About New Zealand

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Hi everybody

We have not been very faithful in updating our journal.....sorry about that. Every time we got to a computer, we were visiting too much with our friends to even think about e-mail.

Well, we had a fantastic time in New Zealand. I don't know why we thought that 3 weeks would be enough?....crazy....Graeme is already planning our next trip here...next time in the summer and for at least 2 months. There is so much to do and see and you just cannot get tired of the scenery and the beauty. It is truly a beautiful country. I have never seen so many mountains and valleys and more mountains with snow on top and everything is green. And of course there is millions of sheep and cows. There is 35 sheep for every new zealander......so you can imagine. And the roads were incredible.....lots of curves, turns and ups and downs...!

The new zealanders are very friendly and everybody loves their country. There are a lot of south africans here and all our south african friends here tried to convince us to move here......but Graeme didn't connect with the country as he thought he would!

Well let me start at the beginning. We rented a small Toyota Starlite for the whole time we were there and put about 3600 km on it. Of course Graeme did all the driving, because the roads were so 'tricky'. We stayed in a hostel the first night and from there we camped for 2 nights at Orewa beach holiday park. One thing.....................all the holiday ( caravan or camping ) parks are excellent here.....they have great facilities, like big kitchens with everything in it, very clean bathrooms, even with hairdryers...!

The weather was not the best at all.... it rained for the first 2 weeks we were here, but we didn't care about that very much.

We felt that there weren't too much to see in Auckland self, but went up the sky tower and walked around in the city. Their harbor is amazing....they have the most boats/yachts per capita in the southern hemisphere.

We visited with a friend of Graeme the second night....they've been here for 3 years now and we had a great time.

The problem is that some of the attractions like sheep farms are close to tourists in winter, but we tried to see what we could. Then we stayed with some of our south african meeting friends....we know them very well and we had wonderful fellowship and a great time. It was just like being home with mom and dad. They took us around in Auckland and we had a lovely picnic on one of the popular beaches. Oh......how can I forget the food!!!!!The south africans and new zealanders cook the same way and their meat and dairy products are absolutely wonderful. So the dream of losing weight because we are on a budget, flew out the door....!!!!!!!!!!!

We stayed with them for 3 nights before departing from Auckland further south. See the next entry!