New Zealand 4

While it is cold, bleak winter in the northern hemisphere, it is summer in New Zealand. Overall the climate of New Zealand sounds really nice. The country has slightly less area that the state of Colorado, and a little more land area than the UK. It is a land of mountains, harbors, and fjords. They are part of the Pacific ring of fire, and earthquakes are common in the islands. Like Kenya, elevation plays a role in temperature rather than weather fronts. The mountains are capped with glaciers. Oddly enough, my source says that 18 F and 50 F both convert to 10 C. It sounds like winter gets below freezing in some areas, and summers are warm, but not terribly hot. As with other mountainous islands, weather varies greatly depending on which sides of the mountains you are on.

New Zealand's isolation also meant that the plants that evolved there are not seen in any other places on earth. There were fewer animals noted on the islands which meant that European settlers brought in many species which of course disrupted the ecosystem. Go figure. While the Maori were the first settlers of the islands, most of the population is of European descent. That said, the name Maori was picked by the locals because the word meant "normal", and was a way of distinguishing themselves from the European explorers that were coming to their land. As usual, European diseases also disrupted the native population and shrank their numbers. Now Maori make up about 1/6 of the population, but they expect that demographic to increase. It's also a country described as nominally Christian, with almost 1/3 of the population describing themselves as nonreligious. Most people live on the North Island, and 86.5% of the population lives in urban areas. 

Zealong tea estate is in Gordonton NZ, so I decided to look the town up. Unfortunately the main page that I found that said anything was Wikipedia. Some other links to pages that looked more official that Wikipedia did not lead to anything. According to Wikipedia, the town is in a rural area on the North Island. I pulled up a map and found that this looks to be true. 

Now for the mystery of what their "dark tea" and "light tea" are. I have previously found references in British publications about "dark tea" being puerh, but that still doesn't explain what "light tea" is. When looking at the tea that they sell, I did notice that they made oolong tea. Given the fact that there are dark oolongs that are almost black tea, and light oolongs that are almost green tea, that seems to be the most likely answer for what the dark and light tea were. This theory was further bolstered when I discovered they had a page for tea recipes. "Mulled wine with Zealong dark oolong tea" BAM! There's the answer. At least I'm claiming it is the answer. You can also have dark oolong hot cross buns. They also talk about the Japanese specialty of up-cycling brewed tea leaves with a recipe for crispy tea garnish. Thanks to their recipe page, I'm starting to think about cold brewing some tea in sparkling water. I still have an unopened bottle of it from last summer. Of course, I do not want cold beverages right now, so I may have to file that one away until summer. 

So, I got out my oolong teas. 

And of course, I had light and dark oolongs in my cupboard. I don't think that this dark oolong tea is smoked, so you can see the difference in color between the 2 sets of leaves (light is on the left, dark is on the right). 

Here is the light oolong being brewed. 

This is the dark oolong being brewed. What better thing to do when there's a big storm rolling in (and I am on vacation and don't have to drive in this crap - yay!)

This was early in the storm. I think we got about 8-9 inches total. This happened on Monday into Tuesday. 

This is what I woke up to on Sunday morning. Unfortunately it was not done snowing. According to the forecast, there's another 3 to 4 hours of snow this morning. I also know that there is a layer of ice under all this innocent looking snow. There's a reason why I bought 3 pairs of ice cleats this winter. 

Can winter please be over now?