Kiwi

"Put Charles Darwin, Claude Monet and JRR Tolkien in a room with six bottles of vodka and a party pack of recreational drugs and, combined, they could not come close to the concepts of New Zealand." This is the first sentence of our guidebook. We are not fantasy fans nor do we have a keen interest in the French impressionists but all in all it sounds truly promising. A few pages further up we read that the country has more weapons than inhabitants. The book doesn't clarify if people are trigger happy here but since it's not considered a rogue state by the White House it should be safe enough to travel around there. In any case we had the best experiences in rogue states so the statistics would not hold us back.

New Zealand, why New Zealand? It's the odd one out in our long list of already visited countries. The main reason we are here is family. Edwin's uncle and aunts emigrated in the fifties to 'the end of the world' in order to build up a new life. For some people unbelievable but there was a time the Dutch were the immigrants. This branch of the family organises a family reunion that we'll attend later on. Meanwhile we intend to see as much of the country as possible.

Shortly after touchdown in Auckland we found out the forthcoming five weeks will be entirely different from the rest of our trip. First of all, New Zealand has a crappy public transport system so if you want to tour around you have to buy or rent a vehicle. We decided to buy a car something we have never done before. For the record; we never bought a house and half of us never spend a minute in Paris. Just a matter of a different priority setting. There was a minor problem though. We know as much about cars as New Zealanders know about football: close to nothing. Luckily there is a backpackers car market in Auckland, an independent organisation which helps you out with the paperwork and vehicle checks. One of their employees gave us invaluable advise (at least it looked like invaluable advise at that moment) and within a few hours we were the proud owners of a Ford Telstar station wagon (1996) It's for sale from February 1st so drop a line if you're interested.

New Zealand is as expensive as back home so you need to camp out here otherwise you are skint before you know it. After the second hand car we bought second hand camping gear. (you guessed right, all for sale in February). Only one more important thing left to do: shopping in the Asian supermarket. Thai curries on the campsite. Sorted!

What follows are some first impressions. The Kiwis, the nickname for New Zealanders, are laid-back. They are easy going, do not like to show off and are obviously very nature loving and eco-friendly. We consider them especially respectful in traffic but local authorities announced already 19 deadly accidents between Christmas and New Year's Eve. The majority of the people were opposed to the invasion in Iraq and the war against terror. The government, with a female PM, actually listens to the majority and doesn't align with the US policy. Very refreshing all together. Rumour has it that the Kiwis got their nickname from the shoe polish the soldiers used during the First World War. Ask a Kiwi if this is true and he or she will explain that the Aussies made this story up. Fact is that the Kiwis have a funny pronunciation of English. They pronounce the 'e' as an 'i'. So you get 'wist coast', 'pin' and 'sivinty sivin pircint'. As they use to swallow their words a bit, it's occasionally hard for us to understand them. Or maybe our English isn't just good enough. The Maori words are even weirder. 'Whakka' (abbreviation for the most popular thermal park) is pronounced as 'Fuckka'. For obvious reasons they recently changed the name of the park.

New Zealand is much more bi-cultural than we expected. When the settlers from Europe arrived, they clashed with the indigenous people, the Maoris. Maoris are still clearly visible in society as they made up 15% of the total population. They are very proud of their culture and background. Auckland has a large community of Asians and people from Polynesia. But all in all, the country reminds us of Europe and England in particular so we do not get the buzz or adrenalin rush we usually get in Asia's more obscure places. Having said that, nature is absolutely wonderful here. The country is dotted with National Parks. It's almost tropical green wherever you go. Rolling hills, waterfalls, creeks, volcanos (not all dormant) and countless lakes. The geysers and bubbling mud pools are truly spectacular. Fellow travellers claim that the South Island is much more beautiful compared to the North Island. We keep that for later. For now, New Year's Eve celebrations with the, we quote, "rather eccentric family" in Sanson. Happy New Year and safe travels in 2006!


Roads travelled:
Bangkok - Ko Samed
Ko Samed - Bangkok
Bangkok - Auckland (New Zealand)
Auckland - Cambridge
Cambridge - Rotorua
Rotorua - Tongariro National Park
Tongariro NP - Sanson