Day 23: Motueka

Day 23: Motueka

Education expenditures: 6.2% of GDP (2010), country comparison to the world: 28 (up from 38 just 4 years ago)

So, NZ is spending more % of their GDP on education than lots of other countries

Department of retro posting: the kayak/cruise/hike/cruise adventure was $125/person

Pop Audio Quiz: What are the following?
- Chicken disk
- Afternine
- Cowshit
-
Answer to what was THB modeling in the photo quiz: A clothes pin apron (and THB looked mighty stylish, so mighty he wore it around town all day long looking for the women wearing the red tutu’s while wine tasting).

Book Review: Ransom, David Malouf, Kindle edition. A short, dense, poetic (Malouf is an Australian poet) version of Priam soliciting Achilles for the release of Hector’s body. Highly recommended, especially for you fans of the Iliad (as by now you’ve figured out that THB is a fan of Iliad and Odyssey; try Ian McKellen’s audio version of portions)

Pics: Chair free with personal radiator, Motueka utility box, outdoor toilet, Motueka from up high, the best up high lodge, Tekaka mural, car art in Tekaka, 2nd clearest water – at Pupu, the Most Beautiful in NZ 2011 utility box as voted on by DB and THB, and shots from the Golden Bay beach where THB took his mid-afternoon dip

Breakfast same-same. Walk to town for essentials (such as a cinnamon swirl “tea” bread) and to use wi-fi to post last two days. Rest up for a bit and then head for the hills: we (in the car) are climbing up over the mountain north of us to visit Golden Bay, over an hour away. We stop to walk Tekaka (pronounced…?), a combo hippie/artisan type spot, and eat a lunch of three nsalads and toast, hummus wrap, half bowl of sweet potato fries, one elderberry rhubarb soda, total of $25.

Wander around the area, visit the 2nd clearest water in the southern hemisphere at the Pupu Springs, stop in at an organic produce stand and chat up the administrator of the coop, a guy from LA (he explains how/why many people end up in NZ having migrated from California to Oregon to Hawaii to end up in NZ…hmmmmmmmm….). Buy some small tomatoes and eggplant.

Then finally end up driving along several of the golden beaches of Golden Bay, and THB picks one for his afternoon dip. These places are pretty isolated, and spectacular. If there was snorkeling, you’d find more than 10 people per mile of beach…

Dinner at the house of lamb chops, grilled eggplant, tomato and basil salad, wine and some more of the smoked fish pates as an appetizer. Total somewhere around $25-30