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| Shore of Lake Taupo, looking at Mount Ruapehu, Mount Ngauruhoe, and Mount Tongariro. Accidentally took picture in grayscale, but that really is a black swan and a water plane. |
As I write this, I’m sitting in the Taste Café in Taupo, New Zealand. The floor is cement and the walls are cedar. Even if I had my eyes closed, my nose could tell you that. The doorway is actually a giant window that reaches the ground and looks out upon Taupo Lake and the snow capped volcano tops. I cannot even begin to express how clear the air is and how blue the water is. I know it is a lake, but it is wild like the ocean.
My drink of choice is not actually my own drink of choice. It is New Zealand’s
drink of the choice: the flat white (which I accidently called a “short white”
when I ordered, they thought I didn’t speak English). The “flat white” is an
espresso shot with foamed milk in a tiny little cup and a tiny little spoon. It
is undoubtably served in the United States as well, but this is a drink that is
served in every single shop I have entered in New Zealand. A “staple” food, if you
will.
Drip coffee has no place here. It is only espresso (and it’s various
forms) or instant coffee. They do not joke around with that. Until now, I never
saw New Zealand as a land of black and white. The tranquility can easily
mislead one to think that there are no extremes. Since there are no disturbances
or bubbles on the surface, it appears to be in equilibrium. But I have gathered
some evidence that indicates otherwise.
Point 1: as mentioned before, their espresso. No drip coffee. Only
instant or espresso. Their espresso is amazing, and their instant is awful.
Point 2: their rugby. There is no dichotomy here. It is all black to
them. Everyone watches rugby or plays rugby or has played rugby or will play
rugby. Similarly, everyone drinks while watching ruby, drinks while playing
rugby, has drunk while playing rugby or will drink while playing rugby. They do not mess around with this.
The beautiful part about this distinction is that New Zealand’s two
best foods are actually her two best drinks. Upon coming here, I began looking
for the New Zealand restaurant, where I could get “authentic New Zealand food”,
but all I found were Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, American (Pizza Hut, KFC,
McDonalds), and Italian.
(I want to note here that there is indeed a VERY authentic New Zealand
Maori culture with very very distinctive and delicious food, but I have yet to
find it in a restaurant or at a street vendor’s cart. One must go to a festival
or special cultural night or live in the house of a Maori family in order to
get a taste of that goodness.)
So despite the fact that I have not been able to find New Zealand “food”,
there is such thing as New Zealand “drink”. That is why I feel the true heart
of the country as the breeze comes in from the window door and I look out upon
the little red houses next to the lake and I sip my flat white while the table
next to me talks about their rugby in their twang with their flat white and we
both await the next great kiwi drink when the sun goes down.
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| Lake Taupo looking like an ocean. View from shoreline and almost every hostel/restaurant in the area. |