Land of the Long White Cloud

I really wasn't sure to expect going to NZ. I had attempted and failed to study abroad there a few years back and was extremely excited about the opportunity to get there. In the end it lived up to the expectations but there were some unexpected bumps along the way.

The thing about NZ is that, simply put, it puts nearly all other countries to shame in terms of beauty. It has beaches that would make Thailand envious, mountains as pretty as any I'd seen outside of Nepal, rainforest, volcanoes, glaciers, and nearly every other type terrain that one could desire (aside from maybe red rock canyons). The country is truly majestic and densely packed with beauty.

My means of traveling came as a bit of a surprise to me, and was both a blessing and a curse. I ended up being handed $400 to a Kiwi Experience ticket, which is one of the many tour buses that go around the country. It is a hop-on, hop-off service that follows specific routes meaning that you get on the bus, stay at their compulsorary stops and hop-off as you please for as long as you please. In theory it is phenomenol. The drivers are very knowledgeable about the area and can tell you cool places to hop-off to explore the area and they even stop at scenic overlooks along the way. If it weren't for Kiwi there is no way I would have ever found the baby seal colony just north of Kaikoura on my own. So in that sense, the Kiwi Experience was an absolute blessing. Unfortunately, it did have a dark side, and what makes it worse is that the dark side were the people that used the bus service. 95% were from the UK, primarily England, which wouldn't have bothered me if it weren't for the fact that 90% of them were robots. When you meet people along the road you often ask the same questions, where are you from, where are you going, what do you do, etc etc. I could answer that question for nearly all of them before it was ever asked. They were from England, either 18 or 23 years old (before or after college), traveling to Australia, NZ, Fiji, the USA, then back home (occasionally they stopped over in SE Asia) and every country they went to they hopped on tourist buses similar to the Kiwi Experience. This still wasn't my problem with them because aside from the route, I basically fit this description. It was the attitude of most of these people. They came to NZ for usually 6-8 weeks, same as me, but they never, and I mean never, did anything other than what Kiwi told them to do. They did all the activities that Kiwi said to do, stayed where Kiwi said, and never hopped-off the bus to actually see the country. When we came to one of the scenic walks that I just wrote about you heard more complaints and "do we have to" then awesome, baby seal colonies, cool waterfalls, mirror lakes overlooking the mountains this is why I came to NZ. The people hopped on the bus and followed it around the country in pursuit of getting to Queenstown ASAP, because as several of them said, "it's all about Queenstown". Reason, the partying. It is endless in Queenstown. When I finally got there after taking my time on the gorgeous west coast of the South Island I saw someone that I had started on the Kiwi bus with in Christchurch 3 weeks before. Asked how he was doing and how long he had been there, 10 days already, then he asked where I had been. I told him I took my time along the coast and hopped off pretty much everywhere, the response....."why would you do that?". Why would I hop off the bus, maybe to see the country, I mean, I thought that is what traveling was about. I think that epitomized the Kiwi Experience for me, these people had nothing on their mind but partying and when they were conviently presented the opportunity to see some amazing scenery they might take advantage of it. It was really a shame that they typically wouldn't get out of bed before 2pm because they were too hung over to do anything else. In the end I'm not sure that I would ever recommend or go back to use Kiwi Experience again.

This was only a minor problem with my travels though and it really didn't affect me from seeing the stuff that I wanted to do. The coolest people that I met in NZ were the ones that I met when I hopped off the bus to more or less do the hiking tracks that I wanted, which were everywhere.

The activities in NZ were simply world class. Dolphin swimming, walking and climbing on glaciers, bungy jumping, jet boating, black water rafting, and endless hiking.....all amazing. I felt so fortunate to get to do all of this, particularly getting to spend some time up in the NZ wilderness. The great thing about NZ is that they truly care about their country and make all the efforts in the world to conserve it, so the National Parks and very well maintained and have an extensive system of trails to any type of scenery your heart could desire, all of which was truly majestic. The only downfall was the time of year that I went because some of the high mountain trails that passed above treeline were essentially closed from my use. I was unable to complete things like the Milford or Routeburn tracks, but I have all the reason in the world to go back to NZ to see them. I mean, they are the 2 tracks that get all the attention in NZ when the rest of the country is some of the most scenic land that I have ever seen.

In the end, aside from the hiking, the things that will forever stick out in my mind were the dolphin swim in Kaikoura, bungy jumps in Queenstown, the trip to the Milford Sound, and the blackwater rafting in Waitomo. These activities are more or less unique to NZ and far exceeded every expectation I ever had, they really made my trip unforgettable. Swimming with wild dolphins was unreal. Seeing a dozen or so racing circles around you, bumping into you, and looking you directly in the eye is an experience not soon to be forgotten in my mind. Over coming the fear of jumping over 400 feet into a canyon with latex attached to your feet is out of this world. My first thought after having jumped and safely gotten back up was, "I never realized anything could be so fun". Words can't describe the feeling of plummiting face first at nearly 100mph at the ground. The Milford Sound, and I don't say this lightly, was quite possibly the most beautiful place that I have ever been. The tranquility fo the area was unreal. Waveless water surrounded by thousand meter peaks blanketed in forest and snow presents a sight that is impossible to capture with picture or words, all that is left to do was soak it all in and enjoy. And finally, the blackwater rafting. Not necessarily something that took my breath away and I'm not even sure that something like this couldn't be replicated elsewhere in the world, but it was just pure fun. The guides for the trip were probably the best guides for any activity that I've ever had and the experience of floating through glow-worm filled caves and crawling around tunnels where I feared for my life the entire time was just plain awesome.

Bottom line, NZ has been hands down my favorite country that I've visited, and I can't imagine that changing anytime soon, or ever. Beauty beyond words and countless adventures at your fingertips around every corner. The country was a thing of beauty and I cannot wait for the day when I can return.