In which we start the day with a hearty breakfast:
Molly's favorite breakfast that I make is Walnut Carrot Oatmeal Pancakes, idea courtesy of Sorella's in JP. So I took that idea and ran with it. These are Walnut Carrot Oatmeal muffins. Pretty good.
It rained quite heavily for the morning, so we took full advantage of the lounge at Kiwiana, complete with wood burning stove.
Pretty nasty weather in the morning. The tent got pretty wet, as well as a few pairs of shoes we didn't tuck under the fly well enough. But by around 1, it stopped. We hung everything up, and started our day for real.
So without further adieu, let me introduce our new ride. After biking across the United States, we decided that we didn't actually spend enough time close to each other, so we got this for New Zealand:
Just kidding. The hostel had, in addition to a slew of barely rideable bikes, two tandems. So we borrowed this one to go visit PuPu Springs in the area. Sure, laugh at the name, but it's a cool nature preserve/holy spot for the Maori.
There's a short loop trail through a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees, with lots of ferns. This was the closest, so far, to what we expected all of New Zealand to look like.
Trying for a lens flare effect, but with only a bit of luck.
Being in a valley means you always cool clouds are always streaming around and over the mountains. We also seem to be in a place where competing winds meet: some from the West Coast, some in over the Golden Bay, and some from over the Cook Strait (separating the North and South island).
Roughly (thanks, Google Translator!)
Welcome here to this
Place of climbing (coming up)
Welcome to this Sacred Space
This Safe (or good) Spring of the Waioropupu
It's hard to get a feel for how much water was coming out of the ground, but it's crystal clear, and enough flow to create a lot of turbulence in 30 foot deep water.
And, like all places we've been to so far in New Zealand, it's ridiculously pretty.
Let's see, as with all of the videos I've tried to post, if this works. (Update: Tried linking to video in a different way.) Please, someone...anyone. Let me know if this plays as a video or just as a picture.
So again, my wife is adorable, and loves to lie down in the sun.
So, the springs were awesome. Pretty, cool, and we got to ride a tandem bike to them. The only problem? Oh yeah, the first time we ride for more than 10km in New Zealand, we get a flat tire right as we leave the springs. And we have 9km to go. There is nothing more deflating (literally and figuratively) than a flat tire when you don't have a spare or a pump. If we had two bikes, it wouldn't really be a problem. One of us would bike into town, buy a spare, and then bike back. Problem solved. When you have a tandem, you're kinda stuck. And you have to push an extra large bike.
So we walked back to town. I kept scratching the back of my leg with the pedal, and still have scars a week later. A good, slow way to take in the area.
When we arrived back at Kiwiana, we started dinner. We had joked a bit with a couple of women from Seattle about jointly cooking dinner, because one of them wanted to make soup in bread bowls. And it turns out, that's exactly what they hard started doing. We all joined in, and this is the end result:
Molly has come up with a phrase to describe taking pictures of your food before you eat it.
#hipstergrace
Because obviously you can't truly enjoy your food unless you have given thanks and prayed to the internet gods that can justify and endorse your food choices.
That being said, Broccoli Cheese soup in home made bread bowls was pretty awesome.
And true to every other night we've been in New Zealand, the sunset was nothing less than awe inspiring.
Which distracted everyone from their dinner.
Nothing like this to make you feel a little patriotic about a country you don't belong to, eh?
And then it got cold, so we all retreated back to the lounge, made another fire, and played darts, pool, and table tennis until the wine ran out.
Lovely pictures, but no video.
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