So how did we do? and reflections

There is this great website which details “101 Must-Do Kiwi Experiences” as chosen by New Zealanders (www.aatravel.co.nz/101/) so I thought we would check which of them we have done during the past two months (a little traveller's liberty has been taken by me in reaching the judgment)

Abel Tasman National Park	yes
Ahipara and Shipwreck Bay	no
Akaroa and Banks Peninsula	no
Animal & Crazy Kelly Tarlton	no
Aoraki Mount Cook	yes
Arrowtown	yes
Arthur's Pass	yes
Auckland Gulf Islands	no
Auckland Volcanoes	no
Auckland War Memorial	yes
Auckland's West Coast	no
Bay of Islands	yes
Be A-mazed!	no
Beehive and Parliament Building	yes
Buller Gorge	yes
Camping Country	yes
Canterbury Plains Hot Air Balloon Ride	no
Cape Kidnappers	no
Cape Palliser	no
Cape Reinga	no
Castlepoint	no
Central Otago Curling	yes
Christchurch City	yes
Coastal Kaikoura	yes
Coromandel Township	yes
Cross-country skiing	no
Devonport and North Head	no
Doubtful Sound	yes
Dunedin City	yes
Eastland	yes
Farewell Spit	yes
Fine Wine Hawke’s Bay	yes
Fiordland National Park	yes
Fox and Franz Josef Glacier	yes
Glenorchy and Dart River	no
Golf in an Alpine Amphitheatre	no
Hanmer Springs Christchurch	yes
Hokianga	yes
Hollyford Valley	yes
Hot Water Beach	yes
Hundertwasser Toilets Kawakawa	yes
Kapiti Island	no
Karangahake Gorge	no
Kicking the Autumn leaves	no
Lake Matheson	yes
Lake Taupo's Top Water Attractions	no
Lake Tekapo	yes
Lake Waikaremoana	yes
Marlborough Sounds	yes
Marlborough Wine Trail	yes
Mitre Peak & Milford Sound	yes
Moeraki Boulders	yes
Mount Maunganui: Mauao	no
Mount Taranaki	no
Mount Tarawera Rotorewa	yes
New Chums Beach Coromandel	yes
New Plymouth's coastal waters	no
NZ Rugby Museum	no
Orakei Korako	no
Otago Peninsula	yes
Otago Rail Experience	no
Port Waikato	no
Punakaiki	yes
Queenstown Adventure	no
Raglan	no
Rere Rock Slide	no
Rotorua Geothermal	yes
Rotorua Luge, Skyrides	no
Rotorua Rafting	no
Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe	no
Seafood City	no
SkyJump & Sky Tower	yes
South Westland	yes
Southern Scenic Route	yes
Spa and well-being destination	yes
Stewart Island	no
Stonehenge Aotearoa	no
Takaka Hill	yes
Taranaki Gardens	no
Te Mata Peak	no
Te Papa	yes
The Blue Pools of Haast	yes
The Bridge to Nowhere Manawatu-Wanganui	yes
The Forgotten World Highway	yes
The Interislander Experience	yes
The Pinnacles	yes
The Queen Charlotte Track	no
Tongariro Alpine Crossing	no
TSS Earnslaw	no
Tutukaka / The Poor Knights...	yes
Ulva Island	no
Wainui Beach	no
Waipoua Forest	yes
Waitangi Treaty Grounds	yes
Waitomo Caves	no
Wellington Writers' Walk	yes
Whakarewarewa	yes
Whanganui National Park	yes
White Island	no
Winter Mountain Fun	no

We did / visited / saw over half of them which I suppose is not bad for a two month tour which did not set out to tick off a list.

In terms of what it cost us, we spent more than planned on “doing things” such as walking glaciers, boat trips, diving etc. Putting to one side the cost of getting here and van hire, the two months cost us around $10,000 with 35% of that spent on doing things, 10% on fuel and the balance almost equally split between food / drink (we drank a lot of wine!) and accommodation.

Everyone we met from the UK agrees with us that New Zealand is quite expensive (not helped by the strength of the kiwi dollar) but we decided that we were unlikely to get a second chance to do something so it was do it now or never. We got a better exchange rate when using our credit card (we use a Halifax Clarity or Post Office Mastercard because they do not charge an exchange rate commission) to buy things and used currency exchanged cash (poorer rate) only when we had to. We never took up the option of paying in UK£ when it was occasionally offered on our credit card because we know it costs you a lot more (at least 5%).

