There and Back Again…
A honeymooner’s tale
10,000 kilometers. 6,500 miles. A 13-hour flight. Our trip to New Zealand was the longest single journey I’ve ever taken.¹ Some takeaways:
Despite being relatively small land-wise, New Zealand feels like roughly five different countries in one, depending on where you stop. Auckland is very different from Bay of Islands, which is very different from Queenstown, which is very different from Marlborough wine country (to name just a few places we stopped). This undoubtedly helped for shooting films with scenery as varied as Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit.
You’re surrounded by the sea, but almost everywhere within sight there are mountains. Giant, snow-covered mountains — I want to see mountains again, MOUNTAINS, Gandalf!
Speaking of, while I expected New Zealand to basically be Middle Earth, it honestly didn’t really feel that way to me.² It’s just a diverse, beautiful country. Some parts reminded me of Hawaii, others of Napa, others of Pacific Northwest cities like Seattle or Vancouver, and others of ski towns like Tahoe or Aspen. Which is to say, as someone from California, it feels familiar, yet different. I enjoyed each part of the country in different ways.
It also, of course, has a tinge of Australia. I suspect Kiwis — the New Zealand people, not the elusive bird — would hate me saying that, though honestly it’s hard for me too remember too many details about Australia since it’s been nearly 20 years since I was there. And no, we didn’t stop there this trip despite it being so close by. Another time.
As expected, those aforementioned Kiwis are an extremely nice people. Very polite and friendly, with great accents to boot. It wasn’t quite Flight of the Conchords, but it wasn’t quite not Flight of the Conchords either. One rather pleasant surprise for Megan and I was the quality of the food everywhere we went. Perhaps this shouldn’t have been a surprise given the amount of wildlife and vegetation that surrounded. But we honestly didn’t have a bad meal there, and several of the meals were amongst the best we’ve ever had.
As you’ve undoubtedly heard, New Zealand is a very outdoors-oriented country. Which is great, even for someone like me who isn’t particularly outdoors-oriented. Visiting in this December time-frame is perfect because it’s summertime down there. Some places were warm (80s) but most were more mild (60s and 70s), which is what I prefer. With so many different micro-climates, it does rain on-and-off, but overall we had pretty great weather. All of that is to say that it feels a lot like San Francisco, in that regard.
Because you’re so far south (the furthest south on the planet that I’ve ever been, actually), and because there is little in terms of pollution, the sun is very strong.³ I learned this the hard way on day two.
It also helps that all of New Zealand is only three hours behind the west coast of the U.S. time-wise. But, of course, you’re a day ahead. The future! As a result, today, Monday, January 4, has quite literally been the longest day of my life. The small time zone difference helps if you need to communicate with the U.S., but more importantly with jet-lag. It’s basically just like going to Hawaii — while being more than twice the journey, distance-wise.
All of this is to say that I highly recommend New Zealand if you ever get a chance to go there. We were fortunate to have three weeks to explore, which still wasn’t enough time. I only saw like six of the six-thousand Lord of the Rings shooting locales. For shame. But it’s a place I definitely want to go back to.
Great beer too.
¹ Not to mention a stop in Fiji, as well — another 3 hours from Auckland plus another hour in the smallest prop plane you’d ever want to fly in while surrounded by sporadic Fijian weather. Like, say, a category 3 hurricane…
² Well, except Hobbiton, which felt exactly like Middle Earth.
³ I’m actually not sure about the pollution bit, but that sure is what Kiwis like to tell us! Sounds perfectly plausible.
