Experiences

Let's give it a shot to sum up this marvellous journey.

New Zealand is about the same size of Sweden (less people, lot's more sheep) but because of the terrain it takes longer to drive through. Still all reads where in good condition and compared to eg. Scotland it was a walk in the park. The long country has so much to offer and it's a good idea to have a rough game plan to follow before arriving. Ania had done a lot of research before we left and it was really valuable to know where to go but the many i-site and DOC (department of conservation) offices around the country made micro-planning quite easy. Because of the unstable weather we had to make some quick changes but they where all for the best. We spend a little over two weeks cruising the country and we could easily have spent a few more weeks. It would have been nice to see the Fjordlands and Stewart Island but now we have something to see when we come back, in about 15 years.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and to two nature lovers like us it was pure paradise... Almost. In New Zealand there is a little bugger called the sand fly which is really mean. Especially Ania became a feast for these small creatures and by the time we reached Queenstown she had as many bite marks as there are stars a clear night, and they itch. Our Scandinavian mosquitos are a little more annoying and slightly more thirsty for blood but a mosquito bite only lasts a few days while the sand fly bite increases in pain during several days and takes weeks to disappear completely.

That said, besides the sand flies and being somewhat unlucky with the weather this was a fantastic once in a lifetime holiday we'll never forget. Something we have learned though is we should not be ashamed of our part of the world at all. Some of the most beautiful nature in NZ will have a though match against the fjords of Norway and once we met a German fellow who had spent six months hiking the south island and he said the best nature he'd ever visited was the north of Sweden (a very likely destination for this summer's adventure).

We have uploaded a set of 470shots from Kiwi land that can be viewed here

That's it for this time and looking forward to our next endeavour
Ania & Joakim