Food was more expensive that in the UK, camp sites were reasonably cheap (and in general of a much better quality than in Australia) and diesel also was much cheaper at about half the UK cost and Lead Free at about 80% of the current cost in the UK.

Comparing food costs with the UK, the table below shows the prices we paid at supermarkets in NZ and that charged in our local Tesco upon our return.

	NZ $	£ at $2.14=£1	UK$ Tesco	UK :NZ %
800g bread loaf	4.59	2.14	1.10	51%
Muesli	4.39	2.05	1.49	73%
Nachos	3.49	1.63	1.98	121%
300g fresh ravioli	5.59	2.61	1.65	63%
Tuna 180g	2.45	1.14	1.35	118%
Ibuprofen	1.99	0.93	0.42	45%
Paracetamol 20	1.49	0.70	0.25	36%
Corned Beef 340g	5.89	2.75	2.48	90%
Milk 2 litre	3.66	1.71	1.25	73%
1.5l Cranberry	4.99	2.33	1.28	55%
Apples Braeburn 1kg	3.99	1.86	1.47	79%
Red Pepper	2.49	1.16	0.80	69%
Total	$45.01	=$21.03	£15.52	74%

Of course prices vary a lot around both countries (and here are measured as of March 2011) but for me, “the shopping basket” comparison reaches an obvious conclusion even though you could argue that you can get it cheaper at your shop and these prices do not take into account “special offers”.

As a destination, New Zealand has some amazing scenery. The South Island is certainly the better of the two but you cannot dismiss the North Island – it has some remarkable areas as well.

Having two months at our disposal, we spent about 35% of at touring the north island. On reflection, a few extra days on the North Island would have been useful because we missed out a lot of the middle west and south west and we could have missed out a few sites in the South Island to compensate or done things a bit quicker.

Driving here is hard work because although the roads are in good condition, there are some taxing hills to go up and down with bends whose curve seems unreal. For this reason, you cannot always easily travel long distances in a day (although we met people who were doing so) – that was not an issue for us because we had two months but if you were trying to do both islands in a couple of weeks, it could become one.

We covered about 7500 kms in the two months which was less than our pre-departure worst case estimation.

Our actual route map shows that we visited a tremendous amount of this beautiful country. For those wanting a copy of the itinerary, it was:

Day 1	Leave UK
Day 3	Arrive Auckland
Day 5	Orewa
Day 6	Tutukaka
Day 8	Russell
Day 10	Rawene
Day 11	Matakohe
Day 12	Coromandel
Day 13	Hahei
Day 15	Rotorua
Day 16	Te Araroa
Day 17	Mahia Beach
Day 18	Napier
Day 20	Motutere Bay
Day 21	Stratford
Day 22	Wellington
Day 24	Nelson
Day 25	Farewell Spit
Day 27	Murchison
Day 28	Westport
Day 29	Greymouth
Day 30	Franz Josef
Day 32	Haast
Day 33	Wanaka
Day 35	Te Anau
Day 37	Milford Sound
Day 39	Te Anau
Day 41	Invercargill
Day 43	Catlins
Day 45	Dunedin
Day 46	Otago Peninsula
Day 47	Moireki
Day 48	Ranfurly
Day 49	Cromwell
Day 50	Mount Cook
Day 51	Methven
Day 52	Arthurs Pass
Day 54	Blenheim
Day 55	Kaikoura
Day 58	Hanmer Falls
Day 59	Christchurch
Day 60	UK

Some days we did not travel far at all, it was a great luxury to be able to stop and look at most things we passed along the route – both planned and unplanned.

Our van performed well and certainly was comfortable. We got the impression from other travellers that it was a better van than theirs – they would complain about things in their van and we had almost nothing to complain about with ours. The key issues for them were that their vans were not well equipped and not very comfortable at the back.

Average fuel consumption was about 9.7 kms to the litre and we noticed that the worst figures (around 8.75) came when we were in the mountains – not really a surprise there. We used 9 kms to the litre as a planning guide when considering fuel and could manage around 800 kms on a full tank (not that we ever tried).

