New Zealand is renowned for its nature, its laid back lifestyle and its warm people but when you get past Lord of the Rings, most people find New Zealand to be stuck 20 years in the past, in a charming sort of way. One traveler in a guide book remarked, "When I got to New Zealand, I thought it was closed." This is not far from the truth and I think Kiwis rather prefer it this way--a kind of self and state preservation. But there are some things that we have encountered that support the notion of New Zealand being 20 or even 40 years behind.
Glaciers are popular here--one may even say they are New Zealand's "thing", along with fiords, sounds, beaches and forest. So we set out on a famous and much recommended walk to view a glacier, but the walk starts down 30 kilometers of unpaved road where we needed to cross three bodies of unbridged water. Seriously? Pave your roads!
Driving on the North Island, we noticed a sign for a toll road. In the US, this would necessitate a toll booth where you either interact with a living human being or where the fee is electronically charged to a pass each time you enter the road. In New Zealand, the options are 1) prepay the toll online 2) call and pay for the toll within 3 days 3) pull off the road and pay at a machine where traffic officials assist you in the somewhat complicated system. The bugger is that you never enter the toll road--it just is. What?!!
New Zealand is definitely home to the most dramatic scenery I have ever encountered but I have a few suggestions: street lights, two way bridges, and street signs, just to name a few. After tramping uphill for hundreds of kilometers, waiting for the non-stop rain to abate, and surviving the unpaved roads, Oded and I are more than ready for Fiji!
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