While traveling, I found this amazing all-purpose New Zealand postcard. Unfortunately, my pen ran out of ink, so I’m going to post it online:
All posts by Jonathan Lee
Travelogue: South Island, New Zealand
The South Island of New Zealand is quite different from the North Island – whereas the north has a good balance of beautiful natural scenery and civilization, the scales of the south island are quite lopsided in favor of nature. More often than not, I had zero bars of reception on my cell phone – and no radio stations either! (Though I didn’t mind the lack of radio coverage – as it turns out, my travel partner and I have zero overlap in our music tastes).
From Picton, a tiny town on the top of the South Island, we drove down the western mountainous coast of the southern island, taking hikes and climbing glaciers, before visiting the breathtaking fiordlands to the southwest corner of the south island. Then, we followed the southern scenic route down the southern edge of the south island, and traveled back up through the eastern coast to earthquake-shaken city of Christchuch.
My route plotted on Google Maps!
Travelogue: Waitomo Glowworm Caves
During my time in the north island, I visited the town of Waitomo, famous for being the only place in New Zealand (and one of the few in the world) to have glowworm caves. But of course, just seeing the glowworms would be rather dull, especially in a land with so many outdoor activities, so some inventive kiwis came up with a new sport – black water rafting.
The glowworm caves are actually caverns slowly carved out by underwater rivers, so somebody had the bright idea of rafting this underground river – so not only do you get to see the glowworms, but you also get the excitement of rafting! Plus, the guide companies can charge a lot more for ‘black water rafting’ than just a ‘glow worm cave walk & tour’. Clever.
Glowworms are insect larva that behave somewhat like spiders – they lay down a trap of sticky lines hanging down from the ceiling, start glowing – luminescent poop! Fortunately the poop stays in the larva, and doesn’t drop down into the mouths of awestruck tourists. This light attract insects that fly towards the false moon, the insects get caught in the sticky lines, and the glowworm enjoys a delicious meal.
Travelogue: Weta Cave
Co-founded by Peter Jackson, Weta is the studio that handles computer graphics and props for movies like the Lord of the Rings, District 9, and Avatar; Weta Cave is the name of the division open to the public for tours. Three trolls guarded the entrance:
Travelogue: Wellington
After a week and a half on the road, we reached capital city Wellington, at the southern tip of New Zealand’s north island!
Once I got oriented in the city, I went on a whirlwind 2-day tour of the attractions, visiting the Wellington Museum, the Te Papa Museum, the cable car & cable car museum, botanical gardens, and Weta Cave.
Oh, and the Wellington moon / death star. Notice how the rainclouds followed us all the way from Auckland.
Travelogue: Rotorua
I really want to know, what would possess a country to build a city over a geothermal hotspot that makes the entire place smell of rotten eggs? And then make that city a tourist super center?
So far, Rotorua has been the low point of my trip. Take some foul smells, mix in bad traffic jams (the only traffic jams I’ve seen in New Zealand), subtract out parking spaces, sprinkle with a boatload of tourists, and add a library that charges for wifi on top, and you’ve got Rotorua.
Travelogue: North Island, New Zealand
From Auckland, I found a travel mate (Juan, 29, from Costa Rica), rented a campervan, and set off on a 38-day tour of New Zealand, starting with the North Island! Renting a campervan is quite cheap too – When I get more time, I’ll do a business analysis on the costs of traveling by campervan.
On the North Island, we first toured Northland, the northernmost bit of the north island, looping along the Twin Coast Discovery Highway. Upon returning to Auckland, we drove south and saw some tourist attractions along the Thermal Explorer Highway, before finally heading down to the capital of New Zealand – Wellington.
My route plotted on Google Maps!
Travelogue: Auckland
After a short hop from Melbourne (and a lot of trouble getting my bag cleared to fly as carry-on), I arrived in Auckland, just in time for an entire week’s worth of rain to rolled in. Seriously, it rained every day I was here.
There’s no use tiptoeing around it – Auckland is quite boring. It calls itself the “city of sails”, and I’m sure at the right time the bay is full of sails for the yearly competitions, but when I was visiting, the bays were basically empty. And the city of sails without sails is basically a pretty mediocre city – the mentality behind a lot of the tourist attractions seemed to be “Sydney has one, we should have one too!”
Interlude: Australian Football
Australian football is a strange, fast paced sport that that strangely suits Australia. While in Melbourne, I caught a game of footie, watching a game between Collingwood vs Hawthorn on 14 April 2013. Admission was quite reasonable at $22, and the event was attended by 72,000 spectators.
Travelogue: Melbourne
If one day I get the urge to move to Australia, it will without a doubt be to Melbourne.
After spending five days on the ship (and losing at least five pounds), we finally reached Melbourne! Those three ‘clouds’ are actually smudges (?) from my camera – presumably some dust on the lenses.
The thing about Melbourne is that it has this rivalry going on with Sydney -Sydney is the larger and older of the two cities, but Melbourne claims to have more culture. Though, it’s mostly folks from Melbourne who insist on this rivalry – folks from Sydney tend to smile condescendingly at the notion that Melbourne could be a rival.
I do agree though, that Melbourne has “character” – it’s as if there were a law saying that if you want to build anything in Melbourne, it has to be unique. While this character infusion makes it more interesting to walk around the city, sometimes it’s pretty apparent that the city is trying too hard.