am working on now involves replacing the camp's rather expensive Internet connection. Although the camp is only ten to fifteen minutes out of town, it is quite remote in terms of development. As a result, the only way to get Internet to camp was through a satellite connection.

Since then, Nelson has expanded and technology has improved. An ADSL connection (via a phone line) might be able to connect the camp at a fraction of the current cost. We are waiting for a technician from the Internet service provider (ISP) to test the connection. If that doesn't work out, another option would be a cellular connection that would cut the cost by two thirds.

At the moment, the camp uses two satellite dishes. One is used to supply Internet to the office and the other is used to provide access to the Internet room (left) and the public wireless network that is distributed around the camp. The Internet room is on the other side of the road from the office, so rather than digging up the road to bury a new cable or slinging a wire over the road, I'm planning to bridge the gap using a wireless network.

This is a typical mid-grade consumer wireless router. Out of the box, it supports a number of cool features such as dual band broadcasting, HD streaming, gigabit ethernet and quite a few other useful network administration tools. However my plan will require a bit more precision. OpenWRT is an open source operating system for home wifi routers (more info).

The ADSL modem provided by our ISP includes a wireless router. My plan is to use my modified router to bridge the connection. This will allow us to maintain and regulate the Internet provided to the Internet room and the camp's public Wi-Fi network.

[Edit: It looks like the ISP we had lined up isn't going to work out, but I think the 3g connection should work out fine.]

Rabbit Island

Several weeks ago at the Christmas luncheon, our hostess Megan told us we had to go to Rabbit Island. Rabbit Island is about half an hour west of Nelson and, according to Megan, had the most beautiful beach in New Zealand. My first response was skepticism... I mean have you seen our pictures from Abel Tasman? But naturally, we just had to check it out.

So last weekend, we packed our sunscreen, swimsuits, and a couple of sandwiches and headed over there for a picnic lunch. This is what we saw:

I have to admit... Rabbit Island does have a very beautiful beach and is a GREAT spot for picnics and swimming. We had a lovely time there! However, my vote for “most beautiful beach in New Zealand” still has to go to Kaiteriteri. :)

For now...

NZ Reflections: Show Me the Money

The money here in New Zealand is quite interesting. The bills all have distinctly different sizes, are waxy and quite colorful.

After growing up seeing a bunch of dead white guys printed on all the cash, it is refreshing to see a woman on many of the bills and coins (the Queen). The smallest bill is a five, featuring Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to summit Everest (he was a kiwi born just outside of Nelson). The smallest coin denomination is the 10 cent piece so if you pay with cash, they round it off to the nearest 10 cents.

Like the Canadians, New Zealand also has a two dollar coin, but rather than a loon, it features a kotuku (a heron of sorts). And of course, the little kiwi (the national symbol of NZ) can be found on their one dollar coin.