The van is well suited to camping in the wild and can support you easily for around three days (it really depends on how much you wash etc). In some of the remoter places, we really did feel totally self sufficient. We had no difficulty on the dirt roads (i.e. the unpaved roads which are quite common once you get off the main roads anywhere in the country), they were certainly a bit bumpy in places but you have to adjust your driving style and speed to fit the road. We had a very good set of tyres with deep tread which was reassuring.

Once we had started the trip, we did not have much contact with Wilderness because there was no need to. Certainly their product (the van, the website, the advice) was well worth the slightly extra money it probably cost to hire through them. If we were doing it again, we would consider taking out campervan insurance with a third party insurance company rather than with them (because it is considerably cheaper) and we would probably buy our ferry tickets direct when we knew when we wanted to cross – there did not seem to be any capacity problems on the ferries when we were there even at the peak of the season. If you join the Top10 club for $40, you also get a 10% discount on the ferries which pays for almost half of the Top10 membership fee as well as 10% off camp site fees and Kiwi Club membership for a 10% discount at their sites is $20.

The weather was much wetter than we had planned on. About half of the time it was dry and sunny, one third it was dry and cloudy and the balance was wet or very wet or very very very wet! We found that New Zealand weather changes very fast during the day and distances of even a hundred kms can also make quite a difference in the weather. The weather forecasts on TV were usually quite accurate although sometimes a little difficult to follow (around 1850 is the time they appear on the main news channel).

One of the most useful things we bought with us was our SatNav – this is a standard UK TomTom onto which we downloaded a NZ map before we left. It was a boon when determining travel times and finding the actual location of addresses we were going to (such as attractions, parks or camp sites). It was also very good at giving us a feel for the shape of the road around the corner when we were driving very bendy and challenging sections.

Air New Zealand were very good compared to other long distance airlines we have travelled with and the airports (other than LAX)  were easy to get through. We were not hit badly by jet lag, perhaps because we used Melatonin for the first time as an aid.

What didn’t we like? Sand flies were a great nuisance but they were not as bad as we thought they would be! Being vegetarian made food difficult on some occasions.

What was the best bit? There are too many for there to be one best bit but Doubtful Sound and the Bay of Islands would be high on the list. Personally, seeing Yellow Eyed Penguins feed at Curio Bay was a major major highlight as was snorkelling with a pod of over 400 dolphins off Kaikoura.

So that is all for this trip blog, reviews of many places we stayed at have been put into Trip Advisor for other travellers to read / use.

Later this year we are going to Pompeii for a week’s lecture tour (just booked it) and maybe a week of diving in the Maldives …………. life never stops for a busy traveller and blogs will follow.

Our next road trip may be the USA in the summer 2012, we have in mind Route 66, Route 101 (West Coast Highway) and then back through the Rockies (although we also want to drive Canada and Argentina sometime).

We hope you have enjoyed reading this blog trip, we certainly have enjoyed doing all of the things which featured in it.

Returning around the world, transit at LAX

We stayed one extra night in the van because the hotel we planed to stay at in Christchurch (The Grand Chancellor) was severely damaged in the earthquake and may have to be pulled down before it collapses. Wilderness charged us very slightly more for the extra day than the same average day rate we had paid for the previous two months – that’s business!

Excluding the flight time from Christchurch to Auckland, our trip coming back (continuing east across the International Date Line via Los Angeles) was a short 24 hrs 40 minutes by comparison with that on the way out (25 hours 10 mins !)

Sam – this is the plane we flew back from New Zealand on – what sort of plane is it?

Because of the effect of the International Date Line we arrived in Los Angeles for the transit stop before we left Auckland on the same day and effectively had Wednesday twice.

Transit in Los Angeles is a totally different experience to transit in Hong Kong. Even though we are on a through flight and landed there simply to refuel and have no wish to enter the USA, not only do we have to have successfully applied for an ESTA, we then have to go through the usual unwelcoming and suspicious process of being fingerprinted and photographed by Border Control (we handed the immigration officer our large orange transit pass labelled quite clearly “this passenger is in transit” and we were then asked “what is the purpose of your visit to the USA today?” – what did he think we were doing there I wonder). Having passed these tests however, there is no intention however of allowing us to mix with other air-side passengers who will also have been x-rayed and searched, some of whom will also be on your plane. We are then herded into a “secure transit facility” for

 

about two hours before being escorted back onto the same plane. This “facility” is a large room with chairs, a toilet and

a few freebies (drinks, crisps etc). The whole process seems to be totally pointless and does the US Authorities no credit. This transit experience is one to be endured rather than experienced (or in the case of Singapore – enjoyed).

