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Published: April 18th 2005
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Impressions of New Zealand and it’s people:
Amazing variety of landscapes and scenery
Courteous
Calm
Expensive
Egalitarian
Clean
Friendly
Unpretentious
Old-fashioned
Refreshing to see:
Trucks and slower vehicles pulling over onto the shoulder to let you past, even if there is almost no shoulder!
Women who are secure enough not to wear makeup.
People being paid decent wages so that no tipping is necessary, in fact it’s considered an insult if you offer.
Cars which are used solely for transportation and not status symbols so that there is no stigma about driving old or second hand vehicles.
Virtually no use of cell phones while driving or in any public place.
Native culture well integrated into mainstream society through bilingual signs, place names, the promotion of native cultural places and artefacts, not ignored and marginalized.
New Zealand has struck us as much less a British colony than we expected and much more like other pacific islands. You are reminded more of the volcanoes and ocean and native Polynesians (Maori) than you would expect, and there are palm trees and ‘cabbage’ trees everywhere. We think of it being near Australia but there is about 2000 km of ocean between
them. You really do recognize that you are on some relatively small islands way out in the middle of the south pacific.
South Island Highlights:
Helicopter Ride around Mt. Cook (NZ’s highest peak) and stepping out onto the Fox glacier.
Doubtful Sound cruise through the completely natural and untouched fjord out to the sea, spotting dolphins and seals.
Spelunking through the caves and seeing glow-worms and ancient moa bones.
Ulva Island bird sanctuary seeing flightless weka birds, parrot like kaka birds, noisy tui birds, small bellbirds and green rifleman birds among others.
On the Otago peninsula we saw a colony of the world’s rarest type of penguin, the yellow-eyed, and an albatross colony including three almost three-month-old albatross ‘chicks’ whose wingspan already seemed larger than any other bird we’ve seen, even though they don’t use them yet! They don’t fly until they are about 8 months old.
The International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch. Sea Kayaking from Kaiteriteri Beach along the coastline of Abel Tasman National Park. The hikes: the Routeburn (a couple hours of it anyway) up in the Southern Alps, the Stewart Island treks along the coast, the Queen Charlotte trek along the sound of the same
name on the north shore of the South Island and the start of the Heaphy multiday ‘tramp’ (as the Kiwis call them) out to Scott’s Beach and back. PuzzleWorld, consisting of a large outdoor multilevel maze, a puzzle museum and puzzle shop, was a surprise hit with all of us.
The kids have been great. Reading and listening to music with the occasional game, electronic or otherwise, has been quite sufficient to keep them amused in the car. Most of the places we have chosen to stay have playgrounds, often with trampolines and sometimes with pools so they get some of their energy out and have something to look forward to. Of course we never spent too long in the car. About 5 hours actually driving has been about the most so far. And I should not have worried about the kids and hikes. They are usually out front setting the pace and sometimes have had to stop and wait for the adults to catch up. Again though we have decided not to push it and have kept our hikes to about a 3 hour max. The kids have also been fine on the ferry crossings but the Pacific
has humbled Susan. We had 3 metre swells on the Foveaux Strait to Stewart Island although the return trip was quite calm. The worst one though was back from the South Island to the North Island in the Lynx – a catamaran type ferry which goes twice as fast as the regular ferry. Not a happy experience for Susan especially. She’s pleased we have no more ferries in the plans.
So we’re back on the North Island in Hamilton at Dave’s place and we’re about to walk over to the Botanical Gardens and a hike along the Waikato River. Later…
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anonymous
non-member comment
Great pics
Hey all -- great pics -- say hi to Dave for us canucks on the other side of the world. jtb - JohnD