I’m back from my side trip to New Zealand. I have always heard everyone say it’s a beautiful country. Don’t believe the hype. It’s beyond beautiful. I think they took the worst scenery and put it in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy to keep tourism down.
Got to Auckland a few hours late thanks to a computer crash at Air NZ. A very big thank you to Show Pony aka Peter who took me around that first afternoon. We swam in an awesome 60m salt water pool. Then it was fish and chips on the beach with his soon to be wife. What an awesome day.
Next up was trying to drive on the wrong side of the road, in a 6 speed manual transmission. Problem solved and I loved that there were no stop signs for me to run. All round abouts and give ways. Brilliant and yes, I’m having a beer to celebrate that fact! All of NZ should have a beer to celebrate that fact in fact.
The rest of my time in NZ was spent in the rain. I was soaked from head to toe for four solid days. Of course it didn’t matter when I was swimming in the Pacific or running along the beach. It did matter when I was trying to find dry clothes for the next day. It was a constant struggle to keep a day’s worth of dry clothes. When you only packed 3 days worth and you’re there for 4 days, well you can see where that is going.
This is how wet my typical day was spent. At least it wasn’t cold.
All in all a great side trip. Thanks again Peter for helping me with some of the initial leg work and your suggestions for my route. I’ll leave you guys with a couple of scenery pics.
Our pleasure DD. Glad to see you headed in the right direction…did you get a chance for a relaxing soak on the beach (or “in” the beach as it were…)?
I can’t believe NZ put on such horrible weather for you!
You will certainly have to plan another trip and spend some time travelling in the South Island. It’s incredible down there.
Was lovely to meet you!!