We do however consider ourselves fortunate that we were not transiting between international flights, because there is no through checking of luggage if you go through LAX and change planes there, you have to do immigration, then collect your luggage, do customs, then check it in again then proceed through transit although in this case, you are allowed out to mix with other transit passengers.

If you are on a through plane and want to properly go airside, visit the shops, buy some food or whatever, you have to formally enter the USA through immigration, collect your bags, do customs, go land-side, re check-in, go back through security and then get airside (by which time your plane will have left). So of course, no one does this.

Eventually we got back to Heathrow (having watched many films), somewhat jet lagged and cold (it is 2c as compared with the 25c we left behind).

And so, a couple of hours short of exactly two months after leaving home, we open the front door and start the strange process of becoming used to living in something which does not move, has more than one room, does not require dump tank emptying ……… and is dark and cold! England is of course just approaching Spring so nights are long, the weather is often miserable etc etc. But there is little rain compared to parts of New Zealand!

We are quite tired now, it has been a very full-on two months. Everyday we were doing something or going somewhere or both and therefore a few days of peace and quiet will be welcome.

Hanmer Springs and back to Christchurch

A two minutes silence took place today across New Zealand at 12.51 – exactly one week after the quake

struck the death toll is heading for 240. We arrived at our final campsite for this holiday in Hanmer Springs in time to participate in the two minutes silence. There are quite a number of people here who have left Christchurch because of the quake and the local school population has soared as a consequence.

The road to Hanmer Springs passes through an area called “The Alpine Triangle” (New Zealand does like to ensure that every area has a tourist name and almost every road is on a trail). As usual, the very windy and up and down route goes through a spectacular range of mountains and fields and valleys and gorges and all of the scenic things which New Zealand does best.

Autumn yellows are beginning to become appear in this area and some leaves have even fallen off some of the trees – perhaps good that we are going home tomorrow at the start of Autumn and arrive (theoretically) into the start of an English spring.

We have to navigate our way through sheep herding and

also deer herding – they had to construct a corridor for the deer to cross the road because they are far more nervy than sheep.

Near Hanmer Falls is the Waiau Bridge – quite a spectacular

bridge over a high gorge leading to a nice valley   

The bridge is however one of the numerous Bungy Jumping spots in New Zealand and we watch someone throw themselves over

the edge and finally be hauled in by a boat in the river below.

  

As Hanmer Falls is our last night in New Zealand, we celebrate by eating out, a rare thing on this holiday since we have been far more self sufficient in this van than previously.

On our final morning, it is raining cats and dogs which is a bit of a pity because we hoped the rain would hold off until we had got to Christchurch. So the final dump etc takes place in the pouring rain, but true to form for New Zealand, the weather rapidly picks up and within 30 minutes of leaving, we are in the sun with rainbows and it remains hot

but very windy for the rest of the day.

The earthquake is never far from our minds and as we approach the airport near to which we have to return Eppy, we see signs of earthquake damage. Initially, it is the odd wall fallen down or a bit of damage, but close to the airport, there are numerous buildings which have been reduced to large piles of rubble and churches in particular seem to have been hit. Particularly poignant is one church which has lost its spire and bell tower – the spire is standing perfectly upright almost as if it had been placed there and the tower has been reduced to rubble. It is not a moment for a photograph. We can also see large dust clouds over the city blown into the air by the very windy day.

This may just be a sign at the Wilderness office welcoming us back but it is also an indication of the effects of the earthquake

There is no water in this part of Christchurch and hence the old names on the board are rubbed out rather than washed out and vans go out with the water in the tanks which they have when they come in.

Eppy handed over (she goes out again tomorrow), we

head for the airport for a long wait. Originally we had planned to sightsee, then we had thought of going to the Antarctic Centre near the airport but none of these are possible so it is a long wait for our flight to Auckland at the airport.

The airport is showing some signs of damage with ceilings down in places, the odd cracked beam and cracked plaster and the staff

here seem very concerned that we might be leaving because of the quake – a number of times we have been asked to come back in about 6 months when everything will be sorted out. I think however it will take more than 6 months to get Christchurch back onto its feet and functioning properly again. As we take off for the short flight to Auckland, you can see the darkness of the CBD area out of the window, contrasting with lights in other areas.