Make it count: New Zealand 2012

Monday, October 29th

Today, we enter Phase #3 (the final phase) of our trip. We have toured the North Island for a week, experienced Auckland for a couple days/ran a marathon, and now, we head to the South Island for a week. I’m currently writing aboard an Air New Zealand flight set for Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand. We had a 12:05pm flight out of Auckland. It’s been a relaxing morning. Got up and packed, and took a shuttle to the airport.

Upon arrival into Queenstown, we got a shuttle to our hotel (Heritage Queenstown). First thoughts -- unbelievable place. Mountains circle this small ski town sitting on a huge lake (Lake Wakatipu). We met up with our friend Cindy and walked into the main city center. We grabbed some lunch, then rented some kayaks, and hit the lake for an hour. Wow - what a great perspective from the lake. Perfect scenery today. After kayaking, we walked around the town a little more, made some plans for the week, and called it a great first day on the South Island.

I’m just catching up a bit. I haven’t been able to write much so far, as there's not been a ton of down time. I wanted to include some general thoughts today – some of which help to define this land.

(1) New Zealand is an expensive country. Food and drink are certainly eye-openers. This has surprised me. We had met up with a couple from Switzerland on a hike near Lake Taupo. When they said prices were very comparible to Switzerland – this said a lot. As Switzerland is one of the most costly places in the world. Also, after talking with the New Zealand couple on the plane from LAX to Auckland, and they stated that food was “really cheap” in the US (and proceeded to tell me they spent most of their time in New York City and LA) – I knew we had troubles.

(2) New Zealand is very friendly and really accepts their tourism industry. Example - on most of our hotel stays, we have been escorted to our room, the hotel staff made certain everything was acceptable for us, they made sure the room temperature met our needs, gave us some milk for breakfast, and proactively offered information on restaurants and "things to do".

(3) The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy was filmed all over New Zealand. 3 more movies - the Hobbit -- are currently being filmed and the first one is set for release in about a month. We've travelled through a number of areas where scenes have been filmed.

(4) No Tipping. There's no tipping in New Zealand. The price stated is the price paid. Taxes are already in the price displayed.

(5) There are no snakes, predatory animals, are deadly critters of any kind in New Zealand. This one is remarkable to me. Australia - just a short flight away, is probably the deadliest country on earth with respect to deadly creatures.

(6) New Zealand is part of a fiery rim of volcanoes that encircle the Pacific Ocean. Craters have filled to create lakes. Example: Lake Taupo (where we caught our rainbow trout) is a filled volcanic crater.

(7) New Zealand has no native mammals. What's present today has all been introduced. They have 33 introduced species of mammals, 34 species of birds, 14 species of freshwater fish, and at least 1000 species of insects. Originally birds were the only species. They had no predators, so they got lazy and eventually evolved to become flightless - ex: kiwi bird (with some species without wings)

(8) New Zealand has early Maori settlement. The country was first charted by Captain James Cook from England in 1768.

(9) There are around 44 million sheep in New Zealand - roughly 11 times more sheep than humans. There are around 20 million dairy cattle - roughly 5 times more cattle than humans.

(10) Forestry, horticulture, fishing, tourism and manufacturing are the leading industries. A significant portion of export income comes from meat, wool, and dairy products. It's amazing to see how impressive the logging industry appears to be as we navigate through the country.

(11) Food. Alot of emphasis on fresh fruit and vegetables. Main courses are based around beef, lamb, chicken, and fish. McDonalds has lamb on the menu. Huge numbers of ethnic restaurants.