Gardens in the middle of nowhere
This is a totally amazing phenomenon ! You are driving along literally in the middle of nowhere - there is no sign of civilisation - and suddenly there is a house, just on its own, with a garden that puts Chelsea Flower Show to shame. It's incredible. Beautifully manicured green lawns (cut with nail scissors, I suspect !), masses of flowers, shrubs, etc.
Winding up Thoughts on South Island
Really sorry to leave SI. It's laidback, charming, scenically stunning, the people are friendly ...... Sorry that we couldn't do more, but that would have needed months. Only did one winery - can you believe that !! Not that it matters - really happy with the Lindauer Brut !!
Differences between the North and South
Where to start !!
- Police Cars - saw more of those driving for two hours in NI than we had seen for the whole of the 2 and a half weeks in SI. Also - wait for it - have seen one unmarked police car !!
- Driving - probably the reason why we see more police cars here in NI : the standard is appalling - it's much more aggressive, less polite and downright dangerous at times (I won't repeat here what Dave has called some of the drivers we've met in North Island !). From this sweeping condemnation, we do have to exempt commercial vehicles - they do seem to be far more thoughtful and careful.
- Traffic cones - don't think we saw one in SI, but there's loads here
- Nutter cyclists - only seen 1 so far and he doesn't really qualify because although he had the obligatory panniers on the bike, it was on the flat
- Fast food outlets - seem to be hundreds here in NI !! I seem to remember one KFC in SI, but they seem to be all over the place in NI and the number of big yellow M's we've see is phenomenal
- Only seen one washing machine so far here in NI, but it certainly is nice and modern and doesn't look as if it should be in a museum
- Seems more crowded in NI, but guess that's because the towns are often bigger and a lot closer together, less empty land than in SI.
- Having much more difficulty in pronouncing the names of towns in NI, they seem to go for the long Maori ones and we've got no idea whether we're actually saying them correctly !!
- Mount Ruapehu - not a difference really, but a real highlight of the whole trip. SI hasn't got that (we never managed to see Mt Cook !)
- Eating out seems much more diversified in NI - Thai, Indian, etc. Not saying that we didn't find the odd one in SI, but it was just the odd one.
- Why don't the sheep like NI ? Haven't seen nearly as many as SI. In fact, seen more traffic cones than sheep !
2 comments:
A thought on "yet more thoughts"
Still having a great time out there from the "sound" of your comments. I'm missing SI too - and I've never been there!
I would guess the main reason for the difference between the two islands is that North Island must be more 'civilized' being the seat of government and all that (civilization = traffic cones and Big Mac! mmmm think I'll head off back to the Kalahari Desert thanks!).
ps
Seems that sheep have more sense than they are often given credit for if they prefer the 'rural' SI to the 'civilized' NI.
Secondly how did you miss Mount Cook? I am told it is a great big thing that sticks up into the sky (so no penguins) and sits approximately in the middle of South Island?
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