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Another chatty letter from the UK, Lyn writes... Home safely from our wonderful holiday in New Zealand.
Hello Peter,
We are now home safely from our wonderful holiday
in New Zealand. Your country fulfilled our greatest expectations. It is
absolutely beautiful. You did ask me to be totally honest when I wrote to
tell you about our stay in your country, so here it is, warts and all!
THE GOOD THINGS: The best thing of all
was the friendly and open nature of the New Zealand people. We met with
nothing but kindness and helpfulness throughout our three weeks holiday. The
country is absolutely wonderful from the beaches, mountains to the fiords and
wild life. The food is amazing and much cheaper than in the UK. New Zealand
wine is surprisingly good. I say surprisingly because we rarely see it in our
supermarkets and have therefore not tried it previously. We especially
enjoyed the N.Z white sauvignon blanc even though we rarely drink red wine.
Your roads are excellent - with well maintained surfaces - constant repairs
being done as required and very little traffic. I acknowledge that you have
only one lane roads and feel you will need more lanes in the near future but
apart from approaching Wellington when it was very busy, this did not cause us
any problems. Your road signs are excellent, especially the road names which
are clearly visible, unlike those in the UK.
The museum in the Kauri forest was outstandingly good and
we enjoyed our visit a great deal. As you know we avoided cities this visit
but we did spend a couple of days in Christchurch. What a wonderful city,
full of parks and the enjoyable Arts Centre. We visited Littleton and saw the
Hector's dolphins - what a treat! We also enjoyed the cruises on both Milford
and Doubtful Sounds. The motels are also excellent and cater well for
visitors, many having cooking facilities in the room.
THINGS WHICH DISAPPOINTED US. Believe it
or not we did not enjoy the majority of your museums. We
were rather surprised to find that concessions for Seniors do not apply to
visitors. This is surprising when ALL the museums in this country are totally
free for everyone. We were very disappointed with the aquarium in
Christchurch. We have a better selection of fish in one of our local park
aquarium! As for the Kiwi - it was totally impossible to see them. I know
they are nocturnal but so are many animals in our zoo displays and they can be
clearly seen. I do not know whether it is the special lighting or the glass
windows which make this possible(?) However, we did feel that the aquarium was
overpriced for the substandard display. Equally we were very disappointed
with the Antarctic Centre. This will probably amaze you because so many
people believe it is excellent. We felt it was wonderful for children and
school outings but less so for adults and was certainly not worth paying 40
dollars each to see. We were also sad to see how some of your towns are
expanding in a most undesirable way by allowing trade centres etc. to be built
on the road side. If this continues, your towns will be similar to those in
the USA within a few years. In the UK we have Trading Estates where there are
shopping outlets, builders supplies, car showrooms etc., situation just off
the main roads and this improves the approach to smaller towns.
THINGS WHICH SURPRISED US. Apart from the
occasions we ate with you and Nicholas, and at two other farm stays we did not
see a vegetable on our plate, (other than potatoes) for three weeks. Now it
is true that we could have paid extra for 'side dishes', but they are very
expensive and we do not order them on principle in a good restaurant. Yet
your supermarkets have a most wonderful selection of vegetables - far more
than in the UK. Even more surprising is the failure of restaurants to make
use of your wonderful avocado and other fruits. They would make far more money
from visitors in this way. For example, you can order avocado in the UK with
a vinaigrette dressing as a starter course for approx. £5. We had to resort to
buying avocado in a supermarket and eating them in our room because they were
never on the menu. Most restaurants had the usual chocolate puddings and other
stodge but the superb fruits in the markets were conspicuous by their
absence! Yet I dare not order a lamb shank when I realised that you were
given two shanks sitting on a small pile of potatoes - very
odd!!
So there you have it Peter - just put me down as a 'winging
Pom' !!!! You did ask me to be totally honest and I have been.
I do not know if we will ever afford a return trip because
as you know we had to travel business class due to my back problem. Rest
assured however that we will return if we can do so. We regret that we have
not come over previously instead of visiting the USA and Canada on so many
occasions. NZ has it all - mountains, fiords, beaches, rivers and waterfalls.
We were not fortunate with the weather having mist and rain in the fiords and
through the Kauri forest but it did not spoil our trip.
Thank you once again for your warm welcome. Do keep in
touch,
Best wishes to both of you and your readers - do let me
know their comments on the above - good, bad or indifferent.
--
Lyn and Tony | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||