Saw a lot of sheep in NZ - including the sheep that the farmer dyed pink and let loose in a field to attract attention to Sheep World (picture of real pink sheep in previous blog). There are 4 million people in all of NZ and 70 million sheep.
Norman Bates Campground and Dinner from Hell
While 95% of the campgrounds we stayed in in New Zealand were awesome - great locations, beautiful kitchens, laundry rooms and places to connect to the (slow) internet - on our last night camping we figure we stayed in the campground where those who can't afford the Bate's motel go. This campground was stuck in the 50's - same peeling paint play equipment, 50's music played through holes drilled in the wall into the stark bathrooms, ripped screen around the pool - in otherwords the perfect setting for a horror movie. Fortunately we made it out alive.
We really did have dinner from Hell - a pizza place. Since we are traveling for so long ordering pizza and hanging out at 'home' was a nice night of relaxation. The pizza choices were Pizza Hutt (the desk clerk at the hotel wrote it with two 't's) or pizza from Hell. The Hell pizza company offered the Gluttony pizza - with everything among other types of pizzas. The phone number for the pizza store was 800-666-111. 111 is the 911 equivilant in NZ.
Travel Tips learned in New Zealand
If you are collecting seashells make sure not to collect one that has been freshly eaten by seagulls - the give away being footprints around the shell. Turns out seagulls don't do a great job at cleaning out the shell and in a short time the shell with start decaying and fill the area (enclosed campervan) with rotting fish smell.
Silk sarongs make great blankets for the beach or for a picnic and pack up very small.
The people in New Zealand are awesome. Everyone was so nice. Visit New Zealand - stay awhile. Our trip of just under two weeks covered just the top half of the North Island. It's an easy and fun 'foreign' country to visit. Go and stay awhile.
Travel with or without your kids. But having children along has been a bonus in customs especially. When arriving in the New Zealand airport the customs officials pulled our family specifcally out of the long immigration line, "For those from all other countries than New Zealand," and moved us into the line for people arriving home to New Zealand. Being in the line for locals saved us about an hour in the New Zealand customs line as it was much shorter and faster! Plus having children along with us we got to sit in the front of the boat in the underground glow worm river and more. People have been so nice to our children. A local Maori woman who came up to talk to us in Blue Lake said that people don't travel with their kids to New Zealand as it's so far and so expensive and that our children were very lucky.
We do feel very fortunate to be able to be on this trip and to have such good friends and family to share it with.
Much happiness,
Jackie
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