Saying Goodbye to the North Island

We have thoroughly enjoyed the North Island and move on to the South Island today.  Everyone tells us the South Island will be quite different as only 20% of New Zealand’s population lives there so it will not seem as crowded.

Some things we have learned about New Zealand in our first 2 weeks is they do not rip houses down to build a new one.  Instead they sell them and they are moved to a new location.  This happened at 2 of our B and B’s and others have attested to this.  We haven’t seen a house being moved yet as apparently they do it in the middle of the night.

The other thing we have learned is that New Zealanders make wonderful coffee.  They consider that they make the best coffee in the world and they may be right.  There are coffee shops everywhere and not Starbucks.  All coffee is made individually using cappuccino type machines.  I don’t know where the myth started that I’d get terrible coffee down here.

The other thing we have found is that it is not as expensive as we expected.  Our main measure of this is meals as it is our main expense.  I prepaid out accommodation and car rental.  Meals are about on a par with a similar meal in Canada.  This is partly due to the exchange rate but also all taxes are in the quoted price so there isn’t an add on for taxes.  As well you don’t tip here.  I have found this hard but every New Zealander I talk to says I shouldn’t feel guilty about not tipping.   Petrol is more expensive (about $2.15/liter) and some things in convenience stores like pop and water are pricier.