Top choice

We'll return to telling you about New Zealand's stunning scenery shortly, but first we have a little story to share with you:
Host: "You know there are miracles in the world, right?" Us: "..." - "You don't think so?" - "We don't know. We've never seen a miracle."  - "Well let me tell you something. I'm not going to try and convince you, I'll just tell you a story and you tell me what you think, OK?" - "OK." - "So we're going down the road, my husband's driving. A few days earlier we talked about how much we wanted to visit Israel. But we don't know any Jewish people! So obviously, we both prayed to meet a Jew. Anyway, we're driving, a little in a hurry, and there's a young man hitchhiking on the side of the road. We're in a bit of a hurry so we don't stop. After a minute, God talks to me. He says 'pick up that hitchhiker.' I ask Him why, and he says 'just turn around, and pick up that hitchhiker.' So I tell my husband to turn around and pick him up, and what do you know? The guy is Jewish, from Israel! That can't be a coincidence, right? You tell me - that has to be a miracle, right?"

a miracle!

***
We were hosted by a lot of people from an organization called HIT - Hosting Israeli Travelers. The organization's founder took advantage of a very fortunate coincidence - on one hand, Jew-Loving Christians love hosting Israelis; and on the other hand, members of the Chosen People really love getting things for free.
All of the hosts, without exception*, are super-nice people, who were really happy to host Israeli backpackers, treating them to a warm home, a shower, tips about the surrounding area and sometimes a good meal. They were all interesting and positive and they all could have taught us something - about horses, about building a house with your own hands for 15 years, about photography**, about adopting and raising orphans, about agriculture, about hard work. Most of them are elderly, kind, generous and social. We really don't have a bad word to say about them, they hosted us as if we were family and it was charming and touching.
Do you feel a "but" coming? Well, the "but" is that it was a bit strange for us to be around people who are God-fearing in such a direct way. Of course, we're surrounded by people of varying degrees of religiousness back home too, but there's something about devout Christians that's... different. Even the fact that they're hosting us because they believe that we're the Chosen People and that servants of Jesus are commanded to help us was a bit odd to us. Neriya even asked one of them directly - "If the Jews are so great, have you ever thought of converting?"... "No way!", he answered, "On Judgement Day, only those who believe in Jesus will be saved". - "Wait, so the Jews won't be saved?", she asked him. "Of course they can be saved. If they believe in Jesus," he replied, as if explaining something self-evident to a child. We guess the fact we were going to burn in hell soon (in his opinion) didn't bother him too much.

these folks have nothing to do with the above text. In fact, we don't have anything to say about them except that they were amazingly nice

The truth is most of them didn't say a word about Jesus during our stay***, but from some of them we heard some interesting stories. One of them, for instance, recommended a local natural site with beautiful cliffs that geologists claim were made by glaciers over millions of years. He mentioned, almost as an afterthought, that these scientists must have not read the Book of Genesis, because the cliffs couldn't be that old when the whole world is less than 6,000 years old! Obviously, the aforementioned cliffs were created during Noah's flood. He didn't say it in an angry or aggressive tone, but more like "Oh, those silly geologists. Forgot about Genesis, how clumsy of them!"
Another one mentioned the unusual blizzard that was hitting the east coast of the US at the time, and said there was a clear parallel between it and hurricane Katrina - they both occured after intensified American attempts to further negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. And that's not a coincidence in his opinion, but a direct punishment from the Almighty. In his own words: "Those Americans, they're so stupid. Can't they see that every time they try to divide the Holy Land, they are hit by natural disasters?! It's so obvious!"
***
Well, we promised we'll come back to telling you about New Zealand's outdoors. We went on all kinds of walks and treks, and there's definitely something special about going on a hike. There's no phone, no atlas, no plans and no diversions. It's just you and the moment. And there's such a variety of moments! Within the space of one day you can admire views, sip some tea, walk through snow stabbing in your face and wonder if your fingers will ever thaw, be impressed by a massive waterfall that creates sideways rain when it hits the ground, and sit around a fire and chat. Some times it was just us and Shira and Itamar, and some times the same 40 people, who meet in the evenings in the cabin at the end of the trail, each with their own interesting story: The Dutch couple with the sets of matching hiking gear; Tobias from Germany, who works on a farm and his boss paid him to cary his gear for him; the 40-year old Israeli couple who left the kids at home, and - don't tell anyone - don't even miss them that much; the locals who insist on bathing in the stream even when it's raining outside and supposed to snow during the night; and of course the star, 60-plus-old Joan from Canada, who everyone known is having trouble walking, doesn't eat much, has a rock in her bag, and has to be in Queesntown tomorrow, and who everyone takes care of, feeds, and carries along. 

the Milford Track, in place since the 19th century

Shira and Itamar, in place since the 1980s

snow, in place since God made it

the New Zealand vesion of Master Chef?

apparently not.

