Unlikely Finds

February 20, 2002-Stylishly Kosher
(photos:Olveston House,
Railway station,
Downtown Dunedin,
Christchurch fashionista)

New Zealand is such a country of improbabilities. When Capt. Cook sailed past the glacier formed on what was later named Mt. Cook it extended clear down to the Tasman Sea. So, we shouldn’t have been surprised to find that the best bagels in Australia are in Dunedin, New Zealand. The Bronx Bagel Company is only seven months old. The etched glass windows bear the skyline of New York including the Twin Towers. They have a variety of crusty bagels in tantalizing flavors, but this is another example of “same, same…but different.” They don’t have any onion or garlic bagels, but make up for this lack in the variety of sandwiches they offer. David had a Reuben, which bears little resemblance to that time honored sandwich creation of the Stage Deli in New York. This one had corned beef (the best he’s had since we left home), mustard, sauerkraut, red onion, tomato, mozzarella, & jam. The Brooklyn had corned beef, American mustard (the plain yellow kind), gherkins, tomato, mozzarella, & beetroot. They did go one step further in their departure from anything vaguely Jewish in offering not only bacon on the bagels, but also vegemite.

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s sometimes difficult to get an adequate supply of serviettes (napkins) in casual restaurants here. One reason may be that they think they’re supplying them when the food is served. It’s more common than not to have the napkin either under the sandwich or wrapped around the cutlery & placed on the plate with the food. The result is obvious. A Find We started our day as we do most every day while traveling. We got lost. This was fortuitous because it gave us time to see the old residential neighborhoods of Dunedin. The town is extremely hilly & boasts the steepest street in the world. It was recently calibrated & the town was surprised at the result. It has a very San Francisco look as everything runs down to the lovely bay & harbor.

We finally found Olveston House built in 1906 & named for a small hamlet near Bristol, England. David Benjamin came from that area, but when he arrived in Melbourne, married Marie Mikchaelis, & moved to NZ, he changed his last name to Theomin. They were a Jewish family as many of the artifacts showed, but it doesn’t seem he changed his name to hide his religion. There was a sizeable Jewish community & synagogue back then. There’s a newer synagogue now & a cemetery. The Theomins had two children. The son married but died at age 43 with no children. The daughter, Dorothy, never married but led a vigorous life of trekking & traveling on her own which was unusual for a woman in that day. She was educated in England & came home with a “good friend,” Miss Wilson. The friend stayed on as a secretary to Mrs. Theomin. From what information was given & from family photos, we think the daughter was “family” in the GLBT sense.

The house itself was of the Jacobean style. There were many advanced features built into the house such as central heating, electricity, & intercoms. The kitchen area was particularly interesting. It was a kosher kitchen & state of the art for its day. They had ceramic jars lining the walls. They were custom made with the ingredients painted on each. If we didn’t know it before, the jars would have made us wonder if the family was Jewish. There was one for raisins, almonds, & macaroons. The table was set for Shabbat dinner in the dining room & a havdallah set in the sitting room. Since the docent made several references to the fact that they were a Jewish family, I was pleased to hear her point out the details that made the lives of the servants (all seven of them) easier & to mention that their quarters were especially pleasant. . Several of the items in the house came from America. It was amusing to see a grandfather clock from 1770. I realized that the clock was made before the Europeans settled in New Zealand. There was a Hamilton Beach Mixmaster, a Fridgedaire refrigerator made in Dayton, Ohio, & early American chairs made in Indianapolis. The safe made by Ratners of London was like a touch of home too. Ratners is now the jewelry company that owns Sterling Co., based in Akron. The only thing missing from the house was a mezuzah. That’s the small case affixed to the doorframe containing the parchment on which is written the schema (Deuteronomy 6:4 & following).

The Theomins were avid travelers & collectors. He started with nothing & built his import business from the ground up. Everything they ever purchased was still in the house when Dorothy died at age 77. Since she was still living in the house at the time, it was pretty well cared for. The people of Dunedin were quite surprised she’d willed it to them.

We went on to have a look at the railroad station. We aren’t train aficionados, but this building was a sight to behold. It’s an elaborate stone structure & still a working station. It’s a conglomeration of gingerbread, stained glass, friezes of cherubs, & wrought iron work rolled into Renaissance style architecture. We were amused to find the Cleveland Living Arts Exhibit on the second floor. It had a display of the different architectural styles of old Dunedin & today. The old won hands down as far as I am concerned.

