Monday, August 26, 2013

How To Eat For Free


As countries develop, spending on food as a proportion of total income tends to decline. This also means that people in poorer countries have to devote a larger share of their income to buying food. This proportion is almost 50 % for some countries.

Despite the downwards trending spening on food, Australian's still spend an average of $204 per week per household on food and non-alcoholic beverages, or 17 % of the total of expenditure on goods and services per household. That figure for a lone person is an average of $104 spent per week on food and non-alcoholic beverages. Obviously this is a significant cost for most people, but it doesn't have to be this way if you so choose.

If you're strapped for cash, or want to save money, I've got a few tips on how to eat for free. Since I grew up in a poor household in country Victoria and was a student on Youth Allowance for five years when I moved to Melbourne, paying my living expenses and university expenses entirely on my own, I have a tendency to be frugal and thrifty, even though I now earn a good wage working as a civil engineer. Part of this propensity also comes from my anti-consumerist attitude and my strong dislike of waste and my pro-freeganism. So although I don't track my own spending, I estimate I'd be spending significantly less than $104 per week on food and non-alcoholic beverages.

Tip 1: dumpster-diving
Dumpster diving is a practice which seems to be increasing in popularity in Australia. Most people I speak to seem to have heard of it (maybe because I've already told them about it?), but I think it's becoming more widely known. In fact, just the other night I was in a conversation at a house party in Preston, and of the five participants in that particular conversation, three of them were regular dumpster divers! More than half of the sample! However my friend Kelvin was quick to inform me I was in the "Northcote-Preston reality distortion field", and that such an observation is not consistent with the general population.

If you're unfamiliar with dumpster diving, basically it involves going out and finding the dumpsters of your local supermarkets/bakeries/fruit & veggie stores/etc and retrieving the thrown-out food/goods from those dumpsters. If you want to know more about it, there are plenty of articles on the internet, see herehereherehereherehere and here.

If you wanted to, you could probably live entirely off dumpstered food. I live near the Northcote plaza so I regularly dumpster-dive at the Aldi and Coles dumpsters there. The Aldi dumpsters are convenient because they're not locked and are small and easy to reach into; the Northcote Coles dumpsters often aren't locked either nowadays, but are sometimes latched. In other Melbourne suburbs the Coles/Woolworths dumpsters may be locked, but there are plenty of keys floating around in the freegan/alternative/dumpster-diving community which you should be able to get a hold of and cut a copy. I'm led to believe they use the same key throughout Australia for all Coles Dumpsters and the same key for all Woolworths dumpsters.

I suspect the the dumpsters in Northcote (and the dumspters in the other inner-northern suburbs of Melbourne) would be the most highly frequented by dumpster divers due to the demographics of those suburbs; I often come across other dumpster-divers when out foraging at Northcote Plaza. Just the other night, my housemate Sarah and I stopped by the Coles dumpster and came across a guy dumpster-diving who we started chatting to. It turned out he was my other housemates friends new housemate!
But despite the popularity, I still find plenty of good food there - it's amazing how much gets thrown out! I also suspect that the food thrown out in upper-class suburbs such as Toorak, Brighton, South Yarra and other suburbs south-east of the city.

Much of the food we eat in my sharehouse is dumpstered food. We haven't bought a loaf of bread for months, plenty of our fruit and veggies are dumpstered, as well as other miscellaneous items. See some of the photos below of food that I've recovered from dumpsters.
A range of fruit and vegetables from the Northcote Plaza Aldi dumpster
A range of bread and crumpets in the Aldi dumpster.
Bread, fruit and vegies from the Aldi dumpster, with our Swedish couchsurfers Catherine and Sointu helping out.
Vegies, fruit, and LOTS of grapes, with our German couchsurfer Lucas.
A delicious strawberry cake from the Aldi dumpster.
A range of quality sourdough and dense/seedy/wholemeal delicious breads, most of which were not even out of date, from the Northcote Plaza Coles dumpster. Anything that can't be consumed initially is put in the freezer for consumption later.
A heap of freshly baked bread from the Coles dumpster at Barkley Square, Brunswick.
A range of quality loaves of bread and roles, fresh from the Coles dumpster.
Loaves of bread inside the Northcote Aldi dumpster.
Other notable items I've recovered include:

  • Full casks of Aldi's finest cask wine - Albertson's Dry Red;
  • Flavoured milk (usually iced coffee because it's obviously the worst flavour of flavoured milk)
  • Bottles of wine;
  • Almost a full slab of cruisers (someone must have dropped the slab and broken some of the bottles, and thrown the whole thing out);
  • Glass bottles of soft-drink/lemonade:
  • Some pornographic magazines and DVD's, which I cunningly planted in my housemates back-pack, bass case, under his bed and in his book shelf. He doesn't like pornography and upon discovering it in his back-pack, he walked into the living room holding his porno mag up with a confounded look on his face announcing he'd found it in his bag and that he had no idea where it came from. "Haha, sure you don't mate, good one", I told him. Hehehe;
  • Eggs. Dozens and dozens of eggs! It seems that when someone in the supermarket drops an egg carton and some of the eggs break, they throw the whole carton out, even though most of the eggs are still fine! We haven't bought eggs for months, and there are literally about 40 eggs in the fridge;
  • Deli products such as fine cheeses and quiches;
  • Meat. I haven't been brave enough to take any meat home and eat it, but it's probably often fine, and you often find it in the dumpsters;
  • A jar of mints;
  • Boxes and boxes of "Buddy Muddy Bears", little individually wrapped bear-shaped cakes which Aldi sells;
  • A box of Aldi's version of the Mars Bar, and other Aldi chocolates;
  • Loose muesli bars and chocolate

Basically I guess anything that is sold in the supermarket you could potentially find in the dumpster.

Tip 2: Urban foraging
Dumpster-diving is a type of urban foraging, a sub-set if you like, but this tip covers the other types of urban foraging. Much food can be found for free in urban environments. For example (not exactly urban), someone in my home-town of Daylesford produced a map showing all the free public food in the local commons, including fruit trees and bushes, seeds, herbs, mushrooms, animals, etc. There are in fact many edible weeds, many of which can be found in Melbourne and other cities, and a bloke called Adam Grubb has written a book on it. In fact, (edible) weeds are one of the healthiest things you can eat, not to mention the most sustainable! You can find weed distribution maps, weed galleries and other info here.
Mallow: these weeds are edible, and they are prolific in our back-yard in Northcote, I've pulled out hundreds of them!
There are also things like berry bushes, olive trees and fruit trees, and there's a website for people in Melbourne to view and post the locations of these for other people's benefit.

Tip 3: Grow your own food
One of the most satisfying ways of eating for free is by growing your own food. If you have a back yard then it's easy to plant some vegies and herbs. We've planted a variety of things in our backyard in Northcote, including tomatoes, pumpkin, zucchini, lettuce, silver-beet, spinach, cucumber, eggplant, beetroot, carrot, rhubarb, basil, rosemary, coriander, strawberries, onion, chives, potato, radish, red kidney beans, etc. You can either grow them from seed, or buy seedlings from the local nursery, or obtain some great varieties from friends or members of the community if you're in the loop. Herbs are often better grown in pots, and this is obviously a good option if you live in an apartment and don't have a backyard.
One of the most important factors in growing your own food is soil preparation. A good way to prepare your soil for a garden is by doing your own compost. Collect any fruit/vegie scraps from the kitchen, and create a compost heap (or use a compost bin). I've heard that compost should ideally be 50% nitrogen sources (e.g. fruit/vegie scraps) and 50% carbon sources (e.g. autumn leaves, paper, paper towel, card-board, etc), and the heap should be turned every week to aerate it. A worm farm is also a great way to produce some nutrient-rich dirt.
Another useful tip is to collect decomposing fruit/vegies from dumpsters (see Tip 1 above) or from the local market, and use these to increase the volume of your compost. Some markets (e.g. Preston, Queen Vic, Footscray) will give away "compost" (left-over fruit and vegies) for free at the end of the day.

