March 21, 2025 • 36 mins
Kia Ora! Adam’s in Queenstown after making the big move to New Zealand. He’s currently road tripping around the country, visiting both the North and South Islands, in search of somewhere to base himself. Issues with a rental vehicle see Adam receive a double upgrade, resulting in him travelling in more luxury than he’s used to.
Tripping Point’s back with a New Zealand special. Alun may have an impressive record but how much does he know about New Zealand? You’ll find no kiwis but plenty of Fergburgers!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I moved to New Zealand. Play the theme music.
Hello and welcome to this episode of Tripology.
I'm Alan and I am here the ever demanding Adam.
(00:24):
Alan May, I'm about as far away as I've ever been from you.
Yeah, in a very literal way, you're as far away as it's
possible to go without being in the ocean.
Because I've moved all the way to New Zealand, as I alluded to
on a previous episode, and I would quite like to discuss my
first impressions and what I've been doing over the last couple
of weeks. Yeah, I want to hear all about
(00:46):
the move, man. You've jetted off to the faraway
land of New Zealand. My goodness does it make
recording a temporally disjointed show very, very
difficult. But I don't begrudge it.
Nice to be in the land of Kiwis and hobbits and all that jazz.
So I'm looking forward as I'm sure listening audiences to hear
all about your sojourn. You gave me quite a few tips for
(01:08):
New Zealand because I mean, key nerd listeners would know that
you lived here for a year, didn't you, way back when.
Famously lived in New Zealand for a whole damn year when I got
robbed in Johannesburg. Jetted off to desperately try
and earn some money. Ended up living in what can only
be described as a crack house. Met Wagner, a Brazilian who
slept on my sofa. Sold guitars for a living.
(01:31):
Worked in community colleges teaching ukulele.
Built up enough funds to sail off to South America.
And that was my New Zealand story.
So I was the perfect man to giveyou a little couple of tips of
advice. Would you believe that the night
before I flew to New Zealand, you know, I was clutching my
passports so close to my chest because I was thinking, I wonder
(01:54):
if there's some weird sort of omen thing that's going to
happen, some full circle moment where I also get robbed.
And I was in Sofia, in Bulgaria.So nothing against Sofia, I'm
not saying you're likely to get robbed there, but you just never
know how these things happen because we do often say we're
two sides of the same person. Two PS In a podcast some have
said, and yeah, I would have been worried if I was you
(02:15):
because history has a very cyclical nature sometimes.
And I imagine the Sofia local gangs, the ones who wanted your
stuff, they could sense something vulnerable about you
as tripological things might have gone on to make you get
robbed. But I'm glad they didn't, Adam.
I'm very glad they didn't. People were asking me in the
hostel in Sofia, they were saying what are you up to over
the next few days? I said not moving to New
(02:36):
Zealand, that's for sure. I haven't got an important
flight to New Zealand in the next couple of days.
What's that boarding pass hanging out of your bag?
Don't look at my boarding pass. So yes mate, I am of course in
New Zealand. And where else could I be in New
Zealand other than the backpacking capital of
potentially the world, Queenstown?
Queenstown. I've been there once, Adam.
(02:59):
It's where I got my first tattoo.
Really. I hung out there for about a
week, sort of just chilling withone of my old friends.
I found it to be. I mean, there's a lot of hype
towards Queenstown. There is found it to be a very
busy, bristling backpacker town,of course, famous for a couple
(03:19):
of little things. Why don't you tell us what those
are? The things that are famous in
Queenstown. You've got all of the adventure
activities. It's like an adrenaline junkies
paradise, isn't it? All of the bungee jumps, the
skydives, the hiking, the the skiing, of course, lots of
snowboarding. Some good ski heels here and the
famous Ferg burger, which is probably the most famous burger
(03:40):
joint in the world I might say. Yeah, it's probably the most
hyped restaurant in the world aswell, I think.
But I've never heard backpackersso unanimously echo you've got
to go to Ferg Burger, you've gotto go to Ferg Burger, you've got
to go to Ferg Burger. All of them in the hostel common
room tell you you can't get a Ferg Burger.
Yeah, it's strange. It is almost like a rite of
(04:02):
passage for anyone in in Queenstown.
And having been here for about 48 hours now, it's, it's a
strange aesthetic walking through the streets.
I mean, it's almost like they only let backpackers into
Queenstown. Every single person you see is
are in some sort of hiking gear wearing like Patagonia or
(04:22):
Arcturix or, you know, North Face or whatever.
And usually they've got a backpack.
It's a really strange sort of a uniformity of everyone that
seems to be moving around Queenstown.
If they're not a backpacker, they're a sheep.
Was there still a huge queue that extended beyond the Ferg
Burger like Little Hole in the Wall?
And how long did you have to queue?
(04:43):
Oh, you're assuming that becauseI've been here 48 hours that
I've already been. I know you've already been.
You're Adam Ice for breakfast. I know that you'd have
immediately upon arriving in Queenstown, taking a trip down
to Ferg Burger. Yeah, it is certainly a
destination restaurant. I mean, I've actually been there
twice in in 24 hours, which I believe it's open.
It's open pretty late and they've got an extensive menu.
(05:05):
I mean, I've got to try a coupleof things just to get a global
overview. The first time I went there, my
lovely cousin that I've been travelling with for the last few
weeks in a car, we will go on totalk about the rental car.
She, she went ahead of me and ordered for me.
So my burger came within minutesof me arriving to the
restaurant, which was fantastic.The second time, which was only
(05:26):
a few hours ago, I waited about 15 minutes to order and about 20
minutes for the burger. Wow, so already you've like
hacked the Fergberg system. I mean, it's famously difficult
to get a burger at Ferg Burger at certain times and you waltz
over and immediately are handed a piece of meat between two
slices of bread. And I remember that the one I
had was called the Wiggum, namedafter Simpsons police chief of
(05:51):
the same name. Do you know what you had?
I do. I had the Ferg burger, just the
classic with cheddar cheese. That was the first time and then
the second time I had, I think it's called Little Lammy and
it's a lamb burger with some mint Jelly and a few saladie
bits. I don't like that Adam, because
it over personifies the creaturewhich was killed in order to
(06:12):
create the burger, really drawing attention to the fact
that the lamb used in your protein meal was indeed probably
quite little. So that's a shame, Adam, That's
a shame. Well, you know what they say
when in Rome. But I do want to talk a little
bit about where I am, mate, because as you can probably
notice from my crazy surroundings, there's some
(06:33):
graffiti on the wall and there'salso a projector behind me.
And now I am in the cinema room of Nomad's Hostel in the heart
of Queenstown. It is right downtown.
It's a huge facility. They've got loads of rooms.
It's really well equipped. And they've been so kind in
letting me use this cinema room because at time of recording,
it's 9:30, which is prime film watching time for most
(06:57):
backpackers. And yeah, it was a bit of a
rigmarole getting in here actually, because bless them, I
mean, I came to to get into the room and there were about 20
people in there watching a movie.
Oh, no. And they were so sweet.
They were so sweet that that they all kind of left and really
(07:17):
supportive and stuff and gave usa little follow on Instagram.
And here we are, mate. So.
You know, I've seen this one, guys.
That's that's not worth the ending in my opinion.
Gandalf dies, so. But yeah, I mean, New Zealand,
of course, just talking a littlebit about my first impressions.
I'm sure that they echo exactly what you told me, which is it is
(07:41):
one of the most beautiful countries I've ever been to.
And it doesn't really matter where you drive.
I've been all the way up north in my rental car, all the way
down South, and then zigzagged across the country.
And it's so diverse in such a small space.
And every corner you turn, you're there just wanting to
take a picture. Someone told me before I arrived
here that there are so many accidents in New Zealand because
(08:02):
people keep looking out the window.
Oh that's a very beautiful concept as your drive been
fairly eventful. I did a road trip around New
Zealand with a friend and the day we set off it started
raining so passionately that on day one as we were trying to
move east from Auckland, we got pulled over by a police officer
(08:23):
who said, oh you had nice tire. You pommies a fact you ain't
going to get east in this weather, so you had to just like
hole up for the night. It was terrible.
Has there been any particular events while you've been
driving? A note.
