Sunday May 20, 2007 - Los Angeles
The majority of my time in New Zealand was spent in my apartment. It is incredibly boring to tell anyone about, but it was a great retreat for me. I was content simply being there, going for walks, working, reading and living a simple existence. At any time I could walk out my door and go for a stroll down the beach, to the top of the hill looking out over the city and the bay, or I could walk the other direction to the shops. Auckland too was right there and I could be in downtown in 30 minutes anytime I wanted.

Thanks to Greg and Karyn I managed to have some social life. They frequently invited me over for dinner, we barbecued and went out for drinks talking of the latest news and anything else of interest. I also met some of their friends. An American and Kiwi couple, Chris and Mary, invited us one weekend to stay with them at their batch up north about an hour's drive away. A batch is what the Kiwis call their vacation home, or sometimes it can also refer to a backhouse, and it seemed quite common for people to have a batch at the beach or off in the country.

Though there are a multitude of differences between Americans and Kiwis, there are enough similarities that I did not feel too out of place. People drive to the local super market for groceries; they buy cheap imported merchandise at a Target-like store called The Warehouse; there are malls and shops that could be seen just as easily in any American city; people commute into Auckland and there is traffic; kids dress in what I recently learned is called 'emo'; McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks and KFC are frequently sighted... so any American can feel quite at home.

The obvious differences in Kiwi culture that one immediately notices is the funny accent; the strange city and street names in Maori (the indigenous people of New Zealand); and what appeared to me as an interesting mix between Britain and Hawaii in the landscape, weather and sometimes architecture. There are also more subtle differences. Kiwis enjoy a lot of leisure time and it is ordinary to see the park filled with people having picnics, playing frisbee or soccer. Overall people do not work as hard and seem to live a more balanced life... which I have a little theory about.

There are only about 4 million people in all of New Zealand. Compare that to Los Angeles alone which is home to nearly 10 million. My theory is that the denser the population, the harder people have to work to maintain a good quality of life. Put simply, the more people there are, the more competition there is. This coin has two sides though. Higher population also means more opportunity, greater diversity and more choice. Because New Zealand's population is relatively low, there is not a lot of competition and thus sometimes lameness in the choices available. But this is not to say that Kiwis do not enjoy a good quality of life, because from what I saw I would consider it to be one of the top places in the world to live. And for most of what you can't find locally there, you can order online from the states with a premium paid for shipping. It's not a bad tradeoff for the fresh air, beautiful beaches, lack of crowds and being a safe distance form the rest of the manic world.

In the last few weeks of my stay in NZ, I managed to finally do some traveling around the country. I took a short trip first to Queenstown which is a very popular tourist town in Fiordland, in the south. The main attraction there is the fiords, which are impressive glacially carved canyons. Next to Zion, it is one of the most amazing natural land formations I have ever seen.

After that, I returned to Auckland and rented a car for a week to drive down to Wellington. The distance driving direct may be compared to going from LA to Sacramento, however I took the extra time to drive a loop around the coast, making an extended stop in Wellington to visit my friends Chris and Natasha. Finally getting out of the city and seeing more of the countryside was great. At times I felt like I could have been in California, and then at other times I felt like I was in Hawaii.

New Zealand gets so much rain that they actually have rain forests which are temperate rather than tropical. And unlike the jungles of the Amazon, there are relatively few things in New Zealand which can hurt you. Except for the mammals introduced by the early settlers, New Zealand does not have any indigenous mammals, and there are relatively few things that are poisonous. Before humans entered the land, birds were the top of the food chain. Although some of the more exotic species have become extinct, there are still some very interesting birds that inhabit New Zealand, including of course the famous Kiwi... which I never saw except characterized in souvenirs.

During my drive I stopped in a handful of cities and towns. Every place has a tourist information center which is always helpful in finding accommodation and planning activities. The country is actually quite friendly toward international travelers and it is surprisingly easy to get around and find places to stay, ranging all price ranges. I met a lot of interesting people along the way from all over the world.

After my short week on the road I returned to Auckland and then to Los Angeles. In the end I was sad to leave and I definitely look forward to visiting again. Being back in LA, my senses feel dulled and I am acutely aware of the bad air quality and congested streets... though I carry with me a little sense of peace still remaining from my visit to New Zealand.