In case you have trouble reading what was written above, I just want to tell you that I finally did some writing in the car. Ursula was my inspiration to try again. It was a boring drive to Christchurch & clouds prevailed so sun glare was minimal. The bouncing of the car & the jouncing of the road will take the blame for any “typos.” The following mistakes are due to the fact that I’m a cheap drunk. My cold is now a cough so I took Robitussin-D “non-drowsy” cough medicine. I didn’t have a way to measure 150ml nor did I have a spoon. I guess I overdosed. As I started getting high I read the ingredients. Non-drowsy doesn’t mean non-alcoholic.

Comparisons

During todays 4-½ hour drive, David & I had a chance to compare NZ with Tasmania. Tassie came out slightly ahead. NZ has some more spectacular natural wonders, but they’re spread far & wide. We used up a lot of time driving through pastureland & rolling hills to get to beautiful. By the time you factor in flying time, getting to airports, & scarcity of internal flights, driving is still the way to go. We needed about four more days here to have made it a calmer trip. In Tasmania it there was an ocean view around every bend & a more frequent “wow” factor. But, we gave it to NZ hands down over Australia in the food department. The food here actually has flavor.

We also discussed the remnants of the pre-metric days. As we passed 7 Mile Rd, we agreed that 11.2 Km Road didn’t sound as nice. Since it was such a long drive, we got on the subject of how little clothing we actually needed for the trip. We really pared down this time. I’m proud to say I will have worn my jeans for ten consecutive days & my white shirt for six. It sounds disgusting, but it’s been so cool that the leaves on the trees are starting to change (this is their August). We really haven’t perspired.

We thought of Ron & Karen as we passed a pasture that had only black sheep in it. We reminisced about Ron’s comment when we saw cows grazing in a field that was being irrigated. He said they seem to water their cows down here. Well, Ron, you will be happy to know they also water their sheep. Speaking of which, we passed many trucks hauling the little lambie-pies to market. Their fluffy white & pink ears were sticking out between the rails. That didn’t stop David from ordering lamb filets for dinner.

Christchurch

We talked about how confusing the NZ accent is. I was directed to the rest room & told to, “Go to the lift.” If you know Kiwi-speak, you don’t need to find an elevator. I needed to turn “left.” As our tram driver prepared to get off for the day, he said, “I live here.” No, he didn’t live there; he was going to “leave” us there. We found the Heritage Hotel on Cathedral Square with no trouble & got an upgrade to a bi-level suite. Well, after all the downgrades we’ve had to endure on this trip, we deserved this.

Christchurch was a Church of England settlement, but its conservative roots are challenged by what seems to be a trendy bent. Arts & artisans are flourishing here. We’re centrally located & decided to take a tram tour to get oriented in the city. There are several colleges here we would call boarding schools at the high school level. The uniforms must carry a lot of tradition or else the boys wouldn’t be caught dead in them. One involved a kilt & the other was Bermuda length shorts with a black blazer that had wide white vertical stripes.

We hopped off the tram at our hotel & walked across the street to Christ Church Cathedral. This Anglican church is known for its timbered ceiling & dome, but those were the only majestic features we could discern today. The Festival of Flowers was on & the interior & exterior were festooned with garish, tacky, & tawdry displays of dying, fading, wilting, & clashing arrangements. Due to all the flowers, the inside of the church had a cloyingly funereal stench. The centerpiece was a carpet of flowers down the middle aisle. Let me just say it involved colored pebbles, orange slices, moss, & every color God created & some she forgot. On the altar were two five- foot tall vases spray-painted royal blue. In them were primary hued fabric flowers that were three-feet in diameter. The elegant stone columns of this dignified church were wrapped ¼ of the way up in gold foil. Shall I stop? No, I must describe the female mannequin dressed in a plum colored, slit skirted dress. In keeping with the theme, she had flowering tree branches coming out of her head & blossoms trailing across her bodice, down to her feet, & onto the floor. Lest you think that this was lovely, I must add that the butter dish sized pink & yellow flowers were plastic.

Toby