New Zealand! Prt 11 - Random stuff

Air New Zealand has a fun Middle-Earth theme for their safety video.  Must see!!  In fact, Hobbit and Lord of the Rings themes are found here, there and everywhere, even in the big Te Papa museum in Wellington.

At first everything seemed super expensive.  We finally quit worrying about it.  But when you analyze the food prices, it is not as high as it seems.  They do not expect tipping at restaurants.  When you combine that with the difference in value between US dollars and NZ dollars, everything seems like it is at a big discount.  Suddenly a $30 meal compares with a $20 meal at home.

Right now I am typing on my iPad and looking out the airplane window leaving Christchurch.  It is  lovely to see the snow capped mountain peaks in the distance and the green farms beneath us. Such a beautiful place.  As we go along, there are more and more white mountains below.  More than I realized we would see!  Way more than we saw while we were there!

I really enjoyed learning more about the Maoris and coming to appreciate their heritage and culture.  We loved getting to know some of them, all wonderful.  It was particularly interesting to visit their village at Whakarewarewa.  There they still live in a village where their needs are met through the supply of naturally hot spring water.  We learned how they do everything together as a village.  I asked a shop keeper as we were leaving if she felt invaded by all of the visitors who come there to look.  She said not at all; in fact, she feels no need to travel around the world because the world comes to her door every day.  So sweet.  We also learned about the history of their relations with the settlers who came from Europe.  Those of Maori and European descent are mostly great neighbors with each other now.

I liked how conservation minded the people are here, evident everywhere: recycling, careful use of water, etc.

I am  glad we spent some time in Christchurch.  There we learned about how the people are recovering from the earthquakes which they suffered 3 and 4 years ago.  These have been very hard times for these people.  Many people left to establish their lives in other places.  Those who remained have been patiently cleaning up and rebuilding.  There are many tall giraffes around town, each decorated differently.  They were put there to remind the people to be strong and to look up!  There are about 90 of them.  At some future time they will be auctioned off.  There is also quite a bit of fun artwork around town to brighten things up.  Our tour guide expressed gratitude to us for coming to visit their city, as not many people come to do that any more.  We could sense the spirit of optimism as people are doing their best to move forward.

I hope we can come back some time.  There is much that we did not have a chance to see.  This is a wonderful place to visit.  Nice to go around the world to a place so different, and still be able to communicate in English.  :)

New Zealand! Part 10 - What we are glad we did

Things I am glad we did:

We tried out the campervan!  I really wanted to try it.  I don't know if we will do it again, but it was fun.

We used Golden Chain motel vouchers for most of our lodging.  It was a very economical and convenient way to go.  We were told about them by the travel agent who booked our flights; this happens to be the only way to buy them, also.  The one downside, we realized along the way, is that they are not worth as much to the motels as we paid.  For us, they cost $99 per night.  The motel owner gets only about $75 of that.  In most cases, they accepted them just fine.  A couple of times, the proprietors mentioned to us that they weren't super excited to have guests pay this way because they get less money.  I really liked that it was all paid for up front, and there were almost always places to stay where we needed them.  They were individually owned, and most of the time we dealt directly with the owners at the front desk.  We enjoyed that.  And they all had a basic level of quality and cleanliness that we could depend on.  It made it easy to find a place along the way.  The other thing they all had was kitchenettes; I hadn't expected that.  It was nice to be able to eat one or two meals a day on our own.

I am glad we went at this time of year.  The weather wasn't always wonderful, but it was fine most of the time.  It was nice to be traveling when it wasn't their busy season yet.  

I am glad we had a nice mix of things we did: some tours, some just going places on our own.

I am glad we came for 5 weeks, thanks to Trish's advice!  Thank you!  It turned out to be just perfect.

What would we have done differently?

The one thing I would have done differently is wait in line at the Vodafone store at the airport when we came in.  I thought we would just find another place along the way, but it turned out to be more than two weeks later when we finally went to a 2degrees store and got one of our phones set up for internet.  Maybe by the next time, a different solution will be available that we could arrange in advance.  I just hadn't taken the time to try and figure it out better.

New Zealand! Part 9 - Tours

We took tours in these places:

- Bay of Islands - boat tour
Cape Reinga - coach tour, which included seeing the Kauri gum forest; driving the full length of 90 Mile Beach (really 90 kilometers); and sandboarding on the dunes there
- Waitangi -- tour of the place where the treaty of Waitangi was signed -
- Whakarewarewa - tour of the living Maori village right by Rotorua
- Gondola ride above Queenstown
- Day cruise of Doubtful Sound
- Visit at the hardware store (E Hayes) where a collection of Burt Munro's motorcycles and stuff can be seen, including The Fastest Indian in the World (the original motorcycle)
- Personal guided tour of Dunedin by the Andersons
- Taieri Gorge Rail tour
- Cadbury chocolate factory tour in Dunedin
- Grand tour of Christchurch - included Punting on the Avon (kind of like an Italian gondola ride); tour of the Botanic Gardens, gondola ride above town (like an enclosed ski lift), and tram tour around town

New Zealand! Part 8 - Itinerary

Here are the places where we stopped for the night:

North island:

Auckland (B&B)
Holiday Parks in the campervan (all in the "Top 10" system:
Orewa Beach
Whangarei (2 nights)
Russell (3 nights)
Whangarei
Orewa
Takapuna district of Auckland - John and Gayle Broberg's apartment (2 nights)

