Final Reflections: New Zealand

One of the most important things for me about New Zealand is how close to home I felt while there. This may seem ridiculous as, flying from Europe, going to New Zealand is a far longer jouney than Australia as it usually requires an additional flight from Sydney. Despite being extra far away from home, I never felt this. I honestly felt as though home were just a few hours away. Chris and I both put this down to the similarities between Britain and New Zealand. Chris describes New Zealand as an island of Great Britain that has just floated away - far far away!

As a European never having visited Australia or New Zealand before, I used to imagine when looking at a globe that these two countries must be pretty similar - they‘re so close to one another after all, yet so far from everywhere else. They’re not though; they are in fact very different.

New Zealand is not as ‘cool’ as Australia and nor does it try to be. In Oz, children have surfing lessons, luscious blond hair, a beautiful tan and win ten sporting competitions a year. New Zealand isn’t as loud, brash or flashy - the stiff upper lip of the Brits remains and it seems a tranquil, calm place in comparison. I felt very much at home here and couldn’t quite believe I was a 28hour journey away by air.

To me, New Zealand is much like I imagine Britain to have been in the good, old, pre-war days - there’s a real sense of community and neighbourly-ness. There doesn’t seem to be a wining-and-dining culture like that in the cities we visited in Australia - people are more likely to invite friends around for dinner at the weekend or go on a hike (tramp) together. In a slightly similar way to home in the North of England, the choice of food when eating out is often limited to a pie, fish and chips from a chippy or pub food if you’re lucky (there are no Indian restaurants though which would become a problem if I chose to live here!). This can even be said for bigger cities like Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch where admittedly there are a few fancier restaurants but not as many as you‘d expect from cities of this size.

One huge difference to home was that we didn’t see anyone wearing a suit until we reached the North Island! After 6 weeks in a country, that’s pretty incredible. In Auckland we did see a few but really it wasn’t until Wellington that we saw a few dozen. David, who we stayed with in Marlborough for two weeks, is a teacher and went to school in smart shorts and a shirt (no tie) and sometimes even wore his crocs! It was still Summer at the time but still, imagine this in Britain! Fashion is a lot more about practicalities here than conforming with a global trend. People dress for the weather and the terrain rather than the office which I find interesting.

Another incredible thing for me, like with Australia but even more so here, is just how recent the history is. The Waitangi Treaty (still under scrutiny today due to difference in meaning in the Maori translation) was signed in 1840 - we often talk about this as being 6 generations, which in itself is recent. However, if you think about it in terms of lifetimes, you really do get a sense of how recent it is. David told us that his when his grandmother was a child, there was a very important visitor to her school. The visitor she met was an elderly Maori tribal chief who had been present at the signing of the treaty in 1840. If you look at it like this, David is only two lifetimes away from the founding of Modern New Zealand - incredible. It really wasn’t too long ago that Aotearoa (The Land of the Long White Cloud) was untouched by ‘modernity’ and the Maori way of tribal life was the norm.

For me, it’s a great thing to be able to say that on any trip to New Zealand, no matter how short, you will most definitely see Maori faces mixed in with the crowd of ‘white’/European ones. New Zealand enjoy a really special thing in this regard, especially when compared to their closest neighbour. During two months in Australia Chris and I only saw a handful of Aborigine people and unfortunately, each time, they were drunk on a bench. They were definitely not part of ‘normal’ society - they weren’t in the shops, or in the streets - they are hidden away in Aborigine towns in places like Darwin apparently. No integration takes place even to this day. At least that was our observation after our short two months of travel. It’s a real shame and a complete disaster if you ask me - no white Australian is proud of this and this is why they have such a hard time talking about the subject, in my opinion.

New Zealand on the other hand really promotes its indigenous heritage and is just as proud of its Maori roots (if not more so) as it is of its recent European history. In schools, Maori and ‘white’ children mix together; though English is the language of instruction, children do learn Maori words from a young age. New Zealand is also the only country in the world to have a TV channel dedicated to its indigenous people with programmes in the Maori language. Good, ay?
We have had it really easy here in New Zealand with the Magic bus and its set up. We didn’t even have to think about accommodation as this was arranged by our drivers after we’d chosen the hostel we wanted in each town. The most we’ve had to organise was our wwoofing destinations and what time to get up in the morning. Ridic. We’re going to have a shock when we reach South America and start having to get organised again. Having said this, we’re looking forward to the freedom this will bring once again and I know that by the end of our few months here Chris was becoming tired of being carted around to the different tourist specialities in between each of the towns. It will be nice to be in control of what we personally wish to visit again.

Activities were often so expensive that we didn’t give them the benefit of the doubt. Quite frankly, our budget will not allow for such luxuries as abseiling in a dark cave, black water rafting or whale watching. Luckily, there was so much nature to see for free that it didn’t get on our nerves too often.

The partially suffocating Magic bus itinerary did not take away from the fact that New Zealand really is a wonderful place to spend a few months - if not live - if you’re the kind of person who loves the outdoors, small communities and is not bothered about having the most modern technologies or fashions. It feels so safe here and it must be a wonderful place to bring up children - I haven’t really looked into crime rates but I’m sure they must be low. In fact, the scariest front page news we saw while we were there involved a ‘gang’ of Harley Davidson drivers from Wellington who were taking a trip to the South Island. A rival ‘gang’ from the South were not welcoming at all and had even thrown plastic bottles at the Wellington lot - the cheek! One member had commented during a radio interview that he’d like to shove them all off their bikes - this comment caused outrage in the local community as they began to discuss the problem of rising violence. Of course this country has its social problems, we learned a lot about these from Pam (a social worker in Blenheim) and David who works with teens - I don’t want to seem as though I’m seeing it all through rose-tinted glasses. But surely anyone must admit that it’s far FAR from those in Britain. People like David and Rob however do complain that New Zealand is indeed going the same way as Britain, especially where Health and Safety is concerned. I can safely say, they’ve a long way to go yet.

