This week brought some New Zealander visitors, who pronounced Shearwater to be “a proper boat” – praise indeed. They’ve done Shotover and Kawaru jets several times – “You don’t want to do Shotover anymore – it’s tame” – plus jet boat river adventure tours we’ve never heard of. No pressure then 🙂 .
As ever, Ramsey Island, with its caves, rocky coves and awesome wildlife, didn’t disappoint. You can’t beat the Kiwi outdoorsy ‘can do’ attitude, which cheerfully blasts through the spray whilst being blown away by the beauty of the island and our inquisitive seals.
Best of all we got to extend our New Zealand vocabulary beyond ‘jit’ – as in ‘git the jit boat up the ruvver’ courtesy of our adventurous mountain-biking retirees. Apparently ‘proper’ tea – as opposed to my Earl Grey nonsense 🙂 – is ‘gumboot tea’. My all time favourite word though is ‘munted’. Apparently it’s a big stage down from ‘crook’, means wrecked / destroyed and can apply to vehicles, machinery or even jit boats if you really have overdone it on the river (or to people if you’ve overdone it in the pub apparently).
I’m happy to report that no-one is munted and Shearwater is going a storm but we have stocked up on gumboot tea.