freeflyer
5th January 2005, 10:54 AM
Hello ,
Having a rather vivid imagination, and only a copy of the lonely planet when we first arrived in NZ (back in the UK at the moment) I was remembering how different NZ was to how I had imagined it when we first arrived.
I am wondering how other people found it when they first arrived , what things were better or worse than you imagined.
what things amazed you and what things left you feeling a little flat or confused? was there anything that was a real highlight during the first few months.
for my part i was truly blown away by the scenery especially in the south. the air also seemed really clean , the lack of traffic on highway one , the remarkable wildlife , especially the dolphins at curio bay.
A real highlight for me was getting my eldery parents to do a skydive when they came out to visit and taking my mum on part of the routeburn track. Also most towns seemd to be really clean and tidy, and the kids playgrounds in the parks were excellent.
The things that were not quite as i had imagined were the towns , wide roads with just a few shops at the side. And i was quite staggered at the distances between some towns, where there was nothing in between , where as in the south of england most towns and citys sort of merge into each other.
before we arrived in NZ i had a picture of us living in Lyttleton (described in my guidebook as a quaint little port) and strolling down to the seafront every afternoon in the sunshine to get fresh fish from the friendly fishermen.In my imagination Lyttleton was like a little fishing town in the med. I also imagined CC as having little narrow streets and spires (sort of like oxford or cambridge) so the giant moorhouse ave was a shocker.
Anna
Having a rather vivid imagination, and only a copy of the lonely planet when we first arrived in NZ (back in the UK at the moment) I was remembering how different NZ was to how I had imagined it when we first arrived.
I am wondering how other people found it when they first arrived , what things were better or worse than you imagined.
what things amazed you and what things left you feeling a little flat or confused? was there anything that was a real highlight during the first few months.
for my part i was truly blown away by the scenery especially in the south. the air also seemed really clean , the lack of traffic on highway one , the remarkable wildlife , especially the dolphins at curio bay.
A real highlight for me was getting my eldery parents to do a skydive when they came out to visit and taking my mum on part of the routeburn track. Also most towns seemd to be really clean and tidy, and the kids playgrounds in the parks were excellent.
The things that were not quite as i had imagined were the towns , wide roads with just a few shops at the side. And i was quite staggered at the distances between some towns, where there was nothing in between , where as in the south of england most towns and citys sort of merge into each other.
before we arrived in NZ i had a picture of us living in Lyttleton (described in my guidebook as a quaint little port) and strolling down to the seafront every afternoon in the sunshine to get fresh fish from the friendly fishermen.In my imagination Lyttleton was like a little fishing town in the med. I also imagined CC as having little narrow streets and spires (sort of like oxford or cambridge) so the giant moorhouse ave was a shocker.
Anna