A Year in a Car For No Apparent Reason

Obviously, I’ve not been doing well with updating on this trip. Which is actually odd since my dad has become slightly obsessed with various real estate blogs and we spend a fair amount of time in internet cafes so he can get updated.

But I’m splitting this hour of time with my brother and it’s just about his turn. I’m surrounded by shouting teenagers playing video games so apologies for what I’m sure will be a scatter-brained post.

There have been many pictures taken that I’ll share with you later.

We’re in Christchurch, New Zealand at the moment. Just got back from a morning and afternoon at the Antarctic experience, half museum and half penguin display. Very cool. Reawakened my desire to visit Antarctica. Maybe after “A Year in a Car” comes “A Winter in Antarctica?” We’ll see.

New Zealand appears to be no better than Australia at figuring out what makes a good milkshake (called thickshakes here). If you order a milkshake you get what’s essentially chocolate or strawberry milk. Thickshakes are made with ice cream, but not nearly enough. We haven’t had any that have been very thick.

The same goes for smoothies. It’s a very sad state of affairs on that account as well. But they do have Tim Tams and that makes up for a lot. If you’re in the states I’ve been able to find them in some Cost Plus Marketplace stores, but only in the original flavor. I’ve become quite fond of the dark chocolate ones, but have never seen those in the states.

Alright. My brother’s hovering over me so I’d better give up this computer. More on traveling out of a suitcase as opposed to a van later.

Which is not to imply that it’s not fun when you’re just wandering around without a guide. It’s just a whole different kind of traveling.

Just got back from an overnight trip to Kangaroo Island, with mom, my friend Kylie and her parents from Adelaide. It was a great trip. Kylie’s dad worked on Kangaroo Island as a firefighter so knew a lot of the people who we visited. We toured two sheep farms (one where they raised them for wool and one for milk) and a bee farm, ate lots of good food, saw the pelicans being fed, and koalas sleeping. Missed out on the penguins and didn’t see any kangaroos until we were back on the mainland, still great fun and great company.

Also, I want to be a bee farmer now. Adding it to my list.

I did a quick interview with one of the sheep farmers for This Week in Science so I’m excited about that, though it will be a while before I get it together. Special thanks, btw, need to go out to the hosts Kirsten and Justin for plugging my blog and linking it in their show notes. You guys are awesome. Apologies for not having said so earlier.