Expenses (in New Zealand Dollars)
1 month car rental: Free (yay, travel points!)
3 days groceries: $65
2 nights camping: $56
Here's a re-cap of a conversation I had with a New Zealand ex-pat over the holidays, more or less.
"I've heard New Zealand is a beautiful country." (This would be me talking, of course.)
"Oh yeah?" delivered with a practiced amount of mustered, yet sincere, humility. I believe all New Zealanders abroad must encounter similar remarks from non-New Zealanders with regular frequency.
"Oh, yes. Many of the tourists we run into when we're out hiking and camping back home tell us Canada is beautiful, but New Zealand is better." My companion stared at me awkwardly, unsure of how to respond. Canada may not be the most beautiful country, but we Canadians can at least take the cake in the humility/self-deprecation department.
"I may be biased, but I would have to agree," he eventually recovered. "New Zealand is exceptionally beautiful. The only other place I've encountered in the world that would be on a similar level is the Grand Canyon."
The Grand Canyon! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Canada and am a huge fan of the Canadian outdoors, but I totally buy into the idea that the Grand Canyon is kind of on a special level when it comes to beautiful places on earth. To think that a whole country might be on the same level as the Grand Canyon. Well, that's something!
Just more fuel to add to the flame when it comes to our much anticipated month-long visit to New Zealand. Did I mention that the first thing we did when we began planning our around-the-world journey was to make reservations for hiking four of New Zealand's Great Walks? Did I also mention that we basically planned our entire 8-month trip around the fact that we wanted to arrive in New Zealand in January, the middle of summer?
Needless to say, I began to get a bit nervous in the days leading up to our flight to Auckland, that New Zealand might not be able to live up to such built-up expectations. How could it?
Having been here for 3 whole days, I must admit, it's actually off to a shockingly strong start towards exceeding my expectations. We haven't even left Auckland, to boot! We've camped the past three days on Muriwai Beach a gorgeous black sand beach in West Auckland, about 45 minutes from the city centre. Our campsite is very well-serviced with hot showers, a full kitchen, laundry, WiFi and a TV room with cable and it's only costing us a very reasonable $14 per person, per night. It's also just on the other side of the sand dunes, a short 200 metre walk from the beach. Baasje says it's the most beautiful beach he has ever seen and I would have to agree.
The most beautiful beach aside, it would appear the best is yet to come. After all, we're still on the North Island, which we've been told is the 'ugly' island. The South Island, and Fiordland in particular, is supposed to be the money spot. Likewise, we're scheduled to do just one hike on the North Island (Tongariro Nothern Circuit) and three hikes on the south Island (Abel Tasman, Routeburn, and Kepler Tracks, we also plan to spend a day driving around Milford Sound). Anyway, stay tuned for more reports from "better-than-Canada" New Zealand. Ha!
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