There really is a sense that New Zealand is ten years behind in terms of latest technologies; I actually quite like this and this certainly isn’t a criticism, merely an observation. For example, internet was nowhere to be found. During the eight months so far of our world trip, we have only before had this problem in Oz. Another shocker. Though most offered it for free, there were still a huge number of public libraries in New Zealand who charged for the internet. This really angered Chris as he believes it’s been unheard of - at least in the UK - for at least 8 years and that the internet is something that should be accessible to everyone. We were both shocked about this lack of facilities and laughed that previously, in countries such as India, whether a hostel had free wifi or not was one of the deciding factors in whether we stayed there. Ok, India is more modern in terms of internet provision but we can’t deny having loved the cleanliness, space and fresh air in this country - all of which are definitely lacking in much of India. It’s silly that we’re comparing the two at all to be honest but the internet thing is a real shocker.

Another example of the ‘resistance’ to enter the evil world of capitalism in a big way is the lack of competing companies. I’m sure this is simply a result of a small population and to be honest, it’s extremely refreshing not to see global brands on every corner like in Europe and the US. I say again, the following examples are not criticisms; I am merely observing the differences between capitalist Europe and the cute, innocent New Zealand that hasn’t succumbed to globalisation in a big way yet. Our experience with trying to find a pay-as-you-go SIM card was as follows…

Had we arrived here just one month earlier we would have had only two mobile phone networks to choose from for our SIM card - Telecom or Vodafone (Yes, Vodafone has made it here but really, thank goodness - Telecom must have had a monopoly beforehand). Both of these were charging between 10-15 British pounds for a SIM card (!!! They’re pretty much free at home !!!) with NO credit loaded on. Phone calls to New Zealand landlines from such a SIM would cost 89c per minute (about 40p). Ridic. Luckily, just as we arrived, a new company had entered the market: 2 degrees, advertised on television by Flight of the Concords’ Murray. We went with their 2 dollar SIM card and enjoyed phone calls for 29c a minute. We were happy that the competition that Capitalism brings had worked in our favour.



Little Kiwi luxuries:
There are a few more little things that stood out about NZ:

* Like in Australia, there are second hand book shops everywhere. This was not only due to the Kiwi love fpr keeping and mending old things but also because new books are so bloody expensive! Rudely so. Chris and I have just forked out $89 (about 40 pounds) for our South American Lonely planet so we can begin to plan our trip - it’s only half this at home and blatantly states this on the back of the book (something which Chris complained about to the person on the till!). However, unless we wanted to wait until Chile, where we’ve heard books are also expensive, we didn’t have a choice. Gosh. Books really are a luxury in many parts of the world where you wouldn’t expect it. Very interesting (and costly) for a bookworm like me.


* Again, like in Oz, people seem to enjoy walking barefoot around towns. I still can’t get over this and can see no reason for it.

* There were nowhere near the number of sheep that I expected to see. I had been prepared to see way more sheep than people and I confess that though this may have been the case, I still saw way more cows than sheep. Very interesting and the high price of lamb in the shops is something I still can’t quite understand though people have tried to explain to me. I think it’s because most of the lamb goes to export but still… There are millions of wool shops though - mum, this is your heaven!

* Timber trucks can be seen on most roads transporting huge amounts of wood around the country. This is another of NZ’s big exports. The majority of houses are made of wood not brick which is another difference from home but it makes sense as this resource was in abundant supply and cheap for the settlers when they first came. They also have corrugated iron roofs. Plus, a cool thing which we noticed on a few Kiwi houses (including David and Pam´s) was an awning. We are going to consider one for our future chateau... if we ever find jobs and a home!


* The wildlife seemed incredibly quiet in comparison to Australia - this was duly noted in our first NZ blog about Queenstown. I expected to hear more from the birds here but alas, it was not to be. We did finally see a kiwi though in a bird reserve. Cool, eh?!

* I think New Zealanders think that Cadbury is a Kiwi invention and it’s sad to have to correct them when they have so many amazing varieties of their own. Seriously, someone needs to have a word with Cadbury in England as I can’t understand why we don’t get these. They eat a lot more marshmellow than we do it seems; many of the chocolate products involve this - even easter eggs involve marshmellow. Chocolate is lot more expensive over here though which is weird. Just like books, an expensive luxury item for me!

* Kiwi bathrooms - whether it be in a hostel or in a family home... There will always be a wicker basket for surplus toilet rolls. I like this. Also, the showers... the base will always be metal! Silver metal!

* There were an awful lot of Northerners in New Zealand which I obviously loved! I can’t understand why we met so many here but that’s how it was… I like!

* The main tourist group here is definitely Germans - the same could be said for Oz I think. They come here to learn English in their Gap year. Consequently we have met a lot of cool 19 year old Germans. Deutschies are closely followed by Brits (mostly of the Northern variety as afore mentioned) and the Dutch. We rarely met a Frenchie nor have we met any Spaniards. On our whole eight month trip I think we’ve met only one Spaniard - but that’s another story.

So…NEW ZEALAND. You have made me feel much at home. I would love to come back and if I did ever live here, I know I would feel far closer to home than I would in Australia. Your climate, food, rolling hills and humour remind me of home and I would like to enjoy this again for a longer period. I hope I’ll be back.