Australia & NZ 2011 (3 April)

Last day on the road. Some of the international travelers left the hostel when I was still sleeping, including my roommate. You know what that means, right? The whole room to myself, for a much-needed yoga session. Breakfast was similar to the previous day’s: a banana, scrambled eggs and sautéed frozen spinach.

We all met in the Buddhist centre and helped to disassemble the tables and tent. We also gave the locals a hand with the leftover food: apples, muffins, cookies and coffee. I behaved myself and had just healthy stuff: three apples, a spoonful of peanut butter and a handful of almonds.

Around noon we got in several cars and headed to the airport. Our lama and his team were the first ones to depart. We hugged them good-bye and waited for our flights. In the meantime I had a cappuccino and a berry blast smoothie (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, yogurt and skim milk).

On board of our last flight, we were given the choice of butter chicken or beef lasagna for lunch. I had lasagna the day before, so butter chicken it was. With rice and green beans as sides, it was good and comforting. I wasn’t planning to eat the bread roll but the rice wasn’t enough to soak all the sauce so I *had to* mop it up with the roll. Dessert was the best (taste-wise) of the ones I’ve had on planes during the tour: hokey pokey ice cream.

Lunch Christchurch – Sydney

Back at home I had a shower and started unpacking. My sister came over, I gave her and Alvaro the humble souvenirs I brought from NZ and started telling them everything about the trip. We went for dinner to Kammadhenu.

I had great expectations after reading a number of reviews about this Sri Lankan restaurant. Gladys had no expectations and Alvaro only hoped we got food that was not too spicy for his over-sensitive palate. We ordered vegetable samosas to start, plus lamb rojan josh, mixed vegetables (in a curry sauce), basmati rice and garlic naan to share.

The samosas were great. Not as tasty as the ones that were served in the office around 8:30 pm when I was working in Delhi, but I think in this case context makes a big difference (a samosa after 11.5 hours of work definitely tastes better!).

Vegetable samosas ($1.50 each)

With the mains we shared we had two issues. First of all, they were not as big as we expected (that’s why we ordered garlic naan). Secondly, and most important, they lacked salt. The bottled sweet green chilli brought to our table helped us lift the flavour of our meal. We were definitely not impressed by the food.

Lamb rojan josh ($12.90), basmati rice ($2.50 pp)

Mixed vegetables ($11.90), lamb rojan josh ($12.90)

We had some room for dessert but the sweets in the menu didn’t sound promising to us. Instead, we walked to Cafe C and had a massive slice of lemon tart to share, washed down with delicious chai latte.

I want to apologise again for the poor quality of the photos in the last few posts, as I explained earlier my camera died in Wellington and I had to rely on my mobile (sadly not an iPhone). Now I’ve got a new old camera (one that my friend Matt doesn’t use anymore) with a brand new lens that I’m learning how to use. Good photos will take a while but I’m on my way!

Kammadhenu
377a King Street (also 171 King Street)
Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9557 2186
www.kammadhenu.com.au

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Cafe C
281 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9550 6621

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Australia & NZ 2011 (2 April)

A jog to the park and a body weight workout marked the beginning of a new day in Christchurch. Then I had a massive breakfast: a banana, a cup of instant coffee with milk and three soft-boiled eggs on a (king-size) bed of cooked frozen spinach. There was home-made bread available for free on the hostel’s kitchen bench, but I couldn’t fit any more food in my stomach. I heard the bread was really good.

Breakfast at hostel

After the morning teachings in the Buddhist centre it was time to decide again what to do for lunch. I had the previous day’s soup leftovers in the hostel’s fridge, so I went back to save a few dollars while feeding my body a healthy meal. A quick detour to the supermarket satisfied my craving of eating an orange before lunch.

I added a bunch of frozen spinach to the soup while heating it up on the stove and finished it with a soup-poached egg. A little trick to keep things interesting :).

After the afternoon public talk in the Buddhist centre I had some almonds and a banana and then headed back to the hostel with Andrey and Neil to try to solve some problems with extra charges in our credit cards.

When we got back to the centre, most of the people had gone to the city centre, the most affected area, to see the effects of the earthquake. We had to wait until they came back and then dinner was served. For 15 NZ dollars you could have some salad (mixed leaves, cucumber and cherry tomatoes), bread and butter, and your choice of beef or vegetarian lasagna. There were also some leftovers from the night before that didn’t taste very fresh.

My first plate had salad, a piece of bread and a portion of beef lasagna. Surprisingly (for me), the salad was the least impressive component. The bread looked average but was very tasty, soft with a crunchy crust and slightly sweet. The lasagna was very tasty and gained the approval of our Italian friend Paola.

Salad, beef lasagna and buttered bread

Of course I wasn’t satisfied with that first serving. I made sure most of the people were already eating and went for seconds. This time I had half a piece of the vegetarian lasagna, plus some more salad, a bit of leftover pasta salad and another piece of bread. The vegetarian lasagna was not good at all. The spinach pasta had been overcooked and was completely mushy. As said before, the leftover salad didn’t taste fresh, especially the broccoli, which was bitter.

