Highlight‘s von Neuseeland

From 3 May to 19 June we were on the road in New Zealand. We have tried to express a summary of the most important experiences and encounters in pictures and words.

Firstly, if you want it to be like home, it's better to stay there. And otherwise it helps to "always look at the bright side...."

We really saw a lot of accommodation, many were great, all were clean and ALL had something nice. We drove a lot of kilometres and the roads were in very good condition. The roads to the places of interest were also well maintained.

The landscape is incredibly beautiful, varied and vast. From rolling floodplains to forests that are used for forestry, kilometres of vineyards, kiwi plantations, mandarin trees, huge fern trees, breathtaking limestone cliffs, bubbling hot geysers, bubbling mud fields, waterfalls in ALL shapes and sizes, majestic volcanoes, imposing steep cliffs, beaches as far as the eye can see and beyond, botanical gardens and war memorials even in the smallest village. In the fields there are whole walls of trees to break the wind, sheep, cattle, red deer and the occasional horse can be seen everywhere on our journeys through New Zealand. We were also able to catch a glimpse of Maori culture.

The whole island is always green, even when it was fresh, windy and wet in late autumn.

You have to experience the sounds (fjords), they are indeed indescribably unique.

The storms in February 2023 washed away villages, fields, roads, railway tracks and entire hills in the Napier area 🙈 Tractors, cars and roofs were rediscovered somewhere further down in the most bizarre arrangements in the landscape 🥺😢

We got to see jumping dusky dolphins, huge sperm whales, super cute sea lions, birds in all their splendour in the wild. Even kiwis in the breeding centres.

In culinary terms, we didn't find any New Zealand specialities apart from pies, fish and chips, oysters, lobster and burgers. But Asian cuisine is represented in all varieties and is really delicious. Charly introduced us to the finer points of good cuisine in Auckland on the food tour, absolutely recommendable. The coffee, wine and beer culture is great and fun. Many independent breweries offer tours of their production halls and always have tasty snacks and freshly tapped beer, cider or ginger beer on offer.

You quickly get used to driving on the left-hand side of the road, and at some point you also get used to getting into the car on the right-hand side. You can buy everything in the supermarkets, including Lindt chocolate, alcohol is available in the liquor shop and every now and then there is also good bread in a bakery. It's easy to travel, the people are very nice, happy to help and are always up for a chat. The warm encounter with Kathy and Ian in Christchurch will remain in our hearts.

All the bookings worked, there wasn't a single nasty surprise, and everything else is very relaxed and works perfectly. You eventually get to grips with the New Zealand dialect. After all, a "biid" (pronounced) is a bed and there are so many idioms that you have to understand first.

And here are the pictures to go with the text...first a size comparison, there are about 5.1 million people living in New Zealand, so they have enough space 19 /km2 in NZ and 210 /km2 in Switzerland.