{"id":48,"date":"2021-07-21T17:13:58","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T15:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.travelstarter.co.za\/?p=48"},"modified":"2021-07-21T17:13:58","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T15:13:58","slug":"and-a-bit-further-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelstarter.co.za\/?p=48","title":{"rendered":"And a bit further South…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There was a feeling of familiarity about New Zealand and all I can put it down to is that they, like South Africa (and Zimbabwe), are part of the Commonwealth<\/strong>, a former British Colony, a spin-off of the once-great British Empire and all that that entails. New Zealand<\/strong> reminded me of a time when things were simple. A slower time, a time when neighbours had time for one another. And if they did not have the time, then they would make an effort to make time available. Oh, and their rugby team is actually pretty good. Not sure about their cricket side though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A land of contrasts<\/strong> where there are snow-covered peaks just a few kilometres from surfing beaches – ski<\/strong> in the morning, surf<\/strong> in the afternoon? Where else in the world can you find a glacier<\/strong> in a temperate rainforest<\/strong>? The ‘Lord of the Rings’ series of movies did a good job of showing how awesome the rugged countryside is, but to actually drive around and see it for myself was an experience I would never give back. A beautiful country, full of beautiful, friendly people. ‘Salt of the Earth’ people. No wonder they call it ‘God’s Own’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will never forget watching the ’95 Rugby World Cup final in a pub in London<\/strong> where there were three of us South African’s, two Australians and about twenty Kiwi’s. When the final whistle was blown I thought we would be mobbed, but the biggest (and most vocal) Kiwi turned around, shook our hands and bought us a pint. Not one of them had a bad thing to say. Gentlemen<\/strong>, one and all. Very drunk<\/strong> gentlemen, but gentlemen all the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps this is exactly why they (Hackett and co) invented bungy jumping – they were bored? About to jump off the 102m<\/strong>-high Pipeline bridge outside Queenstown with an elastic rope tied around my ankles made me think of two things: 1. Was I insane<\/strong>? 2. How many Speight’s Old Dark<\/strong> ales did I have last night?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body art seems to be quite big in New Zealand – not only within the Maori<\/strong> tradition, and I must admit that I was influenced enough to ‘get inked’, so I now have a small green tattoo of a gekko – a permanent memento of a great three-month adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though\u00a0New Zealand<\/strong>\u00a0is itself a small country, it has the ability to make a person feel small. I think it might be because you are in such awe of the natural beauty that surrounds you. One day I will go back, but I must not leave it too long. Besides, I have some good mates in\u00a0Tauranga<\/strong>\u00a0that I need to catch up with so I have an excuse to return. Next time, though, I will have my GoPro with me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New Zealand – the beautiful South<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a feeling of familiarity about New Zealand and all I can put it down to is that they, like South Africa (and Zimbabwe), are part of the Commonwealth, a former British Colony, a spin-off of the once-great British Empire and all that that entails. New Zealand reminded me of a time when things were simple. A…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelstarter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelstarter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelstarter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelstarter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelstarter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelstarter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelstarter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelstarter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelstarter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelstarter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}