NZ experiences

I recently went to New Zealand and biked in their South Island for 2 weeks. After i got back from NZ, everyone was asking me, so how is NZ, tell us something about the country. This post is to share some random tidbits from my experience.

First, they don't have any native predators on the island, it's so surprising, entire forests with no dangerous wild animals. No snakes or bears that you need to be afraid of! And their close neighbor, Australia has all of the animals that would try kill you. It is so fascinating that the dense forests are completely safe, so many possibilities. I think that's the reason they have so many popular hikes in the dense rain-forest jungles.
Another odd thing i noticed was corpse of dead birds on the road, it is possible perhaps because of absence of other animals which can feed on the body, it stays wherever it fell. I noticed them throughout the island during my two weeks journey.

NZ is pretty much the first country in the world to see the sunrise ! It was interesting, cause I was like 17 hours ahead of Atlanta !

Kiwis are a very friendly bunch of people, always up to help you out.
I also learned kiwi are laid back people. They are very relaxed, very much interested in enjoying life, and don't care so much about  anything else. Someone I met, who worked with them told me apparently building constructions also take a lot of time.

So many travelers just travel by hitchhiking here, I met few and they told it's super easy to get a ride here. They never had any issues, sometimes multiple cars stop at the same place to give them a ride. It's just that in return you have to keep up an interesting conversation. Another tip was that it's difficult to get a ride from the city, so they take a bus to the edge onto some highway and then from there they get their ride.

I saw so many lakes. Beautiful lakes with the gorgeous snow capped mountains reflecting onto the lake. And of course birds, almost every day I woke up to a myriad of bird songs. On my solo journey through the south island west coast, I was always accompanied by some incredible bird songs. There is something about bird songs that always excites me.

 

And farm animals, so many farm animals grazing on the countryside. Big healthy sheep and cows staring right at you, as you ride past them, as if surprised to see you there, as if you are not supposed to be there. 

I have really never seen so many farm animals. NZ has great supply of sheep and lamb, so i guess woolen clothes should be good and their other by-products.

Biking is really popular there, so many people just come to nz to bike. I mean such a coincidence, 4 bikers meet randomly at the Auckland airport, getting a shut eye, while spending the night at the airport. I mean it's really really popular. I met a biker while staying at Murchison and several others on the western wilderness trail.

There's a particular kind of flies in the south island, they are very very annoying and irritating. They will bite you and it will keep on itching. I saw them on our way from fox glacier to wanaka.

Many travelers take advantage of the working holiday Visa, that is you can work for an year in NZ. I met so many people, Europeans, Americans and South-Americans, in the hostels, they would work on farms, hotels, bars, fishing boat, construction, landscaping etc. In fact at some hostels, if you work for 15 hours a week as their housekeeping staff, you get free accommodation. That's a really good arrangement. Many of these travelers have been staying at the hostel for a long time, so they know each other. It was really interesting to see them cook together and share dinner as a wonderful family!!

All the hostels I stayed in, were extremely clean and well maintained. And I stayed at the cheapest option available, so I guess the NZ hostels are some of the best  accommodations I have ever stayed in. With well stocked kitchen, in some places like 10-20 people are cooking and still, everyone cleans and dries their utensils and keeps them back in place.

Everyone is also very much invested in recycling, we had to clean and dry tin cans and plastic bottles before dumping them in the recycling bin. And every place I noticed earth friendly detergents and soaps, which were biological detergents and maybe contained less chemical.

They also believe in Karma !! 

I did bike in some remote forests and trails, but interestingly even when I was on unpaved roads or gravel roads, I always crossed path with either another car which was offroading, or another biker. So, it seems somehow I was never remote enough to not see any person !

The western coast of south island, have the southern alps, which is also called the alpine fault. It's a geological fault that runs almost the entire length of the south island.

The native people of NZ are called the Maori.