Auckland to Santiago
Trip Start
Jan 14, 2008
1
15
22
Trip End
Mar 05, 2008
Auckland,
New Zealand
Friday, February 15, 2008
After a lovely breakfast in Rotorua on Wednesday, the day of our departure from our beloved New Zealand, we headed out on the road for the last time on the other side of the road. Upon arriving in Auckland, we made our way to the Villa Maria Estate where we were to meet Meg our travel agent and her husband to review our trip with her to fill her in on what we liked, loved and didn't care for over a glass of wine and lunch before heading off to catch our 5.25pm flight to Santiago. There is not much to report from our lunch, besides the fact that it was great to meet Meg and let her know that we loved the trip she planned for us and that we would be calling her when we decided to return to New Zealand to one day visit Dunedin, Queenstown again, Auckland and more of the North Island and Islands off of the North Island.
So here are our overall thoughts on New Zealand:
It is Clean; lots of fresh air; great bird watching; very green; lots of sheep; large expensive portions for lunch and dinner; breads stink but meat pies are AWESOME, impossible to order coffee... if you go, a coffee with skim milk is a skinny flat white. Beautiful, beautiful scenery... varying topography... mountains, rivers, waterfalls, lakes, hills valleys, snow capped mountains, cliffs, cows, horses, more sheep; one road to each major city or town, very easy to navigate, 1 lane bridges on the inter-state (what´s up with that?), way too many camper vans on the one lane roads; VERY nice people, jokers, love the All-Black´s Rugby team and are very fond and proud of their country. Tons of adventure sports, incredibly outdoorsy; lots of great wine regions, decent wine; small towns, many at least 1 hour from each other with nothing in between, lots of road kill. AMAZING stargazing, but it gets dark very late, 10pm or so, so stars are not out until the middle of the night, eco-friendly.
Popular Phrases:
Goodonya, good as, sweet as, how ya goin, cool as, loose, brilliant, magic, flash!
