NEW ZEALAND – Nature & Sheep

Looong time ago, when we were carefree university students, we built up a challenge for our small group who would be the first one to reach New Zealand – the most distant place from our birthplace Praha. The point was not the distance, but actually the impossibility to travel out from the communist “paradise” that held us. One way or another, after some years, eventually, some of us made it abroad and then - I was not the first one of us to reach New Zealand !  Another friend who resided in Toronto became the first and then – I was the second. Spending a good part of my academic sabbatical year in Australia, one cannot and should not miss the opportunity to make that remaining little hop and see scenic New Zealand. How relative, the Kiwi-land is 1,500 km away from Australia. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans.

During its long isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of animal (see the Kiwi bird here), fungal and plant life. Apart from many smaller islands, the land mass of New Zealand is divided into two main ones the South and the North Islands.

As it is not crammed with people, the country makes a “quiet” and rather bucolic impression. Actually, it is rather “pastoral” – with 10 times as many sheep as people in it. The lifestyle is definitely more laid back and it seemed simpler. My high-tech nature would have probably been having a hard time if I were to decide emigrating to the isolation of New Zealand as we dreamt of it way back then, about 50 years ago -

In the world down-under, the issue of aboriginal population is very close underneath the thin western and specifically British ‘civilization’ veneer.  In 1642, Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer, became the first European to sight New Zealand, first settled by Eastern Polynesians between 1250 and 1300 concluding a long series of voyages through the southern Pacific islands.  Over the centuries that followed, these settlers developed a distinct culture now known as Māori.  The Europeans did not revisit until 1769 when British explorer James Cook mapped almost the entire coastline and established the British influence.  In the Kiwi-land of New Zealand, the Maori aboriginals are much more pronounced and visible than Australian aboriginals are there, particularly to the tourists whereby their culture and habits are often on display in the way of ‘history’.
Among many things that the westerners brought into New Zealand were the potato and the musket. As the Maori picked it up, it transformed their agriculture - and warfare ! Potatoes provided a reliable food surplus, which enabled longer and more sustained military campaigns. The resulting intertribal Musket Wars encompassed over 600 battles between 1801 and 1840, killing 30,000–40,000 Māori. Human race !
Combining my trip with the opportunity to participate in the International Food Engineering Conference that was taking place in Palmerston North, I flew Sydney – Auckland, rented a car and set out to the hills of the North Island. Out of Auckland, herds of sheep scattered through the hilly countryside were inescapable.
As I drove to Palmerston North, I remember the countryside around that destination as a quiet and rather untypically flat and unexciting corner of the island – as opposed to the rest of it that is anything but like that.  With my Massey University visit and conference contacts in Palmerston North behind me, I was free to explore which I did in a form of a circular trip around the scenic and lush green North Island.

The North Island is less mountainous but is marked by volcanism. The highly active Taupo Volcanic Zone has formed a large volcanic plateau, punctuated by the North Island's highest mountain, Mount Ruapehu (2,797 metres (9,177 ft)). The plateau also hosts the country's largest lake, Lake Taupo, nestled in the caldera of one of the world's most active supervolcanoes. I could not miss the sleeping giant of Rotorua, the heart of the North Island, that oozes geothermal activity in the form of hot springs, geysers and bubbling mud pools.  There somewhere I took off on a rather adventurous side trip on a little jungle road as it appeared, rewarded by a little experience of the local fern forest (that;s what I called it).

I had never seen before ferns more than 3 meters tall ! 
I got stuck there several times but, eventually, made it back to ‘civilization’ – but no time to keep going South to at least get the smell of Wellington, “the coolest little capital in the world”. Thus not even catching a glimpse across the Cook Straight (22 km) of the South Island fabulous mountains.

Although I did not get to see the Alpine-like South Island, I cannot leave it out here – with a wishful thought of returning there some time. The mountain range extends 500 km down the Island and the tallest peak is Aoraki / Mount Cook, the highest point in New Zealand at 3,724 metres (12,218 ft) and there are sixteen other points in the range that exceed 3,000 metres (9,800ft) in height. The South Island and its “alps” are still a little visited extremely beautiful place in the world. 
Look at Lake Ohau in summer time (above) and the panoramic view of the mountains in winter time :

And what do the Kiwies eat ?
New Zealand cuisine is largely driven by local ingredients and seasonal variations. An island nation with a primarily agricultural economy, New Zealand yields produce from land and sea. Similar to the cuisine of Australia, the cuisine of New Zealand is a diverse British-based cuisine, with Mediterranean and Pacific Rim influences as the country is becoming more cosmopolitan. Needles to say, mutton and beef meat as well as seafood are ubiquitous. The British heritage of fish and chips even more so :

The country’s Pacific Rim cuisine is based on its abundance of wonderful fresh produce. Tender lamb, beef, pork, venison, succulent green-lipped mussels, Bluff oysters, crayfish (lobster), paua (abalone), whitebait, scallops, salmon, deep-sea fish and, of course, kiwifruit. With over 40 million sheep in a country of 4 million people it is no surprise that lamb is a principal meal ingredient. Canterbury lamb is world-renowned, and is usually served as roast meal with fresh peas, carrots, pumpkin, potatoes and kumara (sweet potato). Lean pork, beef and farm-bred venison (cervena) are also of the highest quality and relatively inexpensive.
Māori cooked food in earth ovens, known in New Zealand as hāngi and, in geothermal areas, food was boiled or steamed using natural hot springs and pools.
New Zealanders regard the meat pie as a part of New Zealand cuisine, and it is said to form part of the New Zealand national identity.