May 13, 2006
Do It Yourself!
We're in Malborough sounds, our last stop in the South Island and we'll be heading to Wellington (the capital of NZ) by boat this weekend.
Btw, for anyone who's interested in our whereabouts and future plans, I got the job offer in NZ and we're very very very seriously considering the possibility of staying here for a longer time, or rather coming back here after our visit to Europe. (I can hear my friends and family sighing in Europe and Leijonakaupunki friends cheering and secretely making plans to come for a visit.. :) But it is not decided yet, so hold your breath a bit longer.. :)
Right now we're staying at the most amazing backpackers hostel called Hopewell that can be reached only by 2 hours driving on the narrow winding road or by taking a water taxi and this is the view from our terrace.
The most amazing thing about this place (besides its unbelievable beauty, remoteness and peace is that you can collect oysters and mussels straight from the shore during the low tide.
The water is so clean here, the you can just pick the oysters, open them and our them straight in your mouth (yes yes, eat them raw and alive! yuk...)
We tried eating them raw (the cats did much better job eating them raw, but were a bit too lazy opening them..), but I guess, we still have to grow till this true gourmand status, so we decided to cook them in the pasta sauce.
Which was great! It took us 3-4 hours to go through the process, so we decided that its nice to do it once, but we'd not do it on daily basis. Besides the time it takes, once you go through the process of opening them, cooking and sorting them out, you kinda feel disgusted (the smell of sea water, getting rid of tiny crabs inside, just the shapes and colours that you find in there may make you feel quite full...)
We went kayaking today.
And Kaj's gatherer/collector instincts took over. They're just everywhere and look so good! He got the whole kayak full of mussles again!
However the highlight of today was not kayaking or mussles, but the dolphins that we saw passing by while kayaking!!! I just heard these snoring slurping splashing sounds of dolphins breathing and jumping before I turned back and saw the beautiful black backs drawing smooth curves above the water. We immediatly started screaming and singing (the lesson learned in Kaikoura when swimming with the dolphins, I think its meant to make them feel that we're their smaller disabled brothers that need to be taken care of or something.. ;), but they didn't come quite close, they were very busy going deeper to the sound. I can't really describe what feelings you get once you see dolphins. its like seeing 10 rainbows in the sky and maybe somewhat comparable to 10 thousand penguins doing square dancing...! Just as rare and just the same lack of words to describe the amazement, really...
We had to cook the mussles today again.. This time I didn't feel so hungry and eager..
So other Hopewell inhabitants could benefit from us. Yes, forever friends, I believe you'll be writing to me, Honey (thats the name of the cat)
