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| New Zealand 2009 |
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We dreamed of a trip to New Zealand for some time now,
but it always seemed so far off, an almost impossible enterprise.
However, after several trips to distant places
(to the Caribbean and the Maldives),
we started seeing this trip in a different light - a thing we just needed to decide to do.
And finally, having some time off work, we did.
We knew up front that we needed some time for a trip like that.
At first, we planned only 3 weeks for it, but after a while we came to realize that wouldn't be enough.
The plan was to visit both islands, so we decided to extend the trip to a little more than 4 weeks.
And that was a good decision! We made it, but just...
To be able to do that, we decided to rent a camper van.
Since we decided to go as a group of 4 (with Czarek and Aneta), we took one of the larger ones.
Though it should've been a 6-person one, it is not large enough for that many.
Us four could live there, but just.
There was a bathroom, a kitchen (with a sink, microwave, hob, and grill), some closets, 2 beds + a small one,
but, for instance, only 2 people had comfortable seats for the time on the road (in the front)...
Even though we had all this in the car, we spent all our nights at camping grounds.
Mainly because we wanted to have access to a proper kitchen, full sized showers and toilets, water, electricity, etc.
It was much more comfortable that way (though you need to add the costs of those facilities).
Considering that I have never driven a truck (this camper weighed more than 3.5 tones)
and that Kiwis drive on the left hand side, it looked like driving there will be really interesting.
Fortunately, we somehow managed to drive all around the country without any incidents. :-)
We made a great 8-loop around the two islands, covering in those 4 weeks over 8100 kilometers.
The average then was a bit under 300 km. per day...
Not a small distance, considering the very winding roads of New Zealand.
We changed the drivers - one day us, the other day - Czarek and Aneta.
Thanks to that, a single person was not that overburdened with driving.
And I think that this was a better solution that driving half a day by each pair, each day.
I think our approach was better in that drivers had a full day's rest before driving the next stage,
and that is much less tiring over a longer period.
Because of the amount of material, the New Zealand pages were divided into 4 sub-pages
describing the following stages of our trip:
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Our first stage took us through the Western parts of the
North Island, Southwards,
from Auckland to Wellington.
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After a ferry to the South Island, we changed sides to the Eastern Shore,
going from Picton to the Southern end of the island, to Waikawa.
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That's when we had to start thinking about getting back; we changed the direction first to a Western one, then Northwards.
Having Fiordland on our left hand side, we drove mainly on the island's Western shore
from Invercargill, through Milford Sound and Queenstown, to Motueka.
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The final stage went along
the Eastern coast of the North Island, to its Northern tip.
There we turned back for the final leg to our starting point - Auckland.
What can I say - the trip was fantastic.
The plan was to see as much of the natural wonders of New Zealand as possible, and we did a whole lot of that.
The only problem was that we weren't there long enough.
To really get to know both islands, dive some more, do some spelunking,
have some trips into the mountains and around Fiordland, 4 weeks are decidedly not enough.
This should've been at least 2 months... for each island! :-)
On the other hand, there's always a reason to go back...
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Photography, Sailing, Travel