The last heap of food that touched my plate was a spoonful of leftover couscous. Again, not fresh. Luckily, there was dessert. We were freezing our asses of but couldn’t resist the temptation of having a bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup and tinned peaches. We scattered around the heater and ate the ice cream quickly before it melted down.

Ice cream, chocolate syrup and tinned peaches

Australia & NZ 2011 (1 April)

Christchurch at this time of the year is pretty chilly. A few drops of rain in the early morning followed by a dry, crisp air, got me ready for sprinting. I walked to the park I’d seen in the map, a few blocks away from the hostel. I had been warned that it was pretty small, and that the road along the river would be a better running scenery, but my knees are happier on soft surfaces.

Back in the hostel, my breakfast was two apples from the organic supermarket in Wellington and a handful of almonds. Then I went to the supermarket to stock up for the next days. That simple act of walking a hundred metres to get basic food was quite an interesting experience. On one hand, there were several shops that were closed due to the earthquake, showing different degrees of destruction. On the other hand, the supermarket staff had an amazingly positive attitude, I guess they were happy to be alive and grateful to still have their jobs. It was the first time after my first visit to Australia that I bought bottled water in a civilised country. Due to the earthquake, the water supply was not suitable for drinking, and you could tell everyone was being cautious because the water shelves in the supermarket were almost empty.

There was a morning session of teachings in the Buddhist centre. For lunch, they had set up a cafeteria with coffee, tea, fruit, sweets (slices, muffins, etc) and sandwiches. The grill was being fired up to sell sausages with sauerkraut on white sliced bread smeared with butter… not exactly my idea of a healthy meal. I decided to walk back to the supermarket, eating some almonds on the way. I bought half a pumpkin and an onion, and made a simple but comforting soup in the hostel kitchen with some five spice and milk that were available in the free food shelves. There was a giant jar of with some leftover peanut butter on one of the shelves, too; I had a spoonful that reminded me how bad the processed stuff tastes compared to home-made peanut butter.

Cafeteria in the centre

Dinner was as usual after the second teachings session of the day. There were leftovers from the previous day available for a donation to the centre (ie, pay what you want) but a bunch of us decided to get food from an Indian restaurant nearby, one of the few that are still standing in the area. Andrey had rented a bike, so he took our orders and rode to It’s Indi to buy the food.

The menu was quite long, I had a hard time deciding what to order. I was sold after reading “very popular worldwide” in the description of the lamb tikka masala (roasted lamb marinated in special spices, cooked in recipe of yoghurt cream & spices).

Basmati rice and lamb tikka masala ($14.50)

Meals were huge and the flavour was good. I enjoyed my tikka masala and had a few spoonfuls of Paola’s dal tadka (yellow split lentil cooked with turmeric, ginger, garlic & tomatoes), which was also good. A perfect meal for such a cool evening.

It’s Indi
345 Stanmore Road/72 North Avon Road
Richmond Village, Christchurch
(03) 389 9997
www.itsindi.co.nz

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Australia & NZ 2011 (31 March)

It was a beautiful day in Kaikoura. The sun and the cool breeze created the perfect climate, not too hot, not too cold. Most of the people left early to the dolphin encounter (some of the swam with the dolphins, others watched from the boat). I went to the gym instead. I know, I know.

Cate and I looked around for a place to have breakfast. Prices were higher compared to cafes in the cities. Cate bought an apple strudel at a bakery; I wanted something more substantial. I decided to stay at the Why Not Cafe, only because of the name. Seriously. Cate ordered a cappuccino to drink with her strudel, I ordered a skim latte and an omelette with cheese & mushrooms.

The coffee was alright, nothing especial for the price. The omelette was huge. My guess is there were at least 6 eggs in it. It was almost falling apart but the flavour was good, the mushrooms were a bit too watery (it’d had helped to sautee and drain them before adding them to the omelette). They gave two slices of toasted white bread and butter as a side, I ate one slice but I surely didn’t needed it.

Skim latte, cappuccino ($4.30 each)

Omelette with cheese & mushrooms ($13.50)

We went for a walk and bought some souvenirs for our families. Then we hung out in the hostel until a bus picked us up. This time we headed to Glentui, where our “mother” Buddhist association has bought land for a retreat centre. In the bus there were all sorts of snacks circulating back and forth. I had a couple of squares of really good dark chocolate.

We were greeted in Glentui with beers, cheese, sausages and crackers. Our lama blessed the place, we had a short meditation and then got back in the bus heading to Christchurch. I was starting to get hungry (yay! the mega omelette was finally digested!) and from the various goodies offered I had a bite of a gigantic chocolate chip cookie, some mixed nuts and a dried fig.

We arrived at the hostel just before 8 pm and got out of there approximately one hour after, when the girl finally managed to sort out all of bookings. We went to the Buddhist centre to hang out with the locals (there was no program that night). We saw photos of the destruction caused by the earthquake, really shocking. Then we proceeded to nibble on the dinner leftovers that were in the kitchen: chips, cheese, roast beef, some lettuce and basil leaves, bread, vegetable quiche, chocolate chip cake, all washed down with a couple of glasses of merlot.

Why Not Cafe
66 West End
Kaikoura 8280
(3) 319 6486

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