New Zealand People

Every person I had ever talked to about New Zealand has been totally impressed. At least twice, people have told me it’s their favorite place on the planet, and now I know why. As you have seen if you looked at any of the pictures, it’s spectacular. In addition to the stunning geographical features, almost every meal we had was outstanding. And, as we had been told, the people were always very friendly. We met some pretty nice people, both Kiwis and travelers. 

We were greeted at the beginning of our trip by our new friends, Dawn and Alan. Having locals show us around Auckland made it one of our favorite places. In addition to being great tour guides and hosts, we really enjoyed their company and look forward to seeing them again. With them and our visit to University of Otago, I now have a couple academic contacts for future NZ collaborations.

We happened to share two of our scenic train rides with Colin. Colin lent me his Birds of New Zealand book so I could look up some birds I was seeing. He was not as impressed by the pheasants as I, because he said they had plenty in his native England. I told him they were the state bird of South Dakota. He said to me, "I want to go to Ipswich, SD, because I am from Ipswich, England. It's near Aberdeen." Whoa, this guy knows some small SD towns! He told me he was on a trip around the world, visiting friends and family along the way. Colin loved San Diego but was turned off with the "homeless problem" in San Francisco. When I told him we live in Chico, he said, "Ah, they make Sierra Nevada beer there? I met a bartender in Auckland the other night who is from there." Small world!

We stayed at a number of “mom and pop” motels where the owners were often chatty. The woman who owns the Arena Motel in Christchurch is a university journalism instructor. She told me all about how she has been teaching out of portable buildings on a polytechnic campus on the outskirts of town because her university building was lost in the earthquake two years ago. 

Captain Jerry

On our lake cruise in Queenstown, our captain told us he comes to northern California every other year because his brother lives in Oroville. He also said he has a vacation home in LA. We met a few Americans who live in Queenstown. Our server (and I think the owner/manager) of a Japanese restaurant in Queenstown told us he was from San Francisco and a clerk in a souvenir shop, originally from New Hampshire, told us about the flood in 1999 as we watched the lake waves wash over the docks.

On our Milford Sound cruise we shared a table in the main cabin with two friends on holiday, one from Singapore and one from Adelaide, Australia. We took turns jumping up to go outside in the rain to take pictures. We are going to Adelaide in December, and they were on their way to Queenstown so we swapped restaurant recommendations for each.

On the Taieri Gorge rail trip we chatted with a retired sheep farming couple with whom we swapped seats on the way back down so we could both see both sides. The wife was keen to tell us about New Zealand. I asked her husband some things I’d been wondering about sheep farming, like, how do you get those sheep way down the cliff back to the farm?

When we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders, we chatted with a native New Zealander, married to a Canadian, who both live in Australia.

 

Andy is really good at striking up conversations with strangers. We had a nice time getting to know people along the way, but we also had a great time sharing our experiences together. I was glad to have someone with whom to share the awe and wonder.

You get a lot of “bang for your buck” in New Zealand – there is so much to see and do in a relatively small amount of space (and literally, the US dollar exchange is pretty good too). I love living in Australia and am happy I'm here, but New Zealand is a very special place unlike any other place I've ever been.