***
"Wait!", you're exclaiming. "What are you babbling about?", you're complaining. "You promised to tell about the scenery in New Zealand!" Well... We don't really know what to say. It's very beautiful. Wild. Stunning. Breathtaking even. But what can you say about that? If you want to know what it's like to walk through that kind of wilderness, you better look for a poet, or a musician. Or go hiking yourselves.
But that's not fair. You didn't come here so we could tell you "Want to know what New Zealand is like? Go there youselves". So we've got something else to offer you - a few pictures, worth a thousand words apiece, give or take.

where is this? We don't remember

the Matukituki valley

bam!

the Route Burn track. Apparently, "Burn" means river, and Route is a specific burn. Very confusing

bam!

***
So what else can we tell you?
That it was really fun to travel with Itamar and Shira, as we've written in the previous post; that it was a rare treat to meet Asaf Einav and Dana after years of disconnect and suddenly spend a few days of quality time together; that like in any good trip, we also developed a unique slang and inside jokes. For example, three Kiwi nurses taught us the wonderful phrase "not my monkey, not my circus", meaning that something is not your problem. The best part? The phrase is accompanied by a little happy dance! We'll let you imagine it yourselves. Another figure of speech that caught on strongly is "never again". It means an especially negative experience, be it from an attraction, a restaurant or a place to stay. The inspiration? Reviews Shira and Itamar were reading about an attraction on Trip Advisor, that painted a very eclectic picture - something like the titles "awesome", "wouldn't go back if they paid me", "best experience of my life", and to finish it off, a review with just two words - "Never again". Is there an opposite expression, you ask? Of course! One Itamar and Shira borrowed from Lonely Planet - "top choice". It's not just something good, but the best of its kind in a specific area. It doesn't have to something unique or spectacular. Just the best.

yep!

lake Marian. Very nice

eat your heart out, people without TimTams!

pictured: quality time with Asaf and Dana

well, maybe a diet-lunch

Queenstown!

bam again!

***
OK, wait, we *can* tell you something else. We discovered something interesting in New Zealand - sometimes the coolest parts of a trip are the small day-to-day pleasures and the nomadic routine that develops after some time spent on the road. The nightly ceremony of setting up the tents, inflating the mattresses, eating and chatting; the coffee-and-brownie stop in Trip Advisor's highest-rated cafe in every small town; the intimate familiarity with all the differents kinds of squeaks, grunts and other noises that a 350,000-km van produces; sunsets; tasty tahini. Insignificant moments that, when you stop and focus on them, seem to contain a lot more than initially appears. Here, we'll leave you with such a moment for example:
Two o'clock in the afternoon. Somewhere in the South Island of New Zealand. Driving along in an old van on a winding one-lane road. Quiet blues music in the background. Eli's driving, Neriya is asleep in the passenger seat, Itamar and Shira asleep in the back. Basil the basil plant swaying by the gear shift, a family of socks napping in the sun on the dash. Green to the left, mountains to the right. A sense of home. Going on a gravel road, someone wakes up for a moment and then drifts off. Back to asphalt. The sky is cloudy, but there's a little slice of blue far ahead, almost at the horizon.
Maybe that's where we're going?

--------------------------
* OK, maybe one of them wasn't so nice.
** http://www.blipfoto.com/acyclinggranny
*** But still left books in our room about Jews who've discovered our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and forgot fascinating creation magazines open on the living room table. One of them invited us to watch a video of his favourite televangelist with him. We sat there and watched, slightly dumbfounded, as the charismatic speaker up on stage explained about the size of the universe, about the ungraspable diameter of stars, the crazy distances between them and our own insignificance with regard to the galaxies. His punchline? "Look at the universe, it's so massive and huge!... and a-l-l of it was made by God!!! And you know what's the most amazing part?! He still cares about *you*! He loves *you*! HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL?!"
**** Asaf is a friend of Eli's from his Mechina, and Dana is his wife. They're both awesome.