Today I snapped back on over to Auckland from Queenstown via Qantas Air. It was a swift two hour direct flight. Incredibly fast in comparison to the last month or so bus journey that I have been on. I watched a movie called “four holidays” (known in America as Four Christmases) on the plane. It’s funny how the international crowd might get a rebranded, perhaps slightly refurbished, version of one of our Hollywood creations. Speaking of rebranding and refurbishing movies, the movie “Lucky Number Sleven” has about 20 more minutes of worthless footage in the beginning and is called “The Wrong Man” internationally J I wonder how often this happens? Maybe my screenwriting stepbrother Andrew might know.

Back to Queenstown and what it was. For me, the week I stayed was enough. It was a tourist and backpacker utopia, but I actually enjoyed a bunch of other destinations along the way even more. I think when it all comes down to it, the people who you interact with ultimately can make or break a day, a year, or even a second. Once I stayed longer than the usual 2-3 days in Queenstown, most of my new found friends had continued on back north on the bus line.

But I did do some pretty incredible things while I was there. I also spent a pretty penny, but am happy to part with the cash in exchange for the memories. Queenstown itself is one of the more beautiful places in New Zealand with its picture perfect mountain ranges that promptly dump into the glacier filled crystal clear lake. This is a place that has Para-gliders landing on the elementary school’s soccer field every day of the week. This is a place that has more 360 spinning jet boats than ferry boats. This place must manufacture extreme sport legends. This is the birth place of the bungy and most likely the birthplace of the jet boat (basically an overgrown, 1000+ horsepower jet ski that seats 15 passengers and is an acrobatic marvel of the water).

Many tourists take a bus down to Queenstown and don’t come back for a year. They decide to work in this paradise and call it home. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and the 200 days of rain per year that Queenstown gets (and I had 3 of those days).

Queens town was the Park City, Utah of New Zealand. Hip and trendy, with a buzillion dollars going through it each and every day.

New Zealand IS.

A surly nation: Though they do have the art of tourism down to a science, if you ask a stupid question, you’re sure to know it in the tone of a Kiwi’s (someone from New Zealand) answer. They aren’t the impossibly happy and optimistic bunch that you might find in the poorest reaches of South East Asia. Theirs is a life with certain luxuries which breeds a natural gap between want and have. This gap is where dissatisfaction lives. Those who have absolutely nothing, have each other and often a smile which can define a nation. Unlike in America, if you ask a Kiwi something that they don’t want to answer, they will first respond with something less than civil and just as you have time to think “Well I’d better ask someone else.” They will promptly respond with a full and complete answer. I learned this when walking into a bar to ask for directions to a competing bar (but in my defense, this particular town only had bars open at the moment).

A first name nation: When trying to reserve a room for the next hostel/attraction (over the phone) you only have to use your first name. When verifying your $150 tour ticket, you point out your own name on the bus driver’s role sheet. This is a nation of trust, unadulterated by the same folks that made hitch hiking an impossibility in the states. This is why: You aren’t just born into this place (for the most part), you are born into Compton. People don’t save up for years to fly out to Compton. They didn’t choose to end up there. But here, it’s a bit out of the way and people who are here are generally not out to get back at the system, or barely scrape by. They are purpose driven and usually not desperate or deprived enough to resort to dishonesty. If you aren’t on someone’s roster/roll sheet, they will just write your first name in (no questions asked).

An easy nation: It’s not that different from America really. It’s the perfect launching point for a traveler or just a great get away for an inexperienced traveler. You couldn’t close your eyes and plug your ears hard enough to effectively silence the attractions that New Zealand has to offer and there are a thousand ways to get there and do it.

A small nation: You can AND WILL run into the guy who just led your tour of a glacier/volcano/hot spring/mountain in town getting a beer and they WILL have a meaningful conversation with you on the spot. This country only has 4 million people after all. You will get a small town feel when your waitress from the night before is shopping right next to you in the local super market.

A nation of visitors: Many of the people you run into had the same predicament as you just a while ago. They were just a backpacker and now work at their favorite attraction. They are easy to talk to because they are just as dazzled as you are.

Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Sydney for the start of 1-2 months in Australia. The warm up is over. Let’s do some serious traveling!

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