We had been to New Zealand once before in 2017. I had a full-time, 9-5 job then, so we got away for about 12 days and tried to cover a few key places. We all fell in love with the New Zealand laid back and friendly approach to life. One of the kids, upon finding an elaborate playground in the middle of Wellington with a zip line said “I love this new land. They thought of everything in this new land.” And with that, we were determined to come back for a longer sojourn. Well, we all know what set that back a few years, since New Zealand closed its borders for a couple of years, but we arrived here in June with seven weeks to explore the country. (Spoiler alert: once again, it wasn’t long enough)
Once again, right I away, I noticed the lovely vistas of the country.
A few weeks in, and I had some additional observations that I did not notice the first time around. This country is huge. And there is no one in it. Now, I know it doesn’t feel like that in Auckland or Tauranga but we drove hours and hours in many directions and saw open land, rolling hills, vast farm land, forests, and almost no development. Tiny towns followed by stretches of open road.
New Zealand is basically the size of California. But its population is a little over 5 million. In the whole country. Los Angeles County alone has double that number. If you count the general LA to San Diego swath, it is like 17 million people. Three times the number of people in the whole country of New Zealand. They have like 12 acres per person in New Zealand. In California, we have like 12 feet per person. Here, in New Zealand there is so much open space and land per person that it’s like living in one enormous small town. It is a little hard to describe the vibe.
Other places are just cute, or funky, or beautiful, and in many places they make an effort to incorporate Maori culture.
All told we were here seven weeks this time. And the feeling was unanimous — not long enough!