After my brief half a day stay in Wellington a few weeks before, I visited it again, and spent a fair bit of the time walking around the gardens and visiting Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand. People say it is by far the prettiest city in NZ, and most people know it as 'Windy Wellington". It is not as big as Auckland, and Auckland to me seems to be the capital in all but name. As I have now seen all the places in NZ I intended on visiting, I thought this blog would be a good chance to write about all the general observations I have made from my visit travelling around New Zealand.

The first observation is all the major work being done in places such as Wellington and Auckland. Some of the streets are just construction sites. This is obviously due to them getting everything ready in time for the Rugby World Cup here in September. The Kiwis seem to be a bit like the English in a way.......They like a good drink, have a dry sense of humour, love outdoor adventures, and they seem to hate the Aussies. (only joking if you're reading this Michael) ha. It's always sunny so sun cream is needed, but you need your jacket more or less most of the day as there is often a considerable chill in the air.

In comparison to Australia, when you look on a map of NZ, it is tiny, but from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island, it's a fair old trek. You start to realise how big Australia is, and how small England actually is. I will never complain about 1/2 hour train journeys ever again after doing many 6/7 hour stints on the bus day after day. You just get used to it though (well you have no choice to be honest).
In England, it's perceived as quite 'chavvy' to say "sweet as bro", but in NZ it seems like it is compulsory. I'm sure the old pensioners at the bus stop on a morning greet each other with that saying as well. Not to forget "Kio Ora" (the Kiwki greeting). Other random useless observations include me seeing more cows than sheep during my time in NZ, although sheep is usually what anyone thinks of when they think of NZ. I also only had Lamb twice even though I originally thought I'd be having it for breakfast, dinner, supper etc.

When people argue over which Island they prefer in NZ, most people usually say that the South Island is a lot prettier, and you can't really disagree with that, although the scenery on the North Island is not exactly shabby. The South Island is just not populated at all, which for me would make it very difficult to live there.

As for the other big debate on whether NZ is better than Aus or vice versa, in my opinion there does not seem much point in anyone trying to compare the two, as both are completely different and therefore incomparable. The cities in Aus are a lot bigger than the cities in NZ and the South Island in particularly is very pretty and green with the odd glacier, where as a lot of Aus is sometimes red and barren. The people in both countries are friendly, and I have had a good laugh with a fair few locals over the past few months. The last few lines don't really do the two countries justice in how I've just described them, but I've done a fair few blogs (understatement) on both Countries, so hopefully I've gave out some useful information to anyone who was wondering what certain places in both countries are like. Just to add, I don't want to take anymore pictures of waterfalls, lakes, and mountains, for at least another month. Having looked through my facebook pictures, I don't think I would have half the pictures I have if some of the above didn't exist.

South America was the next part of the adventure, I flew into Santiago Chile, so all my blogs from now on, are in fluent Spanish (joke).