The success and satisfaction of a journey depends on many individual things or a combination of numerous. Once back in Australia people ask: "how was it" or “what was it like” etc. To me, making up some sort of palatable story I find a waste of time, so if I am very impressed I often rave on about things and at other times I only mention the essentials. I could rate matters from 1 to 10 (10 being the highest score). For example my rating after finalising my journey to Vietnam would be 9 and South Africa 7; last year's journey through Asia-Russia would easily score a 9 ½ .

To derive at a figure you have to add up a series of individual scores and then arrive at an average.

The individuals would be a score on the local people and the person(s) you travel with or have met, weather conditions, accommodation, mode of transport, food costs etc.

So what about New Zealand? The score is “as I experienced it”. In this instance the total would not rate higher than a 5 ½ to a 6. If you are surprised at this then let me explain. First of all the weather has not been all that good with lots of rain, but that never worries me that much as that happens anywhere.

I now understand why there are so many New Zealanders living in Australia or wanting to live here. Compared to Australia the people of New Zealand earn a lot less than in Australia but when you check at supermarket you will find that the prices there are higher than here. Also Petrol which is about $1.40 in Australia is more than $2.10 in New Zealand.

Incidentally, if you go the CIA website (www.cia.gov/index.html ) you can find out whatever you need to know about any country in the world. This is very handy when you want to budget for a certain country. For example, it shows the average income per capita. (,i.e Aus $43.000; NZ $30.000, Netherlands $41.000; UK $37.000 etc). What this may tell you is that if you travel to a place which don't know anything about (let's say Brazil) you can get an idea of what the cost of living you can expect. (In the case of Brazil at av income of $12.000 you can safely assume that it will be a lot cheaper to survive there than in Australia or Europe) However, as for New Zealand I found the income to be lower and the prices higher hence…many people leave for their closest neighbour- Australia.

There is one anomaly and that is the price of petrol. The price of Crude oil is around $100 per barrel and that is worldwide. So the price difference comes only from local taxes. The rip off in Europe is extreme and so it is in NZ. Some countries are ok for us, but outrageous for the local population, for example in Vietnam they pay about the same price for their petrol as we do (Around $1.40—Euro 93 cents) but their average income is only $4.000. The result is that the general private transport is a small scooter which is only used to commute to work on or are used a work horse.

Back to New Zealand. As I said, it was as I experienced it. Let’s assume it is a nice sunny day and depending where /how you live you sit outside on the veranda or balcony enjoying the view. You feel the warm air hear the sounds and can smell the flowers. You can also sit inside and look through the closed window seeing the same thing but be void of the rest. To me… that is the difference between riding a motorcycle (or bicycle for that matter) and driving car. In New Zealand (for me) it was one step worse- a campervan. It honestly felt driving a removalist truck though the mountain passes of Switzerland while watching the world via a TV screen.

Going through the passes I found frustrating and tiring as the steering wheel needed nearly two full turns to navigate the hairpins while at the same instance time and time again I was accumulating a string of cars behind me who tried every opportunity to pass, even at places where it was not safe to do so. The beautiful moments in time to take in the view needed to be forfeited as stopping was out of the question with transport the size of a truck.


In Africa I felt restricted but at least there were always places for a quick stop, here it was different. Add to that a fair amount of rain and you start to look at alternative routes away from all the twists and turns which normally brings you to the nicest places on earth and provides the best riding pleasure.

The countryside as seen in the pictures and will easily scores a 9 or even a 10. Nothing wrong with that. I love to re-do it on two wheels. So the score comes mainly from the mode of transport Obvious I would score a motorcycle as high as a 9 and the car in Africa a 6 but with this mode of transport a 2 would be the highest. And another thing, if the camper is not a self sufficient unit (meaning it has a built-in toilet and waste water tanks) you need to go to a camping place at… wait for it $40-50 per night. Anyway as I said, that is how I experienced it. Also the whole camper deal is more expensive than getting a car and separate accommodation. The New Zealanders themselves I found to be ok. The Maori community I found a bit friendlier.

Also because of the cocoon I found myself in I did not meet that many people this time around.

Nature in New Zealand is nothing short of fantastic. From the most beautiful bays along the coast to the visible snow capped mountains seen from one of the many lookouts in the centre of the North Island. Roads are in good condition but signage often a bit vague. There are several places where tourist congregates because there is an interesting site. Again this is where you will get a major surprise. Say you want to visit the Waitomo caves for example. A 45 minute glow worn cave tour starts at $45! (Frank and I visited similar caves in South Africa where a one hour tour costs $8.00

To me simple an AFC to others it may be worth a visit if you never been in a cave.

So there you have it, my summery at the first page.

All pages (where applicable) have been uploaded. To get there follow the "Next Page " button

When you move forward through the pages you will get some idea how beautiful this place is.