I mean, there's been a lot of events because I've had the car
for about two weeks, but I'll probably start at the start,
which was when I picked up the car from Auckland Airport.
(08:44):
It was fairly straightforward torent the car.
I mean, you know what it's like renting a car even.
You know what it's like renting a car with me, Alan?
Because we did that in Oman lastyear.
So go online, put the car, it'llbe ready at 12:00 on this day,
Whatever. I had to get back to the airport
in order to rent it because the prices were much cheaper.
A little bit tidbit for you guys, rent it from the airport
(09:05):
because you will get a better price.
And I went there at the time of collection, which I coincided
with my cousin arriving from London.
And the plan was that we would hire the car for three weeks,
drive all over the country, and then I would decide where I
wanted to live. That makes complete sense, no?
I agree mate. Complete sense.
Almost too much sense. It almost takes some for the fun
out of that packing. It's so damn sensible.
(09:27):
So I I went to the airport and Iwas there with about, I don't
know, 45 minutes to spare. I thought, I'll meet my cousin
1st and then we can get to the rental office.
And then I did a little Google of where the rental office was
and it was so far away. I mean, it's still like within a
drive, but it's certainly not walkable.
(09:48):
I thought it was just one of those, you know, pick the car up
in the car park or something. That absolutely was not the
case. So then I started panicking
because I looked at the board ofmy my cousin's flight arrival on
the arrivals board and that had been delayed by 40 minutes.
I was thinking maybe I'd go and pick up the car 1st and then
come and collect her. That'd be a really nice thing to
do, having already done all the paperwork.
(10:09):
Lovely gesture. Yeah, it's so, so nice.
And I read in small print that if you're something along the
lines of if you're late for yourdelivery slot, you your car
won't be guaranteed. If you're late for your delivery
slot, the car off explode will drive that sheet off a Cliff so
that would be like. Do you know the amount of times
(10:29):
I've inadvertently done an Australian accent trying to
mimic a Kiwi? I mean, they're so similar
really. It's only on extended vowel
sounds and diphthongs that you'dnotice a difference, but apart
from that it's all very similar stuff.
Well I was talking to a guy earlier and he was from Sydney,
lovely guy and I noticed that hewas Australian and not Kiwi.
I mean also maybe it's contextual.
(10:50):
I mean the fact he's staying in a hostel.
Or was he holding a boomerang orsomething?
He's fighting a kangaroo. From the looks of you mate, I've
hazard a guess here from the from the large island of
Australia as opposed to this. Australasian is Lionel aren't
you? How could you fucking tell Mike?
(11:11):
That was just that sort of that East Coast twang.
I guess maybe I've become accustomed to it, but we we, I
say we, it definitely wasn't we yet.
I arrived at the at the rental company after running to make
sure that I still have my delivery car.
I got there at 12 O1 and the collection time was 12.
I was there panting, absolutely sweating.
(11:34):
And I spoke to the guy at reception and he said, are you
all right? You look like you've run here.
I said, yeah, no, I have literally run here to make sure
I make it on time. He said, why didn't you use our
airport shuttle service? Did you not get the e-mail from
the third party? I said no, obviously not,
otherwise I would have used the shuttle service.
He said. Yeah, you should have, It was
free. Brilliant.
(11:54):
He saw you sweating, running, going in there and he was like,
oh, is the heating broken on theairport shuttle service again?
I couldn't believe it. I I felt like shit, quite
honestly. And then I filled in all the
details, you know, it's like pretty boring stuff.
And then waited 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour.
My cousin's texted me going, hey, yeah.
(12:14):
My plane's landed. You're not here like you said
you were. Yeah, I'm sorry.
Change of plan. I'm at the car rental.
So is there any way you can justwait?
I will, you know, be there with the car shortly.
And after an hour and 10 minutesof waiting, the the guy came
back out from sort of mechanics preparation, vehicle preparation
area or whatever. He said, oh, Mr. Mr. Cousins,
(12:36):
your, your car, there's been an issue with it.
I said, oh, yeah, what's that? He said, it's not here.
I was like, oh, that's quite a big issue.
Yeah, it's always the largest issue I've ever heard.
I said, oh, is it the same placeas the shuttle service?
No, he, he said it's not here, But what we'll do is we'll give
(12:57):
you a free upgrade. And I said, oh, that's, that's
really kind of you. Your tripological bristles that
have been tingling, wouldn't they?
You'd have heard free upgrade and you've been like imagining
you in a Bugatti picking your cousin up.
Get in. The heating's not broken in
here. Yeah, I was thinking, I wonder
if it's going to be some psychedelic print Ferrari or
Porsche with and Alan turns up in the passenger seat.
(13:19):
That would be amazing. Can you imagine that with the
theme tune blasting out? We've done you a free upgrade.
What we've done is fly your business partner out first
class. It's a service we provide.
Whenever we whenever we do this stupid thing where the car's not
ready, we basically contact yournext of kin and fly the men.
Next of kin. That's class.
(13:41):
Sorry mum. So anyway, the the car was then
readied and I, you know me Alan,you know me better than most.
I'm meticulous, I've got a high attention to detail and I take
fucking ages to do everything soI know.
So there I was videoing the outside of the car because I was
just about to sign my life away.If we have so much as a nick,
(14:04):
regardless of fault, it costs me$3000.
Yeah, I know, I know this of youbecause when I run with a car
and her mum was about to get signed off, I went.
You deal with this ads. I'm just going to go get a
shower. You went.
What? We're both in this agreement,
Alan. We've both signed on the dotted
line. Alan, you won't be leaving.
We'll both deal with this together.
And if there's a dent on the car, it's both are dents.
(14:26):
And if there's a scratch on the tire, that's both are scrap.
God dammit, you won't be showering anytime soon, boy.
Is that really our across? That's amazing.
Yeah, I apologise. I still haven't showered.
I'm scared. I apologise for that.
I can. Yeah, I'll be quite demanding
actually after after a while thevehicle showed up.
(14:48):
So I took the the effort to go round with a fine tooth comb,
inspecting the vehicle, making sure that all of the little
knocks and scratches were sort of mentioned or noted on the
rental agreement. I did a really long one,
continuous video around the alloys inside the car, all this
sort of stuff. And then I got all the way round
the vehicle to the very last tire and there was a huge chunk
(15:11):
missing from it of the tyre. Oh dear, the fine tooth comb
that you carry with you will pick that up, won't it?
As you go. Fucking hell.
You know, I'd almost like zoomedin too far because I was
watching it through the video onthe camera on my phone, and it
was like looking at the inside of a crater or something.
(15:33):
So I zoomed out and thought, oh,that looks a bit strange.
Is that actually on the tyre? And then realized that half the
bloody wheel was missing. So I looked at my cousin and
said, do you think that's going to be all right?
She was like, I don't think it'sall right.
So I called the guy back over and I said, look at that, is
that going to be all right? He went, that is definitely not
going to be all right. That is a faulty tire.
I said, what do we do now? Then it.
(15:53):
Looks like it's fitting to explode.
He said we can't let you drive away in that give me two
minutes. So I gave him 2 minutes.
He's like your security depositsfucked mate.
I said, he's paying for my time here.
I'm supposed to pick the car up at 12, actually ran here and he
he came back and said, look, Mr.Cousins, we're really sorry
(16:14):
about what's going on here with these vehicles.
We'd like to give you another free upgrade.
And I said, OK, what? What is it to this time?
Here's Elon Musk with the news. He pointed to the vehicle and
there was this brand spanking new, super shiny, absolutely
enormous Toyota Highlander that was just there, you know, fresh
(16:34):
from the bloody car wash ready to go.
And we, we, he gave us the keys.We jumped straight in.
I mean, it's, I, I did spend another 30 minutes doing a
video, but I won't be putting that on Instagram.
It's not going to go on a reel or anything like that.
Don't worry. Yeah, for fans who want to see
Adam's fine tooth comb experience, I mean, you really
have to join the patriarch. Yeah, so that's how you do it
(16:58):
mate. I don't really know how I can
advise you to get 2 free upgrades in the space of a few
minutes but but I did. I'm not going to mention the
name of the rental company for obvious reasons.