Tip 4: Hunt for your own food
Often when I go back home to Dad's place where I grew up on a farm at Mt Franklin (central Victoria), I take the 0.22 rifle out and hunt rabbits. I'll then skin them and use the best ones for eating, and give the rest to the dogs.
Frying up some rabbit with olive oil and garlic.
Rabbit and vegetable curry.
If you have the right equipment (i.e. rifles), you can also go out into the bush and shoot a deer or a kangaroo. I haven't done it myself but have friends that do, and I've eaten some delicious venison and roo meat as a result.
In an urban setting, I've often seen rabbits hopping around at Docklands, although shooting them with a rifle may not be appropriate in this setting...
If fishing takes your fancy, I'm sure you could catch some fish in the local streams (you need a fishing licence though). I often see folks fishing in the lower reaches of the Moonee Ponds Creek on my ride to work, although I'm not sure this would be my first choice of creek to fish in.
A bloke fishing at the down-stream end of the Moonee Ponds Creek near Docklands.
Tip 4: Live with housemates that work in a muffin shop/bakery/restaurant/etc
My housemate Arthur works in a muffin shop part-time on Monday and Tuesday afternoons, and each Monday and Tuesday evening he typically brings home a bag or two full of delicious muffins! He generally doesn't even eat them himself because he's worked in the muffin shop for years and the novelty of eating muffins has somewhat worn off, so that leaves them all for me and my other housemates.
Arthur also swaps muffins for other food such as pasta, pizza, focaccias and sushi at the other shops at the food-court that he works in at Southbank, so he also often bring these items home.
My other housemate Cattie works at Roll'd and she occasionally brings home a heap of rice paper rolls.

A selection of muffins that Arthur brought home.
Sarah and I about to devour some muffins.
Tip 5: Avoid waste! Eat everything off your plate and the pans/dishes, eat questionable left-overs, cook creatively, etc
I have an aversion to waste, and barely any food goes to waste in our house. Once I'm finished dinner, my plate is almost clean enough to put back on the shelf. I scrape out any morsels of food left on the cooking dishes and eat them too. I often cook a large amount and keep left-overs in the fridge, which I'll take for lunch at work or eat for dinner on a subsequent night. I'll generally eat left-overs up to two weeks after they've been cooked, which many people seem to consider risky, but I've never experienced any adverse repercussions from it.
Our cooking is also primarily based on what we have at home (e.g. the vegies available in the garden or the things I've brought home from the dumspter). This strategy seems obvious, but it can take some creativity to use several seemingly uncomplimentary ingredients together for one dish. I also generally ignore "use by" and "best before" dates (although I tend to give more consideration to a use-by date than a best before date); instead, I rely on a visual inspection, and most importantly, the sniff test. If it looks fine and smells fine, it probably is fine. I place a good deal of faith in the sniff test.
Recently, with various housemates, past housemates and couch-surfers coming and going, we've accumulated an agglomeration of various supplies, and end up, for example, with five different bottles of black-bean sauce in the cupboard/fridge. Most of them were past their best before date, one of them four years past the use-by date. Sarah and I decided to combine them all together with some stir-fried vegies, served with rice and it was indeed a delicious meal and we didn't make us sick.
The other day I was going through my cupboard to get some meal ideas for dinner and I came across a packet of water crackers which went out of date in 2008! I don't think I'll eat them, but to avoid them going to waste I might take them along to a party to share - drunk people will eat anything, right? ;)
Some water-crackers I found in the cupboard, which went out of date on October 12, 2008 at 11:50 am.
Taking these kinds of measures means you'll waste less food, which means you won't have to buy or source as much food.

