El Tejanito in New Zealand

Xmas 1999

A rare sighting of El Tejanito on the beach at Kaikoura, New Zealand.

During the 1999 Christmas holidays, El Tejanito travelled to New Zealand with the family to visit a sister who was living there at the time. It was a wonderful way to spend quality time with family. Yes, it was a long trip, and we didn’t kill each other or even get on each other's nerves too much. That was a plus! We spent a lot of time in Christchurch (on the South Island) where my sister lived. But, we also took a road trip down the West Coast to see the glaciers. (The Kiwis* pronounce it GLAY-cee-yers). We went on to Queenstown for a few days, and back. Then, we traveled north by train to Kaikoura to spot whales.

*Note: A Kiwi is a person from New Zealand, named for the Kiwi—a small, shy, round, furry-looking bird. They are not named for the Kiwi fruit, which is not called that at all; the small, round, furry-looking fruit is actually a Chinese gooseberry. Calling the fruit a Kiwi—after the bird—was some sort of marketing ploy. This is not to say that Kiwis are small, shy, round or furry, in any way.

New Zealand is composed of two islands—North and South. A rule of thumb: If you like tropical beaches, go to the North Island; if you want mountains, awesome scenery and a gateway to the Antarctic, South Island. It was summer time in the Southern Hemisphere, but the weather was quite cool in the South Island—cooler than it was back home in winter—because of its closeness to the Polar region. The Maoris—the indigenous people of New Zealand—call the islands Aotearoa, or Land of the Long White Cloud.


View of Queenstown from the hotel.	View from Mount Ben Lomond.

We all decided that Queenstown looked and felt a lot like Aspen, Colorado. There are lots of outdoor sporting venues in Q-town, especially bungee jumping, para-sailing and skiing (both on the water and, in the winter, snow skiing). The Kiwis love extreme sports and, apparently, have few tort laws. El Tejanito settled for a lot of hiking.

El Tejanito enjoys the deck of the T.S.S. Earnslaw, a ship that transported us to Walter Peak High County Farm, a living farm outside of Queenstown. It looks like El Tejanito is smuggling a watermelon under that sweatshirt. This idea is not a bad one, as watermelons cost about $10 (NZ) in Christchurch. This price is a far cry from our $3 (US) Texas watermelons in summer, even after adjusting for the monetary exchange rate. As soon as El Tejanito returns to Texas, he is starting on a New Year’s resolution to get back into a regular exercise routine and lose that extra baggage. (Note: You'll be happy to know that this goal was accomplished!)

Is that a watermelon under that sweatshirt,
or are you happy to see me?

Back at the Farm, we saw a real English garden and lots of sheep! Lots of sheep! Also, we had a real "English tea." But, you have to be careful with the Kiwis because, to them, "tea" means supper and "supper" means... well, I forget, but it didn't mean what I thought it would. On the ride back from the Farm, people on the ship gathered ‘round the piano for sing-a-long. Yeah, this is quite jolly!

As an ending note, here is a picture of the "clan" all together on Christmas day—sans El Tejanito who had to snap the picture—the "blondies," the "little brown ones" and the in-betweens. Aren't they beautiful, like the colors of a rainbow. That's what New Zealand is like, also... a rainbow. Of course, El Tejanito kept a journal of his trip and snapped over a hundred slides and pictures, which he put into an album. Maybe one day, El Tejanito will be inspired to put the album up on the Web site. Until then, mis amigos/as, we will have to be content with this brief description.

El Tejanito has enjoyed displaying slides of his trip to various people. (I don't know how much those people have enjoyed seeing them.) Here is a link to a flyer for El T's slide show, which he called Tearooms &Tramps.

End of Article
Updated: November 12, Y2K

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