State Highway 1 runs 2,047 kilometres from Cape Reinga in the north to Bluff in the south. It twists and turns almost the entire way. It takes forever to drive. It is beautiful.
Tāne Mahuta, Lord of the Forest, is roughly 1,500 years old and the largest living kauri tree in the world. He’s on Highway 12 in the Waipoua Forest and he will stop you in your tracks. Go see him.
29.5 million sheep. Millions of lambs arriving every spring. New Zealand in lambing season is basically the cutest agricultural event on the planet.
There is a brown tourist sign on Highway 1 pointing to public toilets. We took the exit. Best decision we made all day.
Foxton wasn’t on our radar — it was just a town we’d driven through a dozen times on the way between Wellington and Auckland. Then my partner mentioned there was a windmill, and we made a detour. I was expecting something decorative. It’s actually a working windmill. That set the tone for the whole stop.
Edmund Hillary took Weet-Bix to the summit of Everest. Kiwi kids have been eating them for breakfast since 1926. I’ve tried them. I still don’t quite get it. But I respect it.
New Zealand has amazing food. It does not have Jimmy Dean sausage, chicken fried steak, or Cheese-Nips. I’m managing.
I previously posted about Milford Sound. It is an incredible wondrous place. But even more incredible and wondrous (in my opinion) is the road that takes you there — state highway 94. Picture a road with mountains all around you, fields of purple flowers on every space flat enough to have them, and waterfalls competing…
I previously blogged about the New Zealand wine trail. In Central Otago in the South Island, on highway 6 just outside of Queenstown on the way to Wanaka you’ll see signs for Gibbston Valley Winery.
New Zealand doesn’t refrigerate its eggs. Neither does Europe. America does. Turns out there’s a very good reason — and the American method might actually be the riskier one.