Tip 6: Take advantage of free food at work
I work full time in an office in Docklands, and there are often meetings, seminars, workshops, forums, training sessions, presentations, etc which are catered for. Catering typically provides more food than is needed due to the risk of under-catering, and due to people not wanting to consume too much and put on weight. This means that there is often left-over food which is typically left out in the kitchenettes for anyone who wants them. I imagine other workplaces are similar in this regard.
I regularly go for a walk around the office to mitigate the risk of sitting down for too long, and I keep an eye out for any left-over food and take advantage of it.
Some left-over food in the office.
Tip 7: Sneak into  business seminars/corporate functions held at hotels and take advantage of the food provided
You'll be able to use this tip regardless of whether you work in an office. If you know about a hotel, function centre or other venues which regularly host seminars/corporate functions/forums, etc, dress up in business attire and wander on in, pretending you're part of the same organisation. Many organisations are so big that nobody recognises everybody else in their own organisation so you won't be out of place. If people start making small talk with you, just be polite and go along with it, letting them lead the conversation and adding apt remarks as you pick up on who the organisation is and the topic of conversation. If it's a smaller organisation, they may just assume you're new; otherwise just wait until they've gone then swoop in like a seagull and snap up what's been left behind.
Sandwiches, fruit, crackers, cheese and pizza at a corporate workshop.
Muffins at a corporate workshop.
Tip 8: Eat friends left-over food at restaurants and randoms left-over food at restaurants
Many people, especially humans of the smaller variety, seem to leave leave food on their plates while eating out. If you're out with friends and you notice they've finished eating but haven't finished their meal, why not politely ask them "are you going to eat that?", and usually they'll respond with "no, do you want it?" If they don't offer it, follow up by asking "mind if I finish it for you?" They'll obligingly hand it over to you and voilĂ , you've just obtained some free food and prevented it from going to waste!
You can employ a similar strategy with people you don't know in the restaurant/eatery, although caution is required as many people will think it rude, and odd. It's a safer strategy to wait for them to leave, and then inconspicuously take any left-over food they've abandoned before the waiter takes it and throws it out. This strategy also works well when walking past outdoor eating areas such as many of the restaurants on Lygon St. Keep an eye out for a few left-over slices of pizza, chips or finger food - these items are safe bet and convenient, and you'll have more confidence that they won't contain the persons slobber and you'll have less risk of contracting any nasty germs or viruses.
I bought the pie, but the chips were left behind by the previous customers.
Tip 9: Share food!
If you have a surplus of food, then share it! If you've had a bumper crop of zucchini's or tomatoes, offer some to your neighbours or friends, and often when they have a surplus of something, they'll return the favour.
Don't be afraid to ask your neighbours for any herbs or fruit you notice growing in their garden. Our next-door neighbour in Northcote has a big lemon tree full of lemons and doesn't seem to use them, and we've asked on occasion to have a few, which they've given us. We asked the next neighbour along for some Rosemary from his bush in his front garden, and he was happy for us to take some. I planted one of the sprigs so we now have our own rosemary bush. The neighbour on the other side kindly gave us a handful of surplus capsicums they'd grown.
Use surplus food (such as from the dumpster or garden) to cook a large dinner and invite friends over to share it with you. This adds to the enjoyment of the meal, and they'll appreciate the generosity and may even return the favour by inviting you for dinner later on.

Tip 10: Preserve food!
The other option for surplus food is to preserve it. We collected all our empty glass jars over summer in preparation for an expected surplus of tomatoes as we planned to preserve them in the jars. Unfortunately our tomato harvest under-achieved and we didn't end up with a significant surplus, but we instead used the jars to preserve olives. We are lucky enough to have Greek landlords (Northcote was first settled by Greeks) and a big old olive-tree in the back yard. We picked and cured two 9-litre buckets of olives and preserved them in 30 jars, which should be enough to last us for at least a year.
Our olive tree in the back yard.
Jars of olives which we preserved.
Many fruit, vegies and herbs can be preserved by either drying, jarring or freezing them. I planted heaps of basil this year so we harvested the surplus at the end of the season, chopped it up and froze it, so we have frozen basil ice-cubes to add to pasta sauces, and some basil frozen with olive oil which will serve as a pesto base when we need it.

