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| Our Hotel in the Temperate Rain Forest |
Anyway, I arrived in New Zealand and was immediately struck by the fact that everything at the airport was in two languages, English and Maori. I was initially sceptical, believing it to be a big PR exercise, but actually the Maori are pretty well integrated into mainstream NZ society and it wasn’t just a show put on for the tourists after all.
Paul had warned me about the strict customs (duty, not Maori customs!) and there were plenty of notices around warning of instant large fines if you didn’t declare dirt on your shoes, wooden items, animal skins, etc. I was spared the sniffer dogs that are apparently usually there, but was fretting about the fur on my cardigan (that is now ruined by the sealant leaking all over it).
Paul met me off the plane and for some reason I was inordinately surprised at his car – I can’t tell you what the car was, because I’m not a car person, but it was one of those ones that sit up fairly high. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. Maybe it’s having been in Egypt for 18 months and I’m used to bashed-up cars being the norm. It all felt very grand. And the next thing I couldn’t get over was how good the roads were, much to Paul’s surprise, since he thought they weren’t anything particularly to write home about. Again, maybe I’m used to the potholes, dirt tracks, and ignored speed bumps of Egypt. For some reason, driving on the left didn’t faze me at all, maybe because that’s how I was brought up.
It seemed strange to me on arrival that I’d never seen Paul and Pat’s house, either. Of course I haven’t, because NZ is a long way away, but somehow it was different being confronted with the fact. At this point, I have to give a huge public thanks to Paul and Pat for their hospitality. We couldn’t have wanted for more care and attention.
Anyway, their house was huge, comfortable, and in a stunning setting. I’d forgotten that they may have dogs as I saw Lena bravely sitting there pretending to be all calm and collected. Fortunately, the dogs are getting on in age and are not that boisterous, so Lena was able to cope.
I provided a link to the tour before, so I won’t repeat the list of places we visited. For me, I think highlights included Rotorua with rivers so hot that they were bubbling, earth that belched, and water gushing out of geysers; Dunedin that tried so hard to be like Edinburgh with the same street names, a mini Scott monument, and even a Dunedin Fringe Festival; Queenstown with some stunning scenery, a steamboat journey, and a jet boat experience; our luck at having blue skies during the cruise on the Milford Sound, and on our ferry journey from Wellington to the South Island; the pancake rocks which no-one can quite explain and the amazing chimney blow hole; the glaciers coming right down into the temperate rain forest and our stay in the beautiful hotel in the middle of all those trees. Oh, and the glow worms... and the great tasting coffee (hello Simon!)!
It was sad to see Christchurch with the effects of the earthquake still hanging over the city as it continues to rebuild its entire infrastructure; it's basically a complete city being rebuilt. Arguments abound about whether the cathedral should be destroyed or renovated; controversy remains about the cost of building and maintaining the fascinating cardboard cathedral (yes, that's right, it's made out of cardboard!) that stands to serve the community in the mean time.
What really marked out NZ for me was the foliage and trees which were quite different from what I’d seen anywhere else (cabbage trees [they don’t look like cabbages, IMO], flax stretching out to the distance, the tall and long-lived kauri trees, nikau palms [trans “without (coco)nuts”], a multitude of ferns). It was all very lush and, to British eyes, looked very tropical. No doubt part of the abundance of trees was due to timber being a major industry in New Zealand (this was news to me).
Sheep farming had reduced drastically (also news to me; I think from around 90k to 30k sheep or farms) since dairy farming was now more lucrative and many farmers had switched over to dairy. Merino wool was still expensive and was often mixed with possum fur, a creature much loathed by New Zealanders. I bought a pair of possum slippers thinking I was doing the New Zealanders a favour (and the slippers were still quite expensive given that possum are a pest), but our tour guide just looked vaguely horrified that I would want something possum-like.
Our tour had around 44 people including Americans, Canadians, Australians, Norwegians, British, and South Africans. Lena and I were probably among the youngest in age, but some in their 80s were younger in spirit and possibly even in physical health than we were. I can only pray that I will be healthy enough to be enjoying travelling around in 30 years’ time.
Our tour guide unwittingly gave us a smattering of NZ lingo – “It’s all good, folks”, “sweet as”, “holy heck” were all well-used phrases over the 15 days. At first we thought he was trying to tell us that there were no ski pistes in NZ, but it turned out that he meant “pests” not “pistes”. Oh, and during our time there, NZ got to the cricket finals but eventually lost to the “West Island” (Australia). We had a running commentary throughout.
I couldn’t quite get my head round that it was March, because, particularly towards the end of our trip, it was clearly autumn in NZ. In Vienna on my way back, it looked clearly like winter with snow as we landed. And when I arrived back in Egypt, it felt like summer. My mind was completely screwed up by all this; I just couldn’t fathom it out.
So, that’s my potted impressions of NZ. A bit like the tour itself, so short an impression that you probably feel cheated. Having thought it would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, I’m already wishing I could return.
What really marked out NZ for me was the foliage and trees which were quite different from what I’d seen anywhere else (cabbage trees [they don’t look like cabbages, IMO], flax stretching out to the distance, the tall and long-lived kauri trees, nikau palms [trans “without (coco)nuts”], a multitude of ferns). It was all very lush and, to British eyes, looked very tropical. No doubt part of the abundance of trees was due to timber being a major industry in New Zealand (this was news to me).
Sheep farming had reduced drastically (also news to me; I think from around 90k to 30k sheep or farms) since dairy farming was now more lucrative and many farmers had switched over to dairy. Merino wool was still expensive and was often mixed with possum fur, a creature much loathed by New Zealanders. I bought a pair of possum slippers thinking I was doing the New Zealanders a favour (and the slippers were still quite expensive given that possum are a pest), but our tour guide just looked vaguely horrified that I would want something possum-like.
Our tour had around 44 people including Americans, Canadians, Australians, Norwegians, British, and South Africans. Lena and I were probably among the youngest in age, but some in their 80s were younger in spirit and possibly even in physical health than we were. I can only pray that I will be healthy enough to be enjoying travelling around in 30 years’ time.
Our tour guide unwittingly gave us a smattering of NZ lingo – “It’s all good, folks”, “sweet as”, “holy heck” were all well-used phrases over the 15 days. At first we thought he was trying to tell us that there were no ski pistes in NZ, but it turned out that he meant “pests” not “pistes”. Oh, and during our time there, NZ got to the cricket finals but eventually lost to the “West Island” (Australia). We had a running commentary throughout.
I couldn’t quite get my head round that it was March, because, particularly towards the end of our trip, it was clearly autumn in NZ. In Vienna on my way back, it looked clearly like winter with snow as we landed. And when I arrived back in Egypt, it felt like summer. My mind was completely screwed up by all this; I just couldn’t fathom it out.
So, that’s my potted impressions of NZ. A bit like the tour itself, so short an impression that you probably feel cheated. Having thought it would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, I’m already wishing I could return.
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