Covid Supermarket Sweep

So yesterday was Panic Day, where everyone all seemed to get worried about Covid-19/coronavirus all at the same time. Well that was super fun for us because we had a trip to Kenya planned to depart in two days. So not only did we have to worry about how to navigate life in St. Louis we had to make a decision pretty quickly about what to do about our trip. We had initially had a trip to Mongolia planned but that got nixed because the flights connected in China.

Flights to the US from Europe were being banned and we had connections both ways to Europe. However we were in a tough spot because our trip was booked on Air Canada and our first leg went to Vancouver. As far as I understood we were still able to go to and from Europe in this roundabout fashion using Canada as a mediator. Which for pandemic prevention purposes... you wouldn't think would be very effective. Furthermore since flights from US to Canada weren't banned, and flights from Canada to Europe weren't banned, as far as Air Canada was concerned it was "game on" and they were not going to let us cancel our flight.

It was interesting to see the dueling measures that St. Louis and St. Louis County were taking as virus response.

One of my favorite activities is going to see free sneak peek showings of movies. I had tickets to A Quiet Place: Part II but it was canceled. As I write this the movie release date is now listed as April 23, 2021.

There have been a lot of references to the 1918 Spanish flu recently, which killed 675,000 Americans. I remember thinking that coronavirus was serious but that surely the US would fare better this time. Surely 100 years of health technology advances would help us avoid that sort of death toll. As of October 25, 2020 the US has had 225,000 covid deaths.

At work we had pizza party thing. I think maybe coworkers from a different office were visiting.

The Family Video across the street from our office closed but don't worry. An equally classy outfit is moving in to the space: Dollar General.

My acquaintances on social media who work in the service industry started to realize that they were about to be royally screwed if everyone stopped eating out or going to bars.

A covid related sign on the front door of the Central Library downtown.

We'd heard about shortages at supermarkets from people stocking up for doomsday. This is where they used to sell toilet paper at the downtown Fields Foods.

I figured we should stock up on bottled water as well. In case we got bored during the apocalypse and wanted to do papier-mache with the toilet paper.

Some of the other local residents were apparently also concerned about where their next drink of water may come from.

I put all my little bottles away when I noticed that the giant jugs of water for water coolers had been unnoticed by the mob. I bought three of these things. We got to the point where we were talking about how we could collect rainwater on the roof with tarps if the plague got so bad that the water system broke down. It was hard to tell what sort of measures one should take in times like these. There were a few other shoppers witnessing us push our cart around full of toilet paper and water. They were definitely watching us but they were not laughing.

New Zealand: A Maori Cultural Experience and Junk Food Tasting

We rented a car in New Zealand so our few days there would include a lot of road-tripping. It took me awhile to get used to driving on the left. Actually staying in the left lane wasn't even the worst part. They have the damn windshield wiper and turn signal control stick things reversed. I kept turning the windshield wipers on by accident and it was really pissing me off. Of course we left the country about 5 minutes after I finally got the hang of it, and then I did the same thing back in St. Louis while trying to get my brain back to normal. It was worth it though. The countryside in New Zealand is beautiful and it gave us the freedom to stop at any old place we wanted on a whim.

Our time in New Zealand would be spent on the imaginatively named North Island. Today we drove from Auckland to Rotorua.

Is it me or does the word "Rotorua" remind you of Roto-Rooter?

New Zealand. Wikipedia says that "because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans." They are so far south on the globe that they've claimed a slice of Antarctica as their territory, the Ross Dependency, a claim which everyone pretty much ignores. New Zealand is home to 4.6 million people and 29.5 million sheep.

After putting in some time roughing it in the South Pacific I thought I could have a fancy lunch.

We stopped at Bracu, a nice place situated on the Simunovich Olive Estate. They made their own olive oil.

Freshly shucked kaipara oysters.

Our waiter was a real comedian. He had some Donny Trump jokes. Not even in New Zealand can Americans go to hide their shame.

Lunch had all sorts of stuff I'd never had before. I still don't know what those green leafy things are.

It was really a pleasure driving in New Zealand. The only part I don't like about driving on trips is that I can't take pictures. Not as well anyway...

I love to eat weird local stuff when I travel. We found a blog about Kiwi foods at: Bren on the Road: Kiwi Food Frenzy: 33 Things To Eat On Your Trip To New Zealand, here. We used that as a checklist of stuff to look out for.

To Lydia's delight there were a few ice cream flavors on the list. I spotted hokey pokey at a gas station convenience store that we stopped at. According to the blog hokey pokey is vanilla with "honeycomb balls" in it. Whatever it was it wasn't bad.

We checked into the our little Rotorua motel and had a rest.

Is it wrong if I like to visit McDonald's in exotic countries? I feel like it's illustrative of the unique blend of classy and white trash that I exhibit. Yet again they did not let me down. I ordered a Georgie Pie Steak Mince 'n' Cheese.

Our big to-do of the evening was a visit to the Mitai Maori Village. The Maoriare the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. At the village they do storytelling, cultural performances, bush walks, and a meal cooked in a hole filled with hot coals. It was pretty cool. The couple sitting across from us was from Belleville, Illinois, which was ridiculous. This is why I have to go sightseeing in obscure African villages.

The storytelling was pretty interesting. He said that most of the Maori in New Zealand live on the North Island. In the Maori language "Maori" means normal, natural, or native. They migrated from Tahiti and apparently were so seaworthy that mountain people in Taiwan share their DNA. They have a couple of sayings that were worth repeating. One was "take from our pantry, end up in it" which was a charming cannibalism reference. The other was "heavy feet, wet skin" which meant that if you were too slow you'd get killed. Your skin would be wet with your own blood. New Zealand sounds like it used to be a pretty gruesome place.

Our guide referred to us as "tribe of many nations" which I thought was fun. 

Hangi is food that's cooked in an oven pit. Our guide lamented that most of the food choices here were modern because many of the animals they used to eat are protected now. I think he did say that the sweet potatoes were legitimate however.

The local potatoes were called kumara.

The tribespeople arrived on a war canoe in dramatic fashion.

There was a lot of war dancing, meant to intimidate other tribes.

For dessert they had several choices, one being a Pavlova. I was especially excited about this one because it was on our checklist. It was a cake with meringue and a passion fruit sauce topping. I want to say it is named after a Russian ballerina.

We went on a night nature walk that was pretty cool. New Zealand is sort of prehistoric in its number of gigantic ferns. I always thought of ferns as little houseplants but these were the size of large trees.

There was a geothermal pool with eels swimming around in it.

I wanted to do some more culinary exploration so I stopped at a supermarket I spotted on the drive home.

They sold bottles of that passion fruit sauce so apparently it's a thing.

We grabbed a few more ice cream flavors and some other assorted junk food. It turns out that list of Kiwi foods was about 90% bad for you. Oh well, it's worth it for science.

Oobie Joobie is charmingly described on the blog as "classic bubblegum flavoured ice cream mixed with small, gummy fruit lollies." New Zealand shares Australia's tendency of whimsical names. For example in Australia they call football "footie". Might as well be playing professional "footsie".

First we tried chocolate fish. In New Zealand, the chocolate fish is a popular confectionery item, and in Kiwi culture a common reward for a job done well ("Give that kid a chocolate fish").

Then we tried pineapple lumps, a Whittaker’s Peanut Slab, and Lamingtons sponge cake. I got so healthy that night.