After an extremely painful and costly time at the Melbourne airport we arrived in the land that reminds us of British Columbia, Scotland and many other countries. New Zealand, like most other countries in the world, requires visitors to their promised land to have a return ticket to ensure you exit their country. However, unlike 99.9% of all the other countries, looking respectable and having onward tickets to other countries, regardless if you have a ticket that specifically departes the country, was supposedly not good enough - so Quantas said! The Quantas check-in staff would have nothing of this, and would not let us check-in without having a return ticket. In order to purchase a refundable ticket without paying penalty fees we were required to drop $1,500 on two tickets. No less than 15 minutes after landing on NZ soil, we cancelled the ticket and started the whole refundable process. The stinger - customs doesn't give a shit whether you have an onward ticket - all they do is greet you with "have a good one Mate". We will chalk it down to another unpleasant encounter with Quantas. We are convinced that the Quantas air waiteress either don't like youngsters flying
business class or that the new "Don't sleep with Passengers during flights or you will be Fired - Policy" just isn't going down well.
The minute you land in New Zealand you know that you are in for something different. The billboard adds are full of All Blacks adverstisements and extreme sports are the choice of activity. No doubt about it, if your not careful, before you know it you will have jumped out of a plane, off a city tower, or hiked through a trial leaving behind your wallet and an empty bank account - activities/tours are very dear. There is no acitivity to extreme in New Zealand, and god knows what is yet to be thought up next. The great thing about the relaxed attitude in NZ is they haven't gone down the route of creating an industry of ambulance or liability chasers. The lack of liability waivers is a breath of fresh air and reminds you of the attitude that we grew up with - If you jump off a cliff, well you might die - Simple! On another note, we have found New Zealand Toursim to be by far the best in the world, bar
none. No need to buy any travel guide book here. The amount of free information is incredible, and the people are extremely friendly both on the streets and at the information sites. The best information is published in AA books as well as the Jasons Travel guides. But don't kid yourself, even though these are free and there are thousands to be had, Borders Books is selling these handy guides for $5 - go figure!
The one thing that is extremely evident throughout NZ is eating out is very expensive. To put costs in perspective I thought I would do some research of costs, especially those related to the staff costs which directly impact the cost of restaurant food. The minimium wages are; Aussie $A12.75, $NZ10.25, CDN (Nunavit) $8.50, and god bless the USA $5.15! This should give a good idea as to how costs effect the average traveller and how those coming from North America cannot understand the outrageous costs of eating out. Sure, you don't have to tip but..........
We started our North Island adventure by spending (3) days in Auckland. (The Formula 1 Hotel - great location, tiny rooms, and good prices). The city itself
has a great skyline with the centre piece being the sky tower. Auckland is very chilled out, and has a very small town feel, as do all the "cities" throughout NZ. Twice, Holders of the American Cup, it is no surprise that sailboats almost out number cars. The harbour in Auckland is full of sailboats and as you drive through any town on the coast, you cannot miss the masts swaying in the wind. There is a good number of Asians living and going to school throughout NZ and Auckland is no exception. The ethnic variety of food is very good and the prices are very cheap, especially in the Asian Food courts. Gotta love those Koreans, Japanese and Chinese that create a cheap economy. There is no mistaking that rugby and sailing are the sports of choice here - each night they are topic of the sports news. Yes there are a number of extreme sports, but these are not seen or heard on the TV and radio, and are more prevelant in the South Island. We have really enjoyed watching the Super 14's on tv and watching so much rugby coverage. Hopefully our schedule and the weather will
cooperate in order for us to take in a game during our South Island tour.
After phoning around and having to go with our 3rd choice, we had a rental car to drive around. And what a piece of shit it is. After much discussion we were told that driving a vechile in NZ does not require insurance, and you start off with a deductible of $2,500 regardless if the idiot driving on the wrong side of the road happens to hit you. Having heard this, we forked out more moola to buy additional insurance. By this stage we had paid what amounted to the book value of this 1997 Mazda in a matter of 15 minutes! However, having your own transportation is essential in this country that is full of small towns and great distances. The guide books are great at giving driving distances and times between destinations, unless of course your car doesn't go more than 100 km/hr or 25 km/hr uphill. Shall we say, we aren't breaking any records getting from A to B.
Our first road trip was a (2) day trip north of Auckland. We stayed in Wannagrie - (The Motel Six -
huge room, 1hr from Paihia, good price). We made this our base and did a (4 hr) Bay of Islands cruise in addition to driving further north to the 90 mile beach. To be honest, the Bay of Islands is a long way to go for scenery that is very common in a lot of other parts of the world. If your from BC, don't waist your time and energy, the ferry crossing to any of the Gulf or San Juan islands is much prettier. The drive up to 90 mile beach is quite scenic with rolling hills similiar to those found in Scotland or the Midlands, with the exception of the weather, temperature and the nice sandy beaches. Arriving at 90 mile beach is quite a hoot as many people drive on the beach to Cape Brett - hence the road sign posting of 100 km/hr on the beach - a wee bit unique.
Rotoura
We started our southernly adventure on the North Island by heading to Rotoura. We arrived in Rotoura after stopping in Auckland for some Pad Thai and internet time. Rotoura is a huge backpacker place, with a pub, a good tourist information center
and heaps of unique activities. It was great to meet up with Chris and Sarah, and chew the fat over a few drinks and some pub grub. From Rotoura we headed to the Taupo Volcanic Zone - an area covering some 18sq kms. The main attraction is the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland that is home to the Champagne Pool and Wei-O-Tapu Geyser. We were very skeptical about the exact timing of the Wei-O-Tapu Geyser erupting - the "exact" timing is 10:15am every day! Wow - you can predict nature? No infact, what happens is Johnny Element arrives a few minutes after 10:00am rambles on about some chemical reaction and then proceeds to stick a bag of soap down the Geyser resulting in a soapy eruption. Amazing the things tourism dreams up.
Continuing on our epic drive of the North Island we drove to Lake Taupo, nice lake and wee town - been there, seen/done it. Continuing on we drove to Tongariro National Park - Tongariro means volcanoes. The National park is pretty much the scrubland on the flank of Ruapehu, the volcano at the center of Tongariro and, at 9,175 feet, the highest point on the North Island. The weather
was very overcast and we were uanble to go up the chairlift or see much, but we did feel the cool crisp air! The Highway 47, is a very scenic drive if you like rolling hills or miss Scotland - we packed it in at Paulsnorth.
From Paulsnorth we drove to Wellington where we were to spend two days before catching the ferry to the South Island. We, (Isabel) were taken aback by the condition of our reserved room in the hostel, so we spent the next hour or so searching for a vacant room. With the room secured we ventured out to check what Wellington had to offer. As the capital of NZ it certaintly came across a bit more cosmopolitian than Auckland and had a buzz to the downtown core, but still had a very "small town" feel. The city is located along the water and has a great promenade for walking or running, of which we did neither. Feed up with the weather and accomodation situation we decided to catch the ferry a day early.................We are now on our way to the South Island.
New Zealand's Flag
Map of New Zealand