NZ

This blog will be a little of both of us. Me first (Nina).
I am not sure how to write about New Zealand. Our trip was so amazing and packed full of things, I dont know how to sum it up.
We spent 2 weeks in a camper van, this one:


We camped in a new campground every night except on 2 occasions. We drove silly to get to all the places we wanted to see and yet we cut so many things out we wanted to see because 2 weeks is not enough time.

When we were planning this trip we both had a book and we were both reading and planning seperately. I was gearing my travels towards nature, scenery and of wildlife viewing. I wanted to see amazing things and animals I had never laid eyes on. When we finally compared notes we actually had a lot of the same things on our lists.
We narrowed it all down to squeeze into 2 weeks and we were ready to go.

This is the farthest we had ever traveled. We knew no matter how we felt getting off the plane we had to get moving. I decided I would do no driving here. Brian would do all the driving and learn to adjust to other side of the road driving. He did great! Immediately catching on and never once driving on the wrong side and nearly killing me.

I loved New Zealand and I was very sad to leave it. The things we saw were so amazing. I loved that one minute you are looking at 2000 sheep and the next minute you are in a rain forest. I loved that I got to see penguins, actual, wild penguins! I love that I kayaked with seals and a dolphin. I got an amazing reward for making my legs carry me 12 miles.



I did not love the food. The food there sucked. Bland and no good. We lived on potato chips and cookies.

I am completely hooked on the whole campervan travel thing. I want to travel to places where I can do this. I also want to zorb again, at least 2 more times. What a blast that was.

New Zealand was everything I had expected and so much more and I look forward to the next time I get to visit. Our list is long of things we did not do. A hike on a glacier, whalewatching, spotting a kiwi in the wild, hugging a sheep... The list goes on. Thank you to all who offered advice and recommendations.

Now heres Brian:

I have decided to make my post about all of the odd things that I noticed in New Zealand.

1. They drive on the left side of the road. That's not too crazy. I mean, left or right, it doesn't really matter. But the thing that I found to be odd was that when we were walking around in the towns and cities, there seemed to be absolutely no consistency to the side of the sidewalk that people would walk on. Here in the US, for the most part, people walk on the right. It only makes sense, right? Drive on the right, walk on the right. There in New Zealand, it's a free for all. You have to weave left and right to avoid a kiwi collision.

2. At almost all of the holiday parks (super pimped out campgrounds) that we stayed at, the sinks had separate hot and cold faucets. I think the mixing valve was invented in the early 1900's, so I'm not sure why they are still dealing with this archaic water distribution technology.

3. Many of the sinks simply drained into a trough that ran along the floor. That doesn't seem sanitary, but whatever.

4. Almost all of the toilets have a half flush feature. This is a great water saving feature that we should really embrace here in the states. The only problem with the half flush toilets in New Zealand is that it wasn't always clear which button was a half flush and which was a full flush. Sometimes one button would be blank and the other would have squiggly lines on it. Do the squiggly lines mean "only liquid in the bowl" or do they mean "additional material in the bowl?"

5. The maximum speed limit in the whole country is 100 km/hr, which is about 60 mph. That's not very fast. However, driving is not as safe as you might think. Most of the roads are one lane in each direction. This would lead to heavy backups except for the fact that you are allowed to pass pretty much anywhere. They let you pass when you are cresting a hill, going around a blind curve, and pretty much every sketchy situation you can think of. It's crazy and convenient at the same time. And most people are aware of themselves if they are driving slow. They will move over the left and slow down a little to encourage you to go around them.

6. You have to push the light switches down to turn them on. Also, the power outlets have switches to turn them off. Once again, down is on.

7. There is virtually no litter anywhere. I'm pretty sure the few pieces of litter that we did see were kindly deposited by asshole tourists. Probably Americans.

8. They pronounce the letter Z, "zed." What the hell is that? It's a Z, not a Zed.

9. The signature line on their credit card receipts is very confusing. Your name is printed above the line, right where you would think your signature should go. So do you sign above your name? On top of it? I don't know.

10. Their selection of soft drinks is absolutely dismal. You have your choice of Coke, Coke Zero, and Sprite. That's about it. I saw Pepsi one time. I never saw Cherry Coke, Dr. Pepper, Root Beer, or 7-Up. I did see Mountain Dew, but I tried it and it didn't taste right.

11. Just like the separate faucets, they are working with archaic technology when it comes to their pop cans and bottles. Their cans have the super old school style pop tabs that never work. Nina had a can of Coke Zero that wouldn't open. The pull tab just ripped off. Then I bought a beer and it had some sort of crazy pull off lid. It nearly put a permanent dent in my finger as I tried to remove the cap.

12. This one could be considered good or bad. They don't have drip coffee. It's espresso or nothing. It's kind of funny. If you want a normal coffee, you basically have to order an Americano (espresso and water). I became addicted to Flat Whites, which is espresso and milk. It's just like a latte except the milk is not frothed. So you end up with more milk, and it tastes fantastic. I miss those Flat Whites.

As Nina said, we had a great time. We saw a lot of things, but there were so many things that we had to skip. We need to go back for another 2 weeks. And then maybe another 2 weeks after that.

Here's me checking off another thing from my life list.

-Brian