They will remain anonymous but I've over the last couple of
weeks we've done a couple of nights in the car as as we did
me and you. But me and my cousin don't tell
the local authorities. But you know, pull down a
(17:19):
residential Rd. When it's really dark, nowhere
near a street lamp, not the seats back, have a couple of
hours Kip and on you go. Well, camping in colours is like
part of the culture of backpacking in New Zealand
though, isn't it? Are you supposed to do in
designated spots? Is that the the thing there?
Yeah, so there's no free campingor wild camping or freedom
camping as they call it here. They would much prefer you book
(17:39):
a spot in a designated camping site.
You can have them powered, unpowered, you know, bring a
temp, whatever. But I've, I've got to be honest
mate, this is something I'm veryglad that I'm remembering to
say. Live on air, the ratio of
campervans to any other vehicle is about 1:00 to 1:00.
Wow, really? It is so ridiculously high.
(17:59):
It's if it's not a campervan, it's a converted vehicle and if
it's not a converted vehicle into a camper, then it's like a
proper motorhome or it's a caravan or it's a fifth wheel.
It's an absolutely insane amountof of people living the van life
here or going on sort of campingholidays.
Well, it sounds to me, Adam, tell me if I'm wrong, that this
is going to be the start of a little bit of a New Zealand
(18:22):
series, anthropology, where you tell us all about your road trip
adventures, all about zooming around both islands and can't
wait for it. I think you also need to tell us
about how you got there and yourlittle last little remaining
time in Europe because last timewe heard from you, you're in
Europe, now you're in New Zealand.
There's a whole series of Adam adventures to come.
But As for now, I'm so I mean, I'm stressed about the chunk in
(18:44):
your tire. I'm stressed about you're in
that Toyota Highlander. I need to go on a meditation
break. And after that, I just want to
learn more, maybe through as some sort of item or something.
So let's go on a meditation break.
Sometimes when travelling, accidents happen.
Oh, I've fallen off a helicopterand broken my nose.
(19:04):
That's why it's always so important to have travel
insurance. And when you do need insurance,
we recommend safety. Wing, there's a link in the
description. Click it.
Support the podcast. Like a piece of rubber
disjoining yourself from the tire of a car and flinging
yourself down the New Zealand highway, allow your conscious
mind to return into your brain. As we embark on the second-half
(19:28):
of this tribological adventure, you've told me you have
something very special planned. What is it?
I Alan thought that as a fantastic introduction into New
Zealand and my time in New Zealand, maybe you can think
about what it was like with you living here.
I thought what a great time to do a a tripping point quiz and
news even special. Oh, it's the thing that makes me
(19:51):
the most nervous. And the only way for me to
prepare is with something. Music.
Let's go. Tripping point.
All right, mate, It's backed by popular demand.
It's a tripping point. I love putting these together as
much as you love answering them.So Are you ready for these five
(20:13):
fantastic questions that I'm sure you're going to get right?
Tripping point, the travel quiz,I always get a bit nervous
because it's the one time anthropology where I feel like I
can make myself look a bit stupid, but I'm ready to try my
best. And do we have stakes?
Do we have some sort of wager, some sort of thing that me and
you can do that makes like last time, for example, you had to
(20:34):
fly all the way to Scotland because of a tripping point?
Yes, yeah, that was fine. I mean, I was.
I was actually not as far away as I am now, So maybe we should
lower the stakes. I'll tell you what, mate.
I'll tell you what. How about if you get 4 out of
five? I won't go and eat another fur
burger. Right.
OK. So I am basically fighting for
(20:55):
your health at the moment. Yeah, it's so funny when when
you go back into the back into the episode and you said a chunk
of rubber flinging itself down ahighway, I thought, oh, that
sounds like an awful review of Ferg Burger.
Yeah, yeah, baby, let's e-mail corporate and let them know what
we're doing. I'm fighting for Adams Health.
(21:15):
I'm fighting for Adams culinary enjoyment. 4 out of five, No
more Ferg Burger. Let's go.
And if I get less than four out of five, Adam, you've got to go
and have the Wiggum. OK.
All right. I like the sound of that.
It's actually open until the early hours, I think maybe even
4:00 AM. So immediately after recording,
I'll be straight down there. Well, if I also get 5 out of
(21:37):
five, Adam, I think 5 out of five, you go and get a Ferg
burger as well. I think 4 is the sweetest spot.
I think let's go, let's go. Oh God, I'm going to.
Maybe I can manage the question.Questions this end right.
Here we go, mate. Are you ready?
Are you steady? Have you had your coffee?
My coffee is Yeah, it's empty. Let's go.
Right #1 New Zealand holds the record for having the longest
(21:57):
place name found in any English speaking country.
But how long is it? A 55 letters, B 65 letters, C 75
letters or D 85 letters. Wow, four part, multiple choice.
Adam, I know the place name. I've seen someone walk down the
(22:18):
sign and say I thought you were going to ask me, but what is
that place name? And I was ready to go.
Yeah, Alphabet I. Don't have a good intuition, I
know. It's just incredibly long, like
it looks absurd. 85 letters seems like far too long, but
it's quite an Adam guess that I just I know the place name of my
(22:41):
in my in my head. It's like vast.
It's absolutely vast. It is long.
So I guess I'll go, I'll go, I'll go for 85 letters.
It's 85 mate. I'm really impressed.
That is such an extraordinary length for one word.
I know the next question you're going to ask, and I'm sure the
listener's shouting down the theold earphones there, is he going
(23:02):
to try and pronounce it live on air?
Yeah, give it a go. OK, here we go, give it a go.
So the longest place name of anyEnglish speaking country.
It's 85 letters. So this will be the rest of the
episode, guys. So TuneIn next week for part
question to a tripping boy. Yeah, the second-half of the
place name's going to run into the Patriot, and I do.
I do hope that I don't offend anyone, of course.
(23:24):
Right, here we go. It starts with AT tell metal
Waka tangi hang out Wow wow wow.Tamatia to repu Kaka piki mawang
horonuku pokai when? Nuakita who?
There we go and a deep breath. I don't, I don't think we should
have done that, mate. I'll cut out in the edit.
(23:46):
Yeah, moving on. I think, I think I did a pretty
good job. I mean, my lungs were depleted
of all air. But if you want to know.
Yeah, congratulations. That's wild.
I'm I'm sure that you knew this already mate, but the rough
translation is something along the lines of the summit where
Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains,
(24:08):
the slider, the land swallower who travelled about, played his
nose flute to his loved. One amazing.
Can you imagine like if if he did all those things and he was
just that guy but he just didn'tbring his nose flute that day,
the name would be like 65 letters instead.
It's amazing that that all that can just be conveyed in one
word. Yeah, beautiful.
(24:29):
Oh good. What a beautiful language.
So Can you imagine if someone interrupted you halfway through?
Where are you going? So so, mate, I'm.
I'm super proud of you. That's awesome.
This bodes well. Here we go, number two.
Number two. Yeah.
In 1988 in Queenstown, where I currently am, AJ Hackett created
the first commercial. What is it?
(24:52):
A, the skydive. B the bungee jump, C the
paraglide or D the catapult. I think it's the first
commercial bungee jump, Adam, I feel like I know that bungee
jumping is really popular there.And I think it's because he
visited some tribal regions maybe in Papua New Guinea, where
they have an early precursor to bungee jumping.
(25:13):
And I think the first ever commercial bunge jump was in
Queenstown. Oh my God, you know so much more
than I do. That's brilliant.
So that's it. Yeah.
Two out of two, mate. Well done.
Bungee jump is really popular here, of course.
Is it? Yeah, it's going to be a greasy
evening for you. Have you done a bungee jump just
out of interest because I would not touch one with a barge pole.
I've done a bungee jump in SouthAfrica.
Yeah, at the time that I did it,it was the second highest bungee
(25:37):
jump in the world. It used to hold the record for
being the highest. It lost that record to a bungee
jump in Macau, but it was like off a bridge, very, very high.
I loved it very much. I trust the guys in Macau.
I wonder if they're it's just a few metres in it, probably
they've gone. How high is it again?
Just. Two inches, they put a little
block above the start. If you want to jump off the
(25:58):
block, it's just a little higher.
They only let really short people do the bungee jump, so
technically they fall further. Is it the highest bungee jump?
