Just Like LOTR

It was sad to say goodbye to Australia. Everyone down to the airline lady who checked us into our NZ flight was super-nice. We didn't even get charged for the surfboards! A short flight later we were arriving in Auckland. Since we got in too late to pick up the next of our series of campervans, we booked a hotel near the airport. We hadn't stayed in a hotel since Bali, and hadn't stayed in a Western hotel since I don't know when, so it was a bit of a weird experience. We immediately noticed that Kiwis are a lot less outgoing than their Australian counterparts, but still very nice once you get talking to them. And yes, their manner and accent really is just like Flight of the Conchords! I kept thinking everyone was Brett or Jemaine and we were on hidden camera.

The next thing we noticed was that beer was affordable again - yay! And even food was not super pricey, though given that we were eating at the hotel restaurant, it wasn't exactly affordable either. We watched TV for a bit and went to bed as early as we could manage given we were still on Sydney time. Then it was morning and time to be picked up - yes what service! - by Jucy campervan rentals. In Auckland Wicked is not actually the cheapest campervan rental, so we got a Jucy van for about the same price. Even though Jucy vans have bright paint jobs too, they all have the same paint job (bright green) so you can at least know what to expect and have a little anonymity. (No, I swear, it wasn't me officer, it was that other Jucy van!) Also the vans are pretty new and most importantly come with a plug in cooler and a DVD player.

Finally we drove in to Auckland itself. Despite its reputation as a big city, the large area of surrounding suburbs still had a small town feel, with small streets and corner dairies. Of course we soon discovered that a "dairy" is basically a 7-11. Downtown Auckland itself wasn't too big either, and was fairly quiet because it was Saturday. We found a used bookstore to buy a NZ Rough Guide, a camping/roadmap/LOTR site map book (yes all in one I swear) and 3rd and most importantly a hiking book. Sam was groaning in dread of the hiking already. Then it was lunch time. We fairly randomly got Taiwanese rice rolls - basically like a burrito where you pick your filling, but with fancy brown rice on the outside, and bbq pork, bamboo shoots, or whatever on the inside. It was delicious. As we walked around Auckland, and then headed out of town, Sam commented that so far, NZ was a lot like Hawaii in terms of ethnic makeup, food, small town feel, and horrible driving. Except colder than Hawaii, of course!

Next we went to the grocery store, Countdown or some such, which we suspected was a Woolie's in disguise since everything was exactly like Australia and even had the same Woolie's brands. Surprisingly prices were about the same as Australia despite the NZ dollar being weaker. We stocked up on our usual wine and baked chicken, and of course Tim Tam biscuits. Yay - we hadn't left those behind just yet! Chocolate coated wafers with chocolate fudge in the middle, mmm.

Stocked up and ready to go, we headed out of Auckland on a narrow windy road (which by now would probably seem like a highway to us) through country that looked a lot like the Shire, except for the occasional tree fern. Later we would learn that "shire" is pretty much the North Island's default mode. It's other modes are: coast, volcanic high desert, and shire. Oh wait I said that one already. Anyway the posters in Flight of the Conchords are pretty much spot on. I think there's one that says "New Zealand: It's nicer than you might think." And another one that says "New Zealand: It's just like Lord of the Rings." This is correct except there are more sheep and cattle than in the shire. According to the guidebook, there are nine sheep for every one human in New Zealand. The reason NZ looks so pastoral is because it is! Everywhere that could possibly be used for grazing has sheep, cattle, goats, or even deer. The rest is mostly used for pine tree plantations. Even people without lots of land keep a cow or two in the front yard! And it truly is not very populated. Apparently the population is only 4.3 million, with 1.3 million in Auckland and another 400,000 in Wellington and 300,000 in Christchurch. We tended to meet more tourists than locals - NZ gets 2 million visitors a year! But more on that later.