So there are my tips on eating for free. Many of these tips are accessible to most of us, but the main barriers I see are one's perceptions of what is socially acceptable and unhygienic, and the lack of spare time most of us have and the lack of convenience of these alternative food options. Some research shows that Australians work the highest number of hours in the developed world. Many Australian's are over-worked and/or workaholics and simply want food that is convenient, fast and tasty - not necessarily healthy, or cheap. With so many time-poor Australian's, many don't have the time or energy to even prepare their own food anymore, let alone be growing their own food. This is a shame, I think we should all be working less hours, more people should grow their own food, eat healthier diets and maintain healthier weights, and strategies should be implemented to reduce the astounding wastage of food in this country.



Sunday, July 28, 2013

A Week in New Zealand

A few months ago two of my sisters, Leah and Rachel, were organising a trip to New Zealand for some skiing and travelling. They asked if I wanted to join them, and considering the substantial amount of leave I had built up at work, and that I hadn't been on a holiday, or skiing, for quite a while, nor had I been to New Zealand before, I was quick to say yes. My other sister Rosanna also hopped on board but my youngest sister Silkom didn't have enough money to come with us too.

It was handy to spread the organising load between the four of us. Contrary to the way I typically organise (or don't organise) a holiday, we had all our hostels and the hire car already booked, and the ski resorts we planned to ski at penciled in. We managed to find flights as cheap as $230 return to Christchurch through Jetstar. So near the end of June 2013, we caught a taxi to Tullamarine and hopped on the plane, only the third time I've been on a commercial airliner.
Lining up at Tullamarine, L-R: Micheal our German couchsurfer who happened to be catching the same flight to NZ to travel around for a few weeks, a random, Rosanna, Rachel and Leah with an over-exposed face.
I was looking forward to the trip and my only concern was how my sisters would get along, having experienced their extreme mood-swings in the past. These concerns turned out to be well founded, but more on that later. This post is mostly a selection of some of the photos and highlights from the trip.

The drive from Christchurch to Wanaka
The flight was what is known as a "red-eye" flight, since it departed Melbourne late at night, and arrived at New Zealand early in the morning, at about 5:00 am, so there was no opportunity to get any reasonable amount of sleep in. This meant we had a five hour drive ahead of us while we were all tired. Only Leah and I were allowed to drive the hire car because we were 25 years old or older. So Leah and I took it in turns driving while the others napped in the back. It was a shame to miss some of the impressive scenery but I was so tired I had to have a few naps.
A stop in Geraldine for breakfast, with our Toyota Corolla hire car.
Lake Tekapo
Rachel throwing snow-balls at Lake Tekapo. It was novelty to be in snow.
Lake Tekapo
A little church at Lake Tekapo
A little church at Lake Tekapo
Lake Tekapo
The little church at Lake Tekapo.
Rosanna at Lake Tekapo
Lake Tekapo
Lake Tekapo
Lake Tekapo
Driving towards Wanaka.
Driving towards Wanaka
A stop in the Waitaki District.
A stop in the Waitaki District.
A photo of Leah taking a photo of Rachel posing for a photo.
We eventually arrived safely in Wanaka and checked into the Altamont Lodge for the first three nights. It was a fantastic hostel, one of the best I've stayed in, with clean, comfortable facilities, and a new kitchen, a good vibe and even some tennis courts. We went to have a play a match on them, but Rosanna had hit all three balls over the fence before I'd even made it out of the hostel! Unfortunately the balls were not retrievable because the neighbours were allegedly unneighbourly and grouchy, so that was the end of the tennis - over before it had even started, so sad! Thanks Rosanna.

