Welcome to New Zealand, the place that kiwis call home!
New Zealand is known for its adventurous and sometimes crazy outlook on adrenaline -- after all New Zealanders invented Zorbing. Kiwis are very friendly easy-going people with slightly different / shorter accents than the Australians. Plus it was surprising to see that while Auckland's latitude pretty close to that of Sydney, it is a much cooler place as the winds from Antartica hit New Zealand first before going to Australia.
CITIES/PLACES VISITED IN NEW ZEALAND : Auckland, Rotorua.
TOP THINGS TO DO/SEE IN NEW ZEALAND
Visit Rotorua for tons of cultural, geo-thermal and adrenaline activities (3-4 hours from Auckland)
Waitomo Cave and Glow Worm Tours
Wander along the hip shops and cafes of Auckland's Ponsonby Road
BEST MEMORIES FROM NEW ZEALAND
Tasting the Feijoa fruit (pronounced Fee-joh-ah) - eaten like a kiwi fruit, it has an amazing aroma and flavour
Seeing steaming water and bubbling mud at the Wai-o-Tapu thermal wonderland near Rotorua
Maori village cultural experience, show and feast (near Rotorua)
Trying not to giggle when the Maori stuck their tongues out and made faces at us during a traditional maori show
FAVOURITE FOODS / DRINKS IN AUSTRALIA
The Brie Explosion from New Zealand's gourmet burger chain Burger Fuel... don't forget to ask for a "doofer", which prevents the burger from dripping all over you.
Feijoa fruit (pronounced Fee-joh-ah) - eaten like a kiwi fruit, it has an amazing aroma and flavour
Kumara Potatoes - Basically New Zealand's sweet potatoes. Delicious as fries or in a mash.
New Zealand Rose Apples - juicy and tart, but not like green apples at all
REALLY WEIRD FOOD / DRINKS
None that I could find.
GREAT SOUVENIRS
A beautiful dark green jade ring. There were also tons of pendants and earrings available, formed in beautiful indigineous/maori shapes and offered in both jade and cow bone.
PHOTO ALBUMS
Auckland (20)
New Zealand
Rotorua (21)
New Zealand
WHERE I WOULD GO IF/WHEN I WENT BACK
Southern New Zealand for its great mountainscapes, snowboarding and fjords
Rotorua : Try my hand at skydiving, zorb (with water), freefall extreme body flying at the agrodome(mock-skydiving), shweeb racing, polynesian spa / hell gate waiora spa (mud spa), sheep shearing at the agrodome
Auckland : Auckland Zoo's Zoom at the Zoo (Interaction with animals), check out mission bay and Kelly Tarlton's underwater world
