Week 21 – Auckland, New Zealand and Taipei, Taiwan

Changing Direction

Taiwan – Taipei – Night bus in the rain

After a month of comfort and familiarity in New Zealand, we started our journey through Asia by flying to Taiwan. We spent the first two days of this week returning the van and hanging out in Auckland. Then after 27 hours of traveling we arrived in Taipei exhausted from (1) the fast pace of our New Zealand leg, (2) trying to get a night’s sleep on the plane, (3) the heat and humidity of Taipei, (4) and the five hour time change. We gave ourselves two days to get our bearings before doing any serious sightseeing. Then we had two solid days of touring Taipei.

Taiwan is different in many ways, but the most surprising to us is the popularity of 7-11 stores. Not only are they everywhere, you can do nearly anything at them. You can pick up train tickets you bought online, or just buy them at the 7-11. You can pay your bills. You can use the microwave or hot water to make meals. You can make copies or print. You can wire money to another 7-11 location. Oh, and obviously you can buy soda and snacks.

Adventures in New Zealand

A Whirlwind Adventure

We spent 30 days in New Zealand, September 21st to October 20th. Now, 30 days sounds like a long time, especially for such a tiny country, but it wasn’t nearly enough. We would have been more comfortable with six weeks and would have preferred two months. Before arriving, we decided that more than a month would be too tough on the budget, so we would stick to that.  In the end, it was still the right decision, but we will need to take another trip to New Zealand in the future.

To get an idea of the size and population density of New Zealand, I’m going to steal a line from Nadine, whom we visited in Wellington: New Zealand is the population of Brooklyn, NY spread out over land the size of California. That’s 4.5 million people and 1.5 million of them live in Auckland, leaving the rest of the country sparsely populated. As a result, there aren’t many roads outside the big cities with more than two lanes (one each direction). They felt like side roads or scenic routes instead main roads. They also have lots of one lane bridges, so you have to wait for oncoming traffic to clear the bridge first.

In some ways our time in New Zealand was easier than other countries. For one, it’s the only English speaking country that we plan to visit, so we took full advantage by renting the van. However, roadtripping is a completely different kind of travel than backpacking and it took us awhile to get our wheels under us. We didn’t plan ahead for New Zealand nearly as much as we had planned for other countries (presumably because we thought it would be so much easier to travel through). Due to that lack of planning, we had to plan on a daily basis and ended up trying to see too much. We should have planned ahead, so we could narrow down our itinerary. We felt pressured to reach a new location every day, but also were hesitant to stop too much along the way for fear that we wouldn’t get a campsite, or couldn’t get to our next location.

Other than driving on the left, our time in New Zealand felt a bit like a road trip in the Pacific Northwest: English speaking, beautiful scenery, good food, and good beer. All in all, we really loved New Zealand and can’t wait to go back.

Colors of New Zealand

New Zealand – Wellington – Te Papa Museum – Weta Workshop Model in Gallipoli exhibit

New Zealand – Wai-O-Tapu – Champagne Pool

New Zealand – Wai-O-Tapu – Pool near Artists Palet

New Zealand – The Bay of Islands – Bottlenose Dolphins

New Zealand – Cape Reigna

New Zealand – Wanaka Lake

New Zealand – Goat Island – The purple side of the van

A collection of some of our favorite photos from New Zealand, one for each color of the rainbow. Click on the first photo to view a slideshow. Check out our Flickr page to see all our photos from New Zealand. Also, check out our photo collections by color.

BLACK & WHITE

 

New Zealand – Waitomo Caves – Glow worms!

New Zealand – Franz Josef Glacier

Week 20 – Central North Island, New Zealand

Slow, Steady, and Smelly

New Zealand – Wai-O-Tapu – Artists Palet and Champagne Pool

We had a pretty low key week compared to the fast pace we kept for the previous three weeks. Instead of moving every day, we moved every other day, giving us more time to settle in and get to know the area. From the South Island, we took the ferry to Wellington where we hung out with friends, drank good beers, and visited the Te Papa Museum. We continued north for some seriously stinky geothermal activity before making it to the Bay of Plenty for some windy beach time. Not bad for our last week in NZ.

Week 19 – Southland, South Island, New Zealand

More, More, More!

New Zealand – Curio Bay, Catlins

This week we experienced more of everything – more thrills, more wind, more rain, more incredible scenery, more wildlife, more long drives, and more beer! We started the week by jumping off a bridge, then drove south to see Milford Sound (actually not a sound at all, but a fjord), then to the southern end of the South Island (but not the southern most point). We started our way back north, stopping to see a petrified forest and giant round boulders on beaches, before visiting Christchurch which is still recovering from the earthquake