Places where we stayed in motels:
Whitianga
Waihi Beach
Hamilton
Rotorua
Turangi
Wellington (3 nights)

South island:
Nelson
Westport
Greymouth
Fox Glacier
Wanaka
Queenstown (2 nights)
Te Anau
Invercargill
Curio Bay (B&B)
Kaka Point (B&B)
Dunedin (2 nights)
Oamaru
Christchurch (2 nights)

New Zealand! Part 7 - Getting around

We started with a campervan. It was a bigger model than I thought we were getting. That made it somewhat harder to maneuver, but the spaciousness inside was nice. We used it for 9 days. It was a fun thing to try. We parked at "Holiday Parks", places set up for these and other camping and motel style accommodations. They were really nice. We ended up using the showers at the holiday parks more than the one in the campervan because they were so much bigger and it made our water last longer. In the campervan, we had to fill and empty the water every couple of days. For this short time period, it probably didn't save money to travel this way. For a longer time it could, because the campervan price was higher for the shorter time period.

After that we rented a little Mazda Demio. Small and fun. We drove it through the north island, then left it at Wellington, took the ferry across to the south island, and picked up another one there just like it. This is an arrangement you can make through the rental car agency if you work it out in advance, to save the cost of ferrying a car across. Great!

The roundabouts work so well. I wish we had them in America. I know they have them in some places, but not like they do in New Zealand. They are very efficient at getting everyone around an intersection without long waits.

There are one-way bridges everywhere. So easily handled: A sign before the bridge tells you which direction has the right-of-way, with two arrows: If you have the right-of-way, it is a white sign with one big black arrow (up), and a small red one (down). If you don't have the right-of-way, it is a blue sign with a small red arrow up and a big black one down. The system worked great, especially since there never was too much traffic. In a couple of places, the other end of the bridge was way out of sight so they had traffic lights to control the traffic.

New Zealand! Part 6 - Signs

I have been amused by some signs. Sometimes I have been able to take pictures of them; sometimes not.

Traffic signs:

"Merge like a zip"

Picture of a truck going down a steep hill: "Towing vehicles not recommended." In this case we really saw why! So steep, hairpin turns all the way up and back down!

One sign near a wooden bridge discouraged cyclists by depicting a person falling off of a bike!

I laughed at this one at the hotel where we stayed in Oamaru: "Beware of children."

The Jucy car and campervan rental vehicles had fun things on the outside. This is my favorite: "The glass is half full -- and the other half was delicious!"

My favorite, in a grocery store in Wanaka: "You can't buy happiness, but you can buy chocolate!"

New Zealand! Part 5 - Church

Sundays have been great. "Welcome, welcome, Sabbath morning!"  We sure need them. We love the Sabbath day. We need Sabbaths on our vacation just as much as we do when we are at home working. The first one was in Whangarei and Hikurangi, two towns fairly near each other. Both were places where Richard served his mission. So we went in the morning to the Whangarei ward, and in the afternoon to the Hikurangi ward. Loved it! We met Sydina Curtis, granddaughter of Freda Ngawaka, whom he knew well 50 years ago.

The second Sunday was spent in Auckland with John and Gayle Broberg. Gayle is Richard's first cousin, and they are serving a mission in Auckland. They did record digitizing for half of their mission, and now they are supporting the family history work in a large area including the Pacific islands. How we loved spending time with them.

The third Sunday was spent with Glen and Lyniss France, from Arvada. They are also serving a family history mission, digitizing records in Wellington. We had a wonderful visit with them, attended their ward and enjoyed a ward dinner afterward, and even got to spend Monday with them in the city of Wellington.

Our fourth Sunday was in Queenstown. We didn't know if we would make it that far, because we had been traveling slowly the preceding days for Richard's benefit. Although we really like spending Saturday and Sunday nights in the same place, so that Sunday can be truly peaceful, we could only get there by driving on Sunday morning from Wanaka, about an hour's drive. Not bad, and in fact it was a gorgeous ride. When we found church, we were so happy! So glad to be there. So happy to take the Sacrament, to participate in the meetings, to be there with the saints. We needed that. And I will never forget the testimony of Elder Moy from Australia, who told us how he came to join the church a little over a year ago, and then to come on a mission. As he said, there are no coincidences. All the things that come along to point us to Heavenly Father are by design.

Our fifth and last Sunday was spent at Dunedin. We knew the church could be found there because we had spoken with the zone leaders earlier. Again a wonderful meeting and a wonderful Sabbath day. And we ran into someone we knew! Elder Brady James, son of David and Lori James. He didn't remember us because he was pretty young the last time we saw him. But he thought it was pretty cool that we know his parents and all of his grandparents. We were all invited over to the home of Paul and Diane Anderson for dinner that day, which included us, the elders, and their family and exchange students. What a treat.

Occasionally we have come across one of the church buildings in our travels, which happened this morning in Oamaru. It always makes me feel so happy just to see one of our buildings. How blessed we are. A Primary song comes to mind: "I always have a happy feeling when I go to church." I feel happy even to see the church!

And: we got to go to the temple in Hamilton while we were on the north island. Wonderful. As we have spoken with people here, we have learned that it is quite a trip for many of them to go to the temple, even though it is a pretty small country. For many it is a great effort to go twice a year. When they do so, they stay and attend many sessions over a week's time or so.