What really made the hostel though was the helpful and friendly staff. Rod in particular gave us heaps of advice and told us many a story from his 80 odd years of life experience. He appeared very healthy for his age, and I suspect this was because he'd kept so active for his whole life. He told us about how he had recently been swimming in Lake Wanaka with a wet-suit, even though it was winter and only 12 degrees! He was a keen cyclist, in both road cycling and mountain biking, and would go for a jog regularly as well, or skiing or hiking, or athletics which he was in charge of when he was a teacher back in the day.
He had some devastating stories about the earthquake in Christchurch and how some of his friends had been affected, and a number of other depressing stories, but despite these he still maintained such an positive outlook on life, which I admired. He had recently contracted Golden Staph and was told by doctors that he would most probably die, but he pulled through and carried himself back to health! He gave an interesting insight into NZ politics, and coincidentally it was on this night that the ALP leadership challenge occurred and Kevin Rudd was reinstated as Prime Minister of Australia, which came somewhat as a surprise to me.
In the common room at the Altamont Lodge playing a game of 500.
The first two nights in the hostel actually felt like we had the hostel to ourselves, it felt like we'd rented out a large house for a few nights. There were others staying in the hostel, but strangely they didn't seem to be hanging out with us :p

The following three days after our arrival in Wanaka were spent on the ski slopes, more specifically at the Cardrona ski resort. We could have gone to Treble Cone for one of the days but we'd heard it was better suited to more advanced skiers, whereas we were all quite inexperienced.

One issue we had was that we didn't pay the extra fee to get snow chains with the hire car, thinking that we'd simply hire them in Wanaka. It turned out that no-where in Wanaka offered hire chains, or at least we couldn't find any. So we decided we'd just drive to the base of the mountain and then hitch-hike up. We had the option of hiring chains half way up (from the point they were required), but they cost $45 just for the day, and we all agreed that was a rip off, so we opted to hitch up instead. Hitching up to the ski-resorts seems to be a common approach in NZ, as lined up behind another half a dozen people hitching up. Everyone would lie down their ski/snowboard gear and stick up their thumb with a smile, to make themselves more attractive to prospective lift-givers. Everyone would go "awww" when a car with spare seats drove past without stopping. Leah and Rosanna got a lift up pretty quickly, but Rachel and I had to wait around another 15 minutes since it was getting on a bit and there were less cars, but eventually we were squashed into a hired Tarrago with a family of five from Queensland. Excellent!

The turn-off to Cardrona, looking back at the road from Wanaka where we'd come from.
At the turn-off to Cardrona as the sun rises, and waiting for a lift.
Looking up the road to Cardrona while waiting for a lift.
At the turn-off to Cardrona: Rachel and I waiting for a lift up the mountain.
I took a few green runs just to get the hang of skiing again, then moved onto the blue (intermediate) runs.
Rosanna and Rachel about to head down a green run at Cardrona
On one of the ski lifts at Cardrona, looking down.
The view from the a ski lift at Cardrona.
The view from Cardrona ski resort.
Rosanna at Cardrona ski resort, beautiful skiing conditions.
The back of Cardrona, Rosanna in the left of the photo.
The view from the back of Cardrona.
The view from the back of Cardrona as a light cloud floats in.
As it turned out, we were fortunate to have excellent skiing conditions; it was the start of the season so it wasn't busy, but there had been a huge dumping of snow the previous week, and there was allegedly 110 cm of packed powder snow. We heard it would be much busier the next week with the Australian school holidays commencing, and the season ramping up.

