May 15, 2011 (Yellow Kiwifruit!)

I love the produce in New Zealand. Christchurch has a number of green grocers (another thing I like about the city), often going by names like "The Funky Pumpkin" or "Grower's Direct" or somesuch. This time of year, all kinds of fruit and vegetables have been harvested, and are available. There are cauliflowers, broccoli, and apples, to be sure, but there are more delicious (and exotic, to my Canadian palate) things to be had. Feijoas, yellow kiwifruit, persimmons! They all grow in NZ, and are ripe and delicious when they make it to the green grocer. We bought (yet another) giant bag of perfectly ripe persimmons today. It won't last long in our house!

It was beautifully sunny yesterday, so we went to the beach. I'm trying to get to as many of the local beaches as possible before we leave, so we took the opportunity to knock another one off the list. We went to Woodend Beach - a nice sandy beach with dunes, but it had lots of wood scattered throughout. We spent the day running around, playing the sand. We found the partially decomposed head of a small shark - Aya thought it was very cool.

There is SO many surfing opportunities here. Every beach seems to have a decent beach break. If I was more of a surfer, I would definitely consider moving here - there is surfing everywhere, and almost no one is out there! There are many surfers living in Christchurch, but there are many kilometers with beach breaks.

One of the strangest things about NZ are the men's haircuts. The Mullet and the Rattail are both VERY common! And guys are not wearing them ironically... Everywhere you look, there's a guy with a hardcore, full-on, mullet. I'm still not used to it!

We's like to send out greetings to all our Canadian friends! We miss you all, and with a little luck, we'll see you soon!

Trent.