It's the one in which you fall the furthest.
All right, cool, here we go. I'm, I'm excited #3 while in New
Zealand you'll never be more than 128 kilometers from what a
(26:19):
a volcano BA. Kiwi.
BA sheep C the coastline or DA steak and cheese pie.
OK, well, I mean, goes without saying.
Cheese and steak pie, but that'snot the answer because how on
earth would you measure it? Sheep.
What was the distance again? Sorry, Adam. 128 kilometers, but
that makes a fucking difference.A sheep, well, I mean, I think,
(26:43):
I think you're not going to be that far away from a sheep
actually in New Zealand. So I'm not going to say that I
think you're always closer than 128 kilometres coastline.
That could be true. Coastline could be true.
I mean, it wraps all the way around Ireland.
(27:03):
I love that it wraps away. Yeah, yeah.
Like a coastline. Yeah, the whole way around the
island. Yeah, exactly.
It's almost as if your equidistance in the middle of
New Zealand and your equidistance from all the
coastlines all at once. Volcanoes, I think volcanoes
seems like the one where there are, there are volcanoes in New
Zealand, famous ones. 128 kilometres seems really
(27:27):
specific. There's like far enough away
that you'd have to go there. I mean, I basically think you
could extend a handout in any direction.
You'd have a 50% chance of touching a sheep.
But a volcano 100, the distance seems about right.
So I'm going to go with Volcano Adam.
It's not volcano mate, I'm ever so sorry.
It's crazy. It's coastline.
(27:48):
Oh yeah, makes sense. Makes sense.
It was either volcanoes or coastline.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think both sheep and steak and
cheese pie. I love the methodology, the
thought process behind it. You are probably in most cases
absolutely closer, a lot closer than 128 KS.
Yeah, sure. From either of those, it's.
Disappointing. So moving swiftly on, that could
be the one that you get wrong, but here we go, number four.
(28:10):
True or false? New Zealand was the last country
in the world to be inhabited by humans.
OK, so let me talk through my logic here.
I know that New Zealand, it, it got a Polynesian population
because of like chance rafting, because that's how they they
think that happened. And I know that that did happen
ecologically later than humans would, you know, have maybe
(28:34):
crossed the Bering Strait earlier.
There was an incumbent native population in the new America.
So it's not, you know what, it'snot that far from the truth.
I know that the Maori people came like later than you think.
It's all it's all very interesting stuff mate, I'm well
impressed with the knowledge so far.
It is interesting stuff. I'd have to say that's probably
true that my only my only reservation is that I don't know
(28:56):
how you would know whether therewas was people living in certain
pockets and certain places in certain settlements.
Like, I don't know whether we know who was where all the time,
but you know what, Because it's so isolated, so difficult to get
to, and we know that the Maori'scame there later in like human
(29:17):
history, then places like the Americas that were also
separate. I'm going to say that's I'm
going to say that's true. Yeah.
Probably probably one of the last places to be settled.
It is true, it is true. You're right.
Nice. And it was as recent as.
I mean, would it be a complete stab in the dark if I was to
say, can you have a punt on the?Yeah, and.
Yeah, 750 years. Wow, 750 years.
(29:37):
It's goes to show the ecologicalimpact that humans can have
during that time. Famously, of course, there's
there was a bird, a large flightless bird.
I don't know if you know the name of it.
It's called the Mao Mao, something like that.
Yeah, I'd looked at one yesterday.
Would you believe it's not too dissimilar from an emu, is it?
It's got sort of a very, very large, well, it's very large and
(29:57):
it has huge feet. And it also, I think used to lay
eggs that are about 60 times thesize of chickens eggs or
something along those lines. Yeah, right.
And, and, and it was haunted by the new population so much they
to the extinction of its predator, the harsh eagle, which
is the largest bird ever. It's this huge colossal eagle
(30:19):
that used to predate these flightless birds on the ground.
And it just couldn't survive because those birds were haunted
so much. And so that went extinct as
well. Yeah.
Oh, my goodness. Because that bird only went
extinct 200 years ago, right? Yeah.
Yeah. So really.
Well, you know, it's. It's not that long ago at all.
That's a shame that the other eagle went extinct.
I'm going to look at pictures ofthat after this episode.
(30:40):
Yeah, Harst eagle, my next thing.
Yeah, that's just the ecologicalimpact of a new species entering
into environment, in this case Homo sapiens.
Yeah, wow. Oh, I'm learning something on
this side. Amazing.
I love that. OK, we got another one to go
mate #5 The Blue Lake in the Nelson Lakes National Park
currently holds the world record.
(31:00):
For what? OK.
Now I know that that's pretty vague, man, so I'm happy to
steer you in the right directionto make it a little bit more
fair. I would so hold on.
Do I not get multiple choice here?
Nope, I'm just leaving that out in the open like that.
Wow, OK, well that's the first size of tripping point first
there no multiple choice. We can have a chat about if
(31:21):
you've got any questions or anything you want to know, I can
kind of give you a little guidance.
Yeah, give me a little bit of guidance because I'm looking
like so far my mind's thinking the bluest colour, the most
fish, the coldest temperatures, you know, these are things.
I'm eliminating those as I go. So am I sort of, am I looking at
(31:42):
what's inside the lake or a quality of the lake?
The the water itself, I would say, yeah, the water itself.
So think, think about the water and maybe the qualities that
water can possess. I mean, it's pretty low brow
stuff, man. Don't go to sort of molecular
with this. It's the wettest water.
(32:03):
The water's so wet, if you dip your toes in, that'll be soggy.
For a week, not quite that. No, not quite that.
But think. I'll tell you what.
Think about the water and think about diving to bring it back to
backpacking, scuba diving. OK, well, let's go.
I'm going to go with the clearest.
It's got the highest visibility.Fucking nailed it.
(32:23):
Absolutely nailed it. Oh my God.
It's it holds the record for being the clearest water on
earth of any lake. And what do you what would be an
exceptional length to be able tosee exceptional viz as we say in
the diving community? 20 meters. 20 that's average.
That's bad in some parts I don't.
Know it's not for me. I wear contact lenses.
(32:45):
If I got into a lake and could see 20 meters I would think I'm
cured. Yeah, all right, fair enough.
I mean, you can't see 20 meters on land, so I know mate, it's 80
meters. What?
So it acts like a refracting thing where you can see further
than you can on land. I don't know how far people see.
(33:05):
People can probably see for miles if they're on some of the
mountain I don't know about. Sight.
Yeah. I mean, 80 meters, that is
bloody far. That is incredibly clear.
I think it's probably clearer than glass actually at that
point. Put it in context for me, Adam,
how how long is a football pitch?
Well, have you seen 100m runningtrack?
It's a little bit shorter than that.
My goodness you same fault. He'd be loving it down there in
the Nelson Lakes. I can almost see the end.
(33:29):
Yeah, after about 7 1/2 seconds,you wouldn't be able to see him
anymore. It's about that long.
There we go, but for me, confusing the distance of a
volcano in a coastline. 2 geological features that always
perplexed me. You have been spared actually
from going to Fur Burger ever again.
(33:50):
Or is that a negative thing? I don't know.
Did you like Fur Burger? You Beautiful little tropologist
watching this. If you did, send us an e-mail,
tropologypodcast.com. We've got a hostel common room
form there where you can write directly to me and Adam.
You can also follow us on Instagram, it's Atropology
Podcast. Yeah.
And then after the show, we're going to head to the Lost and
(34:11):
Found section, where we're goingto discuss something very
interesting. Alan, I'm going to leave you
with something a little bit thought provoking.
Is it rude to ask someone where they're from?
I think it depends on your general kind of vibe when you
say it. If you say it in an accusatory
fashion, like where are you from, then that's rude, Yeah.
(34:37):
Just a little thing to ponder, Ithink because it's something
that I've been saying a lot and something that has maybe been
received in different ways and obviously something that we get
asked all the time. OI thought, if you're listening
to this, you can just have a little think about that and see
whether you agree or disagree that if you have an opinion on
it at all. Yeah, I mean, it's a it's a
(34:58):
common phrase used in hostels, Iwould say.
Where are you from? How long you've been travelling
for? What kind of a human are you?
