Beavis & Butthead Do New Zealand

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Returning to a Westernised culture was disarming. Toilet paper could be flushed, multinational corporation names were ubiquitous....

In New Zealand I decided to go on a bus tour since I had only 3 weeks to discover the island. Starting off in Auckland, we headed south. We passed Cathedral Cove, with the hot water beaches where we dug holes in the sand and boiling water came up, and the rural retreat of Raglan.

New Zealand is a country of extreme sports. Each city or town is not all that exciting as of itself (except perhaps Wellington), but more for the sport that is offered. So if you don't have a lot of money you won't be doing much. And of course there are the giant-sized carrots, L & P juice bottles, welly boots (see the pictures)....

Rotarua was a main stop. We went white water rafting down the world's highest commercially raftable waterfall which was pretty cool. Rotarua stinks of sulphur, and is a throwback to the time of mullets and power rock, but it does have a lot to do. I'm hjust upset I didn't go zorbing.

The next main activity was the walk at Tongariro National Park, which was entirely covered in snow. This was the place where Mordor was filmed for the Lord of the Rings, so the landscape was pretty rough. We clumped up the mountain in our cramp-ons, fearing for our lives, and despite the perilous nature of the beast, it was very beautiful and rewarding (I think).

Wellington was the last stop on the north island. It was a nice city, with a great museum.

The south island was the highlight of my time in New Zealand as it is endowed with so much natural beauty. We stayed at Tasman National Park before heading on to Barrytown, an old mining town devoid of life. Strange things go on in those little towns. All the locals think nostalgically back to the days when Men were Men and sheep were scared.

Next on the agenda was Franz Joseph glacier, perhaps the best of all the activities I did. Somehow the weather behaved itself, and we got to climb the massive glacier, one of the few advancing glaciers in the world. It was incredible seeing something of that magnitude close up, and learning about how it directly influenced the formation of the land.

The last 2 stops on the tour were at Queenstown and Christchurch, before saying goodbye to the group, and flying up to Auckland to stay with a friend I met in Argentina.

New Zealand is a great country. For a realtively young country it is very mature with its social and ecological policies. It is nuclear-free, and two-thirds of its land is protected against any development. The government is quite progressive, and, unlike the Aboriginal population in Australia, the Moaris have been given a full apology for the crimes of the past, and so reconciliation is leading the way to a better future. I found Kiwis to be nice, unpretentious people with an interesting, if slightly mad, national psyche.

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Comments

[Daniela (Chile)]

hii
Niall your new pics are so beauty!!!! i wanna be there too!!!!... remember you have to come back soon!!! kiss