New Zealand Wrap Up

That wraps up our holiday in New Zealand. The map shows where we went, really only covering half of the North Island despite having over two weeks to travel. Even on that relaxed basis, we felt that we could have spent more time in the Coromandel (delightful because it was so quiet), the Bay of Islands (so much more to explore), the Bay of Plenty (which we just rushed too much), and all of the geothermal territory around Taupo and Rotorua (fascinating, but too commercial).

It was a great decision to rent a Peugeot diesel for our trip. This little car was so economical, aided immeasurably by diesel being cheaper than petrol in NZ, yet it was a great performer with ample power for passing slower vehicles on those few occasions the roads allowed it with safety. We enjoyed many refined features in this French car which are absent in our Subaru - such as automatic lights, automatic wipers (how do they work?), separate climate control for driver and passenger, and wing mirrors which retract when the doors are locked. The digital radio received NZ Radio National almost anywhere we were - what a great radio station!

In the car, we travelled 3449km, and the cost of fuel was $NZ12.48/100km.

We find that updating the blog is great therapy. It helps one to think about what we've seen and done. Internet connectivity was pretty good in New Zealand, but varied in its implementation. Only one place we stayed had no connectivity, and that was the B&B we used on arrival in Auckland. In anticipation of having to use internet cafes to post the blogs, we purchased $20 worth of credit on CafeNet. This was wasted - we never came across a CafeNet hotspot (even though we visit a coffee shop in almost every town), and never had to use one anyway because all motels we used had some form of internet access or other. Some had free WiFi (this is good, of course, but the free WiFi services were almost always problematic due to weak signal, confusion over WEP codes, and no technical support). Others had paid WiFi (some $10/hour which we thought to be expensive) which generally worked well. A couple had paid LAN in the room. One one occasion, we couldn't make this work and got our $5 back. One small motel had only dialup available, which we ignored, mainly because my Telstra iPass software overwhelms resourses on our geriatric notebook, and worse, changes PC settings without permission.

There's plenty we have not done or seen on the North Island, but sadly at this stage, it's not in our plans to return to New Zealand.