Driving in Middle Earth

We opted to rent a car and drive our way through New Zealand. This is hands-down what I would recommend for anyone going on a trip here, especially for a first time. The country is compact, so most driving distances between major highlights are easily done in a few hours. Plus, as Ben accurately put it, the scenery you pass is a destination in itself. There was literally not one moment (except if it was dark out) that you couldn't be happy and usually awed just looking out at the countryside flying by. In fact we took a lot of our photos either out the window of the moving vehicle, or by pulling over every five minutes at some insanely gorgeous lookout.

Ben used Google Maps when we got back to calculate the total travel distance. Including the ferry ride between islands (which we technically didn't drive) and the trip out to Milford (which we didn't drive ourselves but rode with our kayaking group), we went over 3000 kilometers! This equates to about 1900 miles, or the distance from Los Angeles to St. Louis. Either way you put it, we covered a lot of ground! Here's our trip map:


View Larger Map

Though we had a blast in our cheap little rental cars, a word of warning! Driving in New Zealand is not for the faint of heart... and probably also not for the easily-carsick-ed.

First of all, though major cities Auckland and Wellington have short sections of multi-lane interstates (motorways, as they call 'em) surrounding the urban area, almost all other "major" roads are little more than a two-lane country road. In fact, go but a little further off the beaten path and you'll quickly find yourself on a gravel lane!

Glenorchy

Then there's the driving on the other side of the road (from the other side of the car). This is actually pretty easy on the open road. In towns it just means double checking each time you make a turn! The most annoying part was that the blinkers and windshield wipers were on reverse sides of the steering wheel! Probably every single time I went to make a turn I first turned on the wipers.

But more challenging than the opposite-side stuff is the fact that a LOT of New Zealand is mountainous. So sometimes you're driving on straight roads beside the mountains.

Near Punakaiki, facing the Southern Alps

But a lot of times you're driving on curvy roads through the mountains.

Coromandel Peninsula

Sometimes really REALLY curvy roads.

Road to Queenstown from Wanaka

Also, New Zealand is crazy about the one-lane bridge. They'll put 'em anywhere! And sometimes they are long!


When you encounter a one-way bridge, you get a helpful "give-way" sign. A red arrow means your direction has to wait for oncoming traffic to clear. A black arrow in your direction means you have the right-of-way... or maybe in this country it is the left-of-way?!


Don't forget that New Zealand (like everywhere else except here) is on the metric system. This means you drive in kilometers not miles! On city roads the speed limit is almost always 50, which translates to about 30 mph. On the open road, the speed limit is almost always 100, which translates to about 60 mph. But you try going 100 kph on hairpin turns around the side of the mountain. Actually, don't. It's impossible.

There's lots of road construction so be sure to follow those signs too... like this one, where apparently you can choose your own speed.


So there's some challenges to driving in New Zealand. But it really was an amazing way to see the country. And the very best part? Even a wrong turn ends in reward.

The end of a wrong turn, somewhere in the North Island

New Zealand

I've sat in front of this computer for about 15 minutes, just staring at the Blogger screen and trying to figure out how to sum up my trip. And the only conclusion I've come to is that it won't fit.

It wouldn't fit in our cameras (though we have 3000 photos as evidence that we tried) and it won't fit in my blog. New Zealand is, in comparison with the size of the world, such a small place, but it won't fit in here. The extraordinary creativity of God is bursting from the seams of the place, His glory revealed in lakes vast and mountains ancient, in the carving of a landscape by water, wind, glacier, volcano, earthquake, time. We were rendered spectacularly speechless around every turn.

So rather than try to come up with an eloquent and succinct summary that would end up being overwrought and insufficient, I'll just share some stories, and of course, some pictures! Let's start with this one.

This is a kauri tree. A teenager kauri tree, in terms relative to some that still exist in parts of the North Island. Some of the largest-growing and oldest-living trees in the world, the kauri were almost completely cleared from logging and fires in the 19th century. About 4% of the forests were spared and are now fiercely protected. In the far north, where we didn't have time to go, there is one giant specimen believed to be over 2100 years old: a tree from before the time of Christ. There are records of others, bigger and older, that existed before the massive deforestation, including one that explorers estimated at nearing 4000 years old. There are a few groves left in the Coromandel Peninsula, which we drove through, and thankfully this one and its twin behind it there were right by the road.

Also thankfully for all you fine readers, we'd been kayaking and Ben was still shirtless. Hands off, ladies. Hands off.

Lots more pics and stories to come!

I Should Probably Start Packing.

Just kidding, I've started. I mean, nothing is actually in a bag yet, but, you know, I thought about it. We've got a good 15 hours before we leave for the airport, and who would I be if I wasn't a raging procrastinator? So we'll get it together here soon.

Tomorrow I'll be on a plane to Los Angeles, and tomorrow night we'll be on the plane to Auckland. Toss in a little time travel and we'll be landing down in New Zealand on Tuesday morning. I am excited but at the same time I have that strange surreal feeling I get before any big trip or event, where it just won't seem like it is actually happening until we get on that plane! I am praying for safe travel and that this trip is just really awesome for Ben. He's worked so hard over the past year and so REALLY hard over the past few months that I just can't wait to unleash him on NZ and see him enjoying life.

Just pretend this is me and Ben.

We are going to be gone for two weeks (or as I like to count it, two episodes of LOST) and we'll be a bit off the radar in lots of the places we're headed. We will be trying to snag internet from time to time and hope to post some pics and updates from the road.

What do you mean they're missing two weeks of our show?! Don't they know this is the final season?!

Well let's be honest, those bags aren't going to pack themselves. I've done my stalling, and I'm getting on that plane tomorrow whether I'm ready or not. But since I'd prefer to have clean underwear and my glasses (what else does a girl need?) I'm off for now... see ya in a couple weeks kiddos!