After three nights here in Christchurch, I'm headed to the mountains. Christchurch is a very "English"-looking city. It has that sort of reputation. There is a tram and a pretty stream (they call it a river) and stone buildings. Some of the telephone booths are red. There is a large botanical garden next to the city center, and the city center is Cathedral Square. There are a lot of "buskers" there during the day. "Buskers" is a term I've learned in Australia for street performers and the like that do things for money. They actually carry a license to busk.
The temperature here is colder than in Australia, but the latitudes are in the 40's which is sort of like Canada. The first day I got here was the coldest I've been since leaving San Diego, but today warmed up. I checked out the Canterbury Museum (Canterbury is the name of this province of which Christchurch is the capital) and the Christchurch Art Gallery. You know, there was a flightless bird here called the moa, which was like a really tall emu. It was killed to extinction about 500 years ago by the Maori. Interestingly, they have found no evidence of warfare here in New Zealand until the moas were extinct, suggesting communities lived in
relative peace until overpopulation lead to the extinction of a main food source, and people had to compete for limited resources. It also dispells the myth that "primative" cultures lived in "harmony with nature". What a load of crap. Given enough time, every culture would overpopulate and cause environmental catastrophes.
The Art Gallery had a lot of normal paintings as well as more modern art pieces. There were some really dark pieces that looked like they came out of a head shop or tatoo parlor.
In Christchurch, I could have purchased some beater cars for less than $2000. I saw one 1988 Toyota Corona (Corolla in the States) for $850, presumably running. Some of these are wagons that come with camping and cooking gear.
I should sort of come up with closing running commentary on Australia. What a cool country. I spent most of my time (four weeks) in Queensland which I found had awesome and diverse environments. It is sort of redneck, as my friend Paul (from Melbourne) described, but it's friendly like country-folk are. Sydney was pretty and fun for the New Year. Melbourne had a totally different feel. It did not seem as big and dark. Sydney was very culturally diverse (no Aboriginies, though), but Melbourne was far more diverse and integrated. I couldn't believe all the different foods you could buy in the food courts. In the States, I tend to see the major food franchises: McDonald's, Subways, Taco Bell (they don't have Taco Bell in Oz!), Burger King(Hungry Jack here), Wendy's, a pizza joint, and Chinese takeaway. Here, I've mostly noticed a million different Asian food places including Indian food, Malaysian, Thai, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. It's that specific. And who's eating there? Not Asians, although there some. Mostly, it's Caucasians there. A lot of people just eat a sushi handroll for lunch. Well, that's what I noticed about Melbourne.
A lot of folks love their "footie" which is Aussie-rules Football. Paul showed me a tape of a game from back in '96. These guys play on a field that is elliptical with a length of over 150 yards. They don't wear any padding. They play with a ball that is larger than a football. They can run with the ball, but every 10 yards they have to bounce it off the ground. They can kick the ball or "hit it" (like an underhand serve in volleyball), but they can't pass it like in American Football. They play four quarters, each of which are 30 minutes long. It's a fast, fast game like soccer. Folks have loyalty to home teams, which are not as commercialzed as they are in the States. The big meal at a footie game is a pint of beer with a meat pie. This is like the meat pot pies in the States, except you can actually hold it and the stuff doesn't necessarily go running down your arm like a pot of hot oil.
Oh back on to food, what do people eat late at night returning from a bar? Oh, Sigdaddy's crew in Biloxi will probably pipe up with Taco Bell, right? No Taco Bell out here. Instead they have a lot of non-franchised "pizza & kebab" places. Great food. Kebabs in the states are meat on sticks. Here, as well as in Europa, they're Gyros. They have chicken, beef, and lamb. The difference between Australia and Europa is that they'll add cheese on top and the bread is thinner, not like the thick bread in the States. And another thing, I've always referred to the pita bread wrap as "falafel". Here they call falafel something that looks like a dark brown hush puppy. It's a mixture of chick peas, parsley, and garlic. I've had loads of meals of kebabs, fish & chips, and Asian food in Australia, so that's what I've ended up talking about: food. Okay, more about food. Vegemite is a dark brown (chocolate colored) salty spread that you have to use spariingly. It's a good source of vitamin B, so people say you should spread it thinly on some toast the morning after a night out. It's salty but good. My last thought for the night: Bundaberg & Cola on tap. What a lovely concoction of mollasses and caramel. I could drink it as a soft drink, except I would be persistently drunk.
