Tramping in Haiku Form

Beers at punga cove
Throw rocks into the water
Nope we see nothing

One phosphorescence
Two bioluminescence
Three glow worm party

Tramping team scroggin
Do you want some tuna fish
Hey where is the deet?

Klaus might be danish
He might also be a goat
Which would you prefer

There is no jetty
What the fuck cowshed campsite
Bless flush toilets

Want a ride with us?
We can provide a surplus
Of puns unfinish

Strangers stop in front
Of us, were like what what the fuck
Dehydrated, help


Really not picky
We could ride inside your boat
Please please please please please

Riding with Hussein
Would you like the seat heat on?
Good lort, pray for us

Later in the day
Cigarettes in the ash tray
Should have been picky

The Second Sunday
 in September suits us fine
Gotta mind that child


Ok this doesn’t make a lot of sense, I know, but  it is a pretty good summary of a bunch of inside jokes and stories from the last few days tramping on the Queen Charlotte Track and then hitchhiking back to Nelson. More coherent blog post coming someday...

Nailing the NZ Accent

I was warned before coming here that the kiwi accent would be hard to understand. I definitely find myself just tuning it out sometimes, because I have to really focus to pick up on everything. My road trip buddy Will and I have been trying to master the accent ourselves and I must say we’ve been *pretty* successful so far. Mostly we just say the phrase ‘second Sunday in September’ at least once an hour. Will heard a lady say it one time in passing, and it quickly became our catchphrase. She’ll never know how important that line was to us. I’ll phonetically sound it out for you because then you’ll see how perfect a phrase it is to practice this accent. “See-cant sun-dee In sept-teem-bah!” It’s all about nailing down that ‘E.’ (Update: wrote this at least a week ago and we haven’t been saying this phrase anymore, maaaybe we overused it a tad bit).
We’ll also say random things we see on the side of the road for practice, and Will frequently says “gdday!” really loudly at odd times. Basically, we are crushing it.

Another point of contention is how to pronounce Manuka. Most people seem to say ‘mah-noo-kah ‘ but I was told by a native north islander that the correct way is ‘mah-nah-kah.’ This pronunciation endeavor will probably be inconclusive, but it’s fun to have something to tune in to. I’ve only been here for a few weeks and really haven’t talked to many locals, so hopefully I will pick up more phrases as the weeks go on. So far I’ve only heard “sweet as” a few times which is not enough! My favorite takeaway word is ‘keen.’ Pretty basic, I know, but it’s just a very useful short word, much better than saying “I’m interested in.” So yup, I’m keen to keep listening to some fun accents and words as the weeks go on. Toodles!