All things we get asked in the hostel common room, my friend.
Let's blast off now to the Patreon session.
We can discuss those and other ideas More comes out 24 hours
early. Bonus content, but right now.
More from New Zealand next week.We'll see you there.
(35:21):
Bye.
I moved to New Zealand. Play the theme music.
Hello and welcome to this episode of Tripology.
I'm Alan and I am here the ever demanding Adam.
(00:24):
Alan May, I'm about as far away as I've ever been from you.
Yeah, in a very literal way, you're as far away as it's
possible to go without being in the ocean.
Because I've moved all the way to New Zealand, as I alluded to
on a previous episode, and I would quite like to discuss my
first impressions and what I've been doing over the last couple
of weeks. Yeah, I want to hear all about
(00:46):
the move, man. You've jetted off to the faraway
land of New Zealand. My goodness does it make
recording a temporally disjointed show very, very
difficult. But I don't begrudge it.
Nice to be in the land of Kiwis and hobbits and all that jazz.
So I'm looking forward as I'm sure listening audiences to hear
all about your sojourn. You gave me quite a few tips for
(01:08):
New Zealand because I mean, key nerd listeners would know that
you lived here for a year, didn't you, way back when.
Famously lived in New Zealand for a whole damn year when I got
robbed in Johannesburg. Jetted off to desperately try
and earn some money. Ended up living in what can only
be described as a crack house. Met Wagner, a Brazilian who
slept on my sofa. Sold guitars for a living.
(01:31):
Worked in community colleges teaching ukulele.
Built up enough funds to sail off to South America.
And that was my New Zealand story.
So I was the perfect man to giveyou a little couple of tips of
advice. Would you believe that the night
before I flew to New Zealand, you know, I was clutching my
passports so close to my chest because I was thinking, I wonder
(01:54):
if there's some weird sort of omen thing that's going to
happen, some full circle moment where I also get robbed.
And I was in Sofia, in Bulgaria.So nothing against Sofia, I'm
not saying you're likely to get robbed there, but you just never
know how these things happen because we do often say we're
two sides of the same person. Two PS In a podcast some have
said, and yeah, I would have been worried if I was you
(02:15):
because history has a very cyclical nature sometimes.
And I imagine the Sofia local gangs, the ones who wanted your
stuff, they could sense something vulnerable about you
as tripological things might have gone on to make you get
robbed. But I'm glad they didn't, Adam.
I'm very glad they didn't. People were asking me in the
hostel in Sofia, they were saying what are you up to over
the next few days? I said not moving to New
(02:36):
Zealand, that's for sure. I haven't got an important
flight to New Zealand in the next couple of days.
What's that boarding pass hanging out of your bag?
Don't look at my boarding pass. So yes mate, I am of course in
New Zealand. And where else could I be in New
Zealand other than the backpacking capital of
potentially the world, Queenstown?
Queenstown. I've been there once, Adam.
(02:59):
It's where I got my first tattoo.
Really. I hung out there for about a
week, sort of just chilling withone of my old friends.
I found it to be. I mean, there's a lot of hype
towards Queenstown. There is found it to be a very
busy, bristling backpacker town,of course, famous for a couple
(03:19):
of little things. Why don't you tell us what those
are? The things that are famous in
Queenstown. You've got all of the adventure
activities. It's like an adrenaline junkies
paradise, isn't it? All of the bungee jumps, the
skydives, the hiking, the the skiing, of course, lots of
snowboarding. Some good ski heels here and the
famous Ferg burger, which is probably the most famous burger
(03:40):
joint in the world I might say. Yeah, it's probably the most
hyped restaurant in the world aswell, I think.
But I've never heard backpackersso unanimously echo you've got
to go to Ferg Burger, you've gotto go to Ferg Burger, you've got
to go to Ferg Burger. All of them in the hostel common
room tell you you can't get a Ferg Burger.
Yeah, it's strange. It is almost like a rite of
(04:02):
passage for anyone in in Queenstown.
And having been here for about 48 hours now, it's, it's a
strange aesthetic walking through the streets.
I mean, it's almost like they only let backpackers into
Queenstown. Every single person you see is
are in some sort of hiking gear wearing like Patagonia or
(04:22):
Arcturix or, you know, North Face or whatever.
And usually they've got a backpack.
It's a really strange sort of a uniformity of everyone that
seems to be moving around Queenstown.
If they're not a backpacker, they're a sheep.
Was there still a huge queue that extended beyond the Ferg
Burger like Little Hole in the Wall?
And how long did you have to queue?
(04:43):
Oh, you're assuming that becauseI've been here 48 hours that
I've already been. I know you've already been.
You're Adam Ice for breakfast. I know that you'd have
immediately upon arriving in Queenstown, taking a trip down
to Ferg Burger. Yeah, it is certainly a
destination restaurant. I mean, I've actually been there
twice in in 24 hours, which I believe it's open.
It's open pretty late and they've got an extensive menu.
(05:05):
I mean, I've got to try a coupleof things just to get a global
overview. The first time I went there, my
lovely cousin that I've been travelling with for the last few
weeks in a car, we will go on totalk about the rental car.
She, she went ahead of me and ordered for me.
So my burger came within minutesof me arriving to the
restaurant, which was fantastic.The second time, which was only
(05:26):
a few hours ago, I waited about 15 minutes to order and about 20
minutes for the burger. Wow, so already you've like
hacked the Fergberg system. I mean, it's famously difficult
to get a burger at Ferg Burger at certain times and you waltz
over and immediately are handed a piece of meat between two
slices of bread. And I remember that the one I
had was called the Wiggum, namedafter Simpsons police chief of
(05:51):
the same name. Do you know what you had?
I do. I had the Ferg burger, just the
classic with cheddar cheese. That was the first time and then
the second time I had, I think it's called Little Lammy and
it's a lamb burger with some mint Jelly and a few saladie
bits. I don't like that Adam, because
it over personifies the creaturewhich was killed in order to
(06:12):
create the burger, really drawing attention to the fact
that the lamb used in your protein meal was indeed probably
quite little. So that's a shame, Adam, That's
a shame. Well, you know what they say
when in Rome. But I do want to talk a little
bit about where I am, mate, because as you can probably
notice from my crazy surroundings, there's some
(06:33):
graffiti on the wall and there'salso a projector behind me.
And now I am in the cinema room of Nomad's Hostel in the heart
of Queenstown. It is right downtown.
It's a huge facility. They've got loads of rooms.
It's really well equipped. And they've been so kind in
letting me use this cinema room because at time of recording,
it's 9:30, which is prime film watching time for most
(06:57):
backpackers. And yeah, it was a bit of a
rigmarole getting in here actually, because bless them, I
mean, I came to to get into the room and there were about 20
people in there watching a movie.
Oh, no. And they were so sweet.
They were so sweet that that they all kind of left and really
(07:17):
supportive and stuff and gave usa little follow on Instagram.
And here we are, mate. So.
You know, I've seen this one, guys.
That's that's not worth the ending in my opinion.
Gandalf dies, so. But yeah, I mean, New Zealand,
of course, just talking a littlebit about my first impressions.
I'm sure that they echo exactly what you told me, which is it is
(07:41):
one of the most beautiful countries I've ever been to.
And it doesn't really matter where you drive.
I've been all the way up north in my rental car, all the way
down South, and then zigzagged across the country.
And it's so diverse in such a small space.
And every corner you turn, you're there just wanting to
take a picture. Someone told me before I arrived
here that there are so many accidents in New Zealand because
(08:02):
people keep looking out the window.
Oh that's a very beautiful concept as your drive been
fairly eventful. I did a road trip around New
Zealand with a friend and the day we set off it started
raining so passionately that on day one as we were trying to
move east from Auckland, we got pulled over by a police officer
(08:23):
who said, oh you had nice tire. You pommies a fact you ain't
going to get east in this weather, so you had to just like
hole up for the night. It was terrible.
Has there been any particular events while you've been
driving? A note.
I mean, there's been a lot of events because I've had the car
for about two weeks, but I'll probably start at the start,
which was when I picked up the car from Auckland Airport.
(08:44):
It was fairly straightforward torent the car.
I mean, you know what it's like renting a car even.
You know what it's like renting a car with me, Alan?
