New Zealand in Retrospect

It turns out New Zealand is just as beautiful and amazing as people hype it up to be.

True story.

Not only that, but the people are uniformly friendly. It's kind of jarring actually, just how friendly the people are. Everywhere you go the people are mellow, forgiving of stupidity (which I bring with a vengeance), kind, generous and all around class acts.

Think of this: the only people who picked me up hitchhiking were Kiwis, and this only took place in tourist heavy areas. Not only that, but three times when I approached a local for directions, they saw my request for a pointing finger and raised with a ride to the location itself.

In many parts of America, I would get a finger, but it would point skyward (which is fairly useless when you are looking for somewhere).

It is a remarkable place, and one of the nicest ones I have been to.

But oddly enough, I don't find myself saddened as I depart there. Maybe because I have so much adventure left ahead of me, but one way or another I am excited as I fly from Christchurch to Sydney.

Before I get into writing about Australia (which will come a day or so into that section), I wanted to look at the highlights of my New Zealand experience.

Favorite Place: Waiheke Island

Beautiful, relaxed, natural, inviting, friendly and completely unique, when I felt most unsure about NZ, this island and its 8 interconnected townships made the awesome rain all over me. With the best blend of culture, culinary and Caribbean like environs (sue me, I reached for the alliteration), this place was living a dream.

Favorite City: Dunedin

I've always said I wanted to live in a place that blended a college town vibe with city like amenities. Never had I found it until the brilliance of this city. Nestled into the south island, packing a punch from the robust musical and cuisine scenes while also being near the fertile wildlife sanctuaries of the Otago Peninsula, this place has a little something for everyone.

Even a hostel called Hogwartz.

Least Favorite Places: Paihia and Christchurch

A bit of advice, visit the Bay of Islands, but try to get out of Paihia as soon as possible. Mediocre and overpriced food and accommodations, frat party like vibe, and generally unfriendly people (probably because they are overburdened by rabid tourists), I spent two nights here and would have highly preferred one.

Christchurch kind of gets a pass because of the devastation that hit it with their earthquake, but man, it is the most confusing city I have ever been to. Finding your way through the city as a newbie is incredibly difficult, as streets seemingly cross with themselves and even the GPS we had changed its routes trip to trip due to what I can only guess is the electronic equivalent of throwing your hands in the air and saying "that's it!!!"

Most Underrated Place: Wanaka

Very little hype in Lonely Planet or within backpacker stories, Wanaka was a soothing four day balm to my weary traveling soul. Loaded with quality cafes, top hiking tracks, and a superb hostel and movie theater (both the YHA Purple Cow and Cinema Paradiso come highly recommended from yours truly), this is a fantastic place to lay low for a few days.

Especially in Puzzling World's maze. No one will find you there.

Favorite Experience: It's a tie! Swimming with dolphins in the Bay of Islands and bungie jumping outside of Queenstown

Confession time: growing up I loved dolphins (well, all cetaceans really) and I wanted to be a marine biologist. Swimming with them was short, but completely and utterly exhilarating. When I exited the water, I quickly gathered with other swimmers and rapidly shared experiences with them. "Did you?!" "Yeah!" "So close!" "Yeah!"

Warning: non-sensical excitement based shorthand occurs shortly after this experience.

Bungie jumping I've gone on and on about, but I think this somewhat revealed to me that I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie. A low level one, but whenever I do something "extreme" I approach it with fear and experience it with a transcendent level of jubilance. The bungie jumping experience, for me, was truly special, and something I highly suggest to anyone to try.

Biggest Disappointment: The Food

I am not a foodie - I am a food enthusiast.

With that said, everyone knows I love food, but New Zealand's food had very little that was special about it. Certain towns and cities did food well (Dunedin in particular) and they handled some dishes well (hello Eggs Benedict!), but for the most part, I found that the food was at best solid and at worst cholera inducing (don't ask).

Silver lining: New Zealand can make a mean cup of coffee and their beer, particularly Speight's, is top notch as well.

North Island or South Island?: North Island

For me personally, I found myself sadder to leave the North Island than I was to leave the South Island. The northern section seemed to offer more variety to your experience and seemed to have more options for your wayward traveler. I have to admit, I may have just preferred the warmer weather, but it seemed that my time in the north was too short while my south time was too long.

New Zealand as a whole, however, is the type of place I could see myself going back to live at. Blessed with an overabundance of things to do and good bang for my American dollar, i could see myself returning after acquiring a work visa. But I doubt it. Who knows, maybe Australia will be even more awesome? The flight sure is - Emirates Airlines RULES.

Music of the day: The Black Keys - Brothers