For our second day of skiing, we again had to hitch up. The four of us squashed into another Tarago, this time being driven by a lovely family of five from Sydney: Matt and his wife, and their three kids: Ben, Max and Lachlan. One of the boys told us a funny story about their Dad - he'd dropped the family off at the Airport in Sydney and then driven away to find a free-car park to avoid the exorbitant airport parking fees, but by the time he'd found a free car park and walked back to the airport, he'd missed his flight! His family were on the way to NZ without him. So had had to book another flight and a hotel, and Max reckoned it would have been cheaper just to pay for the airport parking!
Cardrona Ski Resort
Cardrona Ski Resort
Cardrona Ski Resort
Cardrona Ski Resort
Cardrona Ski Resort
Cardrona Ski Resort
Cardrona Ski Resort
Getting some lessons from our hostel manager, Rod, and 82 year old (centre of picture in blue). Leah is on the left and Rachel on the right.
Rachel, about to head down the slope.
Rosanna at Cardrona.
Some of the ski slopes at Cardrona.
One of the ski slopes at Cardrona.
Driving back to Wanaka after a fantastic day of skiing.
For our final night in Wanaka, we thought it'd be good to go out and experience the town's night-life. We brought along a few others from the hostel - Matt from Dunedin (NZ), Ben from France and Maria, a Singaporean girl from Melbourne. We went to a club called Opium, which had free entry, cheap drinks ($5 spirits) and surprisingly good music - I was impressed!
Speaking of music, this trip made me realise how much my music taste had diverged/expanded/developed compared to my sisters. They disliked almost everything I put on, from accessible music like Daft Punk's new album Random Access Memories, The Velvet Underground's self-titled and Loaded, Elbow - Cast of Thousands and Paul Kelly's new album Spring and Fall to Jon Hopkins new album Immunity, The Knife's new album Shaking the Habitual, A Hawk and a Hacksaw - Cervantine, Dirty Three, Goat and Four Tet. While we were listening to music in the car, all they did was complain about my music choices, except for maybe Elbow and Paul Kelly! This surprised me.
Rosanna and Rachel at Opium, a club in Wanaka.
The club was cool, as far as clubs go, but I was too tired to enjoy it, still recovering from the red-eye flight and early mornings for skiing. I was the designated driver so I drove back to the hostel with Rachel and Rosanna, leaving Leah behind with Matt.