Because we did that in Oman lastyear.
So go online, put the car, it'llbe ready at 12:00 on this day,
Whatever. I had to get back to the airport
in order to rent it because the prices were much cheaper.
A little bit tidbit for you guys, rent it from the airport
(09:05):
because you will get a better price.
And I went there at the time of collection, which I coincided
with my cousin arriving from London.
And the plan was that we would hire the car for three weeks,
drive all over the country, and then I would decide where I
wanted to live. That makes complete sense, no?
I agree mate. Complete sense.
Almost too much sense. It almost takes some for the fun
out of that packing. It's so damn sensible.
(09:27):
So I I went to the airport and Iwas there with about, I don't
know, 45 minutes to spare. I thought, I'll meet my cousin
1st and then we can get to the rental office.
And then I did a little Google of where the rental office was
and it was so far away. I mean, it's still like within a
drive, but it's certainly not walkable.
(09:48):
I thought it was just one of those, you know, pick the car up
in the car park or something. That absolutely was not the
case. So then I started panicking
because I looked at the board ofmy my cousin's flight arrival on
the arrivals board and that had been delayed by 40 minutes.
I was thinking maybe I'd go and pick up the car 1st and then
come and collect her. That'd be a really nice thing to
do, having already done all the paperwork.
(10:09):
Lovely gesture. Yeah, it's so, so nice.
And I read in small print that if you're something along the
lines of if you're late for yourdelivery slot, you your car
won't be guaranteed. If you're late for your delivery
slot, the car off explode will drive that sheet off a Cliff so
that would be like. Do you know the amount of times
(10:29):
I've inadvertently done an Australian accent trying to
mimic a Kiwi? I mean, they're so similar
really. It's only on extended vowel
sounds and diphthongs that you'dnotice a difference, but apart
from that it's all very similar stuff.
Well I was talking to a guy earlier and he was from Sydney,
lovely guy and I noticed that hewas Australian and not Kiwi.
I mean also maybe it's contextual.
(10:50):
I mean the fact he's staying in a hostel.
Or was he holding a boomerang orsomething?
He's fighting a kangaroo. From the looks of you mate, I've
hazard a guess here from the from the large island of
Australia as opposed to this. Australasian is Lionel aren't
you? How could you fucking tell Mike?
(11:11):
That was just that sort of that East Coast twang.
I guess maybe I've become accustomed to it, but we we, I
say we, it definitely wasn't we yet.
I arrived at the at the rental company after running to make
sure that I still have my delivery car.
I got there at 12 O1 and the collection time was 12.
I was there panting, absolutely sweating.
(11:34):
And I spoke to the guy at reception and he said, are you
all right? You look like you've run here.
I said, yeah, no, I have literally run here to make sure
I make it on time. He said, why didn't you use our
airport shuttle service? Did you not get the e-mail from
the third party? I said no, obviously not,
otherwise I would have used the shuttle service.
He said. Yeah, you should have, It was
free. Brilliant.
(11:54):
He saw you sweating, running, going in there and he was like,
oh, is the heating broken on theairport shuttle service again?
I couldn't believe it. I I felt like shit, quite
honestly. And then I filled in all the
details, you know, it's like pretty boring stuff.
And then waited 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour.
My cousin's texted me going, hey, yeah.
(12:14):
My plane's landed. You're not here like you said
you were. Yeah, I'm sorry.
Change of plan. I'm at the car rental.
So is there any way you can justwait?
I will, you know, be there with the car shortly.
And after an hour and 10 minutesof waiting, the the guy came
back out from sort of mechanics preparation, vehicle preparation
area or whatever. He said, oh, Mr. Mr. Cousins,
(12:36):
your, your car, there's been an issue with it.
I said, oh, yeah, what's that? He said, it's not here.
I was like, oh, that's quite a big issue.
Yeah, it's always the largest issue I've ever heard.
I said, oh, is it the same placeas the shuttle service?
No, he, he said it's not here, But what we'll do is we'll give
(12:57):
you a free upgrade. And I said, oh, that's, that's
really kind of you. Your tripological bristles that
have been tingling, wouldn't they?
You'd have heard free upgrade and you've been like imagining
you in a Bugatti picking your cousin up.
Get in. The heating's not broken in
here. Yeah, I was thinking, I wonder
if it's going to be some psychedelic print Ferrari or
Porsche with and Alan turns up in the passenger seat.
(13:19):
That would be amazing. Can you imagine that with the
theme tune blasting out? We've done you a free upgrade.
What we've done is fly your business partner out first
class. It's a service we provide.
Whenever we whenever we do this stupid thing where the car's not
ready, we basically contact yournext of kin and fly the men.
Next of kin. That's class.
(13:41):
Sorry mum. So anyway, the the car was then
readied and I, you know me Alan,you know me better than most.
I'm meticulous, I've got a high attention to detail and I take
fucking ages to do everything soI know.
So there I was videoing the outside of the car because I was
just about to sign my life away.If we have so much as a nick,
(14:04):
regardless of fault, it costs me$3000.
Yeah, I know, I know this of youbecause when I run with a car
and her mum was about to get signed off, I went.
You deal with this ads. I'm just going to go get a
shower. You went.
What? We're both in this agreement,
Alan. We've both signed on the dotted
line. Alan, you won't be leaving.
We'll both deal with this together.
And if there's a dent on the car, it's both are dents.
(14:26):
And if there's a scratch on the tire, that's both are scrap.
God dammit, you won't be showering anytime soon, boy.
Is that really our across? That's amazing.
Yeah, I apologise. I still haven't showered.
I'm scared. I apologise for that.
I can. Yeah, I'll be quite demanding
actually after after a while thevehicle showed up.
(14:48):
So I took the the effort to go round with a fine tooth comb,
inspecting the vehicle, making sure that all of the little
knocks and scratches were sort of mentioned or noted on the
rental agreement. I did a really long one,
continuous video around the alloys inside the car, all this
sort of stuff. And then I got all the way round
the vehicle to the very last tire and there was a huge chunk
(15:11):
missing from it of the tyre. Oh dear, the fine tooth comb
that you carry with you will pick that up, won't it?
As you go. Fucking hell.
You know, I'd almost like zoomedin too far because I was
watching it through the video onthe camera on my phone, and it
was like looking at the inside of a crater or something.
(15:33):
So I zoomed out and thought, oh,that looks a bit strange.
Is that actually on the tyre? And then realized that half the
bloody wheel was missing. So I looked at my cousin and
said, do you think that's going to be all right?
She was like, I don't think it'sall right.
So I called the guy back over and I said, look at that, is
that going to be all right? He went, that is definitely not
going to be all right. That is a faulty tire.
I said, what do we do now? Then it.
(15:53):
Looks like it's fitting to explode.
He said we can't let you drive away in that give me two
minutes. So I gave him 2 minutes.
He's like your security depositsfucked mate.
I said, he's paying for my time here.
I'm supposed to pick the car up at 12, actually ran here and he
he came back and said, look, Mr.Cousins, we're really sorry
(16:14):
about what's going on here with these vehicles.
We'd like to give you another free upgrade.
And I said, OK, what? What is it to this time?
Here's Elon Musk with the news. He pointed to the vehicle and
there was this brand spanking new, super shiny, absolutely
enormous Toyota Highlander that was just there, you know, fresh
(16:34):
from the bloody car wash ready to go.
And we, we, he gave us the keys.We jumped straight in.
I mean, it's, I, I did spend another 30 minutes doing a
video, but I won't be putting that on Instagram.
It's not going to go on a reel or anything like that.
Don't worry. Yeah, for fans who want to see
Adam's fine tooth comb experience, I mean, you really
have to join the patriarch. Yeah, so that's how you do it
(16:58):
mate. I don't really know how I can
advise you to get 2 free upgrades in the space of a few
minutes but but I did. I'm not going to mention the
name of the rental company for obvious reasons.
They will remain anonymous but I've over the last couple of
weeks we've done a couple of nights in the car as as we did
me and you. But me and my cousin don't tell
the local authorities. But you know, pull down a
(17:19):
residential Rd. When it's really dark, nowhere
near a street lamp, not the seats back, have a couple of
hours Kip and on you go. Well, camping in colours is like
part of the culture of backpacking in New Zealand
though, isn't it? Are you supposed to do in
designated spots? Is that the the thing there?
