Monday, 17 December 2012

Final thoughts on New Zealand


Absolutely gorgeous country, great people, incredible scenery, such a large place with so few people; particularly in the South Island.

It is definitely a country of two halves (geographical); the North is warmer, more populous and better off, the South however has most of the natural resources and of course the incredible scenery.

No racial problems, the white people seem to have integrated well with the Maoris who with the backing of the Treaty of Waitangi fight their corner against the Government who seem to want to get rid of their obligations. There are a lot of people of Asian extraction arriving in New Zealand; there don’t appear to be any problems.

New Zealand is a very clean country, almost no litter, potholes, graffiti (except sanctioned works, some of which are so good they are almost works of art).

Food is fish, fish, lamb, lamb, some beef, occasional pork, plenty of vegetables and of course Chinese, their food is even more widespread than Captain Cook. 

They have some very nice beer from many micro-breweries; I’m expecting a beer desert in Australia.

Cost of living is higher than England and they don’t seem to have suffered as badly as Europe in the financial crisis, in particular house prices are rising fast, over 12% last year in parts of Auckland.

We’re going to miss this place but I don’t think we will be coming again; it is just too far, we have never been so jet lagged and if we had followed the travel agents advice and carried straight on from Hong Kong, I think we might have ended up in hospital.

Finally we never saw a Kiwi.

Off to Australia now, sounds like it will be completely different, keep reading.

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