The day was spent skiing at Cardrona again, our third and final day of skiing for the trip. We were able to drive ourselves up to the top this time because they were no-longer requiring drivers to fit chains.
Cardrona Ski Resort
Cardrona Ski Resort
Cardrona Ski Resort: Rosanna, Leah, Rachel and me on the Captains Expressway lift
Cardrona Ski Resort: Rachel, Leah and Rosanna.
Cardrona Ski Resort
Cardrona Ski Resort
Cardrona Ski Resort
Using your ski lift pass, you can hop online and see your ski stats. I had 86 runs over the three days, quite a lot, despite often having to wait around at the bottom of the runs for my sister(s).
I recorded my third day of skiing on Strava. Looks like I did 35 runs and covered a good portion of the ski field. One of the lift operators reckoned if you did over 25 runs in a day you were doing well.
So that was the end of three fantastic days of skiing. We drove back to Wanaka to drop off our hired ski's, poles and boots, and to pick up our luggage from the hostel before driving to Queenstown.
We stopped for a delightful view of Lake Wanaka as we were leaving.
Sun setting at Lake Wanaka.
Sun setting at Lake Wanaka.
As it turned out, leaving Leah behind at the club the previous night was a bad idea as she turned out to be particularly grumpy and temperamental today. In one particularly nasty outburst just as the sun was setting over Lake Wanaka, she became verbally abusive and caused a rupture in space-time contin..I mean, in the relationships between the siblings, especially between her and Rosanna. This meant that we could no longer do activities as a group because, understandably, Rosanna didn't want to talk to, or be around, Leah. Unfortunately though we had an hour long car trip ahead of us to get to Queenstown!
After that part of the holiday, Rachel sided with Leah, despite Leah's extreme nastiness, presumably so that she wasn't left on her own, while Rosanna had no choice but to side with me.
We checked into our hostel in Queenstown - the Haka Lodge. It wasn't bad, but not as good as the Altimont Lodge in Wanaka. Queenstown is known as "the adventure capital of the world". It's more of a party town than Wanaka and seemed to be full of foreigners, especially English people.
The next day we hiked up the Queenstown's "Gondola", in two separate groups.
Queenstown, looking towards the Gondola.
Queenstown: the Gondola. In the summer, you can attach your mountain bike to the lifts and ride down the excellent mountain trails. I'd love to return to Queenstown and do that.
The view from the Gondola, overlooking Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu.
The view from the Gondola, overlooking Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu.
On top of the Gonola, looking towards Ben Lomond. Note the Douglas Firs, an introduced species, creeping up the valley and gradually taking over.
A mountain goat on top of the Gondola, Lake Wakatipu in the background.
Looking down at Queenstown from the Gondola.
Lake Wakatipu: while Rosanna and I were walking back down the Gondola, we ran into Leah and Rachel who were walking up.
Rachel, in front of Lake Wakatipu.
It happened to be the final day of the Queenstown Winter Festival so there were a number of bands playing, with stalls and street food and the like. The bassist (on the right) was very funny.
Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown, as the sun sets.
The next day, our second day in Queenstown, wasn't too eventful. We had originally planned to go skiing at the Remarkables, but Rachel and Leah weren't keen and the forecast wasn't great so Rosanna and I didn't go either. I didn't want to just sit around in the hostel or stay in Queenstown for the whole day though, so I decided to drive to Arrowtown and go for a hike. Rachel and Leah came, but Rosanna stayed behind, presumably because Leah was coming.
The main street of Arrowtown
On the Big Hill Track.
On the Big Hill Track
Walking up the Big Hill Track.
I wanted to take the longer hike to Macetown (6 hours return from Arrowtown) but Leah and Rachel weren't keen, so we just did the Sawpit Gully Loop (2-3 hours). Considering it would be dark in an hour or two and we had no lights or supplies, this was probably a sensible move.
A bright tree by the walking track, near Sawpit Gully.
Rachel holding a shard of ice.
Rachel cautiously negotiating the slipper/icy walking track.
Me, with Sawpit Gully and Arrowtown in the background.
On our final day in Queenstown, Leah decided she wanted to go bungy-jumping. The rest of us weren't really interested in doing it, so we just watched Leah jump off the bridge.
Leah lining up on the left to bungy jump, Rachel and I watching.
Leah dangling off the bungy cord after jumping off the bridge.
After that, we had to drive back to Christchurch where we would spend one more night before flying back to Melbourne.
We stopped to pick up a hitch-hiker just out of Cromwell, even though we only had a little Toyota Corolla with all our luggage. The hitch-hikers name was Sam Scott, a young bloke originally from Picton; he'd been helping his parents manage the family hostel in Fox Glacier. We had to squash him into the middle seat in the back, but he said he'd been waiting over an hour and a half for a lift, and it was still five hours drive to Christchurch (would have been a long walk!) so I'm sure he was appreciative.
One of the lakes on the drive back to Christchurch.
Back at Lake Tekapo after the snow had melted.
Back at Lake Tekapo after the snow had melted.
Back at Lake Tekapo after the snow had melted.
Back at Lake Tekapo after the snow had melted.
When we got to Christchurch, our hitch-hiker Sam was able to navigate us through the city which still has many roads and streets closed off after the 2011 earthquake. We dropped him off at his friends place (his destination) and found our way to our hostel - Around the World Backpackers. It had supposedly been voted best hostel in NZ in 2011 or something like that but it was hard to see how - it wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about!
Our final day in New Zealand was simply spent walking around Christchurch until we had to drive back to the airport at 5 pm to catch our flight.
Christchurch Cathredal crumbling after the Earthquake
The Cardboard Cathedral, the worlds only Cathedral made substantially of cardboard. Also called the Christchurch Transitional Cathedral, it's intended to be a temporary cathedral, presumably while the other is being repaired.
Christchurch Cardboard Cathredral

A demolition truck carrying rubble from the Christchurch CBD.
A nifty little bike-fixing station, with a range of tools and a pump. Why doesn't Melbourne have this?!
We played a round of mini-golf around the Christchurch CBD, set up by Gap Filler. The intention is to get people back into the CBD and establish community, since many Christchurch residents have been too scared to come back into the CBD and have not been there since before the Earthquake.
A severed pile stands with it's reo exposed at the site of a former structure in Christchurch.
Excavators and other plant work to clean up the rubble of demolished buildings after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.
More than two years after the Christchurch Earthquake, I was surprised how much of the city is still in ruins, with many more buildings in the CBD still to be demolished. What a devastating disaster it would have been for anyone involved! And on that sombre note, we met back at the car at the hostel and drove back to the Airport. Plenty of time to catch the plane home, who says we run on "Powell time"?!