Well folks, I warned you about the possibility of seeing the seamy side of New Zealand on this blog. Here's a rather sad scene snapped at the tiny locality of Waitangi, near Te Puke.
(That is of course, Waitangi, Bay of Plenty, not to be confused with the much more famous place in the Bay of Islands, Northland, where the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, was presented and began the signing process on the 6th February, 1840).
And here's something also rather ugly. One of a series of this summer's billboards attempting to encourage drivers to drive safely. This year it's cartoon kiwifruit that need to buckle up, take frequent rests, secure their trailer loads and make sure they can see the road ahead is clear throughout their entire overtaking manoeuvre.
Now on to Te Puke. Yes, I know, I know, it is a funny name if it was English. There are plenty of examples of non-English words that are side-splittingly funny if they were English, but let's not let our Anglo-centricity show too much, shall we?
The town of Te Puke (Tay Poo-kay) is generally synonymous with kiwifruit in New Zealand.
I've posted about the Big Kiwifruit before, and shown you how to prepare kiwifruit too, but here are some everyday images that I took when traveling through the other day.
There's a useful dual lane main road with large trees down the centre, and this goes right through the main shopping area. Probably a necessity as large trucks use this route too. But it seems to work well, and there's usually plenty of parking. The roundabouts are in abundance, facilitating feed into and out of side-roads, but there are no separate cycle-lanes unfortunately.
Oh and there's another hairy brown thing entreating you to spend money in Te Puke. They're everywhere, like Tribbles on the Enterprise.
A quirky phenomenon in Te Puke is the name of some of the roads. A La Mode de New York, Te Puke has "No. 1 Road", "No. 2 Road", "No. 3 Road" and "No. 4 Road". Navigation in the area can get confusing for mathematically-challenged people like me.
Hang on, I thought the Waitangi Takeaways and Dairy was an art installation - probably the degree work of an undergraduate artist commenting on the futility of urban life. When we visit NZ I shall certainly add this to my list of things to see.
ReplyDeleteOh, good. I am relieved. If you enjoy this sort of thing YP, then you're sure to have a wonderful holiday here.
ReplyDeleteSo it's tay-pooh-kay, is it, and not tuh-pyook? Tuh-pyook reminds me of Dubuque, which is a city in Iowa, and my father was from Iowa, Cedar Rapids, in fact, which I have visited once or twice. It is okay as cities go, but some cities make me want tuh-pyook.
ReplyDeleteSee how I can always manage to bring the conversation back to me?
Seriously, I'm fascinated by your tours of NZ.
I just had to leave another comment as the verification word is ballyi which reminds me of Bali Hai, which isn't all that far from New Zealand.
ReplyDeleteHi Katherine,
ReplyDeleteA rather late reaction, due to a (snow) vacation. I like your pictures taken from the car. They look very familiar. Keep on publishing pictures of the ordinary NZ with your comment. Visited the Kiwi fruit farm in Te Puke in December 2009. To my opinion Kiwi fruit is a remarkable marketing success of NZ worldwide. We are longing for another visit to NZ.
RWP, associations are revealing things. But, Dear, Bali is a looong way from NZ!
ReplyDeleteBen. Hope you had a lovely time in the snow! Weather is very hot here this month. I'm pleased you're enjoying the ordinary NZ images. I'm taking a bus trip soon so will snap out the windows.
I am orignally from Te Puke born and breed, but move a number of years ago. Te Puke has developed so much over the years and is still such a beautiful town, and has not been touched by the big city life.
ReplyDelete