@YannR Lifestream

1,200 miles through New Zealand summary + photos

Even though we had lived there for 2 years, it was 5 years ago and here are the most striking things we found:

- Driving a straight road is nearly impossible, 30% of cars have low profile tires with big mufflers....it's a race, and it doesn't matter what kind of car you drive.
- Nature is very kind..... the fruits are just unbelievable, the honey is mind boggling (Arataki) ... wines are good, clean, fresh, flavor full.... fish, mussels..etc is fresh, really, really good and much cheaper.... arrggg .... i did put on 10 lbs happy pounds... the Colorado hills are waiting me.
- Everything grows and grows and grows, including our kids.
- It's OK to be barefoot at all times, in all weather. We felt overdressed for Fall after watching people in tshirts, shorts and bare feet in the street.
- If a shop doesn't have what you want, they will send you to a competitor who does.
- Our gluten free child had no gluten problems there and ate a relatively normal diet -- hmmmmmmm. We ended up wondering what kind of wheat do they grow in North America ...
- Group fly foxes rule - Wellington experience - you can go with all your mates on your own individual flyfox at the same time.
- I didn't remember that you could put so many animals on one paddock (sheep, cows....) and all eating green thick grass. They say that with 4 millions people, they also have 70 millions sheep.
- We had to explain to Zak that the deer were not trapped - just grazing. They just are never in the wild since non native and would destroy the ecosystem like Possum have.
- Parking your car on lawns is very common.... that speaks to the super powerful grass there.
- The beaches are stunning... we didn't visit any of the hot water beaches but wished we had time.
- Finding free wifi is like finding gold.... it happened only once in a bar in Auckland (Thank you Mac's).
- "no worries" has to be the most common used expression.
-  More than 500 tribes signed the Waitangi Treaty in 1840....and that wasn't all of them. It's still an unbelievably complex culture mix between those of Maori and European descent.
- The movie Boy is a must see according to some of our Kiwi friends, for a real taste of New Zealand - far from The Piano and Whale Rider.
- The Coffee shop (Café) culture is very intense. As far as we can tell, there is no real difference between a flat white and a latte in practice. Theoretically, there should be however.
- The unleaded petrol/gas is a lot less leaded in here - more like Canada, and more expensive $80 NZ to fill our little Corolla tank. Lot to be said for public transport, which is good.
- Auckland and Wellington are a total pain to drive through at peak times
- The craft culture is very intense and beautiful there... nature again is certainly influencing the people
- Super modern technologies clash with a very old ones. e.g. they have electronic tags instead of paper bar codes on grocery shelves or have electronic bus station signs but still run the entire country with single glazing windows (a bit cliche but striking)
- The rugby world cup in 2011 is going to be amazing...

All in all we had a lovely time and look forward to future visits with family and friends....

Route (North Island only): Auckland, Russel, Hamilton, Wanganui, Wellington, Havelock North / Napier, Rotorua, Hamilton, Auckland

Here are some pictures from the trip.

Till next time.