Yeah, so there's no free campingor wild camping or freedom
camping as they call it here. They would much prefer you book
(17:39):
a spot in a designated camping site.
You can have them powered, unpowered, you know, bring a
temp, whatever. But I've, I've got to be honest
mate, this is something I'm veryglad that I'm remembering to
say. Live on air, the ratio of
campervans to any other vehicle is about 1:00 to 1:00.
Wow, really? It is so ridiculously high.
(17:59):
It's if it's not a campervan, it's a converted vehicle and if
it's not a converted vehicle into a camper, then it's like a
proper motorhome or it's a caravan or it's a fifth wheel.
It's an absolutely insane amountof of people living the van life
here or going on sort of campingholidays.
Well, it sounds to me, Adam, tell me if I'm wrong, that this
is going to be the start of a little bit of a New Zealand
(18:22):
series, anthropology, where you tell us all about your road trip
adventures, all about zooming around both islands and can't
wait for it. I think you also need to tell us
about how you got there and yourlittle last little remaining
time in Europe because last timewe heard from you, you're in
Europe, now you're in New Zealand.
There's a whole series of Adam adventures to come.
But As for now, I'm so I mean, I'm stressed about the chunk in
(18:44):
your tire. I'm stressed about you're in
that Toyota Highlander. I need to go on a meditation
break. And after that, I just want to
learn more, maybe through as some sort of item or something.
So let's go on a meditation break.
Sometimes when travelling, accidents happen.
Oh, I've fallen off a helicopterand broken my nose.
(19:04):
That's why it's always so important to have travel
insurance. And when you do need insurance,
we recommend safety. Wing, there's a link in the
description. Click it.
Support the podcast. Like a piece of rubber
disjoining yourself from the tire of a car and flinging
yourself down the New Zealand highway, allow your conscious
mind to return into your brain. As we embark on the second-half
(19:28):
of this tribological adventure, you've told me you have
something very special planned. What is it?
I Alan thought that as a fantastic introduction into New
Zealand and my time in New Zealand, maybe you can think
about what it was like with you living here.
I thought what a great time to do a a tripping point quiz and
news even special. Oh, it's the thing that makes me
(19:51):
the most nervous. And the only way for me to
prepare is with something. Music.
Let's go. Tripping point.
All right, mate, It's backed by popular demand.
It's a tripping point. I love putting these together as
much as you love answering them.So Are you ready for these five
(20:13):
fantastic questions that I'm sure you're going to get right?
Tripping point, the travel quiz,I always get a bit nervous
because it's the one time anthropology where I feel like I
can make myself look a bit stupid, but I'm ready to try my
best. And do we have stakes?
Do we have some sort of wager, some sort of thing that me and
you can do that makes like last time, for example, you had to
(20:34):
fly all the way to Scotland because of a tripping point?
Yes, yeah, that was fine. I mean, I was.
I was actually not as far away as I am now, So maybe we should
lower the stakes. I'll tell you what, mate.
I'll tell you what. How about if you get 4 out of
five? I won't go and eat another fur
burger. Right.
OK. So I am basically fighting for
(20:55):
your health at the moment. Yeah, it's so funny when when
you go back into the back into the episode and you said a chunk
of rubber flinging itself down ahighway, I thought, oh, that
sounds like an awful review of Ferg Burger.
Yeah, yeah, baby, let's e-mail corporate and let them know what
we're doing. I'm fighting for Adams Health.
(21:15):
I'm fighting for Adams culinary enjoyment. 4 out of five, No
more Ferg Burger. Let's go.
And if I get less than four out of five, Adam, you've got to go
and have the Wiggum. OK.
All right. I like the sound of that.
It's actually open until the early hours, I think maybe even
4:00 AM. So immediately after recording,
I'll be straight down there. Well, if I also get 5 out of
(21:37):
five, Adam, I think 5 out of five, you go and get a Ferg
burger as well. I think 4 is the sweetest spot.
I think let's go, let's go. Oh God, I'm going to.
Maybe I can manage the question.Questions this end right.
Here we go, mate. Are you ready?
Are you steady? Have you had your coffee?
My coffee is Yeah, it's empty. Let's go.
Right #1 New Zealand holds the record for having the longest
(21:57):
place name found in any English speaking country.
But how long is it? A 55 letters, B 65 letters, C 75
letters or D 85 letters. Wow, four part, multiple choice.
Adam, I know the place name. I've seen someone walk down the
(22:18):
sign and say I thought you were going to ask me, but what is
that place name? And I was ready to go.
Yeah, Alphabet I. Don't have a good intuition, I
know. It's just incredibly long, like
it looks absurd. 85 letters seems like far too long, but
it's quite an Adam guess that I just I know the place name of my
(22:41):
in my in my head. It's like vast.
It's absolutely vast. It is long.
So I guess I'll go, I'll go, I'll go for 85 letters.
It's 85 mate. I'm really impressed.
That is such an extraordinary length for one word.
I know the next question you're going to ask, and I'm sure the
listener's shouting down the theold earphones there, is he going
(23:02):
to try and pronounce it live on air?
Yeah, give it a go. OK, here we go, give it a go.
So the longest place name of anyEnglish speaking country.
It's 85 letters. So this will be the rest of the
episode, guys. So TuneIn next week for part
question to a tripping boy. Yeah, the second-half of the
place name's going to run into the Patriot, and I do.
I do hope that I don't offend anyone, of course.
(23:24):
Right, here we go. It starts with AT tell metal
Waka tangi hang out Wow wow wow.Tamatia to repu Kaka piki mawang
horonuku pokai when? Nuakita who?
There we go and a deep breath. I don't, I don't think we should
have done that, mate. I'll cut out in the edit.
(23:46):
Yeah, moving on. I think, I think I did a pretty
good job. I mean, my lungs were depleted
of all air. But if you want to know.
Yeah, congratulations. That's wild.
I'm I'm sure that you knew this already mate, but the rough
translation is something along the lines of the summit where
Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains,
(24:08):
the slider, the land swallower who travelled about, played his
nose flute to his loved. One amazing.
Can you imagine like if if he did all those things and he was
just that guy but he just didn'tbring his nose flute that day,
the name would be like 65 letters instead.
It's amazing that that all that can just be conveyed in one
word. Yeah, beautiful.
(24:29):
Oh good. What a beautiful language.
So Can you imagine if someone interrupted you halfway through?
Where are you going? So so, mate, I'm.
I'm super proud of you. That's awesome.
This bodes well. Here we go, number two.
Number two. Yeah.
In 1988 in Queenstown, where I currently am, AJ Hackett created
the first commercial. What is it?
(24:52):
A, the skydive. B the bungee jump, C the
paraglide or D the catapult. I think it's the first
commercial bungee jump, Adam, I feel like I know that bungee
jumping is really popular there.And I think it's because he
visited some tribal regions maybe in Papua New Guinea, where
they have an early precursor to bungee jumping.
(25:13):
And I think the first ever commercial bunge jump was in
Queenstown. Oh my God, you know so much more
than I do. That's brilliant.
So that's it. Yeah.
Two out of two, mate. Well done.
Bungee jump is really popular here, of course.
Is it? Yeah, it's going to be a greasy
evening for you. Have you done a bungee jump just
out of interest because I would not touch one with a barge pole.
I've done a bungee jump in SouthAfrica.
Yeah, at the time that I did it,it was the second highest bungee
(25:37):
jump in the world. It used to hold the record for
being the highest. It lost that record to a bungee
jump in Macau, but it was like off a bridge, very, very high.
I loved it very much. I trust the guys in Macau.
I wonder if they're it's just a few metres in it, probably
they've gone. How high is it again?
Just. Two inches, they put a little
block above the start. If you want to jump off the
(25:58):
block, it's just a little higher.
They only let really short people do the bungee jump, so
technically they fall further. Is it the highest bungee jump?
It's the one in which you fall the furthest.
All right, cool, here we go. I'm, I'm excited #3 while in New
Zealand you'll never be more than 128 kilometers from what a
(26:19):
a volcano BA. Kiwi.
