Member-only story
A Spectacular Natural Wonderland: a month in New Zealand
For years I had heard, without exception, from everyone who had visited: New Zealand is gorgeous. I was naturally curious but simply needed to set aside some time, and if possible, recruit some friends to join me. A year before my trip I put the word out among my friends and two took me up on my offer: I would take charge of driving and logistics and they could just show up and share costs. Before I knew it the departure day in mid-January of this year, and with it, 24 hours of travel, dawned. For me that was Paris to Zurich (an hour flight with about an hour layover), then Zurich to Hong Kong (11 hours, with a 4 hour layover), then Hong Kong to Auckland (11 hours). Cost: approximately $950 USD. It was my first lesson that there are no “deals” to be had visiting NZ.
We chose to fly into Auckland, at the top of North Island. A fair number of international flights fly into Christchurch, on South Island, but they always cost significantly more, and that didn’t make sense for the North-to-South plan we had for exploring the country. I landed around 3pm in New Zealand and fought to stay awake until at least 8 or 9pm that night so I could make good progress towards dealing with (what was for me) a 12 hour adjustment from European time.
It was sunny and beautiful that day and I’d come to realize over the years how for me, time away in sunshine can help you push through what (can be) grueling northern French winters. I was so happy to see the sun the next morning that I forgot to use any of the sunblock I had brought and promptly got burned. With my skin still “glowing,” I took to the internet and discovered that the sunshine in NZ is particularly strong, for several reasons. Firstly, there’s not as much ozone in that part of the world (which blocks UV rays). Secondly, earth’s orbit brings it closer to the sun during Summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Finally, there’s almost no pollution down there, and pollution serves as a blocker of UV rays. Needless to say, sheepish after being burned on my first day, I took care to put sunblock on every single day for the rest of the trip, even if it looked cloudy and overcast.
Sunburn day had mostly been spent exploring Auckland — a modern, if not very beautiful — city. More than 75% of Kiwis live on North Island, and over 45% live in Auckland…
