New Zealand

The key to New Zealand’s individuality is its remote location in the world, situated to the East of Australia’s coast it requires a 2 hour flight from Brisbane or Sydney across the Tasman Sea to reach Auckland Airport.

One of the things I was presently surprised about was the travelling, I know some people don’t like flying and some people cannot and this is why it is hard to report on flying, but I found the 24 Hour flight to be reasonably comfortable the in-flight entertainment was great and even the food was edible, I couldn’t complain, for an economy ticket I was delighted with the Airline. The 24 Hours seemed to “Fly” by Pardon the pun. We took in a couple of brief stops on the way over one in Kuala Lumpur, and one in Brisbane I would recommend having a stop so you can stretch your legs and take a breath of fresh air, even though the direct flights are more expensive I would still prefer to take a stop, you can even stay for a couple of days if you wish, companies offer a free stop over if you are prepared to pay for any accommodation while you are there, this is something I will be doing when I next go, as it enables you to see a little more of the world and it breaks up the journey.
As the plane approached the west coast on New Zealand’s North Island it was clear to see the beautiful scenery even from 30,000 feet.
On arrival to Auckland Airport in the North Island the weather and the heat was noticeably different to other places I have been on Holliday, the heat from the sun was very hot but the air was fresh I found it to be more comfortable than any Mediterranean island I have visited in the past. Due to the low level of Ozone above New Zealand it is advisable to wear high factor sun block and this must be applied several times a day if you are exposed to the sun. The weather in the North Island is different to the weather in the South, this is due to the shear size of the country and the distance from north to south that it spans, the weather diversity is huge and this only adds to the magic of the place.
The size of New Zealand is approximately the same size of England, Ireland Scotland and Wales, but has a population of just 3.8million of which 1.4million live in Auckland. The city of Auckland is very spread out and has very few high rise buildings except for the City Centre where the Sky tower overlooks everything for miles around, it is said that wherever you are in Auckland you will be able to see this structure, you can also jump off the building, obviously with ropes attached and you will descend 260m to the base (not something you would catch me doing).
The city is very tidy and has many shops and restaurants with hotels everywhere, the unit of currency in New Zealand is Dollars and you can get about 2.7dollars to the £, we found that living costs were very cheap, petrol was about $0.70c per litre £0.25p, general groceries seemed cheaper along with eating out which was very reasonably priced, most restaurants supply some kind of entertainment for you while you eat which was great.

There are countless things to keep you occupied while on holiday, you can sit on the beaches walk in the rain forest play sports, swim with dolphins, fish, bungee jump, sail whatever you want and it doesn’t cost an arm an a leg.