BA sheep C the coastline or DA steak and cheese pie.
OK, well, I mean, goes without saying.
Cheese and steak pie, but that'snot the answer because how on
earth would you measure it? Sheep.
What was the distance again? Sorry, Adam. 128 kilometers, but
that makes a fucking difference.A sheep, well, I mean, I think,
(26:43):
I think you're not going to be that far away from a sheep
actually in New Zealand. So I'm not going to say that I
think you're always closer than 128 kilometres coastline.
That could be true. Coastline could be true.
I mean, it wraps all the way around Ireland.
(27:03):
I love that it wraps away. Yeah, yeah.
Like a coastline. Yeah, the whole way around the
island. Yeah, exactly.
It's almost as if your equidistance in the middle of
New Zealand and your equidistance from all the
coastlines all at once. Volcanoes, I think volcanoes
seems like the one where there are, there are volcanoes in New
Zealand, famous ones. 128 kilometres seems really
(27:27):
specific. There's like far enough away
that you'd have to go there. I mean, I basically think you
could extend a handout in any direction.
You'd have a 50% chance of touching a sheep.
But a volcano 100, the distance seems about right.
So I'm going to go with Volcano Adam.
It's not volcano mate, I'm ever so sorry.
It's crazy. It's coastline.
(27:48):
Oh yeah, makes sense. Makes sense.
It was either volcanoes or coastline.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think both sheep and steak and
cheese pie. I love the methodology, the
thought process behind it. You are probably in most cases
absolutely closer, a lot closer than 128 KS.
Yeah, sure. From either of those, it's.
Disappointing. So moving swiftly on, that could
be the one that you get wrong, but here we go, number four.
(28:10):
True or false? New Zealand was the last country
in the world to be inhabited by humans.
OK, so let me talk through my logic here.
I know that New Zealand, it, it got a Polynesian population
because of like chance rafting, because that's how they they
think that happened. And I know that that did happen
ecologically later than humans would, you know, have maybe
(28:34):
crossed the Bering Strait earlier.
There was an incumbent native population in the new America.
So it's not, you know what, it'snot that far from the truth.
I know that the Maori people came like later than you think.
It's all it's all very interesting stuff mate, I'm well
impressed with the knowledge so far.
It is interesting stuff. I'd have to say that's probably
true that my only my only reservation is that I don't know
(28:56):
how you would know whether therewas was people living in certain
pockets and certain places in certain settlements.
Like, I don't know whether we know who was where all the time,
but you know what, Because it's so isolated, so difficult to get
to, and we know that the Maori'scame there later in like human
(29:17):
history, then places like the Americas that were also
separate. I'm going to say that's I'm
going to say that's true. Yeah.
Probably probably one of the last places to be settled.
It is true, it is true. You're right.
Nice. And it was as recent as.
I mean, would it be a complete stab in the dark if I was to
say, can you have a punt on the?Yeah, and.
Yeah, 750 years. Wow, 750 years.
(29:37):
It's goes to show the ecologicalimpact that humans can have
during that time. Famously, of course, there's
there was a bird, a large flightless bird.
I don't know if you know the name of it.
It's called the Mao Mao, something like that.
Yeah, I'd looked at one yesterday.
Would you believe it's not too dissimilar from an emu, is it?
It's got sort of a very, very large, well, it's very large and
(29:57):
it has huge feet. And it also, I think used to lay
eggs that are about 60 times thesize of chickens eggs or
something along those lines. Yeah, right.
And, and, and it was haunted by the new population so much they
to the extinction of its predator, the harsh eagle, which
is the largest bird ever. It's this huge colossal eagle
(30:19):
that used to predate these flightless birds on the ground.
And it just couldn't survive because those birds were haunted
so much. And so that went extinct as
well. Yeah.
Oh, my goodness. Because that bird only went
extinct 200 years ago, right? Yeah.
Yeah. So really.
Well, you know, it's. It's not that long ago at all.
That's a shame that the other eagle went extinct.
I'm going to look at pictures ofthat after this episode.
(30:40):
Yeah, Harst eagle, my next thing.
Yeah, that's just the ecologicalimpact of a new species entering
into environment, in this case Homo sapiens.
Yeah, wow. Oh, I'm learning something on
this side. Amazing.
I love that. OK, we got another one to go
mate #5 The Blue Lake in the Nelson Lakes National Park
currently holds the world record.
(31:00):
For what? OK.
Now I know that that's pretty vague, man, so I'm happy to
steer you in the right directionto make it a little bit more
fair. I would so hold on.
Do I not get multiple choice here?
Nope, I'm just leaving that out in the open like that.
Wow, OK, well that's the first size of tripping point first
there no multiple choice. We can have a chat about if
(31:21):
you've got any questions or anything you want to know, I can
kind of give you a little guidance.
Yeah, give me a little bit of guidance because I'm looking
like so far my mind's thinking the bluest colour, the most
fish, the coldest temperatures, you know, these are things.
I'm eliminating those as I go. So am I sort of, am I looking at
(31:42):
what's inside the lake or a quality of the lake?
The the water itself, I would say, yeah, the water itself.
So think, think about the water and maybe the qualities that
water can possess. I mean, it's pretty low brow
stuff, man. Don't go to sort of molecular
with this. It's the wettest water.
(32:03):
The water's so wet, if you dip your toes in, that'll be soggy.
For a week, not quite that. No, not quite that.
But think. I'll tell you what.
Think about the water and think about diving to bring it back to
backpacking, scuba diving. OK, well, let's go.
I'm going to go with the clearest.
It's got the highest visibility.Fucking nailed it.
(32:23):
Absolutely nailed it. Oh my God.
It's it holds the record for being the clearest water on
earth of any lake. And what do you what would be an
exceptional length to be able tosee exceptional viz as we say in
the diving community? 20 meters. 20 that's average.
That's bad in some parts I don't.
Know it's not for me. I wear contact lenses.
(32:45):
If I got into a lake and could see 20 meters I would think I'm
cured. Yeah, all right, fair enough.
I mean, you can't see 20 meters on land, so I know mate, it's 80
meters. What?
So it acts like a refracting thing where you can see further
than you can on land. I don't know how far people see.
(33:05):
People can probably see for miles if they're on some of the
mountain I don't know about. Sight.
Yeah. I mean, 80 meters, that is
bloody far. That is incredibly clear.
I think it's probably clearer than glass actually at that
point. Put it in context for me, Adam,
how how long is a football pitch?
Well, have you seen 100m runningtrack?
It's a little bit shorter than that.
My goodness you same fault. He'd be loving it down there in
the Nelson Lakes. I can almost see the end.
(33:29):
Yeah, after about 7 1/2 seconds,you wouldn't be able to see him
anymore. It's about that long.
There we go, but for me, confusing the distance of a
volcano in a coastline. 2 geological features that always
perplexed me. You have been spared actually
from going to Fur Burger ever again.
(33:50):
Or is that a negative thing? I don't know.
Did you like Fur Burger? You Beautiful little tropologist
watching this. If you did, send us an e-mail,
tropologypodcast.com. We've got a hostel common room
form there where you can write directly to me and Adam.
You can also follow us on Instagram, it's Atropology
Podcast. Yeah.
And then after the show, we're going to head to the Lost and
(34:11):
Found section, where we're goingto discuss something very
interesting. Alan, I'm going to leave you
with something a little bit thought provoking.
Is it rude to ask someone where they're from?
I think it depends on your general kind of vibe when you
say it. If you say it in an accusatory
fashion, like where are you from, then that's rude, Yeah.
(34:37):
Just a little thing to ponder, Ithink because it's something
that I've been saying a lot and something that has maybe been
received in different ways and obviously something that we get
asked all the time. OI thought, if you're listening
to this, you can just have a little think about that and see
whether you agree or disagree that if you have an opinion on
it at all. Yeah, I mean, it's a it's a
(34:58):
common phrase used in hostels, Iwould say.
Where are you from? How long you've been travelling
for? What kind of a human are you?
All things we get asked in the hostel common room, my friend.
Let's blast off now to the Patreon session.
We can discuss those and other ideas More comes out 24 hours
early. Bonus content, but right now.
More from New Zealand next week.We'll see you there.
(35:21):
Bye.
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