Walking Solo (and sideways!)

Home Again

Up and Away!

At first glance New Zealand looks like a small country, especially in respect to Canada, but 3 weeks is not nearly enough time to see and do many of the things one would like. Although the distances are not great, it takes more time than anticipated to cover them. After the first few days on the bike Linda and I agreed that the NZ kilometres must be longer than Canadian ones! Hence, we spent more time on the bike and less time on other activities than we preferred.

The trip was very enjoyable, especially travelling by motorcycle. The country has a fabulous network of nicely paved 2 lane roads, most of them serpentine through rural rolling hills and mountainous terrain. The scenery is spectacular. We stayed clear of any major cities and stayed at some very nice inns and B&Bs. However, we felt restricted by the self guided tour. Our accommodation was arranged for each night of the trip. Because of this arrangement, we did not have enough flexibility and will not plan this type of trip in the future. Another mistake we made was to book the trip and then looking for activities that interested us. We should have planned the activities and then organized the route to allow us to participate in them. Live and learn! No regrets thought. This was a great introductory trip to NZ.

New Zealand’s weather is as close to ideal as we have experienced in our travels. It is changeable and it appears that the weather forecasts are seldom accurate. Often rain was forecast but luckily we did not experience any extended periods of rain. When travelling in NZ during January one should expect to encounter showers. Also the weather was cooler than anticipated, especially on the South Island. The South Island is located between 41 and 46 degree south latitude. For comparison to the pacific coast of North America, NZ roughly occupies the same latitude as Oregon and Washington states. The temperatures we encountered on the South Island varied between 8 and 24 degrees Celsius. On the east coast near Kaikoura the daytime temperature did not climb above the high teens while we were in the area. We asked several local people if the temperature was cooler than normal and in all cases they told us that these temperatures were normal.

The vegetation leads one to believe that the temperatures would normally be higher. There is an abundance of palm trees, succulents and semitropical plants. We later learned that the summer / winter temperature differences along the coast are minimal. For example, in Kaikoura, the winter temperature seldom goes below 8C and the summer temperature seldom goes above the mid 20s. As far as the vegetation is concerned, the plants, we in Canada consider as “house plants”, grow abundantly outside.

We were advised that New Zealand is an expensive place to visit. When we were in New Zealand, 1 NZ$ = .70 Can$. This exchange rate brought the prices into line with those in Canada. NZ has a 12% GST but the tax is included in the price.

After another 30 hour trip we are glad to be home and starting to plan the next trip.