Massimo's photoblog

Route 77, NZ (May 30, 2008)

The comments by Paul and Michael to yesterday’s photo made me think about what we liked most of our New Zealand vacation. The leisurely drive certainly had a part in it. We really didn’t plan the trip. We decided beforehand which parts of the Island we wanted to see, and we drew a rough itinerary based on the number of days available. But we allowed ourselves to change the program any time we liked, based on how much we wanted to drive. We never reserved in advance. True, it was low tourist season, but we never had any problem in finding the bed & breakfast or motel where to sleep, even arriving past dinner time.

So we just drove at our leisure, stopping all the time I wanted to take a picture, spending time sitting in cozy coffee places we found along the way, making last minute deviations just because “the road looked nice”. I generally drove quite slowly enjoying the landscape, which generally didn’t drive the locals crazy (what a difference from Boston!) as they were also going around without any hurry. Arriving late often meant reduced dining choices, as restaurants generally closed their kitchen quite early. Pubs were however serving fish & chips until late, and this was our main food for the entire trip (and the beer was very decent too).

This is another photo of the old car reunion I found as I was driving along the inland scenic route. These cars were a real beauty and I agree with Michael dad, they did represent a “golden age” of automobiles. From tomorrow I will start posting the photos of the second part of the trip: once Mayli finished her conference we left Christchurch and drove south, into the wilderness of the New Zealand South island, land of amazing lakes, mountains, glaciers and fiery seas.