- It’s just like home with regards to toilets and drinking water – happy days!
- My friend Karina has lived here for fifteen years and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to visit.
- Most hotels checkout time is 10am.. early!
- So much great food…
- So much great wine… in particular Pinot Gris on the north island which I hadn’t drank much of before this trip and who knew so much Pinot noir.. I feel like I’m with my people!
- I’m surprised to hear a fair amount of American country music over here!
- The landscape driving through country roads on the north island is not unlike Ireland.. very green and very wet a lot of the time.
- George Bernard Shaw visited NZ in 1934.
- You can’t get away from the smell of sulphur in Rotorua … there’s no getting away from it until you get out of the town and then suddenly you realize you can’t smell it anymore… ah, delightful fresh air.
- There are a lot of flies and most of the hotels provide fly killer spray.
- They say “eh” in the tone of a question after more or less everything they say.
- Flying within NZ using the regional airports is really easy and fast.
- The safety video they show on New Zealand Airlines is brilliant. Its not set on an airplane with a bored looking person fastening their seat belt, it’s outdoors with a guy thumbing a lift… It’s a clever way to get people to watch something they usually ignore.
- Those Finn brothers knew what they were talking about when they wrote “Four Seasons in One Day”….the weather can change very quickly and quite drastically here.
- Eating out is as expensive as home….great food though
- A word on the Maori. The Maori people are the native people of New Zealand and they have a very specific culture that they continue to maintain and cherish. The population is approx 15% Maori. To my eye, they are a very pretty race with beautiful skin color although I can’t say I admire the tattoos. They appear to be genetically disposed to being, let’s say, more voluptuous. Anyone I met was super friendly but I didn’t do a lot of the Maori culture stuff.. visit a marae, go to a show, see a haka… it didn’t really appeal to me – I think it’s because the haka is so aggressive, it kinda freaks me out, but for those interested in that side of NZ there is lots to keep you busy.
odohertyelaine 