Just a few ELK observations!

In case any of you followers head to the South Pacific in the future, we are going to try and give you some kiwi language 101. We have touched on how odd it has been for us to drive on the left side of the road but also with our common everyday sayings, we find ourselves getting a few blank faces. You would think that when traveling to an English speaking country the language barrier would not be a problem. On the contrary my friends, it’s rather hard to understand kiwis for they always speak so fast. In addition, while they speak in a more proper British manner, they tend to slang the ba-jesus out of words (especially in text messaging) but we won’t get into all that.

Here are some simple common kiwi sayings: Sweet as! How you going? Good on ya!! Good day mate. Cheers. I’ll ring you. Toss it in the rubbish bin. That will be a five dollar note. Give way. Kumera, capsicum and aubergine are my “favourite” veggies. You can get a beer out of the chilly bin! Let’s go to the vinYARDs! AWsum!!!!! (These are just a few!)

As a foreigner they may sound a little out of sorts but for the day in the life of a kiwi… these are common words and phrases. Let’s begin with the phrase “Sweet As”. Well for starters, sweet as what? Instead of just a simple “cool” or “awesome,” kiwis say “sweet as” but then they have us hanging in suspense. We constantly are waiting for them to finish the simile but it never comes. Another problem we find with these saying is where to put the emphasis. Lindsay has often gotten a few looks because she puts her emphasis on the “As,” and sometimes sounds like she is saying a certain body part. As you can imagine, this does not go over well to other girls and adults.

As you know we are all working in restaurants. Typically we would say “'how are you doing this evening,' or 'how’s it going?!'” but a common way of greeting a fellow Kiwi is “how you going”(with a slightly higher pitch)? In some ways it makes sense, … how YOU going, instead of how’s it going. What is “it”? It is still extremely awkward to say.
“Good on ya” is one of our “favourite” sayings meaning well done or go get ‘em… we think! :) Kiwis, like Australians, refer to their friends as mates. And if you are married you refer to your spouse as a partner, not to be confused with the American meaning of partner. “Cheers” has a universal meaning of whatever you want, like if you want to say bye or thanks or your welcome. All else fails just say cheers and smile!! :) If someone is going to call you, they will say they will ring you, again not to be confused with the American saying: “ring your neck”. Kiwis throw their trash in the rubbish bins, which sounds so much more pleasant than trash can. They refer to dollar bills as dollar notes. So if you have a lot of dollar dollar notes, dat be a good thang! “Give way” is a street sign that means yield, another significantly more pleasant term.
few common veggies that we eat such as sweet potatoes, peppers and eggplants which are called kumera, capsicum and aubergine. This is important to know before serving dishes with these foods in them. Coolers=chilly bins! The emphasis on the word vineyard is more like vinYARD. And if you have not noticed from reading our blog we LOVE the way kiwis say AWWsum. It is probably one of the most commomly used words on the island and all demographics use it!! It makes for a relaxed atmosphere and AWsum time. That is it for now!!!

Easter Weekend!

Happy Belated Easter! Our Easter weekend was filled with adventure and breath taking views of the Abel Tasman; it was absolutely wonderful :)

We woke up early Easter morning and attended the 8am service at St. Pauls’s Cathedral, which is located right in the center of downtown Nelson. While the service was in the Anglican tradition, it was much different from what we are use to in the U.S. in terms of an Easter service. In other words, it lacked the momentous awe expected from the Easter celebration found in lengthy hymns, a joyous choir, and a large congregation. However, we still enjoyed the service and in all honesty, felt better about ourselves for attending. After church, we regrouped at our apartment and packed up our gear for the weekend. Due to our car (the adjective that goes in front of car is inappropriate for our adult viewers), Lindsay’s friend Anna graciously offered to take us one-way to the start of the hike. We arrived in Marahua around 1:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon and began the four-hour hike to Anchorage along the beautiful coastline of the Tasman Sea. We walked at a pretty good pace, considering we stopped every five minutes to take pictures (Emily Brooksher and Katie Arnheim for you, haha). Our original camping site was Torrent Bay, which was about an hour away from Anchorage. However, we stopped in Anchorage to get water and ended up just camping there due to the growing darkness from day light savings and increased expectation of rain. And it was a good thing we stayed there! This was not due to the weather (which we had no problems with), but because Lindsay’s friends Dave and Sarah ended up being docked in Anchorage cove and found us setting up our tent a little ways up from the beach. The original plan had been to sail back with them on Monday to Marahua. However, since there was poor phone service in the Tasman, we had feared that this was not going to happen because we would not be able to get in touch with them. Our fears were lifted after seeing them, and we ended up having dinner on their boat that evening. The next morning we awoke to a beautiful day (literally we could not have asked for better weather). The night before, Dave had offered to put our packs on the boat while we hiked the next three hours to Bark Bay. We naturally agreed, and after doing so, we were off on the middle stage of our adventure: a three hour hike to Bark Bay filled with the best scenery on the Abel Tasman. With cameras out and smiling faces, we had a most enjoyable time during the hike. I have said this to a few of you before, but everywhere in New Zealand looks like the scenery from a movie and most likely has been. We were trying to decide what movie the Abel Tasman could have been used in (maybe Jurassic Park or Mighty Joe Young). I know this information can probably be found online, but if you have seen those movies then you will have a small understanding of what we were seeing. We finally arrived at Bark Bay to find Sarah and Dave waiting for us with their boat. Here was the tricky and almost disastrous part to the so far perfect trip. To get to the sailboat, we had to ride in a little dingy boat, which is probably intended for only two adults at a time. However, with ambitious spirits, we attempted to all four ride in the petrol-fueled boat over the crashing waves hitting the shore. As you can imagine, this did not go so well, and we ended up soaked holding our day- packs over our heads. We then decided to carry the boat to a near by sand bar so it would have a better chance of getting over the waves. Emily and Sarah went ahead and Katie and I waited on the beach. After five minutes and seeing that the dingy had run out of fuel, Katie and I ran to a water taxi who had just dropped some kayakers off in the cove. Katie convinced the driver to take us to Dave’s boat and also to pick up Emily and Sarah on the way. We finally arrived on the boat wet but relieved that our stuff (a.k.a cameras) had not been damaged.
The sailboat trip back was awesome, although getting out of the cove caused us to all to feel a little seasick. We got back to Marahua two hours later, and caught the bus back to Nelson. This was probably one of the best weekends we have had since we have been here. We are starting to get really excited about our up coming travels, which will begin at the beginning of May. Until next time….

leaving easter service!